Design Observer: Recent Episodes
Design Observer
@the-observatory-1: Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand on design, current events, and current enthusiasms.
@designmatters with Debbie Millman: thought-provoking conversations with industry-leading graphic designers, change agents, artists, writers, and educators.
Jonathan Jackson, Creative Director at We Should Do It All, and design student Avalon Garrick talk about the joys and challenges of finding their footing as creatives, the experience of being the only Black person in the room, and how the design field can be made more diverse.
Gaining knowledge is a crucial, ongoing part of every designer’s career. In this episode, Pentagram partner Eddie Opara, mentor to student Tyriq Moore, talks with him about how learning and discovering new things is at the heart of being a good designer.
Debbie talks to Design*Sponge founder Grace Bonney about her new book on women entrepreneurs and makers and about the necessity and difficulty of change.
Campaign fatigue, advertising and viral video, voting technology, intellectualism in the design community, the art of David Pease, the 1986 Mets
Bathroom signs, MBA students, Mozilla and open logo design, The Commissar Vanishes, Masters of Sex
The Napalm Girl photo on Facebook, 9/11 out of context, Apple stores and the iPhone 7 launch, the Doctor Strangelove trailer, Wiener-Dog, Pantsuit
Samsung v. Apple, the International Style v. capitalism, Sausage Party, mozzarella sticks
Olympics, cursive handwriting, NASA’s secret art studio, gun sales on Facebook, #firstsevenjobs
Trump-Pence, Clinton-Kaine, Black Lives Matter, The Four Seasons, mapping the brain, the video essay
Brexit, borders, naming, Fiorello La Guardia and his airport, robot dogs, though leadership, Snapfax
Why we need a U.S. Secretary of Design, Yale SOM, Emma Cline’s The Girls, Holy Hell, Silicon Valley
Nutrition Facts, Mark Bittman’s food rating system, colon cancer screening, Time Well Spent, Peter Arno, Flat File
Instagram, rainbows, digital brutalism, Design: The Invention of Desire, the Freewrite,
Solitary confinement, virtual reality, design thinking for prisoners, Drew Hodges’s Broadway, The Paradise, Prince’s unpronounceable glyph
Innovators and maintainers, Bernie and Hillary, mapping and infrastructure, algorithms and Rembrandt
The Met and the logosphere, designing with scientists, the Clinton-Sanders graphics race
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand talk about Taste: a one-day symposium on design + food, and why you need to be there!
Behind the Bataclan, pigeon pathologists, Design Thinking at IBM, the Coke bottle at 100, Michael Gross
Art, nostalgia, and community; Dannemora’s racist escape note; and Rachel Carson for the new $10.
Mentioned: Milan, Mario Batali, Michelle Obama, Moshe Safdie, Modernism, MOO (our sponsor), Michael Erard, metaphor design, Macintosh icons, Massimo Vignelli, Material Design (moronic!), metastasis, mapping expectations of the future world against a reality that is myopic.
The latest verbal sparring match between Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut. Are boxing and photography hipster pleasures? Are they past their prime, or do they have a bright future? Plus: Michael on that time he got punched in the nose.
Michael and Jessica discuss the Doomsday Clock, Canada‘s anniversary logo, and Tim Geithner’s infographic challenge for MBA students.
A trip to San Francisco reminds Jessica that design can mean something very different in technology companies than it did for “classically trained graphic designers of a certain generation,” i.e. her and Michael.
“Culturally, what has shifted is that they work in teams and they don't have the same kind of understanding of one person making one thing at one time.”
A new sonic tour of the Bay Area's fringes. This installment: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz Island
Silence often demarcates power, while it can also be used as a tool in response. In the case of Bayview that afternoon, silence was a compounded diffusion of many agencies of power, from those who have been silenced to those who have chosen to remain silent. Surrounding a small vivacious street party, the only other thing left to hear in a few hours listen was the ominous quiet of the status quo.
Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand discuss the The Grid, which uses artificial intelligence to design websites, the history of grids, and the unlikely success of coloring books for adults.
Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about death (not taxes): how designers have to think about preventing death and representing death, and whether death is “just another design challenge.” Also, the color blue.
Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about a panel they participated in at "Everything Is Design", the Paul Rand exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, plus the return of Mad Men and the fate of photography giants Kodak and Polaroid.
