David Robinson

With deep empathy and a passion for research, David brings both his heart and mind to every design challenge.

As a design director at Thinkso, David has led the development of robust brand identities for clients that include MEMX, Mindtree, NYLAG, and Mariner Finance, among others. He is adept at distilling complex ideas into compelling, clever concepts for our clients, and the resulting systems are as beautiful as they are practical.

Prior to joining Thinkso, David was a senior designer at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City. There, among other accomplishments, he designed an advertising campaign and a suite of multimedia materials to attract a young first-time audience. He has also held design positions at The New School, BBDO, and HarperCollins. David has also done design work for Buzzfeed, Parsons, Gensler, Johnson & Johnson, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His work has been recognized by his peers with awards from EduAD, the Society of Typographic Arts, and MarCom. And he has been an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design, Queens College, and Pratt Institute.

In the early 2000s, David lived in China for three years, first in an agricultural village and then in Beijing, where he worked as a designer. He feels that this, along with extensive travel in India, Nepal, and Malaysia, were formative experiences in his life, giving him broader perspectives and cultural contexts, which serve him well in his work on global client accounts today. David is conversationally fluent in Mandarin.

David holds an MFA in graphic design from CalArts and a BA in biology from Oberlin College. Off the clock, you can find him restoring a 130-year-old Victorian brownstone in Brooklyn’s BedStuy neighborhood, where he lives with his wife, daughter, and dog, Moose.


What’s with the chisel and mallet?

Just as I use hand tools in home projects because of their precision, for our clients, I carefully craft parts so they fit seamlessly together and create beautiful, spot-on communication pieces.”