Annabel Mangold

PRINCIPAL, MANGOLD DESIGN
NAPA CA

Mangold Design is an award-winning boutique design and brand strategy studio located in Napa, California led by Annabel Mangold. Specialities range from brand analysis and marketplace enhancement, to visual design for spatial, packaging, print and digital media. The firm uses “trend analysis and Warm-Tech ideology to enhance the end user’s experience.” Clientele consists of public health organizations, municipalities, agriculture, and wellness lifestyle companies. Recent clients include: Building Healthy Online Communities, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, National Coalition of STD Directors, Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, Oya Organic Farm, Epigenetics Coach Rajkumari Neogy and Valley Medical Center Foundation to name a few.

HOW AND WHY DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED IN DESIGNING FOR GOOD AND WHY DO YOU BELIEVE DESIGN IS AN ESPECIALLY EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR THIS GOAL?

My parents dedicated their professional lives to helping others. My mother worked in mental health as a Psychotherapist and teacher for 47 years and my father founded five homes in Oaxaca, Mexico for orphaned and abandoned girls while working to feed hundreds of thousands of homeless people each month in the Bay Area. Exposure to drastically contrasting environments from a young age created an awareness of how a single circumstance can change a person’s world, oftentimes with a Sisyphean effect. Witnessing human devaluation had a great effect and influenced how I approach my work and commitment to my clients. I don’t believe today’s designers can be anything other than citizens who are ready to digest and communicate the needs of society to help create better systems for the future.

GIVEN THE CONFLUENCE OF EVENTS AND CHALLENGES WE FACE THIS FALL, DOES 2020 PRESENT ANY SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES, URGENCIES, OBSTACLES TO DESIGNING FOR GOOD?

Our world is on fire, people are sick and the divisions among us has never been more center stage. I truly believe 2020 offers an opportunity, albeit at the expense of many, for us to reexamine faulty and unjust systems while beginning to heal and bridge deep polarization and my hope is as many people are invited to the table as possible.