This clip is a preview of our upcoming AIGA Design Podcast with Robert Brunner, Chief Designer at Beats by Dre and Founder and ⁠Partner at Ammunition⁠. With over 40 years of experience, Brunner began his career at Apple when the company did not yet have a design team. He later became a partner at Pentagram before founding his own design studio.

The full episode with Robert Brunner, which also happens to be our season finale, comes out on September 17, 2024.

In this episode of the AIGA Design Podcast, host Lee-Sean Huang interviews Jenn Stucker, Associate Professor and Chair of Graphic Design at Bowling Green State University. They discuss the importance of community engagement in design, the expanding definition of design as a profession, the role of design communities like AIGA in career development and standard setting, and more.

Key Topics and Themes:

• Community Engagement in Design: Stucker shares her experiences incorporating community engagement into her design practice, including co-founding the AIGA Toledo chapter and leading community-based projects like “You Are Here” and “Sit & Tell.”
• Expanding Definition of Design: The conversation explores how design is more than just creating visually appealing products. It’s about improving everyday lives through experiences and behaviors.
• Design Education: Stucker discusses her approach to teaching design, emphasizing the importance of developing mindful individuals who can engage with the social, cultural, and technological world.
• Design Leadership: As one of the first designers to complete the AIGA Professional Design Certification Program, Stucker shares insights on design leadership and the value of professional development.
• The Value of Design Communities: The episode highlights the importance of design communities like AIGA in fostering collaboration, providing resources, and advocating for the value of design.
• Design and Cultural Change: Stucker emphasizes the role of design in creating cultural shifts and making a positive impact on society, even through incremental changes.
• Design and Higher Education: The discussion touches on the lack of high-level administrators with design backgrounds in higher education and the potential for designers to contribute to solving challenges in this sector.
• Ethics in Design: The episode briefly addresses the ethical considerations in design, particularly in the context of emerging technologies like AI.
• Learning and Growth: Stucker shares her ongoing learning journey through her Ph.D. studies and her participation in the AIGA Professional Design Certification Program.

Additional Notes:

• Reflecting her family's cultural heritage, Stucker named her design practice Sisu Design, a Finnish word meaning “guts,” “tenacity,” or “resilience.”
• The episode references the “In the Round” speaker series at Bowling Green State University, which focuses on Native American and Indigenous speakers across various creative disciplines.
• Stucker shares a quote from Gloria Steinem, “Power can be taken but not given. It is the process of taking that’s empowerment in itself.”
• The episode concludes with Stucker reflecting on her advice to designers: “Start small but think big.”

On the next episode of the AIGA Design Podcast, guest Sarah Doody discusses applying product design principles to your career, crafting a career roadmap, and more. Full episode release: March 18, 2024.

🤝 Sarah Doody is the founder of Career Strategy Lab, a program that helps UX and product professionals at all career stages navigate their job search and articulate their skills and experience through individualized and group coaching. She is also the host of the Career Strategy Lab podcast.

Topics include:

1️⃣ Crafting a career roadmap: Discover the value of setting short and long-term goals to guide your professional journey.

2️⃣ Building your compass statement: Learn how to articulate your vision and filter opportunities that align with your career aspirations.

3️⃣ The power of anti-networking: Explore strategies for building meaningful relationships and standing out in a crowded job market.

Community centered design strategist Sloan Leo chats with Lee-Sean Huang about community building as design practice and the intersections of social innovation and justice. Sloan is director of social innovation at The Vaid Group, designer in residence at MFA Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts, and a board member of AIGA New York. 

https://sloanleo.com/

Paul Pangaro, Professor of Practice at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute talks with Lee-Sean Huang of AIGA about design for conversation and design as conversation. How might designing better conversations lead to richer, more ethical interactions between humans and artificial intelligence? 

https://hcii.cmu.edu/people/paul-pangaro

https://www.pangaro.com/

Episode transcript: https://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/design-future-now/episode-6/

Join us for the 20th AIGA Design Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 30 to April 1, 2020.  For more information and to register for the conference, visit https://designconference.aiga.org/

AIGA, the professional association for design, advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest and most influential community of design advocates, AIGA brings together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and creates the vision for a collective future. AIGA defines global standards and ethical practices, guides design education, inspires designers and the public, enhances professional development, and makes powerful tools and resources accessible to all. 

