Design person with an editorial point-of-view
Substack
Currently brand creative director at Herman Miller, the 100-year-old Michigan-based furniture manufacturer with a robust archive and history of designer collaborations.
Herman Miller brand identity redesign
Herman Miller x HAY Collection launch
Herman Miller 100 brand campaign
Graphics exhibition during Milan Design Week
Eames Steinberg chair special-edition drop
Herman Miller Vintage in partnership with Wright
Ray Wilkes ‘Chiclet’ reissue
Herman Miller retail campaigns: SS23, FW23, SS24
Brand identity designed by Order, 2023 / Hays at the Eames House, photo by Jake Stangel for Herman Miller / Herman Miller x HAY Collection / Ad in the New Yorker for Herman Miller’s 100th anniversary, design by Kelly O’Hara / Graphics exhibition in Herman Miller’s Milan showroom, 2023 / Steinberg chair launch in New York / Herman Miller Vintage launched with Wright in New York and LA / New and vintage ads for Wilkes Modular Sofa Group / Holiday campaign with artwork commissioned by artist Eleanor Anderson
A dozen years in design media spent running Curbed, a multi-platform brand under Vox Media; working on staff at Dwell magazine; founding the editorial division of a global architecture platform called Architizer; programming a couple of design conferences; freelancing as a writer for various outlets; and producing a chart-topping podcast about failed utopias.
Selected work:
Online
Herman Miller: Hays at the Eames House, Don Chadwick interview, Ray Wilkes profile
Curbed: An oral history of the Sea Ranch, Part I and Part II, 10 Streets That Define America, The United States of California and Texas, Reno Diary: Prospect Heights brownstone, weekly editor’s note, all sorts of shopping guides
The Strategist: bookshelves,wedding registry, baby stuff, flatware, quilts
AIGA: Gold Medal essay on Alexander Girard
In print
Elle Decor: Eichler renovation, the new wave of California landscape design, history of the powder room
New York Times: design advice column
Artforum: Charles Pollock obit
Dwell: Jack Lenor Larsen, Yrjo Kukkapuro, Sheila Hicks, and Lucia DeRespinis profiles; house features on modern dogtrot, Greenpoint rowhouse, the “floating” farmhouse; four years’ worth of FOB reporting
Audio
Nice Try! seasons one (Utopian) and two (Interior)
Newsletter
Joined the early Substack wave in 2020 and recently revived my design newsletter, Ground Condition
HAY monograph (Phaidon, 2022)
Designed for Life compendium (Phaidon, Spring 2024)
Essay in the companion book to Everything Everywhere All At Once (A24, 2022)
Sea Ranch oral history, expanded into a ‘zine (coming 2024)
Kelsey Keith joined Herman Miller—where she is now the brand's creative director—in 2021 after a dozen years leading design- and architecture-focused editorial outlets. Formerly of New York City, she now lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and their two daughters.
Press:
Mother mag “Essentials”
Madame Architect interview
Scratching the Surface podcast
Portrait by Mark Wickens / Mother mag feature / 92nd Street Y for Nice Try! live taping