Scratching the Surface

Randy Nakamura is a designer, researcher, and one of my favorite writers from Emigre. His writing has appeared in Design Observer, Emigre, Task, Modes of Criticism, and Idea Magazine and he's worked as a designer at Jon Sueda's studio, Stripe, and served as design director at The Grateful Palate. He's currently at PhD candidate in the Critical Studies program at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. In this rare interview, I talk with Randy about his journey from biology to design, how he started writing for Emigre, the similarities between architecture and design criticism, and how the design discourse has changed over his career. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Sara Hendren is a designer, artist, writer, and professor whose work centers around adaptive and assistive technologies, prosthetics, inclusive design, accessible architecture, and related ideas. She teaches inclusive design practices at Olin College in Massachusetts and writes and edits Abler, her site to collect and comment on art, adaptive technologies and prosthetics, and the future of human bodies in the built environment. In this episode, Sara and I talk about her own background and using design to manifest ideas in the world, the role of writing in her own design practice, and how teaches these ideas with her students. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Louise Sandhaus is a designer, educator, and writer based in Los Angeles. She teaches a variety of courses at CalArt and in 2013, published Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires, & Riots, a book of graphic design from California. In this episode, Louise and I talk about how she stumbled into a critical theory class that changed her approach to design and her entire life, as well as form as language, and how writing a design history book changed how she designs. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Francisco Laranjo is a graphic designer based in Portugal and publisher of Modes of Criticism, a journal and research platform interested in critical graphic design. His writing has also been published on Design Observer, Eye, Creative Review, Grafik. In this episode, Francisco and I talk about Modes of Criticism and his goals for the project, parsing terms like critical and speculative graphic design, and how to use graphic design to critique politics, colonialization, and culture. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Helen Armstrong is a designer, educator, and writer. She's published two anthologies of design theory as well as a book on user-generated design and is currently associate professor of graphic design North Carolina State University. Prior to studying design, Helen's studies focused on literature, English, and critical theory and she's applied what she learned in her previous studies to graphic design. In this episode, I talk with Helen about her transition from academia to graphic design, the intersection of theory and practice, and the value in criticism and theory for practicing graphic designers.

In 2013, Jack Cheng self-published his first book, a novel called These Days, on Kickstarter. Before that, Jack was working as a designer in advertising in New York City while working on the book during his nights and weekends. Now based in Detroit, Jack just published his new book, See You in the Cosmos. In this episode, I talk with Jack about his transition from designing to writing, the similarities between designing digital products and writing fiction, and the intellectual questions he's asking himself in his work. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Liz Danzico is part designer, part writer, and part educator. She's currently the creative director at NPR, where she oversees both the visual and user experience of NPR's digital platforms and content; chair and co-founder of SVA's MFA in Interaction Design program; and has written about design for publications like Eye, Fortune, and Interactions Magazine as well as her own site, Bobulate. In this episode, I talk to Liz about the connections between design and writing, the role of criticism in her own work, and intersections between technology, media, journalism, and design. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Andy Chen and Waqas Jawaid are the founders of Isometric Studio, a New York design studio that promotes inclusion, equality & progress. Andy and Waqas were thesis critics at MICA in December and I sat down with them while they were in Baltimore to talk about their backgrounds in sociology and architecture influence their design practice, the value of design criticism in the contemporary design profession, and the type of design writing they'd like to see more of. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Anne Quito is a designer and writer currently working as a design reporter at Quartz. Anne is the founder of the design studio Design Lab 360 and a recent graduate of SVA's Design Criticism program. In this episode, I talk with Anne about her design background and her journey into writing, how to write about design for a general audience, and how she wrote her own job description when she joined the Quartz team as a "design reporter." Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Ruben Pater, working under the name Untold Stories, describes his work as creating "visual narratives about geopolitical issues" and creating "new relations between journalism and design". He most recently is the author of the book, The Politics of Design, where Pater explores the cultural and political context of the typography, colors, photography, symbols, and information graphics that we use every day. In this conversation, I talk with Ruben about the book and the relationship between design and journalism, showcasing his process as the artifact, the importance of studying design outside of the traditional Western canon, and why he still calls himself a designer. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.