Scratching the Surface

Alice Grandoit, Nu Goteh, and Marquise Stillwell are the co-founders of Deem, a new journal that positions design as a social practice. Their first issue, Design for Dignity, features a range of stories, interviews, and profiles of practitioners both inside and outside design. In this conversation, Jarrett talks with them about Deem’s goals, opening up design to more people, and how publishing a printed journal is a political act. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/167-alice-grandoit-nu-goteh-marquise-stillwell.

Nikil Saval is a writer, editor, activist, and the newly elected Pennsylvania state senator. He was previously a co-editor of n+1 and wrote about design, architecture, and urbanism for The New Yorker and The New York Times. In this episode, recorded right before the election, Jarrett and Nikil talk about the intersection of design and politics, how writing and editing are similar to legislating, and why he finds designers fascinating. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/166-nikil-saval.

Alicia Cheng is a founding partner of the New York design studio MGMT and the author of the book This Is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot. She previously worked as a designer for Method, was a co-design director at the Cooper Hewitt, and is currently an external critic for the MFA program at RISD. In this episode, Jarrett and Alicia talk about how the design of ballots can teach us about the United States’s uneasy relationship with voting, mixing design history with American history, and how research feeds her design practice. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/165-alicia-cheng.

Kyle Chayka writes about art, technology, design, and the systems that shape culture. His first book, The Longing for Less, is a cultural history of minimalism that looks at minimalist movements in art, music, and philosophy. In this episode, Jarrett and Kyle talk about how minimalism often obscures complex systems, how all culture writing is also design writing, and the role of structure in his writing process. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/164-kyle-chayka.

Annelys de Vet is a Belgium-based designer, educator and researcher. From 2009 to 2019, she was the the director of the design program at the Sandberg Instituut and is the editor of Design Dedication a new book collecting the work and thinking during her tenure. Now she’s leading a new masters program on Disarming Design that is committed to design practices in situations of oppression. In this episode, Jarrett and Annelys talk about thinking about design education as a system of community and care and structuring a curriculum that leaves room for experimentation. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/163-annelys-de-vet.

Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli is an architect, urbanist, teacher and is the curator of the Russian Pavilion for the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale. He worked at OMA from 2007 to 2020, and became partner in 2014. Earlier this year, he established 2050+ his own multidisciplinary studio operating at the intersections of design, technology, politics, and the environment. In this conversation, Jarrett and Ippolito talk about the ideas behind the Russian Pavilion and the transition to an online exhibition, the value of a multidisciplinary practice, and the intersection of research and practice. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/162-ippolito-pestellini-laparelli.

Paul Andersen and Paul Preissner are the curators of the American Pavilion for the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale. Their project, American Framing draws attention to both the most influential and overlooked contributions to architecture: wood framing. They previously have collaborated on a variety of architecture and curatorial projects together. Additionally, Andersen is the principal of Denver-based Independent Architecture and teaches at the University of Illinois Chicago and Preissner runs Paul Preissner Architects and teaches at both University of Illinois Chicago and Columbia GSAAP. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/161-paul-andersen-paul-preissner.

Danielle Aubert is a graphic designer, educator, writer, and political organizer. She’s the author of, most recently, The Detroit Printing Co-Op: The Politics of the Joys of Printing and an Associate Professor in Graphic Design at Wayne State University. In this episode, Jarrett and Danielle talk about the Detroit Printing Co-op and expanding design history, the politics of graphic design, and when to teach the basics in a design class. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/160-danielle-aubert.

Maryam Fanni and Sara Kaaman, are two thirds of the design collective MMS, along with Matilda Flodmark, collaborating since 2012 on investigations and writings on visual culture, graphic design, and historiography from feminist perspectives. MMS recently published <i>Natural Enemies of Books: A Messy History of Women in Printing and Typography</i>. In this episode, Jarrett is joined by Maryam and Sara to talk about the book, the ideas behind MMS, and seeking a more expansive view of design history and practice. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/159-maryam-fanni-sara-kaaman.