Follow @AIGAdesign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

We hear from an educator and a student who are researching, teaching, and practicing design in an age of data and disruption. Professor Deb Littlejohn demystifies the buzzword "Big Data" and explains why she has her students tell lies with data. MFA student, Randa Hadi opens up about her hopes and fears for the design profession and how she's facing the future head on.

Deborah Littlejohn is a design researcher and educator, developing coursework in graphic design history, design research methods, and graduate studios. By examining the tools and technologies through which people experience design, Dr. Littlejohn’s work is guided by questions addressing the relationship between visual communications, new information environments, data literacy, and the ability of people understand, learn, and take action. https://design.ncsu.edu/staff/deborah-littlejohn/

Randa Hadi is a designer, researcher, and architect by training. She is a visual thinker with an interest in bridging the gap between architecture and graphic design by creating spatial experiences in both the physical and digital world. https://randahadi.com/

Are you a designer curious about working in healthcare? Or you already work in healthcare and are curious about the value of design to improve patient and provider experiences? Kim Erwin shares her wisdom and insights about the role of design and designers in the healthcare multi-system.  

Transcript: https://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/design-future-now/episode-4/

Kim Erwin, MDes, is Associate Director of the Program for Healthcare Delivery Design at the University of Illinois Chicago, and research professor at the UIC School of Design. As Associate Director, Kim works with the UI Health System, other research-oriented health systems, and design strategists to apply design methods to healthcare delivery. Together, they work to align evidence-based interventions with human behavior in order to accelerate adoption by patients and clinical staff. Kim's work leverages systems planning, human-centered research, broad stakeholder engagement and immersive communication to engage organizations in achievable next steps. Prior to joining UIC, Kim was an Associate Professor at IIT’s Institute of Design and Director of its Center for Collaborative Healthcare Design.

Kim's focus on merging the design and health sciences builds on 20 years of professional expertise in contextual field research methods, qualitative analytics, communication design to make complex information easier to understand and use. Kim has also been an educator for over ten years, focused on the formalization of communication methods to build, engage and lead teams through discovery processes. Today she teaches design methods to healthcare professionals through executive education, helping them apply design methods to delivery and quality challenges, such as patient discharge effectiveness and provider-to-provider communication to improve care transitions.

AIGA, the professional association for design, advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest and most influential community of design advocates, AIGA brings together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and creates the vision for a collective future. AIGA defines global standards and ethical practices, guides design education, inspires designers and the public, enhances professional development, and makes powerful tools and resources accessible to all. Learn more at aiga.org/about.

Join us for the 20th AIGA Design Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 30 to April 1, 2020. For more information and registration, visit designconference.aiga.org.

Follow @AIGAdesign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

"So, how is that design?!" Miya Osaki and Tina Park, founders of Diagram Design, educators at the School of Visual Arts, and podcasters at Yah No Podcast talk with Lee-Sean Huang about the urgent need for design in healthcare and their unconventional paths to getting to where they are now. 

Transcript: https://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/design-future-now/episode-3/

Miya brings her skills in interaction design, human-centered research, storytelling, and behavior design to create experiences that improve outcomes and empower patients. Prior to founding Diagram, Miya served as Director of Experience Design at Johnson & Johnson's Global Strategic Design Office where she created innovative solutions for patients managing chronic conditions. She has received patients and awards for device designs and interfaces for people living with diabetes. She is the pioneer recipient of a Design Matters Fellowship with the UNICEF Innovation team. Miya was recently appointed as Chair to MFA Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts.

Miya earned an MFA from Art Center College of Design, Media Design Program and a BA in Printmaking and Art History, UC Santa Cruz. She has received 2 patents and awards for her blood glucose meter UI designs.

Tina has had significant experience in leading innovative research within healthcare organizations. At Johnson & Johnson's Global Strategic Design Office she pioneered a design research team implementing innovative research methods that uncover the voice of the patient. She has also held research posts at Stanford University Hospital working on Project HealthDesign – a grant funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation on Diabetes management. She has served as an adjunct instructor in The School of Visual Arts’ master’s program, Design for Social Innovation.

