Few designers changed the direction of design even once. Michael Graves did it three times.

In the 1980s, Graves moved architecture and product design beyond strict modernism, reintroducing color, humanity, and storytelling into buildings and everyday objects. In the 1990s, our partnership with Target transformed American retail by proving that great design should be affordable and available to everyone.

In 2003, a sudden spinal cord infection left Graves paralyzed from the chest down. During months of recovery, he encountered something a designer could not ignore: the everyday objects people depend on most were often the worst-designed ones. Confusing, uncomfortable, and built as if the person using them didn't really matter.

For Graves, that was not a personal frustration. It was a design problem worth solving.

Michael began advocating for a new approach to design, one that considered the full arc of human life: aging, recovery, caregiving, and independence. Products that support people should not feel clinical or limiting. They should be thoughtful, dignified, and beautifully designed. That belief became the foundation of Michael Graves Design and continues to guide our work today.

We design products for the Activities of Daily Living — the everyday moments that shape how people live, from cooking and mobility to bathing, working, and hobbies. By designing for the way people really live, we create products that support independence, confidence, and joy in everyday life.

Because the best design doesn’t separate people. It helps more people participate in everyday life. 

For more than three decades, Michael Graves Design has been raising the standard for what everyday objects can be: more beautiful, more intuitive, and shaped around the people who actually use them.

We design products around how people actually move, hold, and use things. As needs change across ages, abilities, and stages of life, that approach doesn't adapt. It just keeps working. Design that begins with the body, and serves it throughout.

At Michael Graves Design, inclusion is not a constraint on creativity. It is a catalyst for better design. When products are intuitive, engaging, and within reach, they work better for more people.

Our work focuses on the Activities of Daily Living, the moments that shape how people live each day, from cooking and mobility to bathing, dressing, working, and hobbies. By designing for these everyday actions, we create products that support independence, spark joy, and help more people live well, because design should work for every body.

At Michael Graves Design, inclusion is not a constraint on creativity. It is a catalyst for better design. When products are intuitive, engaging, and within reach, they work better for more people. Our work focuses on the Activities of Daily Living, the moments that shape how people live each day, from cooking and mobility to bathing, dressing, working, and hobbies. By designing for these everyday actions, we create products that support independence, spark joy, and help more people live well, because design should work for every body.