verkstad
01 Services
Every project has a story—let us help you craft yours.
Combining clear language and visuals into compelling design stories, we articulate why your project matters. Urban planning projects are multi-faceted, nuanced, and often difficult for the public to understand. With our planning background we speak your language, but we specialize in translating it for the public. Our design strategies are based on universal design principles that enhance audience interest and information comprehension, broaden participation among diverse groups of stakeholders, and lead to stronger public support.
Project Websites
02 PORTFOLIO
a selection of works
Note: Many samples designed while employed by Nelson\Nygaard Associates
03 EXPERIENCE
Verkstad is a COBID Certified Emerging Small Business (#13356) eligible to receive credit on contracts containing COBID Certified inclusion and diversity goals.
Verkstad is the work of Drew Meisel, former Visual Communications Manager for Nelson\Nygaard Associates and Senior Planner at Alta Planning + Design. The focus of Drew's decade-plus career has been using visual communication to improve the public's understanding of planning concepts, data, and the underlying tradeoffs behind each planning decision. To further that goal he developed and taught a graduate level course at Portland State University for six years called 'Visual Communications for Planners'.
Every planning project has a story waiting to be told. Let us help you craft yours.
What our clients are saying
"I hired Drew to help us develop a visualization for our client. His visual conveyed a lot of data in a very clean, clear and easy to read view. This will help our client and their partners to share complex information to a wide range of audiences. Drew brings insight and passion to his work. He was on time/budget and a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend him."
- Jen M, Analytics Consultant
"I can’t say enough about Drew’s work. There is limited value in having a finding or an outcome if you can’t present it in a way that people can digest and understand. Drew made the planning projects I managed qualitatively better in a big way."
- Matt B, City of Portland