Tina holds a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MFA from Art Center College of Design. Her work has been published in several textbooks and international journals.

AIGA, the professional association for design, advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest and most influential community of design advocates, AIGA brings together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and creates the vision for a collective future. AIGA defines global standards and ethical practices, guides design education, inspires designers and the public, enhances professional development, and makes powerful tools and resources accessible to all. Learn more at aiga.org/about.

Join us for the 20th AIGA Design Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 30 to April 1, 2020. For more information and registration, visit designconference.aiga.org.

Follow @AIGAdesign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Jack Roberts talks to AIGA's Lee-Sean Huang about design, storytelling, leadership, and more. 

Episode transcript: https://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/design-future-now/episode-2/

Jack Roberts is the founder and chief executive of storylab® the global narrativedesign® firm dedicated to transforming the human story. Through storylab® Jack consults Global Top 100s and Fortune 50 companies on narrative design®, storytelling, data synthesis, innovation, change design, communication design, media design, strategic design, business design, creative leadership and leading creatives. He is the inventor of the narrativedesign® framework which is a unique blend of design thinking and storytelling. storylab® uses the framework to transform cultures and build innovative stories in every sector. Additionally, they are using it in the development of original content in global markets from the upcoming traditional TV series, Dadless, to a slate of feature films, as well as new forms of narrative altogether.  

As a storyteller, Jack is the bestselling author of more than 20 books, including Echo Designs Her Way Out of a Paper Bag: How to Change Anything Using Design Thinking (+ Storytelling!). He is a published poet, and the award-winning author of more than 10 screenplays. He is also an award-winning actor, producer, and production designer in feature film and television with 23 international awards to date. As a designer, Jack creates and facilitates experiencs, education, media, product development, brand identity, narratives, scenario work and change for global firms, national restaurants, entrepreneurs, subject matter experts, and educational institutions.  

Jack is a first-gen graduate, a tribal citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a member of SAG/AFTRA/WGA/PGA/DGA, sits on two non-profit boards, and holds a Global Executive Masters in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons School of Design in Paris. He teaches design, management, and storytelling during the summer at the Parsons School of Design in New York.

AIGA, the professional association for design, advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest and most influential community of design advocates, AIGA brings together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and creates the vision for a collective future. AIGA defines global standards and ethical practices, guides design education, inspires designers and the public, enhances professional development, and makes powerful tools and resources accessible to all. 

Join us for the 20th AIGA Design Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 30 to April 1, 2020. For more information and registration, visit designconference.aiga.org.

Follow @AIGAdesign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Sarah Gibbons, Chief Designer, Nielsen Norman Group, and Jodi Forlizzi, Professor and Geschke Director, HCII, Carnegie Mellon University, talk to Lee-Sean Huang about their work and how they have applied and expanded their expertise in communication design to the wider context of services and systems. 

Both Sarah and Jodi are scheduled to speak at the 20th AIGA Design Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 30 to April 1, 2020.  For more information and to register for the conference, visit designconference.aiga.org.

Transcript: www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/design-future-now/episode-1/

About AIGA
AIGA, the professional association for design, advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest and most influential community of design advocates, AIGA brings together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and creates the vision for a collective future. AIGA defines global standards and ethical practices, guides design education, inspires designers and the public, enhances professional development, and makes powerful tools and resources accessible to all. Learn more at aiga.org/about. 

