Why Urban Bison?

“Fieldnotes from the intersection of faith, design and culture. ”

People have asked me: “Why the name Urban Bison?”

If you put a bull in a china shop and it breaks things, you don’t blame the bull for being clumsy.
You recognize that this massive, powerful creature was never meant to exist in tight, fragile spaces. It belongs in the wild — open, free, and untamed. A china shop, built for tea-sipping grandmas and dainty collectors, was never the place for something that strong.

And if you let a bull into that space, that’s on you — not the bull.

We give animals that kind of understanding.
But when it comes to people — who are even wilder, more majestic, and created in the image of God — we force them to shrink into tight, spiritless spaces that society has built for us.

We’re told we’re too much. Too loud. Too wild. Too emotional. Too different.
Hyperactive. Neurodivergent. Misplaced.
Labels stacked on top of expectations — all designed to keep us in line, to keep us small.

The way we design is cost-driven and motivated by mass approval.
Even now, in the technological age — when we were supposed to highlight individuality and promote personal freedom — we’ve done the opposite.

We’ve created clique-ish pockets of cultural norms, and allowed that same technology to further infringe upon the human spirit.

Instead of giving people room to be more of who they are, we’ve given them more reasons to compare, conform, and shrink.

Maybe it’s not that we don’t fit the space.
Maybe the space was never built to hold what we are.

We know we can’t solve all the world’s problems.
We’re not here to fix everything that’s broken.

But we can start with honesty.
With respect for people — for who they are, how they move, and what they need from the spaces around them.

And we can push forward with bold design.
Design that doesn’t just settle for what’s cheapest or easiest, but still finds real solutions — the kind that help us navigate the inevitable cost conversation, and deliver more with less.

Because clarity shouldn’t be a luxury.
And great design doesn’t have to break the bank to be worth something.

At Urban Bison, we design with people in mind — not just spaces.
We honor the strength, complexity, and story in everyone, and we build environments that make room for that.

And that’s it, in a nutshell.

The vision behind this company is the non-conformist voice that’s nagged at me throughout my more than 15 years as a designer. I worked hard, and I always advocated for bold design — but I also compromised when I had to. I relented when the project, the client, or the system demanded it.

Somewhere in that tension — in that constant push and pull — came the image of the bison, running haphazardly through a dense city backdrop.

And that’s how the name came about. In case you were curious.

I hope you come along with us as we continue to grow, serve, and hopefully have a little fun along the way.
To God be the glory.