CORE Design Studio is a design/build studio founded in 1995 by Fiona McGettigan and Alan Krathaus. Our focus is in branding, web design, exhibition and environmental graphic design, as well as public art projects. Many of our projects use a variety of material and media types for our design solutions. Our client base is made up of cultural, non-profit organizations, educational and architectural offices, urban planning groups, restaurants and retail, and a variety of businesses.

Services include: brand strategy • exhibits (masterplanning, design, content development and fabrication) • user interface design • website design and development • publications • signage and wayfinding • environmental graphic design • public art • mobile education units • hand-crafted artist books

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312 Bayland Avenue
Houston, TX 77009


San Jacinto College Library
Tasked by Gensler to develop an environmental graphics package and artwork to be located at San Jacinto College Library with the goal of creating a library as an inviting, memorable and bright.  For the textual work, Core’s inspiration came from writer and novelist David Foster Wallace’s  “word lists” he amassed over his lifetime. Using the subjective selections of an idiosyncratic author of concise, objective definitions out of a common dictionary we thought as a metaphor for the creative exploration that can occur “within the stacks” of a library by young students. The colored patterns created refer to stacks of books, binding and sheets of paper. Open, closed, flying, large and small. Colors morph, weave and create depth and are used to identify and situate the functional spaces of the library. Of note, the University of Texas Austin’s Harry Ransom Center houses David Foster Wallace’s library, papers and his dictionary.