Follow @AIGAdesign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Season 1 Trailer Transcript  Tina Park: When we explain something like this, people say, "so how is that design?" Lee-Sean Huang: Maybe that should be the name of the podcast, "So How Is That Design? Jack Roberts: It's really an identity crisis. We had this shared struggle, this shared identity of designers against the world, and struggling for their say at the table and really working very hard for it. But it's not that different than so many other social movements. Jodi Forlizzi: We are no longer designing one thing, but we're designing systems of interconnected services, people, and resources. That means that designers really need to shift the way that they think and the way that they design. Sarah Gibbons: We can create culture, and businesses can start to embed design at a strategy level. We haven't even started to see the effects of what that can mean for the products we create and the businesses that become. Lee-Sean Huang: How is design changing as a discipline and profession and how do we face these challenges and opportunities as a community? We explore these questions and more on Design Future Now from AIGA, the professional association for design. Jack Roberts: I am a little bit cowboy and a little bit Indian. I'm both Cherokee Native American and also grew up in the Wild West of Oklahoma, a place not many people venture out of, to places like New York or Los Angeles or Paris, where I spend most of my time. Growing up in the Cherokee nation, the way that I did, moving around as much as I did and reinventing myself constantly, I started to notice these patterns. And really to me, design is ultimately about finding the insights of patterning and clustering and pulling those out and weaving them together into something that's meaningful. It's really about meaning-making, and storytelling is essentially the same thing. It's the vehicle that allows us to make meaning. I have a queue of over a hundred websites I've designed that I'll never do anything with simply because it's my stress relief. And I think that the stories that I tell ultimately have a real design through-line. Miya Osaki: With tech and healthcare right now, it is at a breakneck speed. And we're not sure if the right things are getting designed. And we may not know that, but now's the opportunity for designers to get involved, to try to influence that. To get to the areas that we want to impact in healthcare, we really have to think about what are patients doing. What are doctors doing? How do we want them to do things differently in the future? We want to improve the experience for cancer patients, or we want to change a conversation between a patient and a doctor. And that's really different than saying we're going to redesign the signage in an emergency room. We think it's a shift to defined our space before implementation because you really have to focus on the needs of users, and that's what design does best. But in healthcare, if you don't do that very early in the process, you kind of lose your window of opportunity. Email: podcast@aiga.org // Leave us a voicemail: https://anchor.fm/designfuturenow And stay in touch on social media: https://www.instagram.com/designfuturenow/ https://twitter.com/designfuturenow https://www.facebook.com/designfuturenow

When we explain something like this, people say, "so how is that design?" Maybe that should be the name of the podcast, "So How Is That Design? It's really an identity crisis. We had this shared struggle, this shared identity of designers against the world, and struggling for their say at the table and really working very hard for it. But it's not that different than so many other social movements. We are no longer designing one thing, but we're designing systems of interconnected services, people, and resources. That means that designers really need to shift the way that they think and the way that they design. We can create culture, and businesses can start to embed design at a strategy level. We haven't even started to see the effects of what that can mean for the products we create and the businesses that become. How is design changing as a discipline and profession and how do we face these challenges and opportunities as a community? We explore these questions and more on Design Future Now from AIGA, the professional association for design.

Has design research hit a plateau?

In this episode, Danny Spitzberg and Humphrey Obuobi, two design researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Lee-Sean Huang, senior director of learning and programs at AIGA delve into the challenges and explore the gap between personal and professional learning in design research.

Topics include:

1. the value of co-design catchphrases and why they keep resurfacing

2. the challenges and rewards of collaborating with marginalized communities on designing solutions that address their needs

3. how design and policy can intersect more effectively to address social challenges and promote equity

🔍 Danny Spitzberg, a user research expert in the cooperative economy, co-founded the Workers’ Algorithm Observatory. He sheds light on auditing algorithms for workers and allies, advocating for concrete improvements in digital technology standards.

🔍 Humphrey Obuobi, founder of LETS Studio, focuses on building infrastructure for a healthier democracy. A student-researcher with UC Berkeley’s Possibility Lab, Humphrey is dedicated to local, community-powered social innovation.

📖 Read Danny and Humphrey's Q&A article published on AIGA.org

🙋 LETS Studio, Humphrey's professional practice, invites collaborations and volunteers at letsstudio.org.

🔬 The Workers’ Algorithm Observatory advocates for algorithmic accountability; explore their studies at wao.cs.princeton.edu.

📫 Subscribe to AIGA newsletters for the latest podcast and content news.

Preview clip of our upcoming episode with Danny Spitzberg and Humphrey Obuobi on Why Design Research is Stuck. Full episode release on February 20, 2024.

Designing success outside the lines – AIGA's 2024 journey begins at the margins.

Welcome to the first episode of the 2024 season of the AIGA Design Podcast! Join Lee-Sean Huang, senior director of learning and programs at AIGA, as he explores the theme "MARGINS" and sets the stage for an exciting year of AIGA Design programming.

