

AIGA Design Podcast
AIGA, the professional association for design
The official podcast feed of AIGA, the professional association for design. We explore various facets of the design discipline, profession, and industry to help our listeners learn about the past and present and prepare for the future. The theme of our 2024-2025 season is "Design and Performance."
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 9, 2023 • 6min
Hugh Dubberly on design as finding balance in systems and why problem solving is not enough
"Thinking of design as problem-solving is an improvement over thinking of design as art, but as we move into a world of systems, the idea of solving a problem may be replaced by the idea of finding balance in a system..."
This clip from Hugh Dubberly is from a never-before-released interview conducted in 2019 at NC State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hugh will be teaching a workshop on Generative AI for Designers with Shelley Evenson, managing director of Song at the AIGA Executive Leadership Summit (Alexandria, VA, March 12-14, 2023).
Learn more and sign up for the AIGA Executive Leadership Summit: https://www.aiga.org/design/design-conferences/aiga-executive-leadership-summit
More about Hugh: http://www.dubberly.com/about

Dec 5, 2022 • 38min
The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection with Anne H. Berry, Jennifer Rittner, and Kelly Walters (RECORDED LIVE in Seattle at the AIGA Design Conference)
The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection spotlights teaching practices, research, stories, and conversations from a Black/African diasporic lens.
Lee-Sean Huang, AIGA's director of design content and learning interviews editors Anne H. Berry, Jennifer Rittner, and Kelly Walters about the purpose, people, and processes behind the book. This episode was recorded live at the AIGA Design Conference in Seattle in October 2022.
Fast Company recently named The Black Experience in Design one of the best design books of 2022.

Nov 28, 2022 • 54min
FEED SWAP - Did I Do That? - The Surreal World with Lee-Sean Huang
While we are still on break from producing new content, we will continue cross-posting podcast episodes from the design community, and other audio content.
Last month at the AIGA Design Conference, Lee-Sean Huang, AIGA's Director of Design Content and Learning and the producer of our podcasts, had the chance to hang out with Sean Schumacher and record an episode called “The Surreal World” for Sean's podcast which is called “Did I Do That?”
“Did I Do That?” is a conversation-style podcast about doing design, making mistakes, and the fun we have along the way.
https://www.dididothat.design/episode/the-surreal-world-with-lee-sean-huang

Nov 7, 2022 • 42min
FEED SWAP - The Futures Archive S02E10: Automatic Door
AIGA has just wrapped our season of Design Adjacent. In the meantime, we will be posting some bonus materials to our feed while we figure out the future format of our shows. Our first feed swap is with The Futures Archive.
The Futures Archive is a podcast from Design Observer that looks at the history of human-centered design with a critical eye to its future. You can subscribe on Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcatcher.
On this episode, host Lee Moreau and co-host Sloan Leo discuss the automatic door, and how we can design thresholds of all kinds to be inviting to all people with additional insights from Laurent Stalder, Bess Williamson, Wendy Ju, and David Gissen.
You can view a complete transcript and find more information about this episode here.

Oct 25, 2022 • 25min
Design Adjacent with Shauna Carey, Chief Executive Officer, IDEO.org on gratitude, social impact, finding the best solutions, challenges, curving paths, and small steps to the future
Shauna Carey currently serves as Chief Executive Officer, leveraging her deep expertise in both design and social impact to oversee the strategy and vision for IDEO.org. Previously, in her role as Executive Design Director & Chief Communications Officer, Shauna worked alongside design teams and communities to surface insights to unlock new possibilities, create narratives that inspire action, and share stories about the impact of design. Over the past nine years at IDEO.org, Shauna has worked on projects and programs focused on advancing health equity, criminal justice reform, refugee rights, gender equality, and climate resilience. She also previously served as Managing Director and co-lead of our New York studio.
Prior to joining IDEO.org, Shauna worked to expand access to quality education and health care at organizations like Room to Read and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. She also helped launch and grow a number of mission-driven startups in Europe and the San Francisco Bay Area. A social scientist at heart, Shauna holds a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Outside of work, she’s happiest barefoot on a beach somewhere or at home in Brooklyn, where she can usually be found wandering around with a strong cup of coffee in hand.
About AIGA Design Adjacent
AIGA Design Adjacent is a monthly podcast series with AIGA’s Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with industry leaders who are innovating and designing the future. These conversations expand beyond the design community, encompassing industries and areas that intersect with design and shift the ways in which we think about and interact with each other and the world around us.
About Bennie F. Johnson
Bennie F. Johnson is the Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design. Bennie thrives on the connections between marketing, technology, education, and innovation. With experience in strategic and consumer marketing, brand management, and innovation management, he is drawn to opportunities that allow him to lead and create new modes for business engagement. He has broad experience growing brands, businesses, and organizations with a special focus on venture launch and brand relaunch business environments.

