Luis Duque

I design bridges for a living, based in Rapid City, South Dakota. By day, I work on infrastructure projects. By night (and in the margins of every workbook), I write about something harder to measure: the tools and systems that help us connect with ourselves.

I grew up in the coffee region of Colombia, surrounded by coffee and mountains — my family has farmed the same land for over 50 years. I came to the US for engineering, stayed for the work, and found that the discipline of building infrastructure and the discipline of building a life aren't as different as they look. Both require intention. Both require the right tools.

Fountain pens, quality notebooks, paper planning systems — these aren't nostalgia for me. They're precision instruments. They slow me down in exactly the right way. Planning Engineered is my attempt to share that discovery with planners, stationery lovers, and creators who feel the same tension: fast digital world, slow analog thinking.

Outside the channel, I'm a member of ASCE and SEI-ASCE, serving on committees for leadership, business practices, and international work. I've been involved with Engineers Without Borders since 2014. In 2020, I was named one of ten New Faces in Civil Engineering — a recognition that still feels like a responsibility more than an honor.

I'm also the co-founder of Ríos de Oro, a small coffee import company my brother Juan and I run together. We source directly from our family's two farms — La Lucia and La Esperanza — and ship to the US within a week of roasting. Coffee and planning have more in common than people think: both reward patience, ritual, and paying attention.