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. He is well known for DWR publishing activities that includes a book reissue of George Nelson's How to See, and an online newsletter Design Notes with an international circulation. Forbes has also initiated numerous design contests, public conferences, and community based events.

His 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 professional experience includes ceramics arts studio work in the US and abroad and retail management experience for Williams-Sonoma, London-based Selfridges, The Nature Company, and Smith & Hawken prior to Founding Design Within Reach in 1998.

In 2007 Rob formally left DWR to launch Studio Forbes, based in San Francisco, to further his interests in design, culture, and commerce. He is a lifetime cyclist and proponent of modern urban design initiatives and programs that help us reduce our dependency on cars which led him to found a new company, Public, Mass Transit for One.

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
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

Awards 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

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

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

copyright 2009 Studio Forbes