🎟️ Register for the Yale BPCL Open House webinar.

📚 Learn more about the AIGA Professional Design Certification.

🏆 Learn more and enter AIGA Design Competitions.

📫 Subscribe to AIGA newsletters for the latest podcast and content news.

Want to join us as a guest on a future show? Fill out this form here.

Listen to the full interview with Colton Schweitzer, co-founder of Kickass UX here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aigadesign/episodes/Colton-Schweitzer-on-Kickass-UX-e2ci2ke

Use code AIGA75 for $75 off your first month of ⁠Kickass UX's UX/UI Expert course

In this episode Colton Schweitzer, co-founder of Kickass UX and Lee-Sean Huang, senior director of learning and programs at AIGA talk about:

• How Banksy inspired Colton to get into graphic design 
• How creating a board game introduced Colton to UX and landed him a job 
• The differences between a design bootcamp and a college degree program  
• How to identify and address common gaps in UX design education
• How recent design graduates can make their portfolios stand out and some hope for current UX job seekers
• What makes the Kickass UX program different and how graduates of the program have found success
• Why graphic designers should learn UX even if they aren’t planning a career pivot 
• How can designers overcome subjectivity when dealing with stakeholders 
• What are the  “Treasure Map” and “Kung Fu Master” metaphors for the UX process and how do they make you a more powerful designer with a “why skillset”
• How Colton applies UX principles to designing the pedagogy and business model for his venture, Kickass UX
• And more! 

Use code AIGA75 for $75 off your first month of Kickass UX's UX/UI Expert course

AIGA's Design Futures research referenced in the episode

Colton's cartoon alter ego, ⁠Kitty AF⁠ recently released a holiday book How the Cat Ruined Christmas

Irish Bouzouki clip by PhotoCapeBreton via Pixabay 

This is the final episode of 2023. Happy holidays! See you next year.

Maigen Thomas is a senior UX designer, career switcher, and "Maven of Mentoring" for fellow UI/UX bootcamp graduates. In this episode, Maigen and Lee-Sean discuss leveraging life experiences into design, what to do in the first 30 days of a new job to set yourself up for success, gamification, and more!

Maigen's Real World Experience Workshop:  https://maigenux.gumroad.com/l/real-world-exp-workshop

Octalysis Prime: https://join.octalysisprime.com

Debbie Millman interviews Pentagram partners Emily Oberman, Giorgia Lupi, Marina Willer, Natasha Jen, and Paula Scher. Recorded LIVE at the 2023 AIGA Design Conference in New York City!

What is your designer archetype? Are you a generalist, strategist, researcher, architect, artist, author, or design operations person? How does knowing your archetype help you progress in your career? We discuss these archetypes and more in the full episode of the AIGA Design Podcast with Steven Steiner: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aigadesign/episodes/Steven-Steiner-on-designer-archetypes--career-coaching--and-communicating-your-value-e29h0h4

Steven Steiner is a Career Coach for Designers who helps them get what they want next with the right levels of industry knowledge, rigor, and moral support.

What is your designer archetype? Are you a generalist, strategist, researcher, architect, artist, author, or design operations person? How does knowing your archetype help you progress in your career? We discuss these archetypes and more in this episode of the AIGA Design Podcast with our guest Steven Steiner.

Steven Steiner is a Career Coach for Designers who helps them get what they want next with the right levels of industry knowledge, rigor, and moral support.

Steven’s career achievements include 15+ years as an award-winning designer, manager, and educator. He’s held roles in-house, start-up, and agency teams for international and regional brands where he delivered results for TV, kiosk, responsive web, and mobile experiences.

Now, he wants to help YOU reach YOUR career goals.

Visit careercoachfordesigners.com to learn more about how Steven can help you right now and join the Career Community for Designers that he hosts on Slack. 

