Design

Designer Talks

Design Matters (New Episodes)

Design Matters

to listen

Michael Rock is a founding partner and Creative Director at 2x4 and Director of the Graphic Architecture Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. At 2x4, he leads a wide range of projects for Prada, Nike, Kanye West, Barneys New York, Harvard and CCTV. Before starting 2x4, he was co-founder of Information incorporated in Boston. From 1984–91 he was Adjunct Professor of Graphic Design at the Rhode Island School of Design and since 1991 he has been a member of the design faculty at the Yale School of Art where he holds the rank of Adjunct Professor. In addition, he was a fellow at the Jan Van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht, The Netherlands, and a contributing editor and graphic design journalist at I.D. Magazine in New York. His writing on design has appeared in publications worldwide. He holds an A.B. in Humanities from Union College and a M.F.A from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is the recipient of the 1999/2000 Rome Prize in Design from the American Academy in Rome and currently serves on the board of the Academy. He is the author and editor of Multiple Signatures, on the history and development of 21st century design. 

Design Matters With Debbie Millman: Michael Rock

Jennifer Kinon & Bobby Martin are designers and educators who co-founded OCD (Original Champions of Design). Together they develop brand identity systems for a broad range of clients that include, among others, the National Basketball Association, Girl Scouts of the USA and Friends of the High Line. Their work has won awards from the Art Directors Club, D&AD, AIGA365, Type Directors Club and Print as well as Best of Show and Judge's Pick in the 2011 Brand New Awards.

Jennifer Kinon recently served as the president of AIGA/NY. Prior to founding OCD, she worked in the New York office of Pentagram with Michael Bierut, served as design director of New York City’s 2012 Olympic Bid and worked as art director for Graphis Inc. She graduated from the University of Michigan and earned an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Kinon is the first program graduate to join the faculty.

Prior to founding OCD, Bobby Martin developed brand experiences from the inside out while leading internal design teams at Nokia, in London, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has also served on the board of directors of AIGA/NY. He teaches identity design at The Cooper Union and recently joined the faculty of his alma mater, the School of Visual Arts, MFA Design Program where he holds a graduate degree. He graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Jennifer Kinon & Bobby Martin

Bob Gill is a designer, an illustrator, a copywriter, a film-maker and a teacher. After freelancing in New York, he went to London on a whim in 1960 and stayed for fifteen years. He started Fletcher/Forbes/Gill, a design office with the two brightest designers in England. F/F/G began with two assistants and a secretary. Today, it's called Pentagram, with offices everywhere except Tibet. Gill returned to New York in 1975 to write and design Beatlemania. Gill has had one-man shows in Europe, South America, the Far East and in the US. He was elected to the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame and the Designers and Art Directors Association of London recently presented him with their Lifetime Achievement Award.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Bob Gill

Artist and designer, Kelli Anderson, is a New Orleans native, who now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Kelli draws, photographs, cuts, prints, codes, and designs a variety of things for herself and others. From interactive paper to layered, experimental websites, everything is done in her studio, which houses a 1919 letterpress! Anderson was the digital collections photographer at the American Museum of Natural History, but stepped down to pursue her own artistic work. She is the recipient of the Ars Electronica Prix Award of Distinction. Kelli also teaches art history at Pratt, where she attended graduate school.

Design Matters With Debbie Millman: Kelli Anderson

In this podcast interview with Debbie Millman, legendary graphic designer Massimo Vignelli, best-known for creating the iconic New York City subway map, discusses intellectual elegance, education, love, the pitfalls of marketing, and his long career in design.

Subscribe to Design Matters on iTunes for more great interviews with celebrated designers and creative minds: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Image: Painting of Massimo Vignelli by Jessica Helfand after a photograph by Beatriz Cifuentes.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Massimo Vignelli

ID magazine has called Stefan's work: "Distilled, intense, cunning, evocative and utterly complete. His inventions have set a new standard." A candid and revealing discussion with the master of design. (06.29.05)

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/audio/stefan-sagmeister/8967/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Stefan Sagmeister

Ellen Lupton is a writer, curator, and graphic designer. She is director of the MFA program in graphic design at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She also is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City, where she has organized numerous exhibitions, each accompanied by a major publication. She recently completed her Doctorate in Communication Design at University of Baltimore. (01.20.06)

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/audio/ellen-lupton/10127/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Ellen Lupton

Shepard Fairey is a designer, illustrator and author of Supply and Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey and Shepard Fairey: Post No Bills. (06.29.07)

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/audio/shepard-fairey/9397/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Shepard Fairey

