BORN:
After WWII on a hot, sticky July twilight in Columbia, SC.
I GREW UP IN:
A center-hall Colonial brick house in Columbia, SC, a tin-roofed cabin on Sunnyside Plantation on Edisto Island every summer until I was a teenager, a suburban rambler in Birmingham, AL, a whitefenced ranch house in Memphis, TN
EDUCATION:
Davidson College, B.A. 1969; graduate studies,
University of Montpelier 1970–71, French Poetry.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:
Child; Student; Eagle Scout; Sous Chef; Circulation Director, Avant Garde Magazine, NYC; Bizdev, The Righteous Apple, design firm; Burkey Belser, Inc.; President/CD Greenfield/Belser, Ltd.
WHEN I’M NOT WORKING, I PARTICULARLY ENJOY…
writing, gardening, keeping bonsai alive, reading, fixing things and straightening up my room.
The title of this site could go either way. This could represent a compilation of the last 30 years of my work. Indeed, there is a lot of work from over my career as a designer and writer. But that’s not exactly what I had in mind. For me, this is a script for what I intend to do in the last 30 years of my life. I don’t suspect I’ll live out that timeline. Few do. But, who cares? Certainly, I don’t… Anyway, there you have it. My end-of-life plan. Die laughing.
For years, I was the president, creative director and co-founder (along with my wife, Donna Greenfield) of Greenfield/Belser Ltd., a brand design agency focused on services marketing. Donna was the beating heart of the organization. I was the lead troublemaker. In late 2015, the agency was acquired by Finn Partners, a rapidly growing PR firm. I was one of the Managing Partners of the Washington, DC office. No longer. With exquisite timing, I hung up my spurs just in time for the Great Pandemic of 2020 and the subsequent Depression that followed.
During its time, Greenfield/Belser won over 500 awards in every major field of graphic design: identity, collateral, Web, periodicals—you name it. I was one of nine judges in 2008 for the Communication Arts Design Annual, the oldest and most prestigious graphic design competition in America. At some advanced age, I was inducted into the Washington Art Directors Club Hall of Fame and became also a Hall of Fame member of the Legal Marketing Association. I am LMA’s only recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award. Some have accused me of being one of the pioneers of legal services marketing. Actually, that was a big, big part of my career. The picture on your left is not an old one.
In 1997, this same guy was awarded a Presidential Design Award by President Bill Clinton for my design of Nutrition Facts, the nation’s food labeling system, which the New York Times reported to be the most frequently published design of the 20th century (and now the 21st). I was listed in Who’s Really Who, Richard Saul Wurman’s compendium that includes “1,000 succinct bios of the most interesting and creative individuals living in the U.S.” Yessiree. I served for two years as the president of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington. More on WikiBurkey here.