Connect with Steven on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevensteiner/

Full episode coming August 12, 2024

Jenn Stucker, Associate Professor and Chair of Graphic Design at Bowling Green State University: "As a person that chairs my program, I often have to meet with prospective students and their parents. And I talk about those common notions, right? It's like, 'okay, so where did your interest come from?' And I'm sure, and I hear things like 'logos, brochures, t-shirts, you know, that's why I'm interested in this.' And I said, 'you know, those are great.' I said, 'but I want you to know it is much more than that.' And I said, 'at the heart, it's about improving everyday lives.' That is a core tenet of the way we feel about it here, and that we do that through experience and behavior. Start small, but think big. I think we all want to save the world. We all want to do really, really big, impactful things. But things happen through cultural shift and cultural change. And so, Yes, there are big flashbang things that make change happen great, you know, but there's also things that have to happen incrementally, and why not be part of that incremental space change."

FEED SWAP: Lee-Sean Huang, AIGA's director of design content and learning, recently appeared on Steven Wakabayashi's Yellow Glitter Podcast to talk about collective change, community-centered design, his midlife career crisis, and more.

Listen/subscribe to the Yellow Glitter Podcast: https://yellowglitterpodcast.com/podcast/42-collective-change-and-community-centered-design-with-lee-sean-huang/

Stay tuned for new original episodes of the AIGA Design Podcast in September 2023.

Join us for the AIGA Design Conference in New York City, October 12-14. Get your tickets before the price increase on September 7. We will sell out. Online streaming tickets are also available. https://www.aiga.org/design/aiga-design-conference

We are back for a special summer special edition of the podcast. We are catching up with Ritesh Gupta, founder of Useful School, which offers 12-week online pay-what-you-can classes in product design, branding, decolonization, and financial wellness aimed at beginner and advanced creatives of color. Applications to the Useful School fall cohort are due August 18, 2023. Learn more: https://www.usefulschool.com/

Listen to our original 2022 interview with Ritesh here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aigadesign/episodes/Design-Adjacent-with-Ritesh-Gupta--Founder-of-the-Useful-School-on-re-visioning-design-education--radical-changes--impact-of-design--and-finding-a-coach-e1jt5if

Check out AIGA's professional development and learning opportunities on our website: https://www.aiga.org/professional-development/aiga-passport-to-learning

In this episode, we present a clip of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, speaking at the 2002 AIGA Design Conference in Washington DC. This footage has not been seen or heard publicly for over 20 years. Groening shares a story he had never told before, explains why he values design conferences, gives advice to fellow illustrators, reveals the namesake of Homer Simpson, and divulges some of the things the Fox Network censored from his shows.

Watch the video version of this podcast on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/814432149/f56404d0b2

Connect in person with your design community at the 2023 AIGA Design Conference, October 12-14 in New York City. Prepare to get inspired and re-energized while learning in community from designers at the cutting edge of today's hot topics. https://www.aiga.org/design/aiga-design-conference

“If you want to be a truly effective designer, you need to make sure that whatever it is that you’re designing is also designed to reside within a broader and more complex organization…and is not just solving for the problem that you are analyzing, which is what designers are excellent at.” - Rodrigo Canales

Rodrigo Canales, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management, and Michael Bierut, Partner at Pentagram discuss the challenges that designers face as we advance as leaders in our careers and how the Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders program equips design leaders to address those challenges.

Join us for our Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders open house on Thursday, February 16 at 3 pm Eastern. RSVP: https://my.aiga.org/event-details?id=04831ca3-ba96-ed11-a81b-000d3a000cf9

And learn more about the program here: https://www.aiga.org/professional-development/business-perspectives-for-creative-leaders

"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 

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

In this episode of the AIGA Design Podcast, host Lee-Sean Huang explores the process of aviation branding with guest Edmond Huot. Their conversation also focuses on how to build and maintain relationships with various client and community stakeholders, including local and Indigenous peoples served by airlines and airports.

Edmond Huot is the Chief Creative Officer of Forward Studio, where he leads the New York City-based firm’s global branding practice, which focuses primarily on the airline, aerospace, and transportation sectors. A true AvGeek at heart and originally from small-town Canada, Huot started his career in the early 1990s. He has turned his childhood fascination with aviation into his career. Edmond has worked on a wide range of airlines around the world, from Hawaii to Alaska to sunny California, focusing on their brand concepts, passenger experience, and liveries.

