Scratching the Surface

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.