Abbott Miller is a partner at Pentagram, he is an award-winning graphic designer, writer. He is the art director of 2wice magazine, contributing editor of Eye magazine and the co-author of several books including The ABC's of Bauhaus: The Bauhaus and Design Theory, Design/Writing/Research: Writing on Graphic Design and the forthcoming Open Book. (03.28.08)

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/audio/abbott-miller/9497/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Abbott Miller

Tim Brown is the CEO and president of IDEO, and speaks regularly on the value of design thinking and innovation to business and design audiences around the world. He participates in the World Economic Forum at Davos, and his talk “Serious Play” can be seen on TED.com. In this interview, he reviews his career at IDEO, explores the impact of design processes (drawing and storytelling), as well as discussing his new book, Change By Design. (10.12.09)

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Tim Brown

Eddie Opara was born in Wandsworth, London in 1972. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University, where he received his MFA in 1997. He began his career as a designer at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as a senior designer/art director at 2x4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office, in 2005. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in October 2010.

In this audio interview with Debbie Millman, Eddie Opara discusses his Jesuit education, being part of a collaborative movement, the difference between original work and open sourced work, accepting a job from Michael Bierut while in the bathroom, creating the Brooklyn Museum brand at 2x4, and working at Pentagram. (03.04.11)

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Eddie Opara

Design Army is one of the best and brightest design firms in the D.C. metropolitan area. Started in 2003 by Jake and Pum Lefebure, Design Army works with everyone from the Washington Ballet to AIGA to the Washingtonian. Their work has been consistently awarded and praised across the design industry. They design web sites, corporate annual reports and invitations to charity events — and anything else design-oriented that one could possibly come up with. (11.04.11)

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Design Army

James Biber has practiced architecture in a multi-disciplinary environment for more than 25 years. His work centers on a belief that architecture as an expression of identity is inseparable from its language of form and tectonics. The result is an architecture tied closely to its context; whether physical, cultural or metaphorical. He has a new creative studio which comes after nearly two decades as the architectural partner in Pentagram’s New York office. His work has been recognized by the AIA, AIGA, SEGD and other professional design organizations, and has been published in The New York Times, Architectural Record, The Wall Street Journal, Architect, Blueprint, Wallpaper, Dwell, Metropolitan Home, New York Magazine and the design press internationally. (02.17.12)

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: James Biber

Clement Mok is an award winning designer, digital pioneer, software publisher, app developer, author and design patent holder. He began his career in the design department at CBS, then moved to Apple, where he joined the Macintosh team. During his five-year stint as a creative director at Apple, he made computers friendlier and more accessible. When he left Apple he started Studio Archetype, which he eventually sold to Sapient Corp. in 1998. He has founded multiple other successful design-related businesses, including CMCD and NetObjects. He is the reason phrases such as experience design, information design, information architecture, interaction design, strategic design, brand identity, interface design and customer experience are part of our lexicon. 

On Design Observer: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/audio/clement-mok/37721/

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Clement Mok

Designer, author, critic, co-chair of SVA’s MFA program in design and National Design Award recipient Steven Heller talks to Debbie Millman about ideas from his new ebook, Design Cult: 25 Essays on Design Culture — the first of a series of three titles published exclusively as e-books through the DesignFile consortium from the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. In Design Cult Heller expounds on such disparate topics as Milton Glaser, Japanese masks, velvet touch lettering, anthropomorphism and people in glass apartments. In this podcast, Steven and Debbie discuss how design is both a cult and culture, the dirty decade, the death of a trend and what designers have in common with Harvey Weinstien.

On Design Observer: observermedia.designobserver.com/audio/steven-heller/37737/

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/desig…lman/id328074695

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Steven Heller

Cliff Sloan borrowed $10,000 from his parents in 1993 and started The Sloan Group, a six-person creative marketing shop specializing in youth, entertainment and technology marketing. By 1999, The Sloan Group was 60 people strong, had garnered over 100 awards for creative excellence and boasted a blue-chip client roster that included Nickelodeon, MTV, Turner, MasterCard, AT&T, Disney, HBO and Pepsi. In 2000, The Sloan Group was acquired by The Interpublic Group of Companies, the world’s third largest advertising, marketing and communications organization. The Sloan Group enjoyed Agency of Record status for a diverse roster of clients ranging from entertainment and sports to financial services and government. As President and Chief Creative Officer, Cliff oversaw all agency operations while leading the agency’s strategic marketing, brand engineering, creative and business development divisions. In 2008, along with partner Gary Zarr, Cliff started Phil & Co., an agency dedicated to contemporary marketing for philanthropies and companies “doing good”. He teaches Cause Branding and Marketing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is a judge of the 2013 Cause Marketing Forum Halo Awards. 