The core of Edmond’s design philosophy centers around a deep respect for how airlines are cultural icons for their communities, nations, and the traveling public. He is committed to creating brand experiences that are authentic and resonate deeply with people. Storytelling is central to his design approach, using elements to convey an airline’s identity and values effectively.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Archie is a nationally known art director, designer, author, business owner, and educator. He was chair of the Graphic Design Program at California State University Long Beach for 12 terms and was named Outstanding Professor of the Year in 2004. He has also operated his design-consulting firm, Archie Boston Graphic Design, since 1972. He was the first African American recipient of the prestigious AIGA Fellows Award from the Los Angeles Chapter of AIGA in 2007. The Fellows Award recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to raise the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within their local or regional design community. In 2021, he was the recipient of the AIGA Medal for expanding voice—he was recognized for his longstanding commitment to his students as an educator, mentor, and profound influence on the community of Los Angeles, as well as his bold, funny, polemical designs from a lifetime body of work.

Archie and his brother, David, are the creative force that created the 2016 documentary, Black Pioneers of the Sunshine City, which has been shown on WEDU in the Central Florida area during Black History Month, since 2017. He was also interviewed and his posters were featured in the documentary, The Real Mad Men of Advertising of the 1960’s, which was donated to The Smithsonian Museum in 2018.

As one of the few African-American graphic designers in California, he impacted generations of designers as an educator, writer, and designer.

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.

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 Robin Petravic, Co-owner and Managing Director of Heath Ceramics.

Heath Ceramics is the 2022 AIGA Corporate Leadership Awardee. Founded in 1948 in Sausalito, California, is an American maker of goods for the home. The company is best known for its handcrafted tableware and architectural tile in distinctive glazes. Led by husband and wife, Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey, who are shaping the relationship we have to things we own, and the way we come to own them.

Llisa Demetrios, the youngest granddaughter of Ray and Charles Eames, is a third generation maker, following in the footsteps of her creative legacy. Llisa is leading the Eames Institute as Chief Curator, and has previous experience as an Archivist at the MoMA, Eames Official, and has dedicated her life to keeping the Eames name present throughout design endeavors. Additionally, Llisa is on the Board of Directors for the Petaluma Arts Center, and is a passionate bronze sculptor.

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.

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 Rick Griffith, the 2022 AIGA Design Conference Chair, who will share his vision and the theme for this year’s upcoming conference in October taking place in Seattle, WA.

Rick Griffith has been a full-time designer, occasional writer, teacher, activist and printer, who produces, collects and loves artifacts (often made of paper) that are sometimes qualified to be discussed as art. He also participates in a studio called MATTER, and every Saturday he works in the shop at MATTER; these are both enterprises and collaborations with his Partner Debra Johnson.

Elise Schuster is a sexuality educator with 15 years of experience in youth development and pleasure-based sex education. Elise has a masters in public health from Columbia University with a specialization in sexuality and health. Elise began their work in public health at Physicians for Reproductive Health, training doctors to provide adolescent-friendly reproductive health care. They also spent many years teaching workshops at Babeland and having thousands of one-on-one educational pleasure-based sexual health conversations.

After their MPH, Elise spent almost a decade at a premiere NYC youth development center serving over 11,000 marginalized young people every year. Elise had several roles here including running intake and assessment for over 30 new young people every day, overseeing capacity building work, managing 30 student volunteers, starting a professional training institute, and a youth council, and overseeing a $6.5 million wraparound services grant with twelve subgrantee partners.

Elise also serves as a trainer on LGBTQ+ competency issues and regularly facilitates workshops for healthcare professionals, educators, artists, corporations, and more.

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.

Margot Bloomstein is one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She is the  author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap and Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy. Margot teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz,  Austria, and lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust.

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 episode of the AIGA Design Podcast, Lee-Sean Huang, Senior Director of Learning & Programs, takes listeners behind the scenes of the planning process for the 2024 Design Conference (Online, October 10-12).

How do we select speakers for the conference? Why are we doing an online conference this year, and what are the challenges and opportunities around that? And how is AIGA responding to the broader context of what is going on with design associations, conferences, and the industry at large?

Listen all the way through this special episode to get a coupon code for $50 off tickets for the 2024 AIGA Design Conference.

