Interviews

Insights from the best across:

Book design | business of design | craft | criticism | design education | history | inclusion | music | social design | tech + everything inbetween

Book design

Gail Anderson. Creative director of Visual Arts Press at the School of Visual Arts and a partner at Anderson Newton Design. She has taught at SVA for close to thirty years and is co-author of fifteen books on graphic design, illustration, and typography with Steven Heller.

Anna Gerber. Co-founder of London-based Visual Editions and editionsatplay.com with Google Creative Lab in Sydney.

Jennifer 8. Lee. Co-founder and CEO of Plympton, a San Francisco-based literary studio that innovates in digital publishing.

Joan Wong. Book cover designer and illustrator. She has designed book covers for Penguin, Random House, Alfred A. Knopf, Farrar Straus and Giroux, New Directions, Simon and Schuster, and Harper Collins.

Business of design

Arthur Cohen. CEO and co-founder of LaPlaca Cohen and lecturer at Stanford University.

Randy J. Hunt. Designer, creative director, and writer. Formerly Head of Design at Artsy and Vice President of Design at Etsy.

Grace Jun. Executive Director at Open Style Lab (OSL) and Assistant Professor of Fashion at Parsons School of Design.

Margaret Gould Stewart. Vice-President of Product Design at Facebook.

Craft

Celene Aubrey. Associate Director and Manager at Hatch Show Print, the iconic Nashville letterpress print shop.

Melissa Deckert + Nicole Licht. Co-founders of collaborative creative studio Party of One.

Karin Fong. Emmy-award winning designer and director. A founding member of Imaginary Forces, she works at the intersection of live-action, design, and animation.

Victor Melendez. Art director, graphic designer, and illustrator based in Seattle; formerly Starbucks Creative Studio.

Criticism

Andrew Blauvelt. Curator-at-large for design at the Museum of Art and Design. Director of the Cranbrook Art Museum.

Molly Heintz. Chair of the MA program in Design Research, Writing & Criticism at the School of Visual Arts, and the editor in chief of Oculus.

Jamer Hunt. Vice Provost for Transdisciplinary Initiatives at The New School. Visiting Design Researcher at the Institute of Design in Umea, Sweden.

Alice Twemlow. Research Professor at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK), Associate Professor in Artistic Research at Leiden University, and head of the Design Curating & Writing Master at Design Academy Eindhoven, NL.

Design education

Zachary Lieberman. Co-founder of the School for Poetic Computation. Artist, researcher, and educator.

Paul Pangaro. Chair and Associate Professor of the MFA Interaction Design program at the College for Creative Studies.

Dori Tunstall. Dean of the Faculty of Design at OCAD University. Design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate.

History

Sean Adams. Acting Chair of the Graphic Design Program at ArtCenter.

Elysia Borowy-Reeder.  Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Steven Heller. Co-chair and co-founder of the SVA MFA Design / Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program. Art director at the New York Times for 33 years.

Alexander Tochilovksy. Curator of the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography at the Cooper Union. Graphic designer, typographer, curator, and educator.

Inclusion

Julian Alexander. Founder of Brooklyn-based design studio Slang Inc.

Rhea Combs. Curator of photography and film at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Ced Funches. Art director and founder of Schooold. Formerly Vox Media, NBA, Minnesota Timberwolves.

Dian Holton. Deputy art director at AARP.

Deva Pardue. Design Director at The Wing, a network of co-working and community spaces for Women. Formerly, Pentagram.

Lindsay Peoples. Fashion market editor of The Cut, New York magazine’s site for women, where she writes about fashion, race, and culture.

Jason Murphy. Creative director and speaker. Formerly Brand Design Director at Nike.

Music

Lawrence Azerrad. Grammy award winning graphic designer and creative director. His graphic design studio LADdesign has worked with clients such as Sting, Esperanza Spalding, Wilco, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and more.

Emily Batson. Stylist and costume designer, most recently for musician St. Vincent.

Frank Ockenfels III. Photographer who has worked across music, TV, and film—shooting artists such as David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Willie Nelson, Wilco, and many more; and tv + film such as Madmen, American Horror Story, Blade Runner 2049, Assassins Creed, Harry Potter, Jason Bourne, and more.

Paul Moore. Senior Creative Director at Capitol Music Group.

Social design

Dana Chisnell. Co-Executive Director of the Center for Civic Design and Professor of Design in Government at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Toni L. Griffin. Professor in Practice of Urban Planning at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, founder of Design for the Just City, and founder of Urban Planning for the American City.

Chelsea Mauldin. Social scientist and designer with a focus on government innovation. Director of Public Policy Lab.

Tech

Briana Como. Interim Design Manager & Lead UX Visual Designer at 3M Design Health Care Business Group.

Sarah Doody. New York City-based user experience designer and founder of The UX Notebook, a weekly newsletter that helps people learn to think like a designer.

Jessica Gaddis. Product designer within Studio Engineering team at Netflix.

Richard Ting. Global Chief Experience Officer and US Chief Creative Officer at R/GA.