Scratching the Surface

Alexander Tochilovsky is a designer, curator, and educator. He's currently the curator at the Herb Lubalin Study Center and an instructor at Cooper Union. He studied graphic design at Cooper Union and went to graduate school at Cranbrook. In this episode, Alexander and I talk about his background and how he got interested in design, the role of design history in his practice, and how we can do a better job of learning from and teaching history today. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Andrew Blauvelt has been a designer, writer, curator, and educator. He's currently the director of the Cranbrook Art Museum, a position he's held since 2015. Before that, he worked at the Walker Art Center in a variety of roles including Senior Curator of Design, Research, and Publishing; Chief of Communications; and Design Director. He also served as Director of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Graphic Design Department at North Carolina State University and has written for a variety of publications on design. In this episode, Jarrett and Andrew walk through his career and talk about how he moved between various disciplines, his early interest in design theory, and how the discourse around graphic design has changed over his career. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Christopher Hawthorne is the Chief Design Officer for the city of Los Angeles, a brand new position appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti. Before that, he was architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2004 to early 2018. He is Professor of the Practice at Occidental College and has taught at U.C Berkeley, Columbia University, and Souther California Institute of Architecture. In this episode, Jarrett and Christopher talk about this new job and how he's approaching it, reading Paul Goldberger in high school, and the changing role of the architecture critic. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Justin W. Cook is an architect, designer, and educator. He's currently the Founding Director of the RISD Center for Complexity & Systems Practice, an initiative that is thinking about design in the widest sense. Previously, he worked at the Helsinki Design Lab and has advised students at MIT and Harvard. His work centers around design as a transformative act, sustainability, and systems thinking. In this episode, Justin talks to Jarrett about realizing he wanted to be an architect and his move into strategic design, thinking about organization change, and the role of the designer. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Allison Arieff is the editorial director of Spur and a columnist for the New York Times where she writes about architecture, design, and cities. Before that, she was the editor-at-large for both Good and Sunset Magazines and was the editor-in-chief at Dwell. In this episode, Allison and Jarrett talk about how she wanted to be a writer since eighth grade, the expanding definition of design, and the relationship between design and policy. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Daniel Eatock is a designer and artist based in London. He studied design at Ravensbourne College and earned his MA from the Royal College of Art. In this episode, Daniel talks to Jarrett about studying design and discovering conceptual art, his resistance to labeling his practice, the role of teaching in his work, and how he's working towards being more present. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Marcin Wichary is a designer, writer, programmer, and typographer. He most recently was a designer at Medium and previously worked on design teams at Google and Code for America. He's currently writing a book on the history of keyboards and typing, due to be released next year. In this episode, Marcin and Jarrett talk about how writing has supplemented his design work, the value of personal projects, and writing about his obsessions. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Brian LaRossa is a designer, illustrator, writer, and reader. He's the design director at Scholastic, writer for Design Observer, and on the adjunct faculty at CUNY. In this episode, Brian and Jarrett talk about his early resistance to the design world and how discovering its history and culture opened up a new love for the discipline. They also talk about how he started writing, his love of reading, and the similarities between his writing process and design process. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Robin Sloan is a writer and media inventor based in Oakland. He's the author of two novels, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough. He's also written a variety of short stories and internet projects, dabbles in programming and machine learning, and makes extra virgin olive oil with his partner Kathryn Tomajan. In this conversation, Robin and I talk about what it means to be a media inventor and how this is similar to being a designer, his early career working at Twitter and Current TV, and the value of pursuing diverse creative projects. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Mimi Zeiger is a writer, critic, curator and editor. She's written for a variety of publications including The New York Times, Dwell, Domus, and The Architectural Review and is the founder of Loud Paper, a zine and digital publication that sought to increase the output of architectural discourse. She was also the co-curator for the US Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennalle, which had the theme "Dimensions of Citizenship". In this episode, Mimi and I talk about how she started writing after beginning a career as an architect, the role of the critic, and why we need architecture and design critics in today's political climate. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.