President Donald Trump is expected to appoint Joe Gebbia as chief design officer for the US government as part of an “America by Design” initiative that will see the Airbnb co-founder lead a newly formed National Design Studio.
The president signed an executive order for the initiative on Thursday, stating: “I am announcing ‘America by Design,’ a national initiative to improve experiences for Americans, starting by breathing new life into the design of sites where people interface with their government.”
“It is time to update the government’s design language to be both usable and beautiful. This effort will be facilitated by a new National Design Studio and by a new chief design officer.”
According to a reports by Bloomberg and Reuters, Trump will name Gebbia to the chief design officer role. Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, as the appointment has not yet been officially announced.
The executive order states that the chief design officer will “help recruit top creative talent, coordinate with executive departments and agencies (agencies), and devise innovative solutions.”
The role of the National Design Studio will span both digital and physical design and will include advising agencies on how to “reduce duplicative design costs”, as well as using standardised design to help improve the public’s trust in “high-impact service providers.”
It will be part of the overall America by Design initiative, which the White House says will improve the usability and visual presentation of federal services.
Gebbia co-founded home rental company Airbnb in 2008 with Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk. He is also the founder of Samara, which designs Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).
He originally trained as a designer and has previously designed a range of modular office furniture for US company Bernhardt Design.
Since becoming president, Trump has also signed executive orders to promote “beautiful federal civic architecture” and to “make America’s showers great again”.
He recently commissioned architecture firm McCrery Architects to add a neoclassical ballroom to the White House on the site of the East Wing.
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