Orquídea Campbell-Espinoza, Summer 2026 Featured Illustrator Orquídea (she/her) is an illustrator, designer and marketer based in St. Louis, MO. She graduated with a BFA in Communication Design from Washington University in St. Louis in 2024. She loves color, mid century culture, and folk art. You can see more of her work at orquideacampes.com.
Author Archives: publicdesignbureau
Balancing Convergent and Divergent Thinking
Illustration by Orquídea Campbell-Espinoza. Learn more about our illustrators. Balancing Convergent and Divergent Thinking As we’ve previously written about, so much of a design process is making intentional, iterative choices. In our processes, we often think about this as alternating between divergent and convergent ways of thinking. Employing these two ways of thinking are great waysContinue reading “Balancing Convergent and Divergent Thinking”
Utilizing and Aligning Stakeholder Tables through a Design Process
Illustration by Orquídea Campbell-Espinoza. Learn more about our illustrators. Utilizing and Aligning Stakeholder Tables through a Design Process Whether we’re working on a planning project, a new program design, a digital tool, or something else, much of our work involves bringing together stakeholders to make decisions about what should happen next. These stakeholders include community members,Continue reading “Utilizing and Aligning Stakeholder Tables through a Design Process “
Interview with a Partner: Nicole Brueggeman at the St. Louis City Senior Fund
Illustration by Orquídea Campbell-Espinoza. Learn more about our illustrators. Interview with a Partner: Nicole Brueggeman at the St. Louis City Senior Fund Having a plan to address ambiguity and uncertainty is hard in the best of times. When we started our work with the St. Louis City Senior Fund, everything facing service providers working withContinue reading “Interview with a Partner: Nicole Brueggeman at the St. Louis City Senior Fund”
Yvette Shanks, Winter 2026 Featured Illustrator
Yvette Shanks, Winter 2026 Featured Illustrator Yvette is a graphic design enthusiast turned digital illustrator with a growing collection of cute and colorful greeting cards, art prints and stickers. Her work is an exploration of senses and emotion – appealing to the need to express our feelings, to embrace nostalgia, to promote positive mental health,Continue reading “Yvette Shanks, Winter 2026 Featured Illustrator”
Mindsets of Public Design Bureau: Non-Linear Thinking
Illustration by Yvette Shanks. Learn more about our illustrators. Mindsets of Public Design Bureau: Non-Linear Thinking What’s the mindset Non-linear thinking is the creative, connection-driven process of thinking that notices possibilities, identifies ideas and solves problems by bouncing, winding, or dancing from thought to thought, led by intuition or feeling. Non-linear thinking is the otherContinue reading “Mindsets of Public Design Bureau: Non-Linear Thinking “
Creating a space for sharing by building autonomy and privacy into research
Illustration by Yvette Shanks. Learn more about our illustrators. Creating a space for sharing by building autonomy and privacy into research In our work, we think carefully about how we design the way collaborators interact with us and with each other. For some topics and some people, this can come easily, but for others, peopleContinue reading “Creating a space for sharing by building autonomy and privacy into research”
Strategies for cultivating & facilitating non-linear thinking
Illustration by Yvette Shanks. Learn more about our illustrators. Strategies for cultivating & facilitating non-linear thinking One thing we love about our projects is that we get to work with people with a wide range of thinking styles. We have the extreme linear thinkers, who are bringing their skills of analysis and the scientific methodContinue reading “Strategies for cultivating & facilitating non-linear thinking”
Mindsets of Public Design Bureau: Creativity
Illustration by Bob Hansman. Learn more about our illustrators. Mindsets of Public Design Bureau: Creativity What’s the mindsetCreativity as a mindset is using imagination (and some suspension of disbelief) to solve problems, address opportunities, and come up with ideas. Creativity is fundamentally tied to making things — deriving from the verb create — but itContinue reading “Mindsets of Public Design Bureau: Creativity “
Where do ideas come from?
Illustration by Bob Hansman. Learn more about our illustrators. Sometimes creativity sparks an image of wild, out of the box ideas that are totally novel and different from anything ever done before. Those can certainly be good ideas, but we’re big fans of creativity that acknowledges and recognizes that there’s rarely something new under theContinue reading “Where do ideas come from? “
Public Design Bureau 