Scratching the Surface

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.