Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth are the founding partners of Standards Manual, an independent publishing imprint founded in 2014, and Order, a design office—both located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Reed and Smyth met at Pentagram while working under the direction of Michael Bierut for the last six years. They’ll be sharing what started their paths to design, how they created a publishing imprint as a side project, and when they knew it was time to leave their dream jobs.

Jesse Reed is from Youngstown, Ohio and attended the University of Cincinnati. Since moving to New York City in 2010, Reed has worked as a designer at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), a designer and associate partner at Pentagram for Michael Bierut, and is now a co-founder of Standards Manual and a partner at Order.

Hamish Smyth is from rural South Australia and attended RMIT University in Melbourne. Smyth moved to New York City in 2010 for a two-week stint at Pentagram, which lead to an associate partner role for Michael Bierut. Smyth is a co-founder of Standards Manual and a partner at Order.