The Design of Business | The Business of Design

How design works within complex organizations to shape decisions, products, and more. Guests include clients from many industries and designers in many fields.

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Episodes

S10E12: Decolonizing Design
Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook is a guidebook to the institutional transformation of design theory and practice by restoring the long-excluded cultures of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities.


S10E11.5: Minisode
Kaleena Sales and Omari Souza discuss past episodes featuring Kunal Kapoor and Dori Tunstall.


S10E11: Dori Tunstall
Dr. Elizabeth “Dori” Tunstall is the Dean of the Faculty of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design.


S10E10: Kunal Kapoor
Kunal Kapoor is chief executive officer of Morningstar.


S10E9.5: Minisode
Kaleena Sales and Omari Souza discuss past episodes featuring Norman Teague and Kim Erwin.


S10E9: Kim Erwin
Kim Erwin is the Director of the Equitable Healthcare Lab and Associate Professor of Practice at IIT Institute of Design.


S10E8: Norman Teague
Norman Teague is a designer and community builder who specializes in custom furniture design.


S10E7.5: Minisode
Kaleena Sales and Omari Souza discuss past episodes featuring Richard Ting and Marcia Lausen.


S10E7: Marcia Lausen
Marcia Lausen is Director of the UIC School of Design and founder of the Chicago office of Studio/lab.


S10E6: Richard Ting
Richard Ting is the Vice President of Design for Revenue at Twitter.


S10E5.5: Minisode
Kaleena Sales and Omari Souza discuss past episodes featuring Perrin Drumm, and Annie Atkins.


S10E5: Annie Atkins
Annie Atkins is a graphic props designer for film and television.


S10E4: Perrin Drumm
Perrin Drumm is a writer, editor, and head of publishing at A24.


S10E3.5: Minisode
On this week’s minisode, Kaleena and Omari unpack the idea of branding, being branded, and choosing your own brand.


S10E3: Vernon Lockhart
Vernon Lockhart is the Executive Director of Project Osmosis, a Chicago based design education and mentoring initiative.


S10E2.5: Minisode
On this week’s minisode, Kaleena and Omari unpack the idea of design emancipation in their classrooms, and their practices.


S10E2: Jane Saks
Jane Saks is the President and Artistic Director of Project&, and the co-Founder and co-Artistic Director of M2M: Monuments to Movements.


S10E1.5: Minisode
Kaleena Sales and Omari Souza discuss the value of bridging a diversity of broad experience to a design team.


S10E1: Ernesto Quinteros
Redefining the boundaries between people, products, and patients: Ernesto Quinteros, the Chief Design Officer at Johnson & Johnson.


S10E0: Introducing Our Minisode Co-Hosts
Introducing The Design of Business | The Business of Design minisode co hosts, Kaleena Sales and Omari Souza.


S10E0: Introducing Our New Co-Hosts
A conversation between two of our new co-hosts, Dana Arnett and Kevin Bethune.


S9E12: Jessica Helfand + Ellen McGirt
Highlights of Season 9, and new hosts Dana Arnett and Kevin Bethune.


S9E11: Avery Willis Hoffman
Avery Willis Hoffman is a writer, director, producer, and curator. Hoffman recently joined Brown University as the inaugural artistic director of the Brown Arts Initiative.


S9E10: Quemuel Arroyo
Quemuel Arroyo is the first ever chief accessibility officer at the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority.


S9E9: Deborah Willis
Deborah Willis is an artist, curator, and a professor at New York University. Her most recent book is The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship.


S9E8: Jan Diehm
Jan Diehm is a journalist at Polygraph and The Pudding.


S9E7: Lotenna Enwonwu
Lotenna Enwonwu is the global executive creative director at Coursera.


S9E6: Elizabeth Hargrave
Elizabeth Hargrave is an American game designer whose games include Wingspan, Mariposas, and Tussie Mussie.


S9E5: Lucia Lucas
Lucia Lucas is a baritone who made her U.S. debut in 2019 at Tulsa Opera as Don Giovanni.