AIGA Design Educators Community Call for Proposals: This call for proposals seeks submissions from educators, graduate students, and industry professionals that address ideas and topics connected to the theme Margins as it applies to design education and research. Proposals of 500 words or less are due by Friday, July 26, 2024. No extensions will be offered.

Does your company want to sponsor a session at the AIGA Design Conference? Or do you have questions or ideas for the conference or the podcast? Send us a message or a voicemail at podcast@aiga.org.

P.S. The 2025 AIGA Design Conference will be back in person: October 9-11 at the Westin Bonaventure in Downtown Los Angeles.

Meg Mothershed is the strategy guru and resident wordsmith for Mothershed Design Co., a boutique branding and web design studio based near Denver, Colorado. Having wanted to own her own business since she was six years old, joining her partner, Josiah, was a no-brainer. Meg combines her passion for entrepreneurship with a love of problem-solving to help small businesses. Meg manages all the nitty-gritty details of the business, as well as handles the copywriting for brands and websites.

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.

Diana Barnes (DB)  is the Chief Brand Officer and Creative Director at Munchkin. Under her leadership, Munchkin’s Brand Design team has won over 80 top international design awards for 360 designs, the highly coveted Red Dot Award among the latest. A passionate advocate for trees, animals, and the environment, she created and leads all Munchkin CSR initiatives such as partnerships with The Whale Sanctuary Project, Trees for the Future and IFAW (The International Fund for Animal Welfare) and Radiant Colors. Before joining Munchkin, she served as the Global Director of Brand Design for Dell, Inc. In this key role, she led global teams in Austin, India, and Asia. Prior to this, her career actually began in music and entertainment, holding executive creative positions at Sony and EMI, as well as several global ad agencies.

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.

Fireside Chat with design leader and 2017 AIGA Medalist Art Chantry and AIGA Executive Director Bennie F. Johnson. They discuss best practices and learnings from their career in representing yourself in your work and approaching graphic design as a language we all speak.

This episode was originally livestreamed as part of the third annual AIGA Portfolio Festival in July 2022. 

This episode is a recording of a livestream on 7/12/2022 with Lee-Sean Huang, AIGA's Director of Design Content and Learning and Beat Kaspar Badenbacher, Chief Creative Officer of loyalkaspar and author of the upcoming book, Somewhere Yes: The Search for Belonging in a World Shaped by Branding.

Beat is known for designing the brand identities for Peacock, Paramount+, MTV, ESPN, Comedy Central, and many more over the entertainment and media space. The book is about how the tools of branding, which naturally bring people together, have been weaponized by our culture around ideals and causes that have put us on a dystopian trajectory... and they may be the same tools to help us recover from that trajectory. The book also isn’t walls of text either, or a dissertation on branding, it’s a visual exploration, blanketed with illustrations, photography, symbols, and design—inspired by the graphic sensibilities of Marshall McLuhan (The Medium is the Massage) and Paul Arden (It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be).

Dave Garrett, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer, drives PMI’s growth strategy by working across the organization to define, test, and deliver solutions that enable individuals and organizations to create impact and propel change. Dave was the co-founder, President and CEO of ProjectManagement.com (formerly Gantthead.com), an online community for project professionals, established in 2000 and acquired by PMI in 2014. Since joining PMI, he has held several leadership roles, including dual role as Director of Digital Presence and CEO of ProjectManagement.com. Dave’s passion for project management led him to serve in multiple volunteer positions for PMI prior to becoming employed by the organization. Earlier in Dave’s career, he also created Project Pain Reliever, a just-in-time handbook for managing projects and has published and bylined dozens of articles related to project management, technology trends, and more.

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.

Ritesh Gupta is the founder of Useful School, the world’s first pay-what-you-can online design school for people of color. He specializes in product design, product management, branding, typography, and growth analytics. Ritesh has collaborated or worked for companies including Wieden+Kennedy, Mother Design, 2 Shark Tank companies, Sagmeister & Walsh, R/GA and Cooper Hewitt. His work has been featured in Adweek, AIGA Eye on Design, It’s Nice That, Wallpaper, Print Mag, Brand New, The Dieline, and more. He is also a volunteer for Where Are The Black Designers?.

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.