Dr. Bon Ku is an emergency room physician, assistant dean for Health and Design and director of the Health Design Lab at Jefferson University. He’s also the co-author, with Ellen Lupton, of the new book Health Design Thinking. In this conversation, Jarrett and Bon talk about the intersection of design and healthcare, how COVID-19 exposes the faults in our healthcare system, and how medical school could be redesigned. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/158-bon-ku.

Eric Heiman is a designer, writer, and educator. He’s principal and co-founder of Volume, a San Francisco-based design studio, Associate Professor of Graphic Design at CCA, and has written for Emigre, Design Observer, Eye and other publications. In this conversation, Jarrett and Eric talk about how graphic design in San Francisco has changed, the gaps between education and practice, and the role of writing in his work. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/157-eric-heiman.

Deanna Van Buren is an architect, activist, and the design director and co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, an architecture and real estate development non-profit working to end mass incarceration by building infrastructure that attacks its root causes: poverty, racism, unequal access to resources, and the criminal justice system itself. In this conversation, Deanna and Jarrett talk about design as ideology, the relationships between architecture and criminal justice, and how a building can cause real change. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/156-deanna-van-buren.

Paul Thompson is the Vice-Chancellor of the Royal College of Art. Before this, he was the director of the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum and the director of the Design Museum in London. In this conversation, Jarrett and Paul talk about his background in comparative literature and how that’s influenced his career in design and administration, learning on the job, and how expanding definitions of design are changing education and curation. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/155-paul-thompson.

Winka Dubbeldam is an architect and educator. She’s the principal of Archi-Tectonics, the research-based architecture firm she founded in 1994 and is the chair of the architecture program and a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania. In this conversation, Winka and Jarrett talk about her interest in philosophy, how research shapes her work as both a designer and teacher, and the importance of sharing knowledge. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/154-winka-dubbeldam.

Denise Gonzales Crisp is a graphic designer, educator, and writer. She’s a professor of Graphic Design and director of graduate programs for Graphic Design at North Carolina State University. Her writing has appeared in Eye, Emigre, Design Observer, Design and Culture, and Items Magazine. In this episode, Denise and Jarrett talk about the differences between her writing and design processes, designing with spreadsheets, and using improvisational methods in the classroom. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/153-denise-gonzales-crisp.

Perrin Drumm is a writer, editor, and publisher. She’s currently the head of publishing at A24 and is the co-founder and previous director of Eye on Design. In this episode, Perrin and Jarrett talk about studying creative writing and fine art, the origins and editorial direction of Eye on Design, and the role of criticism. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/152-perrin-drumm.

Rachel Berger is a designer, writer, and educator based in California. She’s currently the chair of Graphic Design at CCA and her writing as appeared in Design Observer, Significant Objects, and CLOG. Previously, she was a designer at SYPartners and Pentagram. In this episode, Rachel and Jarrett talk about her early interest in writing, how teaching has changed her practice, and why she takes graphic design so seriously. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/151-rachel-berger.

Susan Sellers is a founding partner and executive creative director at 2x4, a senior design critic at Yale School of Art, and from 2013 to 2016, was Head of Design for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this episode. Jarrett and Susan talk about the changing definitions of design, putting ideas into the world, and the importance of craft and story. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/150-susan-sellers.

Margo Halverson is a designer, educator, photographer, and artist. She’s a professor of graphic design and Chair of the Graphic Design department at Maine College of Art and the co-founder of DesignInquiry, an amorphous collective centered around ideas of disciplinary discourse, expanded practice, and design research. In this episode, Jarrett and Margo talk about her journey from photography to design, the origins on DesignInquiry, and blending personal and professional work. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/149-margo-halverson.