S9E4: Na Kim
Na Kim is an associate creative director at the book publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.


S9E3: Astra Taylor
Astra Taylor is an artist, activist, and founder of the Rolling Jubilee and the Debt Collective. Her latest book is Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions.


S9E2: Melanie Keen
Melanie Keen is the director of Wellcome Collection.


S9E01: Ellen Mirojnick
Emmy-award winner Ellen Mirojnick has designed film costumes since the 1980s and most recently is the lead costume designer for the Netflix series Bridgerton.


S8E12: Nikil Saval
Nikil Saval is a Pennsylvania state senator and the author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace.


S8E11: Allissa Richardson
Allissa V. Richardson is a journalist and an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Southern California.


S8E10: Rosanne Somerson
Rosanne Somerson is president of the Rhode Island School of Design.


S8E9: Kat Vellos
Kat Vellos is a UX designer, facilitator, and connection coach.


S8E8: Nina Cooke John
Nina Cooke John is founder and principal of Studio Cooke John, and also teaches at Parsons School of Design.


S8E7: Maurice Woods
Maurice Woods is a principal designer at Microsoft and the founder and executive director of Inneract Project.


S8E6: Lisa Nakamura
Lisa Nakamura is the founding director of the Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan.


S8E5: Kelly Walters
Kelly Walters is the founder of the multidisciplinary studio Bright Polka Dot and an assistant professor of communications design at Parsons School of Design.


S8E4: Ari Melenciano
Ari Melenciano is an artist, creative technologist, educator, and the founder of Afrotectopia, a social institution fostering interdisciplinary innovation.


S8E3: Maxwell Anderson
Maxwell Anderson is the president of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation and Community Partnership.


S8E2: Deanna Van Buren
Deanna Van Buren is the co-founder of Designing Justice Designing Spaces, a nonprofit working to end mass incarceration by building an alternative infrastructure.


S8E1: Maurice Cherry
Maurice Cherry is the host of Revision Path and the principal and creative director at Lunch.


S7E12: Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe is a singer, songwriter, actor, and producer.


S7E11: Paola Antonelli
Paola Antonelli is senior curator of the department of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art.


S7E10: Elizabeth Alexander
Elizabeth Alexander is president of the Mellon Foundation.



S7E09: Mark Bloomfield + Shaun Borstrock
Mark Bloomfield is a jewelry designer and the founder of Electrobloom. Shaun Borstrock is associate dean for business and innovation at the University of Hertfordshire.


S7E8: James Rhee
James Rhee is executive chair and CEO of the fashion brand Ashley Stewart as well as the founder and president of the investment firm FirePine Group.


S7E7: Daniella Zalcman
Daniella Zalcman is a documentary photographer and the founder of Women Photograph.


S7E6: Courtney Cogburn
Courtney Cogburn is a professor at the Columbia School of Social Work and the co-creator of 1000 Cut Journey.


S7E5: George Gendron + Patrick Mitchell
George Gendron is writer in residence at MIT’s integrated design and management program. Patrick Mitchell runs Modus Operandi Design.


S7E4: Vivianne Castillo
Vivianne Castillo is senior design researcher at Salesforce.


S7E3: Sara Hendren
Sarah Hendren is an artist, design researcher, and professor at the Olin College of Engineering.


S7E2: Gene Lee
Gene Lee is senior vice president of customer experience and design at Mailchimp.


S7E1: Caroline Wanga
Caroline Wanga is chief culture, diversity, and inclusion officer and vice president of human resources at Target.


From the Archive: Georgia Lupi
Giorgia Lupi is a partner in the design firm Pentagram and an artist whose data-driven work is at MOMA in New York.


From the Archive: Forest Young
Forest Young is head of design and a global principal at the branding consultancy Wolff Olins who recently completed the Uber redesign.


From the Archive: Lee Moreau
Lee Moreau is Vice President of Design at EPAM Continuum, a global design and innovation consultancy based in Boston. He is also a visiting lecturer at MIT where he teaches design strategy and innovation.


