Did I Do That?

We’ve clawed our way here to San Francisco for the season 6 premiere of Did I Do That?! The incredible Alyssa Walker (Creative Director at WIRED) joins Sean to talk about where new toys come from, grind mode, and the Miyazaki of Rite Aid.The best way to see Alyssa’s work is to subscribe to WIRED, which comes in print and digital subscriptions and starts as low as $10 for the first year. Better still, your subscription gives you access to some of the best tech journalism (and journalism at the intersection of politics and tech) that you can find. You can also find Alyssa on the web at alyssawalker.me, or on Instagram @_alyssawalker.This episode was recorded January 30, 2025 in the offices of WIRED in downtown San Francisco. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to both Alyssa and to WIRED podcast producer Boone Ashworth for so generously lending their time, their space, and equipment for this recording!This episode kicks off Season 6 and it’s going to be a big one! Please share the show with a friend if you enjoyed this episode, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts! It really means a lot! Too, if you’re tired of social media or your podcast player not delivering new shows straight to your inbox, try our refreshed Substack, which does just that! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everybody who's ever tried to make something has done it: ball up a terrible idea and throw it in the trash before anyone else managed to get their eyes on it.When you do creative work for a living, though, mistakes just come with the territory. Did I Do That? gives designers a chance to get some fresh eyes on that ball of shame while showing it who's boss by laughing about it.Every other Thursday, Sean Schumacher (Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University) sits down and talks to a guest designer about how they got to where they're at, as well as all the good, bad, and weird things that happened along the way. Whether you do creative work or just want to see how the sausage gets made, it's a good time!Our 6th season premiere drops March 6, and Sean is venturing out of the studio in Portland to kick things off with some very special conversations. You won't want to miss it—tell a friend and see you there! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're closing out our inter-season break yet another thing that's new to you—and in this case, everybody else, too—the world premiere of a new video podcast! Ali Hart's new show The Snack Table takes some of the strangest snacks out there and gives them the taste test you frankly may have both wanted to see and feared in equal measure. It's easily one of the funniest things I've ever been involved with, and Ali has graciously allowed us to hear the premiere episode where she and I review gummies a day early—in audio only form.If you want to see what we're eating (and the horrible reactions we're having to it), the only way to watch is by subscribing to The Snack Table's channel. One secret tip for listeners of this show: even though the premiere is technically happening tomorrow, this episode will actually go up later today (February 6, 2025), so keep your eyes peeled for it!We'll be back in two weeks with our season 6 trailer for Did I Do That? so keep your ears peeled! I've been working hard to kick off our season with a slate of amazing guests and I'd love for you to share the show with a friend when that trailer drops. See you in two weeks! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To kick off 2025, Did I Do That? is turning back the clock back to the waning days of Brat Summer for Fontroversy, live at the AIGA Design Conference! Host Lena Hall (freelance designer) and producer Sean Schumacher (Host of Did I Do That? and Ass’t Professor at PSUGD) talk through type’s best known knock-off(?), Arial. Is it a grotesque Frankensteining or merely a case of typeface carcinisation? Is Arial hate the design blogosphere’s first hot take? Is Lena the only person ever to have actually watched the Minecraft: Story Mode show?ABOUT THE SHOW: Fontroversy is a limited series podcast created by Portland State University Graphic Design students in 2023. You can learn more about PSU’s Schnitzer School of Art, Art History, and Design at pdx.edu/art-design. This edition was presented as part of the AIGA Design Conference in October 2024. Special thanks to Lee-Sean Huang and the team at AIGA for selecting us to be a part of the conference. We <3 AIGA!WANT TO HEAR MORE? For more episodes of Fontroversy and our parent show Did I Do That?, visit dididothat.design or wherever you find podcasts: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / YouTube / Pocket Casts / Overcast / CastroCREDITS:Host: Lena HallCrew: Tom Cheevers, Tori Mize, Toni Morales, Donovan Wilson-CarrProduction Assistance (and playing Schumacher’s Monster): Orion CortezShow Art: Robert DittyTheme: “How Can Things Be” by HoliznaProducer: Sean SchumacherNOTE: This episode differs slightly from the live version due to technical issues on the stream. Apologies for the less-than-ideal audio quality, particularly in the first ten minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re kicking off the new year at Did I Do That? with something old, something new (to some of you), and something borrowed, so don’t be blue: it’s our live show from Seattle Design Festival 2024! Seattle’s own Terry Marks joined Sean on the mainstage in Lake Union Park to talk through Hey Reb!’s proportions, the curse of eternal life (via stock photo modeling), and InDesign’s spellcheck dictionary.If you want to find more about Terry’s work, the best place to visit is tmarksdesign.com! While I am happy to direct any calls back to Terry, feel free to reach out to him if you’re interested in the reprint edition of Mr. Crumbley Dreams a Tiger.While this is an audio-only version of the outdoor recording, you can watch the video version of this episode on SDF’s YouTube channel. Too, while I’ve done my best to clean up the ambient noise present on the day, you may hear the odd bit of wind noise as well as more than a few seagulls. May these soothing sounds of summer help warm you through a chilly January.Big thanks to Terry Marks for being a part, as well as to the whole crew at Seattle Design Festival! It was such a treat to be a part of it! Thanks to Annalee Shum for coordinating and programming us, to our volunteer Maxine to helping with the production, and to Adrian Pacheco who both worked the boards for the event and was kind enough to share these files! Thanks, and goodnight, Seattle! