Chain Letters


Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Celene Aubry
 “The natural path to solving any design problem is rarely straight.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Melissa Deckert + Nicole Licht
 "We really enjoy the ideation stage of a project because it is where we can be thoughtful and considered, but also allow ourselves to entertain crazy ideas."
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Victor Melendez
 This December, we’re elevating the act of gift giving by pondering the items inside the box: examining design as craft, poring over process, and picking the brains of designers whose technical skill turn products into objets d’art.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Dana Chisnell
 You might think these aren’t design questions, but you’re in the business of culture change.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Toni L. Griffin
 I strongly believe—and have seen firsthand—how shared ownership in creating a vision plan inspires greater collective action.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Chelsea Mauldin
 “Most broken government systems are not designed—they accrete, bits and pieces stuck on to address problems.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Steven Heller
 “Design is a profession that has grown out of its stereotypes.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Elysia Borowy-Reeder
 “Information is everywhere now. We need educated, well-versed curators to make sense of it.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Alexander Tochilovsky
 "Reading the imprint of past choices can teach us a lot about how to be a designer today."



Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Sean Adams
 The point regarding design history is about documentation. If the work is not documented and disseminated, it disappears.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Margaret Gould Stewart
 Margaret Gould Stewart is Vice-President of Product Design at Facebook where she leads a global team of product designers and researchers for teams such as Artificial Intelligence and Privacy & Data Use.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Arthur Cohen
 I support a world in which design is not elevated and codified into some idealized “other,” but rather integrated into everyday practice that is just good business.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Randy J. Hunt
 “There are examples of designs that were the spark of an innovation and there are examples of designs that added to and evolved an otherwise already innovative idea.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Grace Jun
 “Design is way of seeing and a way of doing. A unique perspective and method that combined can lead to innovation.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Zachary Lieberman
 “Tools and jobs will always change but the fundamentals stay the same.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Paul Pangaro
 In my experience, an understanding of the processes of design and the means for expanding techniques and capabilities are a matter of practice and critique, tightly coupled.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Dori Tunstall
 “Designing is not about a job. Design is one of many pathways for doing meaningful work in the world.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Gail Anderson
 “As a designer, I am sensitive to the way people consume information, and very concerned about the survival of print.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Joan Wong
 “I’m not sure the experience between print and ebooks is really that different.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Jennifer 8. Lee
 “In my line of work, sometimes you have to wait for the future to catch up.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Anna Gerber
 “Readers and writers are open, adventurous, and eager to try new things. Even if those experiences are not always perfect.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Paul Moore
 “Streaming has shocked new life into the music industry and the vinyl we all hold dear to our hearts. Now the platform is finding a new generation of ardent fans. As designers, that’s where we can influence a movement.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Emily Batson
 “A key part of my job is collaboration. I enjoy the negotiation of finding a concept that truly works.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Frank Ockenfels 3
 “I am a true believer of creating in the moment.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Lawrence Azerrad
 It‘s June, and you know what that means—the unofficial kick-off of summer concert season. This month, we examine design and music, and why fans everywhere benefit when these creative industries work in concert.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Jamer Hunt
 “And it’s likely the case that most design criticism today focuses on ideology more than aesthetics, as we’re going through a period of long-overdue self-scrutiny.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Molly Heintz
 Labeling design, or anything, “good” is a slippery slope—good for whom?



Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Andrew Blauvelt
 Criticism allows for self-reflection, and that is necessary when we use words like discipline and field to talk about design.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Alice Twemlow
 “Of course design criticism is still relevant—it just inhabits formats that we might be less familiar with.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Karin Fong
 “A bit of uncertainty is good for the design process. I would hate to be trapped in the sureness of my own thoughts.”



Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Deva Pardue
 “I don’t believe that being an artist or a designer by definition makes you an activist. I think the responsibility arises when you have something relevant to say.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Rhea Combs
 “I believe art has many functions, and one of them is to interrogate the status quo.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Lindsay Peoples
 Celebrating Women’s History month and how to better design for inclusivity with The Cut’s fashion market editor, Lindsay Peoples.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Julian Alexander
 What made Julian Alexander become a designer, and what was it like working with 50 Cent during the start of his career?



Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Jason Murphy
 “Inclusivity. That is the cliché. Where are they doing that?”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Ced Funches
 “Admitting you may not be the best person to bring a vision to life is the hard part.”



Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Dian Holton
 "As designers, we are problem-solvers, visionaries, and teachers," says Holton. "It’s important for us to be empathic and proactive in learning about our audience, so that we can provide meaningful experiences. This means getting to know the people who may not be like you."
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Briana Como
 “We make an effort to be aware of and remove bias by focusing on behaviors instead of demographics when creating distinct personas.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Sarah Doody
 “With anything we create, the first step in the design process must be to understand. This happens through research.”
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Richard Ting
 Richard Ting, Global Chief Experience Officer at R/GA, continues our Chain Letters interview series.
Lilly Smith
Chain Letters: Jessica Gaddis
 This interview is part of a new Design Observer series, Chain Letters, in which we ask leading design minds a few burning questions—and so do their peers, for a year-long conversation about the state of the industry.



Observed


Did you know that since 1956, each Eurovision host broadcaster has had to come up with its own logo? Some are generic and forgettable, while others are more professional (and maybe also forgettable) (and speaking of forgetting, Istanbul completely forgot to design one in 2004, which is where at least one generic stand-in proved useful). As a suite of visual emblems, they're fascinating as a collective snapshot, sitting at the intersection of typography, globalism, and the amped-up TV culture of the music business. Among our favorites is the 2017 logo, which claims to have taken its inspiration from a traditional Ukrainian necklace, or namysto—considered to be a protective amulet and a symbol of beauty and health—and in this case, a way to honor and celebrate diversity.

Wonderful job opportunity—perhaps for a newly-minted MFA grad—working with the amazing people at Cita Press, where they celebrate the spread of culture and knowledge by publishing the writings of women authors whose works are open-licensed or in the public domain. Through its library of collaboratively designed free books, Cita honors the principles of decentralization, collective knowledge production, and equitable access to knowledge.

Struggling to figure out what to watch on Netflix? You're not alone! That's a challenge that still keeps Steve Johnson, Netflix’s VP of design, up at night.

How does color function In factories, schools, and hospitals? In the 1950s, it functioned like this. (Part Two is here.)

As if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn't have enough on his plate, public response to a new identity program sparks controversy (and ridicule). "It looks like a moose getting a prostrate exam!" one person noted. "It looks like a Minecraft character milking an elk!" observed another. Behold: the communications kerfuffle around the design of a new logo for the Canadian Army.

Every object we bring into the world has a contextual backdrop, and every design decision is a compromise. How long should objects last? Charlie Humble-Thomas—a student at the RCA in London—ponders the question of what he calls “conditional longevity”. 

The United Methodist Church has reversed its denomination’s anti-LGBTQ policies and teachings and lifted all bans on same-sex marriage and gay clergy. The fight to allow same-sex marriage and gay clergy has been part of a painful debate within major Protestant denominations in the U.S. for nearly fifty years. Click through for a timeline of major milestones of the last five decades. 

AAPI History Month turns 45 this year.  Most people credit its establishment to Jeanie Jew, a fourth-generation Chinese American and a co-founder of the congressional Asian-Pacific staff caucus. Her grandfather had helped build the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1800s and then was killed amid anti-Asian unrest, a story which moved her colleagues on the Hill. In 1979, with support from California Rep. Norm Mineta and Hawaii Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga, President Jimmy Carter issued a proclamation designating the first week of May as “Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.”

The impossible dilemma of Black female leadership. “In predominantly White spaces, a Black woman is expected to code-switch, mimic White culture, and either explicitly or implicitly affirm harmful propaganda about Black people, in order to signal that she can be trusted by the establishment,” says Shauna Cox in Nonprofit Quarterly Magazine.

Weimar, Germany—the city that was home to both Germany’s post-1918 government and the first (of three) Bauhauses—has taken the courageous step to re-examine the school’s relationship to National Socialism. Organized by the Klassic Stiftung Weimar and running from May 9 through mid-September, three exhibitions take on this immense subject: The Bauhaus As a Site of Political Contest, 1919-1933, will be at the Museum Neues Weimar; Removed – Confiscated – Assimilated, 1930/37 at the Bauhaus Museum; and Living in the Dictatorship, 1933 -1945 at the Schiller Museum. A review in today's Guardian looks at the complexity and coordination of this trio of shows, and delves into the historical nuance—and torment—of its political and artistic history. 

