Canadian born Peter Buchanan-Smith was in MFA Design’s first graduating class and immediately became an entrepreneur and author.

His career spans the founding of a retail brand – Best Made Co. – to craft products and experiences that are simple, elegant, meaningful and lasting. “I thrive at the intersection of contradictions: where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, utility meets style, and timeless meets new,” he writes. In 2019 he left Best Made to start new projects and write a book.

After graduation he worked at The New York Times Op-Ed and Paper, where he was its design director. Among his other showcase jobs were design director for Isaac Mizrahi and partnerships with Maira Kalman, Ellen DeGeneres, the rock band Wilco, and musicians Brian Eno, David Byrne, Philip Glass, and Justin Timberlake. In 2005, he won a Grammy for the design of Wilco’s best-selling album A Ghost is Born.

In 2009 he founded Best Made Company it soon grew to an internationally retail brand, with a vibrant product assortment, a coveted catalog, and stores in New York City and Los Angeles. Best Made axes have been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in London, and the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York City.

Never a slave to success has he pulled up stakes to follow other entrepreneurial interests, which he will discuss on Thursday, January 27, when the bell tolls at 2:30.