About

My name is Chris Cowans and I’m a designer and creative director with 15+ years of experience. I’ve worked with small studios, large branding firms, world-renowned museums, tech startups, and non-profits. I love problem solving, visual storytelling, cross-discipline collaboration, and human-centered solutions that make a positive, meaningful impact in the world.

I’m currently based in the Bay Area, but have also lived and worked in LA, New York, and Hawaii. I’ve been lucky enough to learn from and collaborate with a lot of fun, crazy, and talented people over the years, and I will always be grateful for those opportunities. The work on this site is a result of those collaborations, as well as some personal projects I’ve done over the years.

When I’m not working, I love spending time with friends and family, going on adventures with my son and my dog, being in nature, trying new things, exploring new places, and meeting new people. I’m always open to discussing new opportunities, so if you’re interested, just let me know.

 
 

Approach

I approach everything with an open mind, curiosity, and determination. The only thing that’s constant in life is change and I’ve learned that lesson countless times. As a result, I’ve learned to be more flexible and open minded in order to continue learning and growing. My goal is to learn from the past, design for the needs of today, and collaborate with others to create a better future.

I love collaborating with people as much as possible because everyone has a unique perspective and there’s such a wide range of solutions to every challenge. Collaboration creates the opportunity for a deeper, more interesting, more diverse, more authentic, more meaningful, and more impactful result.

The challenges that people face today can be incredibly complex, and surface-level solutions just aren’t enough to make a significant impact. But if we work together, keep an open mind, and approach everything more holistically, we’re a lot more likely to find successful ways of solving problems and creating a real, positive impact with the work we do.

 
 

More

I think we can all agree that there are more important things in life than design. That being said, I do believe that a thoughtful and well designed message can go a long way, an intuitive product can improve a person’s quality of life, and a meaningful mission really can change the world.

There are a lot of organizations that are on a mission to do more and to make the world a better place, in one way or another. These are some that I support and have learned a lot from, so I’ll just leave these here as reference for anyone else who may be interested:

ACLU
Airbnb.org
A Growing Culture
Alliance for Middle East Peace
Alight
Amnesty International
Beyond the Bag
Black Lives Matter
Campaign Zero
Center for Disease Control
Center for Reproductive Rights
Climate Designers
Community Kitchens
Conservation International
Doctors Without Borders
Eat. Learn. Play.
The Education Trust
Equal Justice Initiative
Equal Rights Amendment
FactCheck.org
Fauna & Flora International
FEED
Feeding America
FEMA
First Things First
Global Emergency Response
Global Family Farms
Greenpeace
Habitat for Humanity
Headspace
The Humane Society
IDEO.org
International Red Cross
International Rescue Committee
The Kelsey
Khan Academy
KickCancer
Kyu
The Leadership Conference
National Geographic
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Resources Defense Council
Nova Ukraine
Oxfam
Palestine Children Relief Fund
Peace Corps
Planned Parenthood
Save the Children
The Social Change Fund
Sound It Out Together
Stop AAPI Hate
The Trevor Project
UNICEF
United Nations
UN Crisis Relief
United24
USA Facts
Water.org
World Central Kitchen
World Economic Forum
World Land Trust
World Wildlife Fund