Design Reviewed is dedicated to digitally preserving graphic design history and documenting the expansive visual culture of the last century. The archive is the work of one extremely dedicated man: his name is Matt Lamont (and you can get a little taste of his obsession here).

Providing tactical strategies and creative support to tackle the complexities of balancing intuition and taste, technical and personal capability, strategic business decisions in design work and the demands of modern brand building, Matt Owens's A Visible Distance: Craft, Creativity, and the Business of Design speaks to students, educators, and professionals.

Opening in 2025, the Boston Public Art Triennial will be curated by Pedro H. Alonzo and Terese Lukey and is free and accessible to all. More here.
 

And for your Friday enjoyment—Designer! (A poem by Dorothy Chan.)

In Iran, the ancient qanat system enabled irrigation in desert environments, allowed for agriculture to flourish, and fostered community cooperation. “They are based on a huge shareholding system that requires different people living in a region to work together and use the water resources available," observes Negar Sanaan Bensi, a lecturer and researcher in the faculty of architecture at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. With global warming sending temperatures soaring, rethinking these cooling tunnels represents a huge design opportunity, and hints at a promising future for community-building. (Also: they're already using it in Spain.)

California Governor Gavin Newsom—long criticized for failing to address his state’s $73 billion budget deficit, overspending and lack of focus on local issues—asks for public input on the design of a state coin. Hilarity (and, well, yes) humiliation ensues.

How does governance impact the preservation of critical, cultural, and historical artifacts, including, and especially, our cherished institutional archives? John Thackara has some ideas.

London design practice EcoLogicStudio has created a collection of everyday objects—including a desktop air purifier that outputs material used to create furniture and accessories—using algae.

Sloan Leo offers seven prompts to help you better understand what it means to queer design.

Steven Heller reviews Made in Italy NYC—an exclusive (and free!) exhibition celebrating the rich heritage of postwar Italian graphic design. (Bonus video content here.)

Fascinating new (hybrid) job opportunity at MIT, where they are recruiting an Exhibition and Commons Director to manage an exciting set of public spaces known as “the commons”, the newest of which has been carved out of the redesigned Metropolitan Storage Warehouse on MIT’s campus. The commons is envisioned as an assembly of curated physical sites and a set of related programs with a primary focus on architecture, design, urbanism, art, and technology. for their new building. Details here.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the origins of Dutch design (but were afraid to ask).

A meditation on the history of design—and the rise of strategy—from Jarrett Fuller.

A meditation on analog beauty—and vernacular signage—from Elizabeth Goodspeed.

Richard Stengel makes a compelling case that journalism should be free to save democracy. “According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, more than 75% of America’s leading newspapers, magazines, and journals are behind online paywalls. And how do American news consumers react to that?” (Subscription required.) 

Please, please, please… get some sleep.

The Supreme Court allows Idaho to ban transgender health care for minors. For now.

Historically, we’ve invested huge resources to keep cities and nature separate. But we now know that the health of the soil and the health of people are the same story. So, what does this have to do with design? Join the unstoppable John Thackara and Milan Politecnico professor Ezio Manzini today at 11 am ET as they discuss this critical—and surprisingly overlooked—environmental issue.

Conducted through audio interviews, Ana Miljački's I Would Prefer Not To is an oral history project on the topic of the most important kind of refusal in architects’ toolboxes: refusal of the architectural commission. (Miljački, an architectural historian and theorist, is also Director of the Critical Broadcasting Lab at MIT.) Produced in conjunction with the Architectural League of New York, this podcast features conversations with a number of fascinating practitioners including Diller + Scofidio's Elizabeth Diller, WXY partner Claire Weisz (who we interviewed in Season Three of The Design of Business | The Business of Design) and Nina Cooke John (a Season Nine guest).

This past winter, a diverse cohort of students from the MADE Program at Brown + RISD and Harvard immersed themselves in a wealth of data provided by the City of Boston with the mission of uncovering novel, meaningful, and joyful perspectives on navigating and understanding the urban environment. Their resulting projects—a series of interactive exhibits ranging from envisioning the evolving contours of the coastline to revealing the secret lives of the city’s trees—will be on view this week at the Boston Museum of Science.



Jobs | May 08