Henry N. Cobb, who passed away yesterday at 93, was a founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the architecture firm he co-founded with I.M. Pei and Eason Leonard in 1955. From 1980-1985 he was the chair of the department of architecture at Harvard University and in 2018, published Henry N. Cobb: Words and Words 1948-2018 where he uses his career to trace what he calls ‘the predicament of architecture’. In this episode, Jarrett and Henry talk about the origins of the book, how writing and teaching influence his practice, and why architecture has sustained his interest for nearly seventy years. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/148-henry-cobb.

Leslie Roberts is an author, journalist, essayist, and educator. She’s the chair of the graduate writing program at California College of Arts in San Francisco and the author, most recently, of Here Is Where I Walk. At CCA, Leslie teaches courses on writing for designers and is the cofounder of Ecopoesis, a multidisciplinary group focusing on making and messaging around ecologies. In this episode, Jarrett and Leslie talk about her background as a journalist, teaching writing to designers, and finding new stories around how we talk about the environment.

Justin Davidson is the architecture and classical music critic at New York Magazine. He previously studied music at Harvard and Columbia and began his journalism career as a staff writer at Newsday. In this episode, Jarrett and Justin talk about the role of the critic, the similarities between writing about music and architecture, and what happened after he broke the story about The Met’s new logo. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/146-justin-davidson.

Martin Venezky is a graphic designer, photographer, artist, and educator. Since 1997, he's operated Appetite Engineers to produce books, installations, and illustrations and since 1993, he's been on the faculy of the California College of Art in San Francisco. A new book of his photography, What I Know About Photography was released last year by Jon Sueda on Kickstarter. In this conversation, Jarrett and Martin talk about his career and work, the value in image and form making, and why he's focusing so much of his work on photography these days. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/145-martin-venezky.

Rosanne Somerson is a furniture designer, educator, and President of Rhode Island School of Design. After studying industrial design at RISD and running her own practice, she returned to the school in 1985 to teach furniture design, and became the first leader of the new furniture design department. In 2015, she was appointed the 17th president of RISD. In this episode, Jarrett and Rosanne talk about her early career and how she started teaching, how she approaches her presidency like a designer, and what she sees for the future of design education. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/144-rosanne-somerson.

Reed Kroloff is a renowned educator, writer, critic, and consultant. He’s the newly appointed dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture and previously served as the director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and dean of the school of architecture at Tulane University. He was also the editor-in-chief of Architecture magazine and runs the consultancy Jones Kroloff. In this episode, Jarrett and Reed talk about his unease in becoming an architect, how he started writing, and how he thinks about running an architecture program. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/143-reed-kroloff

Mary Banas is a graphic designer and educator. Her independent creative practice, Yes, is More, spans research, teaching, and design. She also collaborates with Breanne Trammell and is on the faculty at California College of the Arts. In this episode, Jarrett and Mary talk about her roundabout journey into teaching, the value of an expanded practice, and how to set up better critiques in the classroom. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/142-mary-banas.

Josh Owen is an industrial designer and educator. He runs his own design studio, Josh Owen LLC, and is a Full Professor and the Chair of the Industrial Design Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he also works with the Vignelli Center for Design Studies. In this episode, Jarrett and Josh talk about spending his summers on archeological digs with his father and how that influenced his interests in history and culture, how he started teaching, and how his work as a designer and teacher influence each other. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/141-josh-owen.

Johanna Drucker is an author, book artist, visual theorist, and cultural critic. She's currently a professor in the Department of Information Studies at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Her research and writing has focused on visual language and letterforms, typography, visual poetry, the history of books and digital aesthetics. In this episode, Jarrett and Johanna talk about her interest in making books as objects, her work on design history, and the being both an artist and academic. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/140-johanna-drucker.

Lucinda Hitchcock is a book designer, typographer, and educator. She's on the faculty at RISD, where she's currently the head of the graphic design department and has designed books for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MFA Boston, and Tufts University Art Galleries. Her research involves narrative, place, and the shape of language. In this episode, Jarrett and Lucy talk about graphic designers as cultural curators, compassionate teaching, and what she learned during her recent sabbatical. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/129-lucinda-hitchcock.

