AIGA Design Podcast

AIGA Executive Director Bennie F. Johnson talks with today's leaders in design, business, and technology, focused around the topics of leadership growth, the future of work, and creating a culture of design. Join us in welcoming Theresa Fitzgerald, Vice President of Creative at Sesame Workshop. Theresa Fitzgerald is vice president creative at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street. She leads the in-house Brand Creative Services team dedicated to the mission of helping kids grow stronger, smarter and kinder. Fitzgerald has spent more than 25 years developing creative to entertain, educate and engage young minds. Prior to Sesame, she oversaw design and branding vision at Nickelodeon, Snoopy & Peanuts, Scholastic and National Geographic. She is an adjunct professor at New York University/Steinhart teaching design; an educational team member at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum supporting Design in the Classroom, and has been a guest speaker at New York University, School of Visual Arts, AIGA New York City, Parsons The New School, Cooper Hewitt Family Day, Rochester Institute of Technology and Brand New Conference. Fitzgerald is committed to problem solving, mind-evolving and boiling it down to the essence of the big idea with humor and delight. Watch the captioned video version of this Fireside Chat here: https://www.aiga.org/inspiration/talks/theresa-fitzgerald-fireside-chat-with-theresa-fitzgerald

AIGA Executive Director Bennie F. Johnson talks with today's leaders in design, business, and technology, focused around the topics of leadership growth, the future of work, and creating a culture of design. Join us in welcoming Randy J. Hunt, Head of Design at Grab, where he leads a team of designers, writers, engineers, and researchers who create Southeast Asia’s Super App. He has served as Head of Design at Artsy and VP of Design at Etsy. In 2014, Etsy was honored with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Corporate & Institutional Achievement. Randy is the author of Product Design for the Web, which explores the evolving discipline of product design for today’s connected world. He is an active writer, lecturer, critic, and visiting designer at many colleges and universities.  https://www.randyjhunt.com/  Watch the captioned video version of this interview here: https://www.aiga.org/inspiration/talks/randy-hunt-fireside-chat-with-randy-hunt

AIGA Executive Director Bennie F. Johnson talks with today's leaders in design, business, and technology, focused around the topics of leadership growth, the future of work, and creating a culture of design. Join us in welcoming Alex Center, Owner of CENTER, a branding and design studio in Brooklyn, NY. Prior to opening his own studio, Alex worked for over a decade for The Coca-Cola Company where he led the strategy and design vision for the billion dollar beverage brands vitaminwater, smartwater and POWERADE. Over the years, Alex has designed packaging that has been in hands across the globe, created breakthrough marketing campaigns and launched innovative new products. https://center.design/ Watch the captioned video version of this interview here: https://www.aiga.org/inspiration/talks/alex-center-fireside-chat-with-alex-center 

In this previously live-streamed episode of Design Future Now , host Lee-Sean Huang has a conversation with Robert Smith about mentorship, coaching, running an agency, and more. Robert Smith is a creative director, agency owner, author, creative coach, professor and founding member of RGD (Association of Registered Graphic Designers). After 30 years in the creative industry, Rob is as inspired, driven and energized as he was the day he started his career. Through Think-Smith, Rob’s helps other designers and design teams feel the same way with workshops, coaching and strategies. Pre-order Robert’s new book Stop Looking For Zebras on the Think-Smith site here: https://www.think-smith.com/stoplookingforzebras Watch the captioned video version of the interview here: https://www.aiga.org/inspiration/talks/robert-smith-design-future-live-with-robert-smith 

On this episode of AIGA Design Adjacent… Terry Irwin is a professor in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University and the Director of its Transition Design Institute. From 2009 until 2019, she was the Head of the School of Design, where she led the faculty in a redesign of curricula at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels to place design for society and the environment at the heart of all programs. In this episode of the AIGA Design Adjacent, Bennie Johnson talks with Terry about wicked problems, shifting our mindsets, waking up the knowledge we already have, and tango. About Terry Irwin Terry Irwin is a Professor in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University and the Director of its Transition Design Institute. From 2009 until 2019 she was the Head of the School of Design, where she led the faculty in a redesign of curricula at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels to place design for society and the environment at the heart of all programs. In 2003 Terry briefly left the field of design and moved to Devon, England to undertake a master’s Degree in Holistic Science at Schumacher College/Plymouth University, with the goal of learning to design in a more sustainable and socially responsible way. After completing her master’s degree, Terry joined the faculty at Schumacher College and taught design to students from diverse backgrounds such as biology, ecology, physics, sociology and activism. In 2007 she moved to Scotland to undertake doctoral studies at the Centre for the Study of Natural Design at the University of Dundee. Since completing those studies, Terry’s efforts have been directed toward seeding and  catalyzing positive, systems-level change within design education and practice. Her recent  work has focused on making the tools and approaches used by designers available to  transdisciplinary teams working to address complex, systems problems. In 2015, along with co-creators Gideon Kossoff and Cameron Tonkinwise, Terry launched Transition  Design, a new area of design focus aimed at addressing wicked problems and catalyzing societal transitions toward more sustainable, equitable and desirable long-term futures. 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.