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Cliff Sloan

Amy Webb is the head of of Webbmedia Group, a digital strategy agency that solves complex strategic and operational problems related to disruptive technologies and emerging digital trends that are catalyzing great change across many industries. Recently, she worked with the City of Chicago to redesign, in every aspect, a modern library system for the 21st century. She co-founded Spark Camp, a 501(c)(3) invite-only working group that brings together the brightest minds in media and technology once each quarter. Prior to starting Webbmedia Group, Amy was a reporter/ writer with Newsweek (Tokyo) and the Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong) where she covered emerging technology, media and cultural trends. She has contributed to the New York Times, NPR, Economist and many publications and appears regularly as a commentator on numerous broadcast shows.

Amy originally attended the Jacobs School of Music to study classical clarinet, and she later graduated with a B.A. in political science. She also has an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Amy has served on the adjunct faculty at University of Maryland, Temple University, Tokyo University and University of the Arts.
Her new book, DATA: A LOVE STORY: How I Gamed Online Dating To Meet My Match was published in January 2013 and has been featured in People, Good Morning America, The View, Marketplace, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Guardian, Wired, Elle Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine and elsewhere. DATA chronicles how Amy used data analytics and smart digital marketing strategies to land her online dating profile at the top, and then built a framework to exploit the algorithms to her own benefit (finding a husband).


Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Amy Webb

Jennifer Sterling is a designer, artist, typographer and book publisher based in New York and the rincipal of Sterling Design. Her work has been exhibited and resides in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Library of Congress. In 2000 she was inducted into Alliance Graphique Internationale and Who’s Who in America. Graphis included her in their “Top Ten Designers in the World” list and USA GD named her as one of “Twelve Designers to change Design into the Millennium.” Additionally she has served on the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Design and Accessions Board.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Jennifer Sterling

Emily Oberman studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She began her career working with Tibor Kalman at his legendary studio M&Co., where from 1987 to 1993 she collaborated with Kalman to create groundbreaking work for Knoll, Wieden & Kennedy, Talking Heads, and Bennetton’s Colors magazine. In 1993, she co-founded the design studio Number Seventeen with her partner Bonnie Siegler. She joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in April 2012. Her clients have included NBC Universal (logos for “30 Rock,” “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and “Saturday Night Live,” including the opening title sequence for 15 years), Herman Miller, Air America and the creation of Lucky magazine for Condé Nast. Oberman’s book design has included work for the Type Directors Club, HBO’s “Sex and the City,” Glamour magazine, and the deluxe illustrated edition of Stephen Dubner’s Superfreakonomics. Her work has been recognized by the AIGA, the Type Directors Club, and the Art Directors Club, among others. In 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award for distinguished alumni from her alma mater Cooper Union. She has served on the national board of AIGA and as president of its New York chapter.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Emily Oberman

Wendy MacNaughton and Caroline Paul are the illustrator and author, respectively, of the new book Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology (Bloomsbury, 2013).

Wendy MacNaughton is an illustrator and a graphic journalist based in San Francisco. Her documentary series Meanwhile tells the stories of communities through drawings and the subject's own words, and is being published as an anthology by Chronicle Books in 2014. She's also illustrated the forthcoming book The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Wine, by Richard Betts (Houghton Mifflin, 2013). She has degrees in fine art/advertising and social work from Art Center College of Design and Columbia University. When they let her, she likes to talk with students at Art Center College of Design, and she is an artist in residence at Intersection for the Arts.

Caroline Paul is an author based in San Francisco. Paul grew up in New England, with an identical twin, a younger brother, and a menagerie of animals. She graduated from Stanford University, where she studied Communications. In 1989, she became a San Francisco firefighter. She is the author of Fighting Fire (Skywriter Books, 2011), about her thirteen years as a firefghter, and East Wind, Rain (2006) which has been optioned for a movie.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Caroline Paul and Wendy MacNaughton

Jessica Walsh is a designer, art director, and illustrator working in New York City. She is a partner at the New York based design studio, Sagmeister & Walsh and teaches at the School of Visual Arts. Her work has won numerous design awards from the Type Director’s Club, Art Director’s Club, SPD, Print, and Graphis. She has received various celebrated distinctions including Computer Art’s “Top Rising Star in Design”, an Art Director’s Club “Young Guns” award, and Print Magazine’s “New Visual Artist”.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Jessica Walsh

Design Matters by Debbie Millman features interviews with designers, artists and cultural leaders, including Lawrence Weiner, Barbara Kruger, Malcolm Gladwell, Eric Kandel, Stefan Sagmeister, John Maeda, Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, Michael Arad, Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli, Paula Scher, Steven Heller, Jonah Lehrer, among others.

In 2011, Design Matters received the People’s Design Award from the prestigious Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards.

Subscribe to Design Matters for free on iTunes, where new episodes are uploaded weekly: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/design-matters-debbie-millman/id328074695