Combine a range of rugged, outdoorsy products with a memorable graphic identity and you have the Best Made Co., purveyors of everything from maps and notebooks to apparel and furniture. SVA alumnus and entrepreneur Peter Buchanan-Smith (MFA 2001 Design) founded the company in 2009. Prior to starting Best Made, he had an enviable creative career that included designing books and album covers (he won a Grammy for the design of Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born), doing branding for high-wattage clients such as David Byrne and Philip Glass, and serving as art director of The New York Times’ Op-Ed page.

Today, Buchanan-Smith broke the news that he's leaving Best Made. "Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined then what this company would become," he wrote on Instagram. "I always maintained that Best Made would only be a success if it was bigger than me."

His departure may be bittersweet, but Buchanan-Smith is still looking onward and upward and working on new projects, including a new book, titled The Field Guide to the Axe, which is coming out via Abrams Books in the fall of 2020. Here's our quick chat with the entrepreneurial SVA alum from late last year.

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