A few weeks ago we bolted north up the I-80 to check out some sound art being performed inside one of Mare’s old concrete munitions storage magazines leftover from World War II. The Island (which is actually a peninsula), was established in 1852 by the Navy for ship repair, and later grew into the largest ship construction/repair facility in the world during World War II. Since 1996 the base on Mare has been mostly abandoned, and a small portion on the southern tip has been turned into a 215-acre heritage preserve that regularly gathers a motley crew of bird watchers, veterans, artists, wine tasters, historians, picnickers, photographers, and, of course, golfers.
Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president for design, and the rollout of the Apple Watch. They consider everything from the questionable wisdom of rounded corners to the typography of the WATCH logo.
Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about graphic designers on screen, inspired by "FYI I’m a Graphic Designer", a supercut by Central St. Martins students Ellen Mercer and Lucy Streule. They also talk about highlights from Design Observer’s What Design Sounds Like symposium, and Michael’s trip to Design Indaba.
Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand look ahead to Design Observer’s "What Design Sounds Like", a one-day symposium in New York on February 21st, and to "Everything Is Design: The Work of Paul Rand", an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York that runs from February 25th to July 19th.
Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talks about Jessica's Paris 140 series, and Michael describes his 100 Day Project.
Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand discuss the midterm election and currency design. Plus Jessica imitates a London cabbie, and Michael nails the pronunciation of our sponsor, MailChimp.
Here is a preview of The Observatory, a new podcast we’re developing at Design Observer. In each episode, Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about a few things going on in the world of design that have caught their attention.
Steven Heller is the co-chair (with Lita Talarico) of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design / Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program and the SVA Masters Workshop in Rome. He is a prolific writer.
Sandra Nuut is investigating spaces for contemporary fashion curation inside and beyond the museum, and is analyzing the collision between culture and commerce.
Hala A. Malak is a design critic, curator, branding consultant, and Middle East expert with her own particular view of the world.
Bryn Smith is a writer, graphic designer, and critic based in Brooklyn. She writes about design for Core77, Designers & Books and L’ArcoBaleno, among others, and teaches in the graduate graphic design program at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Angela Riechers is a Brooklyn-based art director and writer specializing in design, media, and visual culture.
Brigette Brown is a 2013 graduate of SVA MFA Design Criticism program who has worked for the Museum of Latin American Art, written for Disegno and Surface, researched for Metropolis, and edited a publication for Domus.
Anne Quito will graduate in May 2014 from SVA’s MFA Design Criticism program. In 2009, she earned a master’s degree in Visual Culture from Georgetown University.
Anna Marie Smith is currently working on her MFA in Design Criticism from the School of Visual Arts, with particular interest in social media, video game design, and branding within the Young Adult demographic.
John Thackara is a writer, speaker and design producer, and director of Doors of Perception. In addition to this blog, he is the author of twelve books including In The Bubble: Designing In A Complex World and Wouldn't It Be Great If….
Steven Heller is the co-chair (with Lita Talarico) of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design / Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program and the SVA Masters Workshop in Rome. He is a prolific writer.
Debbie Millman is a partner and president of the design division at Sterling Brands, one of the leading brand identity firms in the country. Millman is President Emeritus of AIGA, and chair of the School of Visual Arts’ master’s program in Branding.
John Bertram is a graduate of Yale School of Architecture and the principal of Bertram Architects in Los Angeles. He is co-editor (with Yuri Leving) of Lolita - The Story of a Cover Girl: Vladimir Nabokov's Novel in Art and Design, and the editor of Venus Febriculosa, a website devoted to contemporary literature and the art and design of books.
Jeff Miller is a leading American industrial designer who has received international acclaim for his innovative, distinctive style.
Cheryl Heller designs change and growth for business leaders and social entrepreneurs. She is Founding Chair of MFA Design for Social Innovation at SVA. She is also the founder of Heller Communication Design and an advisor to PopTech.
Megan Whitmarsh is a Los Angeles based artist who works predominantly in textiles. Although she also creates comic books, paintings, drawings, and stop-action animation, Whitmarsh is best known for her hand-embroidered canvases and soft sculptures.
Alexandra Lange is an architecture and design critic, and author of Writing about Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities. (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012).
