Compton Advertising / Saatchi & Saatchi Compton Worldwide (1977–1985) After graduating from Princeton, Drenttel joined Compton Advertising Inc. in New York City, a big
advertising agency most known for managing the
Procter & Gamble brands in the U.S. In 1982, Compton Advertising was acquired by
Saatchi & Saatchi. and management supervisor at
Saatchi & Saatchi Compton Worldwide in Italy in 1980 and the AT&T account that launched cellular telephones in America in 1983. In 1984, after the breakup of
AT&T, Drenttel won and managed the cellular telephones advertising accounts for two of the regional Bell Operating Companies,
Ameritech and
Pacific Telesis. His four years of international experience at Saatchi & Saatchi included one year managing P&G Canada accounts, and three years as a managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi Italy, during which time agency billings and staff increased five-fold.
Drenttel Doyle Partners (1985–1996) By mid-1980s, Drenttel became disillusioned with advertising and more interested in graphic design. that worked across corporate design, new product development, packaging, advertising, marketing, architectural and environmental graphics, and editorial design. For the following 12 years, Drenttel ran the firm with principals Stephen Doyle and Thomas Kluepfel. Drenttel Doyle Partners was first located at 77 Irving Place and then at 1123 Broadway, both in New York City. Drenttel Doyle Partners made a significant impact on magazine design with its design of
Spy Magazine and
The New Republic in 1986. Stephen Doyle continued to run the studio under the name Doyle Partners.
Winterhouse Studio and Winterhouse Editions (1997–2013) Drenttel started Winterhouse Studio with his wife
Jessica Helfand in 1997. Initially a two-person firm, it focused primarily on early
website design for corporations and publications like
The New Yorker, before moving to a 1932 house that used to house
Ezra Winter's painting studio Winterhouse Studio initially focused on publishing and editorial development; new media; and cultural, educational and literary institutions. The studio designed
Netscape tools, browser and homepage in 1998-1999,
University Business in 1998,
New England Journal of Medicine in 2000,
Legal Affairs,
Norman Rockwell Museum in 2002, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation in 2003,
New York University School of Journalism and
The Paris Review in 2004,
Yale Law Journal in 2005,
The New Yorker in 2007,
Archives of American Art Journal, Yale Environment 360 and Teach For All in 2008, and
Harvard Law Review in 2010. Additional clients included
Yale University Press,
Errol Morris,
Stora Enso,
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect,
Smithsonian Archives of American Art,
Children's Television Workshop. Winterhouse Studio designed nearly 100 covers of
Poetry Magazine with Drenttel serving as creative director of the newly-established
Poetry Foundation from 2004 to 2008. Drenttel had a pivotal role in developing its strategic plan; broad involvement in long-term planning, program development and marketing; design of all collateral materials to support national programming; and design and development of the Foundation websites. Some works were published under the Winterhouse imprint with the
Yale University Press,
University of Chicago Press and
Princeton Architectural Press. Additionally, Winterhouse published
Below the Fold, an occasional journal exploring topics through visual narrative and critical inquiry. Jessica Helfand shut down Winterhouse Studio shortly after Drenttel's death in 2013.
Winterhouse Awards Created in 2006 in collaboration with
AIGA, the Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism aimed to increase the understanding of design, both within the profession and nationally.
Polling Place Photo Project The Polling Place Photo Project was a 2006–2008 nationwide photography project created in collaboration with AIGA: an archive of photographs taken by American citizens at polling places on
caucus and
election days. It was launched in October 2006 before the U.S.
midterm elections. For the
2008 Presidential elections, it was supported by
The New York Times, with project photos appearing on the paper's homepage on
Election Day, when
Barack Obama was elected
President.
Winterhouse Symposium on Design Education Drenttel and Winterhouse Institute hosted symposiums on
design education that brought together graduate design educators at the intersection of design and social change. The first Winterhouse Symposium on Design Education was held at Winterhouse Institute in October 2010 with 13 participants from a variety of design and business schools, discussing the challenges of their social-change initiatives. The 2010 symposium concluded with a plan to prototype a standardized method for reporting on social-design academic institutions. The second Winterhouse Symposium on Design Education took place at
The Hotchkiss School in August 2011 with thirty participants.
2009 Aspen Design Summit and 2010 Bellagio Design Symposium Drenttel’s Winterhouse Institute, in collaboration with AIGA and
Rockefeller Foundation, hosted the Aspen Design Summit in November 2009. The summit invited designers, educators, researchers and representatives of NGOs, foundations and businesses to collaborate in addressing large social problems: rural healthcare delivery, early childhood education needs in disaster areas,
sustainable food systems, preventative medical healthcare testing, poverty alleviation in rural Alabama, and more. Institutional participants included the
Centers for Disease Control,
Mayo Clinic,
UNICEF, Sustainable Health Enterprises,
University of Alabama and
Auburn University. He also sponsored Bellagio Design Symposium, “Reasons Not to Be Pretty: Symposium on Design, Social Change and the ‘Museum,’” held in April 2010 at the Rockefeller Foundation’s
Bellagio Center in Italy. The conference gathered 22 designers, historians, curators, educators and journalists to discuss the museum's role in the 21st century in relation to design for social change, asking how museums should collect, archive and exhibit objects of social innovation.
Design Observer (2003–2012) In October 2003, Drenttel, with
Michael Bierut,
Jessica Helfand and
Rick Poynor founded
Design Observer which became the leading international site for design, urbanism, social innovation and cultural observation, providing a forum for critical discussion and commentary. A grant by the
Rockefeller Foundation facilitated expansion of Design Observer Group in August 2009 to include Change Observer, Places and Observer Media channels. These channels developed new journalism focused on social innovation, urbanism and design within the public realm. By 2013, the site had published over 4,800 articles and essays by over 600 authors, with more than 183,000 unique monthly visitors.
Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, a healthcare innovation laboratory in Minnesota; Project Masiluleke, an HIV healthcare project in South Africa, and Teach For All, an international network for education innovation.
AIGA Drenttel was president
emeritus of
AIGA, the largest design organization in the U.S. He led the organization as president from 1994 to 1996, through a period of significant change, including the opening of a new national headquarters in New York City, the appointment of a new executive director, new financial controls, the launch of the organization's first capital campaign, and program coordination with 52 regional chapters. He also co-edited the
Looking Closer anthologies, books of essays on design published by AIGA. As president emeritus, Drenttel provided ongoing strategic and longterm planning consultation. In 2005, Drenttel assumed the role of national task force director for disaster relief for designers after the destruction of the
Gulf States by hurricanes. In 2011, he supported the launch of the AIGA social change initiative, Design For Good. Drenttel also served as board member for the New York Chapter of AIGA from 1990 to 1992, and as a national board member from 1993 to 1996.
Teach for All During 2008–2012 Drenttel was vice president of communications and design of
Teach For All, an international organization supporting educational social enterprises. Teach For All acts as a global network of independent social enterprises that are working to expand educational opportunity in their nations by enlisting their most promising future leaders in the effort. ==Other professional and non-profit affiliations==