Canadian-born designer Peter Buchanan-Smith has had a series of what seem like dream jobs: design director at Paper Magazine and for Isaac Mizrahi, book-jacket designer at Farrar Straus and Giroux, designer at the New York Times, and a client list that has included Wilco, Brian Eno and Philip Glass. Recently, he ditched it all and designed a series of hand-painted, limited-edition, upscale axes. That's right, tree-chopping tools.

Buchanan-Smith talked about his career recently at Walker Art Center, part of its March series of talks by designers.The series continues on Tuesdays through March.

If you missed his talk at Walker Art Center, here's a video of it.