A Never-Ending March: Living with Authenticity and Intention During a Surreal Time

See the details in the world around you.

See the big picture in yourself.

Isthmus + Urbanism | A Perspective and Prospectus of the Built Environment in Madison

You know what? 2018 was a fun year. I traveled quite a bit, kept in touch with old friends while making new ones, and ate Ethiopian food for the first time. I also completed the necessary prerequisites to become certifiably capable of designing things, designed something independently that was good enough for a shoutout on […]

Spinning the Top Of Mind

Right hand at shoulder height, palm open. Close fingers and motion to the right. Bring both hands toward sternum as if holding a ball, right hand held higher than left. Rotate hands around the imaginary ball. Move open palms shoulder width apart, still parallel to each other. Flatten open palms toward audience. Each gesture would […]

Good Times Never Seemed So Good: How Two Colonial Cities Tick in the Information Age

Saturday was always a very productive day in the Kemp-Baird household growing up. Both of my parents are ministers–senior ministers at different churches, no less–and have been since my childhood, so both would spend the traditional day of rest and recovery from the week prior in thought and preparation for the next morning’s service. The […]

The Aficionado’s Scorebook for Baseball.

Baseball is America’s pastime, and baseball fans are the ones keeping it that way. Not just the buy-me-some-peanuts-and-Cracker-Jack fans, but the true fanatics: the ones with worn-out gloves, rally caps, jerseys, alternate jerseys, and enough broadcast calls of their team’s greatest moments committed to heart to fill a box CD collection. Some are outwardly fanatical, […]

For the Fanatic With Finesse

Get your scorebook here! My name’s Drew, and I’m a designer. That’s probably obvious. But what’s even better than getting to call yourself a designer is getting to think like one. When you think like a designer, you see philosophy and rationale in everything around you that creative minds and hands have shaped. When something […]

Denmark, Finland, Wisconsin, & Haircuts

I got a haircut the other day. I went to Ritual Barbers on Pinckney Street just off Capitol Square, marking my first barbershop experience involving both a motorcycle and a full-service coffee shop and bar in the same space. I really think both of these elements could be seamlessly incorporated with any business function, especially […]

Topography, Typology, and Tension: A Passing Glance at the Urban Fabric of San Francisco

FRIDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2017–My uncle and I are closing out our last night in the City By The Bay at a wine bar on Chestnut Street in the heart of the Marina District. As I occupy the corner seat of the bar, the amber wave of my Anchor Steam Beer and the metallic hue of […]

A Thank-You Note to Dubuque, Iowa

10 February 2017 Dear Dubuque: I’m writing this from my favorite downtown coffee shop, the same place I’ve often found myself going for lunch and a caffeine hit on Friday afternoons. Several odds and ends are moved already–the only major items left are kitchen supplies, electronics, and furniture. I start the new job in Madison […]

How A Summer of Weekend Trips Saved My Soul

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2016: I press through the fourth hour of my layover at O’Hare before boarding the evening flight back to the Dubuque Regional Airport. I’m returning home from a long last weekend of summer in my boyhood home of Cincinnati, making the most of an opportunity to not only return home and check […]