The Peopledesign Story

Peopledesign co-founders Kevin Budelmann and Yang Kim.

How it started

Kevin Budelmann and Yang Kim met at Carnegie Mellon University, where both were studying design. They worked on projects together as students, then separately as young professionals, and reunited in West Michigan when both took positions at Herman Miller.

It wasn't accidental. Herman Miller was one of the most respected design-driven companies in the world, and for two designers who cared about how things were made and why, it was exactly the right place to start.

Yang's office at Herman Miller in Grandville.

Yang worked closely with legendary Creative Director Steve Frykholm for five years, producing five award-winning annual reports that remain reference points in the field. Kevin led the company's first website, one of the earliest examples of digital brand communication in the furniture industry, working at the frontier of what the web could do for a brand.

In January 1997, Kevin and Yang left Herman Miller to start a new firm with colleague Michael Barile. They called it BBK Studio. Their living room was the first office. Within a few months, they moved to a space on Plainfield Avenue north of Grand Rapids, and the work began in earnest.

Michael Barile and Kevin Budelmann.

Early years

The early client list reflected the founders’ origins. Herman Miller remained a client: annual reports, website work, and ongoing brand support. Steelcase and Knoll followed. The BE thread was present from the beginning, not because of a strategic decision but because of genuine expertise and proximity. West Michigan’s furniture industry cluster meant the right clients were nearby, and the founders knew the work.

The firm grew through the late 1990s and into the 2000s, taking on work beyond the built environment — Jaguar Cars, X-Rite, regional institutions — while maintaining the BE relationships that had started everything. Michael left the firm in the post-dot-com period following 2001, and Kevin and Yang continued on a new path.

The work earned recognition. Graphis and other design publications featured projects as examples of leading practice. The firm served as judges and speakers at AIGA, AAF, and other industry events, building a reputation that extended beyond West Michigan.

Holiday dinner.

Plainfield office.

Mexican National Design Conference, Acapulco, Mexico.

A new direction

In 2007, on the firm’s tenth anniversary, Kevin and Yang renamed the practice Peopledesign. The name reflected a maturing point of view: that the most important design problems are fundamentally about people — how they work, what they need, how organizations can better serve them.

The name change also marked a deepening focus on strategy and research. The firm began taking on more complex engagements. Not just brand and communications work, but the upstream strategic questions that determine whether brand work succeeds. What market are we actually competing in? Who is our customer, really? Why are we losing specifications we should be winning?

The HON Company rebrand was an early signal of where the firm was heading. Interface, Guilford of Maine, and USAI Lighting followed — engagements that went deeper than execution and into the strategic questions underneath.

In 2010, Kevin and Yang published Brand Identity Essentials, a book for designers and brand builders worldwide. Now in its second edition and available in six languages, it remains one of the most widely used references in the field. Ralph Caplan, author of The Design of Herman Miller, called it “a model for clarity in a field that rarely has any.”

Kevin continued deepening his strategic practice, earning a Master of Strategic Design from IIT Institute of Design. Yang was recognized by Graphic Design USA as one of the most influential designers working today and became an AIGA Fellow – external validation of a body of work that had been building for two decades.

The next chapter 

In 2019, Jake Himmelspach became a partner. Jake had joined the firm years earlier as a researcher and strategist, bringing a background in journalism and an MBA in Design and Innovation Strategy. His work deepened Peopledesign's research capabilities and formalized the diagnostic approach that now anchors every engagement. 

By 2020, Kevin had served as President of IxDA Global, the international interaction design association, representing the field across six continents. He teaches Information Strategy at Northwestern University and Customer Experience at Michigan State — bringing the same strategic thinking he applies with clients into the classroom. 

The BE Growth Index launched as the firm's most visible statement of sector commitment: the only independent annual benchmark tracking the strategic health of built environment manufacturers. It exists because understanding the market is the first requirement of competing in it. 

Today, Peopledesign works with built environment manufacturers, dealers, and A&E firms across the country — diagnosing what's limiting growth, building the position to compete, and keeping the momentum compounding. The sector focus that began at Herman Miller in the early 1990s has only sharpened over the past thirty years.

Yang Kim and Kevin Budelmann speaking at TEDx.

Kevin at IxDA Interaction Week in Milan, Italy.

The people who built it 

Peopledesign has been built by many hands over nearly three decades. We’re grateful to every person who contributed to the work. 

Chas Appleby, Michael Barile, Josh Best, Ted Bingham, Carrier Borchers, Bill Braden, Michele Brautnick, Karen Bryan, Kevin Budelmann, Tim Calkins, Marie-Claire Camp, Gina Caratelli, Michael Carnevale, Devon Carlson, Emily Cowdrey, Kelly Beat, Von Franklin, Brian Hauch, Jake Himmelspach, Heather Jensen, Jennifer Johnston, Steven Joswick, Laura Kain, Jenn Karel, Yang Kim, Scott Krieger, Ross Labardee, Kristin Landgraf, Jessica Lee, Ryan Lee, Sarah Lockwood, Pete Lusch, Jackie McLane, Geoff Mark, Briana McNamara, Jason Murray, Michael Nykamp, Kelly O'Hara, Sharon Oleniczak, Kaila Parent, AJ Paschka, Alison Popp, Diana Racek, Jane Reardon, Adam Rice, Julie Ridl, Matt Ryzenga, David Schofield, Kelly Schwartz, Diana Sherman, Jeff Sikkema, Victor Sirotek, Jason Six, Jamie Smyth, Nancy Stryker, Chris Taylor, Aaron Vanderzwan, Kim VanKuiken, Jeanne Weaver, Andy Weber, Leah Weston, John Winkelman, Curt Wozniak.

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