Oct 20, 2022 • 33min
Design Adjacent with Rebecca Tegtmeyer and Marty Maxwell Lane on collaboration, importance of seeing people in person, shared values and goals, and working through challenges
Our guests are authors of the book, “Collaboration in Design Education: Case Studies & Teaching Methodologies” which you can learn more about here: https://collabdesigned.com/.
Rebecca Tegtmeyer is a graphic design educator and practitioner. Through her active research, writing, making, and teaching agenda she investigates the role of a designer and the creative process through a variety of forms – from static to dynamic, time-based to print. Working both individually and collaboratively, she approaches design as a catalyst in facilitating systems that challenge and inspire – further extending the capabilities and responsibilities of a designer in today’s complex world. Current collaborative research projects focus on prioritizing the student experience and strengthening the values of design education. She is also examining the role of hand sewing in designing data visualizations that bring awareness to the economic inequities of motherhood.
Currently, Rebecca is an Associate Professor and the Associate Chairperson in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at Michigan State University. She teaches undergraduates and graduates in the areas of interaction design, motion design, typography, user experience, and branding design. She is an active contributor to both the BFA in Graphic Design and the BA in Experience Architecture degree programs.
Marty Maxwell Lane is a graphic design educator, maker, researcher, and writer. Her research focuses on design that facilitates learning and empowerment through investigations pertaining to design pedagogy, collaboration, and participatory design. Her active role in the design community has led her to present at competitive conferences in Cyprus, Berlin, London, Rome, Toronto, and the United States. Marty served as a regular contributor to the design magazine Parse (subsidiary of How magazine) and several other academic journals, magazines, and books such as Failing Forward and Type Rules! The Designer’s Guide to Professional Typography. As a long-time AIGA member, Marty has served on numerous boards, including as Director of Education for the Kansas City Chapter, Co-chair of the national AIGA Design Educators Steering Committee, and AIGA National Board Member. She is currently an advisor for the Northwest Arkansas Chapter.
Marty is currently an Associate Professor of Graphic Design in the School of Art at the University of Arkansas, where she also serves as the Director of the School. She specializes in human-centered design, design pedagogy, and leadership.
About AIGA Design Adjacent
AIGA Design Adjacent is a monthly podcast series with AIGA’s Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with industry leaders who are innovating and designing the future. These conversations expand beyond the design community, encompassing industries and areas that intersect with design and shift the ways in which we think about and interact with each other and the world around us.
About Bennie F. Johnson
Bennie F. Johnson is the Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design. Bennie thrives on the connections between marketing, technology, education, and innovation. With experience in strategic and consumer marketing, brand management, and innovation management, he is drawn to opportunities that allow him to lead and create new modes for business engagement. He has broad experience growing brands, businesses, and organizations with a special focus on venture launch and brand relaunch business environments.

10 snips
Oct 18, 2022 • 37min
Design Adjacent with Zachary Kaiser, Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Experience Architecture at Michigan State University on design and technology, privacy, and writing
Zachary Kaiser is Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Experience Architecture at Michigan State University, USA. His research and creative practice examine the politics of technology and the role of design in shaping the parameters of individual, social, and political possibility. His work has been featured in national and international exhibitions, and his writing, on topics ranging from the future of the arts in higher education to dream-reading technologies, appears in both scholarly and popular publications.
About AIGA Design Adjacent
AIGA Design Adjacent is a monthly podcast series with AIGA’s Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with industry leaders who are innovating and designing the future. These conversations expand beyond the design community, encompassing industries and areas that intersect with design and shift the ways in which we think about and interact with each other and the world around us.
About Bennie F. Johnson
Bennie F. Johnson is the Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design. Bennie thrives on the connections between marketing, technology, education, and innovation. With experience in strategic and consumer marketing, brand management, and innovation management, he is drawn to opportunities that allow him to lead and create new modes for business engagement. He has broad experience growing brands, businesses, and organizations with a special focus on venture launch and brand relaunch business environments.

