About Us:
The Donut Project is a design inspiration site created by a group of young designers who aspire to inspire. When we grew tired of sending email after email of ‘awesome stuff’ back and forth after graduation, we thought there had to be an easier way to share these things with each other. In January 2009 we threw up a crappy WordPress template and just started posting. We began with the mentality that if we find this stuff interesting, chances are other people will too.
We are all designers, but we focus on curating content and writing articles that are not strictly ‘graphic design’ – but instead anything we find which inspires us, makes us think, makes us laugh, or pisses us off. You can get inspired on our blog and dress up your desktop with our wallpapers. The design world needs to read more than the same award annuals and list posts, and we hope to be part of the good stuff.
What’s in a name?
When we met to discuss the site, our biggest challenge was coming up with a name. We wanted something that would represent us and be memorable, not Inspired Design Blog Postings™ (even if SEO would love it). Since the site was started by graduates of the Kent State Visual Communication Design department, we went with something close to our collective hearts: The Donut Project. The Donut Project (pictured →) was the first project we all went through at KSU. It consisted of precisely inking a square around a thick circle, with hairlines crossing through it, on thick art board (no tracing!). Was this graphic design?
The project was graded using a loupe to examine where hairlines met thick lines. Being off by 1/32" meant a mistake, and was noted on your trace cover sheet. Needless to say, this was a complete nightmare and became sort of a badge of honor for all students who didn’t drop out after the first week. Most former students will shudder at the mention of the project, followed by “I got a C– on that damned thing.” We couldn’t think of a better name to represent us.
Contributors
Ricky Salsberry
Editor
Jason Bacher
Editor
Rachael Novak
Contributor
Krystle Klink
Contributor
Gwen Bucknell
Contributor
Chris Seeds
Contributor
Mark Nizinski
Contributor
Jake Kellogg
Contributor
Brian Buirge
Contributor
Rami Daud
Contributor
Guest Contributors
Sharon McMullen, Danielle Stallone, Tony LindemannContact Us
Have something you’d like us to share with our audience? Use the form below to tell us about it.
Occasionally people email us for design work — we’re all designers after all. You can reach specific contributors (above) or use the form (below) to tell us about your project, and the designer/s who are the best fit for your project will get back to you.
Due to the large volume of emails we receive, we can’t post everything, or reply to every email, but we try pretty hard.
Links
- Anthony Zart
- Beth Rankin
- Britt Spano
- Carli Dottore
- Chris Dunlop
- Chris Sharron
- David Alan Foster
- Elaine Chernov
- Emir Bukva
- Greg Ruffing
- Jana Kinsman
- Jeff Pasek
- Joseph Delhommer
- Joy Burke
- Kara Mason
- Kara Solinsky
- Katherine Walker
- Megan Greydanus
- Mig Reyes
- Mikey Burton
- Neil Wengerd
- Plural
- Quite Strong
- Rebecca Ehalt
- Stephen Rollick
- Victoria Pater
Friends
Thank You
to our friends, followers, and anyone who has visited the site, left a comment, retweeted a post, liked us on Facebook, helped promote us, or simply wrote us to say “hello”. We started this for ourselves, but continue because of you. We’re truly grateful to have a following and want to continue to make you guys happy. Let us know what you’d like to see in the future.
—The Donut Project
