Design person with an editorial point-of-view
Substack
Kelsey Keith is currently creative director of MillerKnoll and author of a design newsletter called Ground Condition. She initially joined Herman Miller 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.
Selected press:
Financial Times, “Substack is Design Journalism’s Irreverent New Home”
Fast Company, “Why Herman Miller brought back its company magazine”
The New Consumer, “How Herman Miller Aced Its Brand Refresh”
Business of Home, “Is Design Substack Having a Moment?”
Why Is This Interesting?, Monday Media Diet
Mother mag “Essentials”
Madame Architect interview
Scratching the Surface podcast
Portrait by Balazs Gardi / At Marta Gallery in LA, photo by Benjamin Critton / At Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, photo by Laure Joliet
2025-: Creative director for MillerKnoll, which entails enterprise-level brand and creative oversight of the global company that owns Herman Miller, Knoll, Geiger, DWR, and 11 other design brands.
2021-2025: 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 + Heath Gathered Collection; still life photos by Graydon Herriott / New Mexico Collection, shot on location at the Georgia O’Keeffe House by Mariko Reed / Fall/winter 2025 campaign; photos by Kelly Marshall / Office-focused shoot in Villa Borsani, Milan; photo by Laure Joliet / Ideas magazine / New York City showroom; photo by Jason Schmidt / Brand identity designed by Order / Herman Miller Vintage launched with Wright in LA / Ad in the New Yorker for Herman Miller’s 100th anniversary, design by Kelly O’Hara / Herman Miller graphics exhibition for Milan Design Week / Steinberg chair launch in New York / Herman Miller x HAY Collection / New and vintage ads for Wilkes Modular Sofa Group
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 includes:
Substack: Ground Condition
Nice Try! seasons one (Utopian) and two (Interior)
AN Interior: The Future of Vision
FOR_SCALE Issue 2
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
Herman Miller: Rolf and Mette Hay 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