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thanks for listening through Season 5, everybody, and hope you enjoyed the grand finale with the amazing Ely Kim!Season 6 is coming in February 2025, but in the mean time, we'll be tiding over the new year with a run of audio from our 2024 live events that you may not have heard before! Those shows are a lot of fun and I'm so excited to finally get so share them here with you.I'm also taking this opportunity to ask your help in spreading the word about the show! Here's what you can do to help!Tell your friends and family about the show and spread the word on social media!Leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts, whether you listen there or not—it makes a big difference for a ton of other platforms that you may not realize rely on Apple Podcast charts. PLUS, if you've wanted to have a design confession shared with the world, leaving it as a five star Apple Podcasts review is the perfect way to do it.Thanks again for listening and see you in 2025! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s the finale of Did I Do That? Season Five* and our third anniversary—this really must be the best of both worlds! Fellow Las Vegas ex-pat Ely Kim (Senior Creative at Wieden+Kennedy) joins Sean to talk about childhood limousine dreams, the weird science behind casino carpet, and memorable fast food mascots. Be sure to listen through to the very end—you won’t(?) regret it!You can find Ely and his email button on his website, welikehim.com! You can also give Ely a follow on Instagram @welikehim! If you’re wanting to see Ely’s grad school viral video BOOMBOX, where he spent 100 days dancing in public, you can find it on YouTube.This episode was recorded Sunday, November 17, 2024 in the Rat’s Nest.What comes next? Season 6 will start in late winter 2025, so stay tuned—as you might imagine, the show will be a little different on the other side of this one! To tide you over through our production break, we’ll be sharing a few bonus bits captured this summer. They’re a ton of fun and should hopefully keep you warm though those cold winter nights. Happy anniversary and thank you so much for listening!*Guys Burgers and Fries Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The penultimate episode of Season 5 is bringing the receipts! Multidisciplinary designer and artist Libby Landauer joins Sean to talk about Facebook Marketplace bargains, the pitches the Mad Men didn’t win, and the best place to get a polish in the Bay Area.Libby can be found all over the ‘net, including on Instagram @libland. You can also see some of their work, including Slutheby’s Live Auction, on their website, libbylandauer.com; keep an eye out there for future dates for the play! You can find more about the Community for Positive Aging on their website, communityfpa.org. As Libby says, it’s an intergenerational, space, and if you have some free time this holiday season and want to give back, it sounds like a great, fun place to volunteer some time!Music by Mykola Sosin from Pixabay.This episode was recorded Saturday, November 16, 2024 in the Rat’s Nest. Our next episode will be our last of the season, and the show’s three year anniversary. Don’t miss it! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tell the rowdy boys to get ready, ‘cause we’re busting out the spray mount and the museum board to present a brand new episode of Did I Do That?! Melissa Delzio (freelance designer and founder of Portland Design History) to talk about the dangers of MTV Spring Break, robocalls, and the peacemaker.You can find Melissa all over the internet, starting at her website meldel.com! That’s where her annual reports live—they’re both lovely and a great way to see what it’s actually like to make a living as a freelancer. Melissa can be found on Instagram @meldelpdx.Melissa’s long-running project Portland Design History can be found at portlanddesignhistory.com. There are tons of great collections on the site, including some relating to what we talked about in the episode. Check it out, or give the project a follow on Instagram @portlandesignhistory.This episode was recorded (before the election) on Saturday, November 2, 2024 in the Rat's Nest. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Simpsons switches formats to horror anthology series this time of year, so shall Did I Do That?—we’ve got a collection of some of the scariest design disasters, missteps, failures, and goofs that have haunted designers this past summer at Future Fonts & Friends 2024!How can our anonymous designer ghosts find peace when haunted by a trifecta of specters in the form of opening up your letters’ chakras, gingerbread power moves, and the challenges of Lidz franchising. Listen… IF YOU DARE!WANT A DESIGN CONFESSIONAL AT YOUR EVENT?If you have a live event and want me to set up another design confessional for it, either in Portland or beyond, let’s talk! I’d love to do more events like this in the future.SPECIAL THANKSThe confessions used in this episode were collected as part of “Future Fonts and Friends,” a party held for TypeCon 2024 at Outlet in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday, July 25, 2024. All guests were cloaked in the shadow of anonymity—the scariest thing of all in our personal brand building world! Take that, social media! Thank you to all who came out and participated!Huge thanks again to Lizy Gershenzhon and Travis Kochel of Future Fonts for inviting me to be a part of the event, to the organizers of TypeCon for putting up with me, and (once again) to MVP Orion Cortez for building the confessional booths way back in 2023 based solely on two terrible sketches I made, then coming back out in 2024 to help me set them up again.Additional thanks to past guest Kate Bingaman-Burt of Outlet for her eternal support of / patience with me just in general, but especially the white-hot ball of stress that is me when faced with a live event.This episode features a parody of Billie Eilish’s new song “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” and a parody of the character the Crypt Keeper, brought to death by John Kassir. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.