Oct 13, 2022 • 44min
Design Adjacent with Camille Finan, Host and Producer of Remodel Your Life Podcast on false assumptions, finding allies in your space, over meeting expectations, and internalizing functionality
For more than 25 years, Camille Finan has been building kitchens and helping women create something beautiful. She started her journey in a rather unexpected way though. She was a business development consultant and taught marketing to graduate students in California, and while she loved helping people start and grow small businesses, she didn’t feel she had the chance to be very creative with her hands. She shut down her business and went back to the basics. She dug ditches and hung drywall in the beginning but slowly over time, she realized she really loved carpentry and joined the carpenters union. That led her down a path of exploring different kinds of carpentry, eventually falling in love with kitchens.
About AIGA Design Adjacent
AIGA Design Adjacent is a monthly podcast series with AIGA’s Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with industry leaders who are innovating and designing the future. These conversations expand beyond the design community, encompassing industries and areas that intersect with design and shift the ways in which we think about and interact with each other and the world around us.
About Bennie F. Johnson
Bennie F. Johnson is the Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design. Bennie thrives on the connections between marketing, technology, education, and innovation. With experience in strategic and consumer marketing, brand management, and innovation management, he is drawn to opportunities that allow him to lead and create new modes for business engagement. He has broad experience growing brands, businesses, and organizations with a special focus on venture launch and brand relaunch business environments.

Oct 11, 2022 • 37min
Design Adjacent with Paul Taylor, Chief Creative Officer and Founding Partner, BrandOpus on cracked eggs and iconic brands
Paul Taylor is the Chief Creative Officer and Founding Partner at global branding agency BrandOpus. Founded in 2007, BrandOpus creates meaningful and connected brand experience for some of the world's most revered brands. Fusing wisdom with wonderment, his role today is to lead all creative output across the London, New York, Chicago and Melbourne studios. Paul has served brand experience for a wide portfolio of brands including Nestlé, Kraft Heinz, McCain, Britvic and First Direct. His work has been recognized by the likes of D&AD, The Design Business Association, Pentawards and The Drum.
About AIGA Design Adjacent
AIGA Design Adjacent is a monthly podcast series with AIGA’s Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with industry leaders who are innovating and designing the future. These conversations expand beyond the design community, encompassing industries and areas that intersect with design and shift the ways in which we think about and interact with each other and the world around us.
About Bennie F. Johnson
Bennie F. Johnson is the Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design. Bennie thrives on the connections between marketing, technology, education, and innovation. With experience in strategic and consumer marketing, brand management, and innovation management, he is drawn to opportunities that allow him to lead and create new modes for business engagement. He has broad experience growing brands, businesses, and organizations with a special focus on venture launch and brand relaunch business environments.

Oct 6, 2022 • 36min
Design Adjacent with Chris Hervochon, Better Way CPA, virtual CFO for marketing and creative agencies and nonprofit organizations
On this episode of AIGA Design Adjacent…Moving from hobby to work, taking advantage of the experts in your corner, value of a business coach, investing in yourself, making data work for you, and being helpful with Chris Hervochon, Better Way CPA, Virtual CFO for marketing and creative agencies and nonprofit organizations
Chris Hervochon, CPA, CVA is the sole proprietor of his CPA firm. Chris Hervochon provides outsourced accounting and tax preparation for small businesses and individuals. Before starting his own CPA firm, Chris spent ten years between forensic accounting and corporate accounting and finance. He has been featured in publications such as the Journal of Accountancy, Accounting Today, AMEX Open Forum, Parakeeto Podcast, The Agency Management Institute Podcast and the Digital Marketing Agency Builders Podcast for his industry knowledge and accounting expertise.
Chris' passion for the accounting and finance industry is evident by a number of extra-curricular programs. He volunteers as a committee member of the AICPA Young Member Leadership Committee, and lead of the Retention Task Force. Chris is a member of the Business & Industry and Government Affairs Committees, as well as the CPE Facility Task Force of the South Carolina Association of CPAs.
About AIGA Design Adjacent
AIGA Design Adjacent is a monthly podcast series with AIGA’s Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with industry leaders who are innovating and designing the future. These conversations expand beyond the design community, encompassing industries and areas that intersect with design and shift the ways in which we think about and interact with each other and the world around us.
About Bennie F. Johnson
Bennie F. Johnson is the Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design. Bennie thrives on the connections between marketing, technology, education, and innovation. With experience in strategic and consumer marketing, brand management, and innovation management, he is drawn to opportunities that allow him to lead and create new modes for business engagement. He has broad experience growing brands, businesses, and organizations with a special focus on venture launch and brand relaunch business environments.