Maddy Bruster

maddybruster.com

updated: February 18, 2026

Website for Navigator Research, navigatorresearch.org, a trusted national polling origanization for public opinion research. Developed an updated brand identity, web design, UX design and managed entire web development process. With Jacqueline Johnsson, 2025 and web development agency Loopdash.

Design and art direction for the quarterly reading series Reading 101 hosted at Night Club 101, at 101 Avenue A in the East Village. Thank you to Alexis Nowicki and Maria Robins-Somerville for working with me on their project. 2025–current.

Website for writer and PhD student Susannah Jacob, 2021.

website for publicist Alexis Nowicki

dimepiece._2.png

Illustrations for article in Dimepiece Magazine on the swatch .beat watch “The .beat Watch: Swatch’s Y2K Fever Dream.” Read more here.

(forthcoming) "My Punishment," "Trivial Pursuit," "The Rules," "The Wrong Track" and "Dead Ends," stories for The End Magazine, Issue 5 "Shame," 2026

an Interview with novelist Sara Levine, The Creative Independent, 2024

The .beat Watch: Swatch's Y2K Fever Dream, Dimepiece Magazine, 2024

Deserts Are Not Empty, for Skyline, New York Review of Architecture, 2022

The Fence Brings a New Look to the Staid World of Current Affairs Mags, AIGA Eye on Design, 2021

Every Design Studio Should Be a Worker-Owned Studio, written and edited with Partner & Partners, AIGA Eye on Design, 2021

about

Maddy Bruster is a graphic designer and writer living in New York City. She has worked as an art director, graphic designer, front-end developer and copywriter with organizations of various sizes.

She has written for AIGA's Eye on Design, The Creative Independent, Dimepiece, New York Review of Architecture and other publications.

From 2020-2022 she held design and web development roles at Partner & Partners. Since 2020 she has run an evolving independent design practice, IT HAS TO BE REAL. Working as IT HAS TO BE REAL, Maddy collaborates with design and architecture studios, small businesses, startups, cultural institutions, artists and individuals to realize ideas across printed and digital matter. Her clients come from industries as various as art, architecture, technology, government, advocacy, politics and sports. Please get in touch via her email.

more

In the capacity of IT HAS TO BE REAL she works on projects that range from the hyper-commercial (websites for software companies) to one-off articles and illustrations driven by her own interests. In an era of increasing specialization she remains a committed generalist and jack-of-all-trades.

As a designer her work is highly typographic and involved with language and ideas over and above images. She is interested in language and writing as part of a design practice, exemplars of which include Lorraine Wild, Stuart Bailey and Paul Elliman. Her work often explores solutions driven by ideas, coincidences, borrowing, and copying as strategies for creativity, and the aesthetics of the default and banal.

services

graphic design

creative direction

identity design

web design

copywriting

web development

information architecture

ux design

project management

dev management

Select clients include the WNBA, The Locavore Guide, AI Now Institute, Jain Family Institute, Van Alen Institute, The Rockefeller Foundation, The University of Texas at Austin, Final Draft, Mailchimp, and Taylor & Francis.

teaching

2025-current, Pratt Institute, School of Design

Communications Design, Professional Practice

email me CV available here

select projects

Locavore Guide to Shopping New York City, design and production for print, 2026

alexisnowicki.com, website with custom CMS for publicist Alexis Nowicki, 2025

bykids.org, information architecture, design and development for nonprofit film organization, 2025

carinaimbornone.com, website for writer & editor Carina Imbornone, 2025

CTO Housing Alliance, brand identity, 2025

Locavore Guide to Shopping New York City, concept, design and production for print, 2025

navigatorresearch.org, website for progressive polling organization, 2025

ziflow.com, website design, UX design, 2024

susannahjacob.com, for writer & historian Susannah Jacob, 2021

with Partner & Partners

AI Now, website for AI research institute, 2023

interferencearchive.org, website, Interference Archive, 2021

Phenomenal World, website, design & development, 2021

Van Alen Institute, website, design & development, 2021

© 2026, maddy bruster design & art direction Brooklyn, NY Last updated: February 28, 2026 back to top