Rob Forbes' career includes work in both the Arts and Business fields. Forbes is best known as the Founder of Design Within Reach and for the vision of a business that has grown into the leading retail destination for modern design in the US. In 2007 Rob formally left DWR to launch Studio Forbes, based in San Francisco, to further his interests in design, culture, and commerce. These interests, and his personal passion for bicycles led him to his new venture PUBLIC. PUBLIC is a design based business with a mission to help us reduce our dependency on cars and think more intelligently and artfully about the way we get around and connect with our cities and communities. PUBLIC launched in May 2010 in San Francisco and has become the nationwide direct source for elegant modern city bikes and gear in the US. A video articulates the design concept.

Background: Forbes' academic training includes a BA in Aesthetics from the University of California at Santa Cruz (1974), an MFA from Alfred University (1979) and an MBA from Stanford University (1985). His art career includes ceramics studio work and exhibitions in the US and teaching positions at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. His business experience includes work here and abroad in retail management for Williams-Sonoma, London-based Selfridges, The Nature Company, and Smith & Hawken prior to Founding Design Within Reach in 1998 and PUBLIC in 2009.

PROFESSIONAL NOTES

ADVISORY BOARDS and COUNCILS
San Francisco Bike Coalition, Public Architecture, Dwell Magazine, California College of the Arts, Blu Dot, SFJAZZ, San Francisco Mayors Council on Greening, SFMOMA Architecture & Design Accessions Committee, National Mayors Institute on City Design, Russell Wright Design Center, ICFF, DWR

PROFILED OR COVERED IN
Time Magazine: Visionaries of 2007
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
New York Times Magazine
San Francisco Chronicle
Dallas Morning News
Miami Herald
Dwell Magazine
Graphis Magazine
Fortune Small Business Magazine
Surface Magazine
Newsweek Titan of Design, October 20, 2003
Business Week: Rob Forbes, View Master
Apartment Therapy
Monocle
Wired
Fast Company
Treehugger
Martha Stewart
Vogue
Daily Beast

AWARD RECIPIENT
National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artists Grant 
Russel Wright Award
Metropolitan Home's Design 100 – Revolutionary Retailer
Bon Appétit Tastemaker of the Year

CONFERENCE PRESENTER
World Congress on Environmental Design for the New Millennium, Seoul, Korea
IDCA (International Design Conference, Aspen)
DWR Spark Conference Organizer and Chairman
TED Conference
AIGA: Risk and Entrepreneurship
IIT Design Conference
Haystack Mountain Craft School
Society for Environmental Graphic Design
Stanford GSB Marketing Summit
Retail and Visual Design Magazine
Society for Environmental Graphics and Design
Stanford GSB Marketing Summit
Retail and Visual Design Magazine
Society for Environmental Graphics and Design
International Retail Design Conference
Commonwealth Club Pecha Kucha

JUROR
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards
ID Magazine Annual Design Review
Business Week/Architectural Record Awards
Time and Leisure Magazine Design Awards
Formica Graphic Design
Oregon Manifest Constructors Design Challenge
Apartment Therapy Design Showcase

PUBLICATIONS
Editor Studio Forbes Newsletter and Blog
Editor DWR Design Notes.1999-2007
Editor of revision of How to See, by George Nelson
Contributor: Ngo and Pfeiffer Book Bent Ply, Maeda's Laws of Simplicity
See For Yourself (Editor and Publisher)