Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand|The Self-Reliance Project

Recalibrating

To measure your worth against what life looked like until last month is a fool’s errand.

Jessica Helfand|The Self-Reliance Project

Longing

Wanting what is not possible—no matter how you define your object of desire—is a recipe for disappointment.

Jessica Helfand|The Self-Reliance Project

Listening

Sound cuts right through you and tells its own story—whether you like it or not.

Jessica Helfand|The Self-Reliance Project

Harvesting

What kind of work would you make if you thought no one was looking?

Michael Bierut|Audio

Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors

Looking at COVID=19: Flattening the curve, Washington Post designers Harry Stevens on visualizing social distancing, Alissa Walker on how dots are people, Stephen Sondheim at 90

Jessica Helfand|The Self-Reliance Project

Breathing

Breathing is one of those things you take for granted. Until you can’t.

Jessica Helfand|The Self-Reliance Project

Looking

What it means to be a maker during this pandemic.

Michael Bierut|Watch This Space

Design Observer Studio Sessions

Like many of you, we’re trying to make a safe haven out of something that can feel like solitary confinement.

Michael Bierut|Audio

Episode 122: At Arm’s Length

COVID-19, social distancing, Luō Dàwèi’s One Thousand Families project, hiring product designers, Eric Rosenberg’s prop designs for The Plot Against America, Joanne McNeil’s Lurking

Jessica Helfand|Audio

Episode 121: Love and Squalor

With guest host Alissa Walker of L.A. Podcast: Barbara Kruger at Frieze Week; Destination Crenshaw; homelessness; urban design competitions, Rose Lyster on air travel; Molly Young on garbage language

Michael Bierut|Audio

Episode 120: Federal Style

The Trump Administration’s draft executive order Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, the rise of the blur, a CBS brand book at the California Antiquarian Fair, Anna Wiener’s Uncanny Valley

Michael Bierut|Audio

Episode 118: Excelsior!

Andrew Cuomo’s old-school political graphics; ridiculous subway ads, real and fake; Vaughan Oliver, John Baldessari, Sonny Mehta