Studiotheory is a practice

It occurs every day, everywhere, all the time.

Sometimes, it's as simple as noticing how paint cracking on an old wooden boat resembles a kind of time fingerprint. Other times, it is understanding the psychology of type and color combinations and their ability to evoke a response.

A practice involves all the elements and principles of design, psychology, spatial awareness, curiosity, a dose of intuition, and most importantly, activity. It's a process of perceiving the physical and how others respond to the structures we create. A healthy practice is diverse, experimental and innovative. It allows time and a safe space for experimentation outside the parameters of a specific project, revealing new possibilities, fostering growth, and developing expertise.

Derek Coté

Creative Director

My creative path has afforded me several opportunities to work in a variety of settings. As an artist and freelance designer, I've worked with documentary film makers and animation studios and collaborated on a magazine project. I've spent time as an in-house designer, worked in agency settings, and even spent some time in academia. In between, there's been a few off-shoot projects and some travel, including numerous trips above the Arctic Circle resulting in amplitudes of visual research, a few short films, pages of drawings and a pile of objects.

Maintaining a studio practice has always been essential to my development as a thinker and a well-rounded creative. It has helped me better understand our visual landscape and how to best communicate ideas. Though my practice has taken various forms over time, the core principle always remains the same: find challenges and look for innovative solutions, even if that means making Christmas ornaments in the garage. Even engaging in activities outside design matter. For example, mountain biking, helps clear my mind and often allows solutions to present themselves. And it's not just about taking the things that I've learned over the years. It's also tapping into the things my friends and colleagues have learned and applying them to other peoples' design projects. That's what studiotheory is about.