S6E12: Todd Bracher
Todd Bracher is founder and creative director of Todd Bracher Studio.


S6E11: Valerie Casey
Valerie Casey is head of design at Walmart.


S6E10: Bon Ku
Dr. Bon Ku is assistant dean for health and design at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.


S6E9: Isolde Brielmaier
Isolde Brielmaier is the executive director of arts culture and community at Westfield World Trade Center.


S6E8: Mauro Porcini
Mauro Porcini is chief design officer at PepsiCo


S6E7: Valla Vakili
Valla Vakili is head of Citi Ventures Studio, an incubator for financial services.


S6E6: Archie Lee Coates IV
Archie Lee Coates IV is a founder of multidisciplinary creative studio Playlab, Inc., and executive director of Friends of +POOL.


S6E5: Kerby Jean-Raymond
Kerby Jean Raymond is the founder and CEO of the fashion label Pyer Moss.


S6E4: Reneé Seward & Chester Jenkins
Reneé Seward teaches communication design at the University of Cincinnati and is the founder of See Word Reading. Chester Jenkins is a partner in Constellation, which creates new typefaces, and Village, a coop that publishes them.


S6E3: Cindy Chastain
Cindy Chastain is senior vice president of customer experience and design at Mastercard.


S6E2: Billie Tsien
Billie Tsien is the co-founder of Tod Williams Billie Tsien architects, which works on buildings for museums, universities, and the Obama Presidential Center.


S6E1: Errol Morris
Errol Morris is a filmmaker whose documentaries include Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line, and American Dharma.


S5E12: Dmitri Siegel
Dmitri Siegel is vice president of global brand at Sonos.


S5E11: Renata Souza
Renata Souza Luque is the creator of Thomy, an insulin kit for children with Type 1 diabetes.


S5E10: Eddie Opara
Eddie Opara is a multidisciplinary designer and a partner at the design firm Pentagram.


S5E9: Manuel Lima
Manuel Lima is a UX design manager at Google and the founder of the website Visual Complexity.


S5E8: Todd Waterbury
Todd Waterbury is the chief creative officer of Target.


S5E7: Susannah Drake
Susannah Drake is the founder of DLANDstudio, a landscape architecture and urban design firm.


S5E6: Lorna Solis
Lorna Solis is the founder and CEO of Blue Rose Compass, a nonprofit that helps gifted refugees develop their potential.


S5E5: Forest Young
Forest Young is head of design and a global principal at the branding consultancy Wolff Olins.


S5E4: Mariana Amatullo
Mariana Amatullo teaches strategic design and management at Parsons School of Design at The New School.


S5E3: Ellen Lupton
Ellen Lupton is the curator of contemporary design at Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum.


S5E2: Jon Iwata
Jon Iwata is executive in residence at the Yale School of Management and a senior advisor to IBM.


S5E1: Lisa Smith
Lisa Smith is vice president of brand design at Chobani.


From the Archive: Ashleigh Axios
When Ashleigh Axios joined the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy in 2012 she wasn’t sure how she would fit in.


From the Archive: Leslie Koch
A conversation with Leslie Koch, who revitalized Governor’s Island, an abandoned military post in New York Harbor into a public park.


From the Archive: Deborah Berke
Deborah Berke is the founding partner of Deborah Berke Partners, designer of 21c Museum Hotels, and the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.


From the Archive: Audrey Gelman and Emily Oberman
Audrey Gelman is co-founder and CEO of The Wing, a social club and co-working space for women. Pentagram partner Emily Oberman worked on the brand identity.


From the Archive: Neri Oxman
Neri Oxman leads the Mediated Matter research group at the MIT Media Lab. She treats art, science, and engineering as part of design.


From the Archive: Danny Meyer and Paula Scher
Danny Meyer is the founder of Shake Shack. Paula Scher designed its graphic identity.


S4E12: Jessica Dimmock
Jessica Dimmock is a photographer and filmmaker. Her latest project is the Netflix documentary series Flint Town.


S4E11: Andrew Essex
Andrew Essex is the author of “The End of Advertising: Why It Had to Die, and the Creative Resurrection to Come.”