In this special edition of Design Future Now, host Lee-Sean Huang has a conversation with Studio HMVD partners Heather-Mariah Dixon and Abigail Kerns about their branding and content production studio, creative appropriation, navigating permissions and licensing for creative content, and more. Studio HMVD http://studiohmvd.com/ Watch the video version of this episode here: https://www.aiga.org/inspiration/talks/heather-mariah-dixon-abigail-kerns-design-future-now-with-studio-hmvd   Links to professionals mentioned in the show: Ro & Co studio: https://www.roandcostudio.com/ Noemie Le Coz: http://www.noemielecoz.com/ Leandro Assis http://lebassis.com/ Verena Michelitsch: https://verenamichelitsch.com/ Tyler Mitchell https://www.tylermitchell.co/ Vocal Type (Tré Seals) https://www.vocaltype.co/ Jon Henry: https://www.jonhenryphotography.com/#1 Party of One Studio: https://partyofone.studio/ Samendinger Law (Studio HMVD's lawyer): https://www.samendinger.law/

Isaiah Steinfeld is a proven startup veteran and innovation leader with the unique ability to deeply empathize with the user/customer while creating a big product vision. In the entrepreneurial space, he focuses on innovation capability that helps identify, develop, and invest in new future-focused opportunities. In this episode of AIGA Design Adjacent, Bennie Johnson talks with Isaiah about entrepreneurship, mentorship, and the future of design. About Isaiah Steinfeld Isaiah Steinfeld has successfully built, launched, and scaled disruptive products and businesses (Lyft, Intuit Workforce) for over a decade. Steinfeld most recently participated in the On Deck Founder Fellowship program, researching and building in the early stages of his next startup. Before On Deck, Steinfeld held a leadership role as a Digital Product Leader and Entrepreneur at Nike inside their Advanced Innovation division: Valiant Labs, where he led global exploration around emerging technologies like AI/ML, IoT, XR, and Blockchain and founded new business ventures/startups to help create the future of sport and commerce for Nike. In addition to leading and growing companies, Isaiah publicly speaks and writes about innovation, design, and technology. He is also actively involved in the tech community serving as a mentor, advisor, and investor with various startups, funds, and early-stage accelerators (TechStars, Berkeley Blockchain, MIT Technology Review, and more) focused primarily on early and growth-stage companies in the software and emerging tech space. 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.

Join host Lee-Sean Huang for an interview show about how the design industry is changing as a discipline and opportunities this creates for the design community. In this episode, we will be talking with Pek Pongpaet about design entrepreneurship, mentorship, and more. This episode originally aired as a livestream on November 17, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=180uN44_vbI Pek Pongpaet is the founder of Impekable, a digital product studio that helps enterprise and B2B SaaS companies create better products through user experience design. Impekable has designed and created products for X, Alphabet's moonshot factory, Adobe, Twilio, Pentair, two startups acquired by Palo Alto Networks. Impekable has been recognized as one of America's fastest growing businesses on the Inc. 5000 list 3 times in a row. Prior to Impekable, Pek designed and developed next generation user interfaces at Accenture Technology Labs' HCI group, and created interactive experiences for clients including Tesla and USAF at digital agency Roundarch Isobar. Pek loves helping startups and is a product mentor at accelerators and incubators including TechStars, 1871, and Bosch's Chicago Connectory. Pek also has a design podcast called What is UX where he interviews design leaders from companies such as Tesla, Netflix and Youtube on the topic of user experience design. https://www.impekable.com/  https://whatisux.co/

Join AIGA's Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with Art Taylor, President and CEO of BBB Wise Giving Alliance (https://give.org/). This Giving Tuesday Fireside Chat isn’t just about giving money; it’s about giving time, space, and recognition to those who are and have been systemically underrepresented in design. Bennie and Art will discuss the need for an allied vision set on supporting and magnifying new perspectives that have otherwise been shadowed by the majority.  This conversation originally aired as a livestream on Monday, November 22. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIsctkAhfmk

Nicole Belyna, SHRM-SCP is a field services director at SHRM and possesses more than 15 years in human resources, specializing talent management and leadership. In this episode of The ReStart from AIGA, Nicole and host Lee-Sean Huang talk about HR lessons learned from the first year and a half of the pandemic and ways for people managers to adapt and lead their teams forward.  Download the SHRM report referenced in the episode here: https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/people-managers/Pages/2020-lessons-learned.aspx This episode was originally published as a video recording on AIGA.org. You can watch the captioned video here: https://www.aiga.org/inspiration/talks/nicole-belyna-restart-with-nicole-belyna