Stanley Hainsworth is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Tether, a creative agency based in Seattle, WA. Before starting Tether in 2008, he was the VP-global creative at Starbucks. Prior to joining Starbucks, Stanley was global creative director at Lego in Denmark from 2001 to 2004.
Krista Donaldson, PhD, is a mechanical and design engineer based in San Francisco who focuses on development in less industrialized economies as CEO of the nonprofit firm D-Rev (Design Revolution).
Mariana co-founded Designmatters in 2001. As the head of the Department, she is responsible for the strategic leadership of a dynamic portfolio of global and national educational projects, research collaborations and publications at the intersection of art and design education and social innovation.
Wendy Ju is a PhD graduate of the Center for Design Research at Stanford University, and the founder of Ambidextrous magazine, Stanford University's Journal of Design.
Enrique Allen is currently the co-director of the Designer Fund where he provides angel funding, mentorship and connections to designers creating businesses with positive social impact.
Sean Adams is a partner at AdamsMorioka in Beverly Hills. Sean is President ex officio and past national board member of AIGA, and President ex officio of AIGA Los Angeles. He teaches at Art Center College of Design.
Gabriel Brodbar is the Executive Director of the NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship at New York University.
David Womack is the executive creative director of experience design in the mobile and social group at R/GA. He is also on the faculty of the MFA in interaction design program at School of Visual Arts in New York.
Steff Geissbühler is among America’s most celebrated designers of integrated brand and corporate identity programs.
Liz Gerber is the Junior Breed Chair of Design at Northwestern U. and Faculty Founder of Design For America.
Rob Forbes’ career includes work in both the Arts and Business fields. Forbes is best known as the Founder of Design Within Reach and for the vision of a business that has grown into the leading retail destination for modern design in the US.
Jake Nickell is the co-founder of skinnyCorp and Threadless.com, along with a “bunch of other little projects”.
Sara Ivry is the host of Vox Tablet, the weekly podcast of Tablet Magazine, and a writer who has contributed to the New York Times, Bookforum, the Boston Globe, and other publications.
J. D. McClatchy is the author of six books of poetry and many texts for musical settings, including eight opera libretti.
Steven Heller is the co-chair (with Lita Talarico) of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design / Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program and the SVA Masters Workshop in Rome. Steven is a prolific author.
John Foster has been a longtime collector of self-taught art and vernacular photography, as well as an artist, designer, and art curator.
Chip Kidd is a Designer/Writer in New York City. His book cover designs for Alfred A. Knopf, where he has worked non-stop since 1986, have helped create a revolution in the art of American book packaging.
Adam Harrison Levy is a writer and film-maker. He teaches at the School of the Visual Arts. In 2012 he was a Poynter Fellow at Yale University.
Mark Lamster is the architecture critic of the Dallas Morning News and a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture.
Marvin Heiferman, a curator and writer, develops exhibitions, websites and publications that explore visual culture.
Joanna Radin is Assistant Professor in the Section for the History of Medicine at Yale University, where she also holds affiliations with the departments of History and of Anthropology.
Alice Twemlow is the co-founder and chair of a two-year graduate program in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She is also a PhD candidate in the History of Design department at the Royal College of Art, London.
Twemlow has written about design for publications including Eye, Design Issues, Design & Culture, I.D., Print, New York Magazine, and Architect’s Newspaper. She is the author of What is Graphic Design For? (Rotovision, 2006) and her essays are included in books such as 60: Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future (Thames and Hudson, 2010,) The Barnbrook Bible (Booth Clibborn, 2007,) Looking Closer 5 (Allworth Press, 2007,) Graphic Design Words/Worlds (La Triennale Design Museum, 2011,) Design Icons, (Berg, 2013,) The Aspen Complex, (Sternberg Press, 2012), and Popular Design & Entertainment, (Manchester University Press, 2009.)
Twemlow often serves on design and architecture juries and editorial boards, and moderates conferences such as the "Tasmeem Doha Conference" at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and "Abstract: The Future of Design in Media Conference" in Portland Maine. She has recently lectured at the ICOGRADA Congress, AIGA National Conference, AIGA Chicago, and MoMA.
Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is a social scientist and physician who conducts research on social factors that affect health, health care, and longevity.