S4E10: Abbott Miller
Abbott Miller is a partner in the design firm Pentagram.


S4E9: Karin Fong
Karin Fong is a founding member of Imaginary Forces, a creative company specializing in visual storytelling and brand strategy.


S4E8: Somi Kim
Somi Kim is senior director of healthcare solutions at Johnson & Johnson Design.


S4E7: Lisa Strausfeld
Lisa Strausfeld is an information architect and data visualisation pioneer. Her studio is InformationArt.


S4E6: Margaret Gould Stewart
Margaret Gould Stewart is vice president of product design at Facebook.


S4E5: Heather McIntosh Cassano
Heather McIntosh Cassano is director of user experience at Google, leading a team focused on workplace apps.


S4E4: Ben Watson
Ben Watson is the chief creative officer of Herman Miller, the furniture and workspace design company.


S4E3: Arthur Cohen
Arthur Cohen is CEO and co-founder of LaPlaca Cohen, a strategy, design, and marketing firm for the cultural world.


S4E2: Kevin Bethune
Kevin Bethune is vice president of Strategic Design at BCG Digital Ventures.


S4E1: Stella Bugbee
Stella Bugbee is the editor in chief and president of New York Magazine’s The Cut.


S3E12: Vishaan Chakrabarti
Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism and the author of A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for Urban America.


S3E11: Melissa Harris
Melissa Harris is editor at large of the Aperture Foundation and the author of A Wild Life: A Visual Biography of Photographer Michael Nichols.


S3E10: Randy Hunt
Randy Hunt is the head of design at Artsy and the former VP of Design at Etsy.


S3E9: Natasha Jen
Natasha Jen is a partner in the design firm Pentagram.


S3E8: Ravi Naidoo
Ravi Naidoo is the founder of Interactive Africa as well as Design Indaba, an annual conference in Cape Town.


S3E7: Liz Danzico
Liz Danzico is creative director for NPR, where she guides both visual design and user experience.


S3E6: Scott Frankel + David Korins
Scott Frankel composes musicals including Grey Gardens and War Paint. David Korins designed the sets for War Paint, Hamilton, and many other productions.


S3E5: John Maeda
John Maeda is global head of computational design and inclusion at Automattic and the author of the annual Design in Tech report.


S3E4: Timothy Geithner
Timothy Geithner was Secretary of the Treasury from 2009 to 2013. He chairs the Program on Financial Stability at the Yale School of Management.


S3E3: Lucienne Roberts
Lucienne Roberts runs the studio LucienneRoberts+ and the publisher GraphicDesign+.


S3E2: Claire Weisz
Claire Weisz is is the principal-in-charge of WXY, an architecture and design practice focused on innovative approaches to public space, structures, and cities.


S3E1: Giorgia Lupi
Giorgia Lupi is the co-founder and design director of Accurat, a data-driven studio, and an artist whose work is at MoMA.


S2E12: Dana Arnett + Patrick Palmer
Dana Arnett is a vice chairman and a founding partner of VSA Partners, a branding and marketing company based in Chicago. Patrick Palmer leads the strategy practice at VSA.


S2E11: Khoi Vinh
Khoi Vinh is a principal designer at Adobe.


S2E10: Robert Brunner
Robert Brunner is a founder of Ammunition, a design firm based in San Francisco. He has designed products from the Apple PowerBook to Beats by Dre headphones.


S2E9: Ashleigh Axios
Ashleigh Axios is the design exponent at Automattic and a former creative director for the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy.


S2E8: Teddy Blanks
Teddy Blanks is a co-founder of CHIPS, a Brooklyn-based design studio, who specializes in film titles.


S2E7: Grace Jun
Grace Jun is the executive director of Open Style Lab, a nonprofit that aims to make fashion accessible to people with disabilities.


S2E6: Michael Rock
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.


S2E5: David Rockwell
David Rockwell is the founder and president of the architecture and design firm the Rockwell Group and a theatrical set designer.


