Zack Bryant

Believes the fruit is sweeter when you’ve had a hand in tending the trees

When you’re raised by a restaurateur and a teacher, service design is like second nature. As a creative director, Zack embodies the pioneering spirit of service design, balancing an adventurous drive with a dash of contrarianism. When print was “dying,” he devoted himself to the craft of putting ink to paper. When the World Wide Web felt more like the Wild West, he set out to build digital homesteads. When branding became an algorithm, he embraced mythology and the psychology of dreams. And now, when fragmentation and derealization threaten the vitality of in-person experiences, he’s helping small places recover their most essential stories. Rooted in the countryside just outside Charlottesville, Zack and his family look after an unruly sprawl of field and forest and its many inhabitants.