Keeping Art in Education
Jonathan Baker knows design. Over the past two decades he has designed over 50 consumer products for the sporting goods and outdoor industry. As a senior freelance product designer he helped create new product categories, define market changing aesthetics and engineer disruptive technologies. He has worked with global manufacturers, with many of his designs being produced millions of times.
Currently he is the Founder of eqpd ("equipped") and is using this background in design and manufacturing to create a world with less waste. By making goods with universal aesthetics that are more durable, versatile and long lived, his products reduce the need for disposable alternatives. eqpd’s iconic LastBag™ is a lifetime reusable grocery bag made in Twisp, WA with a goal of eliminating single-use bags and the excessive environmental damage they create. By focusing on the principles of good design, regional manufacturing and a deep respect for the planet, eqpd creates better products, in better ways, closer to your home.
A lifelong Artist, Jonathan is a board member of the Methow Arts Alliance and guest critic at his alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design. Awarded an internship at Patagonia while in school, he was fundamentally challenged by how to "use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis". He and his wife Margaret live in the Methow Valley, WA where she teaches K-6 art and is a professional fine artist.