All Other Services is a civic-minded graphic design team that develops visual and strategic direction for brands, institutions, and advocacies that positively impact communities. They collaborated with CUP on the recently released Your Guide to Welfare in NYC.

1. Can you tell us a little bit more about All Other Services? When did you become a firm? How did you start doing design work?

We first met as design students at MCAD and then worked alongside one another as interns at Project Projects. In subsequent years we kept coming back to the idea of a practice focused on public interest design. CUP’s Making Policy Public program offered the perfect place to formalize that practice. 

2. How would you describe your practice?

We work to apply the communicative tools and processes of graphic design to bridge and engage communities.

3. What projects is All Other Services working on now?

We’re very excited to be working with CUP on a new toolkit about neighborhood re-zoning issues. We are also working on food education material for Just Food, a program identity for the Center for Architecture, and we continue to freelance as individuals. We’re also looking forward to the Blue Ridge Labs @ Robin Hood Foundation’s 2015 design fellowship, where Joel will represent All Other Services.

4. Are there other designers that inspire you?

Muriel Cooper is a big one. Her design work for MIT and her interdisciplinary exploration of media and pedagogy are very inspiring.

5. What was the most exciting part of working on the Your Guide to Welfare project?

Based on feedback from welfare recipients we began re-structuring the flow of the poster, and developed the narrative-pathway we were looking for. It was a great moment that highlighted Making Policy Public as both an inclusive process and as an opportunity to clarify a complex experience.

6. What was the most important thing you learned from the project?

We learned that making an opaque system more approachable can be as valuable as explaining a system in full.

7. What are your secret skills that have nothing to do with your design work?

We can both speed read.