Verda Alexander
Information
Projects
activist and artist looking beyond conventional solutions toward more equitable futures.
PublicationsFast Company, On Redesigning Our World, 2021
Fast Company, Why Being Frugal is the Next Big Thing in Design, 2021
The New Yorker, Has the Pandemic Transformed the Office Forever?, 2021
Fast Company, It’s Past Time for Designers to Make Climate Commitments, 2020
Work Design, How an Old Food Truck Steered a Design Firm to Discover the True Power of Design, 2020
Fast Company, I’ve been designing offices for decades. Here’s what I got wrong, 2019
Metropolis Magazine, Guest Editor, Technology X Interiors Issue, 2018
Awards
Cooper Hewitt National Design Award (Studio O+A), 2016
Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame, Inductee, 2015
Contract Magazine Designer of the Year, 2011
Speaking Engagements
IIDA Northern California, By the People for the Planet, 2023
Change By Design, Design for Climate Change Action, 2023
Architalx, Reinventing a Practice, 2022
University of Nebraska, On the Post Pandemic Future, 2022
University of Kentucky, Interior Design, What’s Next?, 2021
California College of the Arts, The Future of Work, 2021
Neocon, Empathy in Design, 2021
Metropolis Think Tank, Designer X Activist, 2019
Neocon, Friction in the Workplace, Has Ease Become Too Easy, 2019
Metropolis Think Tank, Chance & Productivity: Designing the Radical, 2017
Board and Advisory Roles
Diversity in Design, Awareness and Activation Committee, Co-chair 2021-22
International Interior Design Association, President, 2020-21
Climate Reality Project Bay Area Business Engagement Team, Co-chair, 2020-22
Extinction Rebellion, Art Working Group, 2019-Present
Verda Alexander is a Nicaragua-born, San Francisco-based designer, climate activist, and artist. She is the Editor-at-Large at Metropolis Magazine, co-founder of Studio O+A, and co-host of “Break Some Dishes,” a podcast that engages innovators in conversations about meeting the challenges of climate change. Verda has spent 30 years in the design industry redefining the workplace and looking ahead to the future of work itself. Combining a multi-disciplinary career with a passionate commitment to improving lives through design, her typical contribution to a project is to question received wisdom, test basic assumptions, and look beyond conventional solutions to a more creative path.
Let’s Connect.