S2E4: Lee Moreau
Lee Moreau is a principal at Continuum, a global innovation design firm.


S2E3: Bobby C Martin Jr
Bobby C. Martin, Jr., is a founding partner of the agency OCD | The Original Champions of Design.


S2E2: Neri Oxman
Neri Oxman leads the Mediated Matter research group at the MIT Media Lab.


S2E1: Audrey Gelman and Emily Oberman
Audrey Gelman is co-founder and CEO of The Wing, a social club and co-working space for women. Pentagram partner Emily Oberman worked on the brand identity.


S1E12: Teddy Goff
Teddy Goff was the digital director for Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection effort and an adviser to Hillary Clinton in 2016.


S1E11: Steve Duenes
Steve Duenes is an Assistant Editor at The New York Times who oversees a team of visual journalists.


S1E10: Danny Meyer and Paula Scher
Danny Meyer is the founder of Shake Shack. Paula Scher designed its graphic identity.


S1E9: Jay Parkinson
Dr. Jay Parkinson is the founder of Sherpaa, an online medical practice.


S1E8: Leslie Koch
Leslie Koch was the president and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island.


S1E7: Susan Sellers + Cynthia Round
Susan Sellers was creative director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cynthia Round was its senior vice president of marketing and external relations.


S1E6: Douglas Powell
Douglas Powell is a Distinguished Designer at IBM. He directs a global effort to bring human-centered design to IBM.


S1E5: Bruce Cohen
Bruce Cohen is an Oscar-winning film producer and president of the board of directors of the American Foundation for Equal Rights


S1E4: Barry Nalebuff
Barry Nalebuff teaches at the Yale School of Management. His specialty is game theory and its application to business strategy.


S1E3: Deborah Berke
Deborah Berke is the founding partner of Deborah Berke Partners, the architect of the 21c Museum Hotels, and the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.


S1E2: Molly Barton and Julian Yap
Molly Barton and Julian Yap are cofounders of Serial Box Publishing, which develops original episodic fiction.


S1E1: John Bielenberg
John Bielenberg is a designer, entrepreneur and imaginative advocate for a better world.


S1E0: Trailer
A quick preview of Season 1, with Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand, and a few of their guests.



Observed


“This is her fifth long-form visual project,”writes Wesley Morris in his review of Renaissance, Beyoncé’s newest movie, out now in theatres. “We’re now talking about an auteur.” Morris doesn’t stop there. “Simply at the presentation level, coherence and visual imagination are in the house.”

Did you know that the Institute for Scrap Recycling sponsors a design award? And that it has done so for more than three decades? Friends, you have until February 12 to submit your game-changing ideas. Get cracking.

Legendary architect William McDonough—who was one of the first proponents of “circular” design—thinks we’re talking about the issue all wrong. And on that same topic, this year's Business of Design summit brings together policymakers, business executives, and creative leaders to identify critical challenges, innovative ideas, and smart design processes driving circular design. (More here.)

Thanks to a number of new collective projects in Paris, Ukrainian design is becoming a fully-fledged part of the global creative industry.

This just in from the Department of Dystopian Prognostications! A new AI tool— called COLE, named in honor of Henry Cole (the creator of the first graphical Christmas card in 1843) lets you type in a graphic design project idea and have an AI generate not only the image, but the text to support it baked in. 

The Female Design Council names a new director: Angharad Coates previously served as director of communications at the New York Academy of Art and was most recently a managing partner at Camron, a design-focused public relations agency.

Designing better (and more inclusive) (and more innovative) meetings.

"It’s interesting, highly random, and even has the excitement of gambling and card drawing." A designer uses MidJourney to explore new dimensions in typography. 

As the talent pool for luxury artisans in Europe dwindles, fashion brand LVMH has created a unique apprenticeship program in the US in partnership with Tiffany & Co., the  Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, the trade school Studio Jewelers, and RISD. “We are teaching the next generation of craftspeople how important the details are,” says Dana Naberezny, chief innovation officer of jewelry at Tiffany and head of its workshop in Manhattan.

Loon-loving Minnesotans, this is your last chance.