James Voorhies is a curator, art historian, writer, and educator. James is currently the chair of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice and a professor of fine arts at California College of Arts. He’s the director of the Curatorial Research Bureau, a bookshop, learning site, and exhibition space in San Francisco and is the author of Beyond Objecthood: The Exhibition as a Critical Form since 1968. In this episode, Jarrett and James talk about curation as a mix of mediation, caretaking, and administration, institutional critique, and how to balance teaching theory and practice in creative disciplines. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Darran Anderson is a writer and author of *Imaginary Cities* and the forthcoming *Inventory*. His writing on architecture, design, and space has appeared in The Atlantic, Vice, and CityLab. In this episode, Jarrett and Darran talk about his early interest in architecture and literature, experimenting with new forms of writing, and expanding how we talk about architecture and cities. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Nicholas Korody is a writer and artist. He writes for Archinect, where is also the editor of their print publication, Ed; and is one-half of Adjustments Agency, a studio and artistic practice he formed with Joanna Kloppenburg to investigate the architecture of architecture. Earlier this year, Nicholas launched Interiors Agency, his new independent practice interested in the role of interior design and decoration in culture. In this episode, Jarrett and Nicholas talk about his liberal arts background and sideways entry into architecture, the labor of design discourse, working across various mediums. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Marco Steinberg is a strategic designer who works on the complex challenges that face governments, society, and the environment. Currently working independently, he previously founded and led the Helsinki Design Lab and was an Associate Professor at the Harvard Design School from 1999-2009. In this episode, Jarrett and Marco talk about the evolution of his career and move from architecture to strategic design, what strategic design means and how he thinks about his work, and why governments are in need of a redesign. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Eddie Opara is a Pentagram partner whose work spans design, technology, and strategy. He previously ran his own studio, The Map office, and worked as a designer at 2x4 and Imaginary Forces. In this episode, Jarrett and Eddie talk about questioning the brief, why his work is considered enigmatic, and thinking about your legacy. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, urban planner, author, and academic. He's the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, the author of A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for Urban America, and was just announced as the next dean of UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design. In this episode, Jarrett and Vishaan talk about his circuitous path to architecture, the intersection of practice and teaching, and how he plans to approach his new deanship. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Jenny Odell is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Oakland, California. She's the author of How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, teaches digital/physical design at Stanford and has been the artist in residence at the Recology SF (aka 'the dump'), San Francisco Planning Department, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In this episode, Jarrett and Jenny talk about her background in literature and design, the intersection of text and image, and the value of seeing what is front of you. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Danah Abdulla is a designer, educator, and researcher. She's a Senior Lecturer in Communication Design at Brunel University London; founder of *Kalimat*, non-profit magazine about Arab thought and culture; and a founding member of the Decolonising Design platform. In this episode, Danah and Jarrett talk about localizing design education, studying social design, and what it means to decolonize design. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Rick Poynor is perhaps the foremost writer, critic, and editor on graphic design and visual culture. He is Professor of Design and Visual Culture at the University of Reading. In addition to founding and serving as the first editor in chief of Eye, Rick also cofounded Design Observer, continues as a columnist for Eye, and has written for Print and Blueprint. In this wide-ranging conversation, Jarrett and Rick talk about the early days of Eye and his early interest in visual culture, the evolution of design discourse over his career, and the new publications that excite him today. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Mark Foster Gage is an architect, author, and educator. He's an Assistant Dean at the Yale School of Architecture, principal of Mark Foster Gage Architects, and the editor of the new book, Aesthetics Equals Politics. In this conversation, Jarrett and Mark talk about the history of aesthetics and how it shapes our experience in the world, the problems with critiques, and how narrative can obscure how a building functions. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Ali Qadeer and Chris Lee are designers and educators. Together, they edited a recent issue of C Magazine with the theme graphic design. In this episode, Jarrett talks with Ali and Chris about the issue and their ideas around the editorial point-of-view, their teaching practice, and why they like finding new definitions for graphic design. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Jerome Harris is a designer, educator, and curator. He’s currently the design director of Housing Works and recently taught at MICA and curated the show As, Not For, a survey of African American graphic design. In this episode, Jerome and Jarrett talk about his background as a flyer designer and dancer, , how thinking about design history changed his own approach, and why we need to include as wide a range of work as possible when teaching design. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Edwin Heathcote is the architecture critic for the Financial Times and the founder and editor-in-chief of Reading Design. Originally trained as an architect, Edwin has also written for GQ and is the author of multiple books on architecture and design. In this episode, Jarrett and Edwin talk about his writing process, looking at architecture through a wider cultural lens, and the value of reading criticism from history. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Erik Brandt is a graphic designer and educator. From 2013 to 2018, he curates the internationally recognized experimental typography project, Ficciones Typografika, which has just been commemorated with a book by Formist; and is the chair of the graphic design department at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. In this episode, Jarrett and Erik talk about expanded practices, teaching alternative forms of design, and staying creative as you get older. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Bruce Tharp is an Associate Professor in Art & Design at the Stamps School of Art and Design and is the co-author, with his wife Stephanie, of the new book, Discursive Design. Bruce originally studied mechanical engineering before getting an MID in Industrial Design and a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology. In this episode, Jarrett and Bruce talk about discursive design and what that means, the strange trajectory of his career, and bridging the gaps between research and materiality. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Na Kim is a graphic designer based in Seoul and Berlin. She's a member of Table Union, was responsible for the design of Graphic magazine from 2009 to 2011 and was artistic director of the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial with Prem Krishnamurthy and Emily Smith. In this episode, Jarrett and Na talk about her journey to graphic design, the self-reflexivity in her work, and the relationships between curating and graphic design. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Paul Goldberger is perhaps the leading architecture critic working today. He's served as architecture critic for both The New York Times and The New Yorker and is now a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He's the author of several books including a biography of Frank Gehry and his new book is Ballpark: Baseball in the American City. In this conversation, Jarrett and Paul talk about how architecture criticism has evolved, working with Ada Louise Huxtable, and what baseball parks can teach us about cities. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Kerry William Purcell has written books and essays about photography, film, design, philosophy, and critical theory. He's the author of biographies on Alexey Brodovitch and Josef Muller-Brockmann and is a senior lecturer in design history at University of Hertfordshire. In this episode, Jarrett and Kerry talk about how he found himself writing designer biographies, why he doesn't like to call himself a design historian, and how design can be a lens to ask questions around culture, politics, and history. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Natalia Ilyin is a designer, writer, and teacher based in Seattle. She's currently a professor at Cornish College of Arts in Seattle where she teaches design history and criticism, design for social activism, and transition design and is a founding faculty of the MFA in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her new book, Writing for the Design Mind, was published by Bloomsbury in February. In this episode, Natalia and Jarrett talk about the book and the relationships between design and writing, teaching design history, and finding your place in the design community. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Michèle Champagne is a designer who moves between research, creative direction, and publication design across media. Michèle works with publication as a public conversation, and meanders open source dynamics, collaborative authorship, and reader participation and her research interrogates anti-criticism culture, positive psychology, happiness measurement, and their communication phenomena. In this episode, Michèle and Jarrett talk about her design criticism publication, That New Design Smell, creating an infrastructure for critical discourse, and the challenges with building a multidisciplinary career. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Oliver Wainwright a writer and photographer based in London. He has been the architecture and design critic of the Guardian since 2012. He trained as an architect at the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Art, and worked in strategic planning at the Architecture and Urbanism Unit of the Greater London Authority and at a number of architecture practices, including OMA in Rotterdam and Muf in London. In this conversation, Oliver and Jarrett talk about the relationship between writing and architecture, the tensions between practice and criticism, and what it means to write for a major newspaper. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.