Scratching the Surface

Rianne Petter and Mark Mulder are designers and researchers from the Netherlands. The couple operates independent practices that span graphic design, research, writing, and education. Last fall, the couple visited Baltimore to lead a weekend workshop on design research of Maryland Institute College of Art's graduate graphic design department and I sat down with them at the end of the weekend to talk about their own practice, the role of research in the graphic design process, and the differences between the design discourse of the Netherlands and the United States. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Jon Sueda is a designer, curator, and educator. He is the founder of the Stripe, a graphic design studio based in San Francisco specializing in printed material, identity, and exhibition work and the Chair of the MFA Design program at California College of the Arts. He's also curated the exhibitions for the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, the 25th International Graphic Design Biennial in Brno, Czech Republic, and SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. In this conversation, Jon and I talk about his design background, the intersection of graphic design and curation, and studying under critics like Lorraine Wild and Jeffery Keedy at CalArts. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Prem Krishnamurthy is a designer, curator, and writer. He is a founding principle, with Adam Michaels, of the New York design studio Project Projects and founder and curator of P!, an experimental exhibition space in New York's Chinatown. Additionally, Prem is an editor for the art journal Paper Monument and on the board of directors for Triple Canopy. In August, I visited Project Projects's office to talk with Prem about these range of projects. Over the course of the conversation, we talk about the relationship between design and writing, the role of authorship, the false divide between form and content, and the writers he's been enjoying lately. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

On this week's episode, I talk with Bryn Smith, a designer, writer, and editor based in New York City. Bryn is a graduate of SVA's Design Criticism MFA and the co-author of the new book, Twenty Over Eighty. We talk about her experience in SVA's program, what a design critic could do at major publications, and how to use design artifacts to write about larger cultural issues. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm

Khoi Vinh is currently Principle Designer at Adobe, Design Chair at Wildcard and co-founder of Kidpost and previously co-founded Mixel and was the design director of The New York Times online. Khoi's site, Subtraction.com, was one of the first blogs I started reading when I started designing over a decade ago and in this episode, I talk to him about how he started blogging, how writing has influenced his design career, and the the need for a more rigorous criticism around digital product design. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Armin Vit is the co-founder of Under Consideration with his wife Bryony Gomez-Palacio, the site behind popular blogs like Brand New, FPO, and SpeakUp. In this conversation, I talk to Armin about how he started writing, why he shut down SpeakUp in 2009, why everyone is critiquing logos now, and how social media is changing the design discourse. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

In my second conversation with Jessica Helfand — recorded earlier this month when Jessica was in Baltimore — we talk about Winterhouse (the studio she co-founded with William Drenttel), publishing, the role of design (and design criticism) in Trump's America, and what she's learned in her first semester teaching design at the Yale School of Management. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Jessica Helfand is a designer, writer, podcaster, and publisher. She cofounded Design Observer in 2002 with Rick Poynor, Michael Bierut, and William Drenttel and most recently wrote the book, Design: The Invention of Desire. In this episode, the first part of a two-part conversation, Jessica and I talk about the origins of Design Observer, how she started writing, writing about design in relationship to culture, and how emerging mediums like video and podcasts can provide a new platform for design criticism. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

David Reinfurt is a design polymath operating at the intersection of design, publishing, curation, and exhibitions. His studio, O-R-G, is now a small software company "that programs, publishes, and sells apps, websites, screensavers, and other small chunks of code". With Stuart Bailey, he's the co-founder of Dexter Sinister and with Bailey and Angie Keefer, he publishes The Serving Library. In July, I interviewed David about his work across mediums and how they intersect, the fluid boundaries of graphic design and the type of writing around design he enjoys the most. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Sara M. Watson is a technology critic and currently the writer in residence at Digital Asia Hub, a Research Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and an affiliate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Last month, she published Toward a Constructive Technology Criticism, a meta-critique of technology criticism that's very similar to what I'm thinking about with design criticism. In this episode, I talk to Sara about her piece and her thoughts on criticism, the similarities between writing about technology and design, and the role of criticism under a Trump presidency. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.