The Design of Business | The Business of Design

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand on design, current events, and current enthusiasms.

The Observatory

Design Matters

Insights Per Minute

Rob Walker is a technology/culture columnist for Yahoo News. He is the former Consumed columnist for The New York Times Magazine, and has contributed to many publications. 

Insights Per Minute: Rob Walker on Seeing

Ralph Caplan is a writer and communications consultant and lectures on design. He is the former editor-in-chief of I.D. Magazine and the author of several books.

Insights Per Minute: Ralph Caplan on Titles

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. 

Insights Per Minute: Nicholas Christakis on Networks

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.

Insights Per Minute: Alice Twemlow on Home.

Ricky Jay is considered one of the world's great sleight of hand artists. 

Insights Per Minute: Ricky Jay on Collecting

Wendy MacLeod ia an award-winning playwright.

Insights Per Minute: Wendy MacLeod on Fasting

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. 

Insights Per Minute: Joanna Radin on Potential

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.

Insights Per Minute: Adam Harrison Levy on Questions

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.

Insights Per Minute: Steven Heller on Recommendations

Gabriel Brodbar is the Executive Director of the NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship at New York University. 

Insights Per Minute: Gabriel Brodbar on Iatrogenesis

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. 

Insights Per Minute: Wendy  Ju on Fun

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. 

Insights Per Minute: Stanley Hainsworth on Acting

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). 

Insights Per Minute: Alexandra Lange on Performance

John Caserta is a Providence-based designer, artist, and educator. 

Insights Per Minute: John Caserta on Obfuscation

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. 

Insights Per Minute: Debbie Millman on Sleep

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.

Eddie Opara and Tyriq Moore: How Do You Build Knowledge as a Designer?

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.

Jonathan Jackson and Avalon Garrick: Time for Change

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about design, performance, and fear of Ebola. 

Episode 2: Epidemics and Theater

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.

Episode 3: Dollars and Change

A new series of audio explorations of the Bay Area by Nick Sowers and Bryan Finoki.

(in)Fringe: Sounds of the New Mission

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.

Episode 6: FYI We Are Graphic Designers

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.

Episode 10: Inside the Lines

A new sonic tour of the Bay Area's fringes. This installment: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz Island

(in)Fringe 04: Staying Tuned

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.

Episode 14: M Is for a Million Things

Visualizing new horizons, from Pluto to Porto

Episode 16: New Horizons

Aylan Kurdi, photojournalism, airline posters, early television

Episode 19: Moving Pictures

A wartime vestige in the air of San Francisco.

in(Fringe 06): High Noon

British art schools, Bowie, Alan Rickman, the State of the Union, cannabis chocolate 

Episode 26: Working-Class Heroes

Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand talk about Taste: a one-day symposium on design + food, and why you need to be there!

Taste: The Future of Food + Design

Tay, Boaty McBoatface, New Zealand, emoji, and the madness of crowds

Episode 30: Crowd Control

Corporate design humor from Mic Drop to bland.ly, photoviz, remembering Zaha Hadid

Episode 31: Shapes and Japes

Solitary confinement, virtual reality, design thinking for prisoners, Drew Hodges’s Broadway, The Paradise, Prince’s unpronounceable glyph

Episode 33: Prisons and Paradise

Nutrition Facts, Mark Bittman’s food rating system, colon cancer screening, Time Well Spent, Peter Arno, Flat File

Episode 35: Mind-Body Problems

Brexit, borders, naming, Fiorello La Guardia and his airport, robot dogs, though leadership, Snapfax

Episode 37: Border Control

Trump-Pence, Clinton-Kaine, Black Lives Matter, The Four Seasons, mapping the brain, the video essay

Episode 38: Rough Sketches

Olympics, cursive handwriting, NASA’s secret art studio, gun sales on Facebook, #firstsevenjobs

Episode 39: Passing the Torch

Samsung v. Apple, the International Style v. capitalism, Sausage Party, mozzarella sticks

Episode 40: Food for Thought

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

Episode 41: Memory Loss

Bathroom signs, MBA students, Mozilla and open logo design, The Commissar Vanishes, Masters of Sex

Episode 42: Doors and Perception

Campaign fatigue, advertising and viral video, voting technology, intellectualism in the design community, the art of David Pease, the 1986 Mets

Episode 43: The End Is Near

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.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: 2009-2016

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Grace Bonney

Tattoos, Type 1 diabetes, ID cards, taking MBA students to the art gallery, Kerry James Marshall, Mark Rothko, Mike Mills, the 2017 Citizen Designer Pledge

Episode 49: My First Tattoo

The Women’s March, Parker Palmer, The Young Pope, Oreos, Girl Scout Cookies

Episode 50: What Democracy Looks Like

Behance Design Trends of 2017, George Nelson’s How to See, Michael K. Williams, W.E.B. Du Bois’ infographics

Episode 51: Vintages

On this podcast Debbie talks to Mike Rigby about his international career in design and branding and how to stay creatively engaged. “Every event you go to, every person you meet, everything you do is fuel for your next idea.”

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: 2009-2017

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Mike Rigby

Neri Oxman leads the Mediated Matter research group at the MIT Media Lab.

S2E2: Neri Oxman

On this podcast Debbie Millman talks to Rochelle Udell about her very creative professional life. "The strength of creative people is to be the outside observer of ordinary things. That's the strength of the creative person, so you've gotta stay outside a little bit."

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Rochelle Udell

Bobby C. Martin, Jr., is a founding partner of the agency OCD | The Original Champions of Design.

S2E3: Bobby C Martin Jr

Peter York on autocrat chic, Sunday in the Park with George, BBC interview with Robert Kelly, Jessica Dimmock’s The Convention

Episode 52: Dictator Style

Debbie talks to Connie Birdsall about designing some of the most successful brands of our time and what to do when a meeting with clients is not going well.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Connie Birdsall

Lee Moreau is a Principal at Continuum, a global innovation design firm.

S2E4: Lee Moreau

On this episode Debbie Millman talks to Jonathan Adler about how his pottery defined his aesthetic. “It’s about craft and luxury mixed with a sense of optimism and cheekyness.”

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Jonathan Adler

David Rockwell is the founder and president of the architecture and design firm the Rockwell Group and a theatrical set designer.

S2E5: David Rockwell

#trypod, Dan Brown cover contest, Design in Tech, writing for designers, The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, Wes Anderson’s Bar Luce

Episode 53: On Writing Well

Debbie talks to poet Elizabeth Alexander about the journey of her extraordinary life and how death makes us think about what we truly value.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Elizabeth Alexander

Michael Rock is founding partner and creative director of 2x4, a global design consultancy. He has worked with brands including Nike, Prada, Target, and Kanye West.

S2E6: Michael Rock

@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. 

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