Hundreds of documents related to chattel slavery — including wills that bequeathed enslaved people to relatives —have been discovered among probate records in Fulton County, Ga. "We were able to uncover some interesting stories about slave owners," says Chief Probate Judge Kenya Johnson. "A story that I hadn’t heard before: Slave owners paid for their slaves to go back to Africa."

Due to climate change, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been forced to update its "plant hardiness zone map," an essential tool for gardeners (and anyone wondering why native plants are dying.)

Russia’s Supreme Court has banned "the international LGBT public movement," calling it an extremist organization.

There’s another Mona Lisa. Or is there?

Michael Latt, a film marketing consultant who had become a beacon for social justice, was murdered by an intruder in his Los Angeles home. Latt, 33, was the founder and CEO of Lead With Love, a social impact marketing agency that deftly married activism and art. His collaborators included directors Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and Barry Jenkins.

Save the date: Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has been selected to host the 2030 World Expo, according to the Bureau International des Expositions.  "Expo 2030 Riyadh, The Era of Change: Together for a Foresighted Tomorrow,” will run between October 2030 and March 2031.

Acclaimed American photographer Larry Fink, the self-described “Marxist from Long Island,” has died at 82. His black-and-white photographs ranged from portraits of working-class people to the entertainment elite. “He was a dear friend and a free spirit,” said his longtime gallerist, Robert Mann.

Uh, what’s wrong with networking? The COP28 president-designate Sultan Al Jaber is facing accusations that his team has been using this year’s climate convening as an opportunity to make fossil fuel deals for the UAE’s state-owned oil and gas company, allegations he vehemently denies.

New data from McKinsey & Co. show companies are no longer promoting Black professionals into leadership jobs at the rate they were two years ago. And that’s a problem. “If you were borderline committed, you’ve just kind of exhaled and retreated,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work, a research and consulting firm.

It may surprise you to learn that £88 billion of UK pension savers' money is invested in fossil fuels. Still unconvinced? Climate deniers, meet Oblivia Coalmine

A Japanese economist, Tatsuyoshi Saijo is at the forefront of the Future Design movement, which aims to figure out how to get the world to care more about future generations. He is one of the fifty individuals shortlisted on Vox's Future Perfect list—identifying the  thinkers, activists, and scholars working on solutions to today’s (and tomorrow’s) biggest problems.

We are all redesigners, now—or at least we're all becoming engaged design critics. In the US, Kansas citizens reject their state's proposed new license plate design (claiming, among other things, that it looks too much like New York's plate) while in the UK, residents of Gloucester dispute the design of a Covid memorial. 

Every front page in the New York Times—since 1852.

Design thinking has missed the mark, says Anne-Laure Fayard and Sarah Fathallah in this must-read piece in the Stanford Social Review. “We reject design thinking as a singular tool kit prescribed to solve social problems,” in part because, it has failed to do so. “Instead, we call for a critical stance on design, where critical means both discerning and important.”

The United States, Britain and more than a dozen other countries on Sunday unveiled what a senior U.S. official described as the first detailed international agreement on how to keep artificial intelligence safe from rogue actors, pushing for companies to create AI systems that are "secure by design." .

Dasha Tsapenko is one of a growing number of designers growing clothing from mycellium. (More here.) 

A brief respite of eye candy: this exquisite scrapbook—with typography made from matchboxes, dating from 1875—will bring you a rare moment of analogue joy. (Thanks to Debbie Millman for sharing it!)

Design Observer's approach to paying it forward includes supporting big dreams for those who deserve to see those dreams become a reality. (Spoiler alert: you won't find any “top fifty gifts for creatives” lists here this, or any holiday season.) Instead, we'll be sharing ideas over the next few weeks for ways that you can help someone else. Start here.

South African designer Thebe Magugu incorporates vintage (family) photos into a new line of clothing. (Read more about the Heirloom Shirt Project here.)

Remembering George Tscherny, the graphic design powerhouse whose work defined a post-war golden age of corporate growth, innovation, and consumerism.



Jobs | December 02