40,000,000,000,000 DPI
45 episodes - English - Latest episode: 25 days ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratings40 Trillion DPI is a show about all the ways design manifests. It's about design both as a discipline and a cultural product. Each episode, Helen Ip and Justin Carder (two designers/weirdos/friends) get together to talk about the world through the lens of design. Thanks for hanging out with us!
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Episodes
Adobe BearTrap 2000
June 17, 2024 15:00 - 1 hour - 59.7 MBThis week we get lost in the cursed wilderness of legalese trying to update our subscription to Adobe Bear Trap’s AI Swiss typography generator AND we get social at the design gym with the Mondo 2000 cyber phreak fractal polycule.
Performative Novel Gestures
June 06, 2024 15:00 - 58 minutes - 54.2 MBThis week we frolic into the abundant wilderness to write poems with our tattooed hands in monochrome Notion, on our Daylight Computers and we are healed! We sip the viscous black liquid dripping from America’s Mayor, and we are healed! AND we take a five minute pit stop that takes 36 hours in the twisted metal symphony of the Helios House Speedway Express gas station concert hall, and we are healed!
Huvudroll's Total Path
April 28, 2024 16:14 - 56 minutes - 52.6 MBHi everyone! This week we talk about IKEA's brazen theft of artist Tim Lahan's work for their SF food hall; we celebrate weirdo interstitial illustrations in the AutoDesk "State of Design and Make 2024" report; AND we step into the path of social contract totality at the recent total solar eclipse! Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram at: instagram.com/40000000000000dpi Or at Substack: 40trilliondpi.substack.com Music for this episode by Human Gazpacho.
Astral Corgi Ego Death w/Holiday Black
March 29, 2024 15:00 - 1 hour - 56.1 MBThis week we’re joined by our friend, Holiday Black. Holiday is a concept-forward art director with a passion for youth culture, creativity, and their two cats. They’ve been art directing for the past four years, and have had the opportunity to work on alcohol, fast food, cars, fashion, and footwear. Outside of work, Holiday can be found crafting, looking for hot springs, reading a book, or googling whether or not mercury is in retrograde. You can find Holiday’s work at www.holiday.black. W...
Bathed in Bisexual Lighting
March 01, 2024 16:00 - 1 hour - 60.1 MBThis week we spend our life savings on numerological sports betting meal deal life hacks at whop.com; and we quit school to work on our sports betting meal deal life hack startup with a grant from Molly Mielke’s Moth Fund; and then we bathe in the bisexual lighting cast by a full screen view of Monotype’s neuroscience type reports. Turns out we were right all along!
White Wine, White Bread, T9, Tokens
January 26, 2024 16:11 - 54 minutes - 50.5 MBThis week we bring fine art to our fine faces with Marina Abramovic’s new line of spiritually-invigorating skincare products. We get a head start on our 2024 thumb fitness goals with T-9 in our TV at CES. AND we go into existential crisis mode in a post-creator world with whatever Metalabel is.
“Don't Drink That!” with special guest David Chathas
December 27, 2023 15:46 - 56 minutes - 52.1 MBThis week we talked to David Chathas: a graphic designer, type designer, educator, sometimes artist who would have rather been a UFC fighter. We talked to Dave about lots of things you can and cannot drink: Bud Light (comma) the history of, high end baby skin care products, energy drinks that look like automotive fluids, and automotive fluids that look like energy drinks—we also discussed the etiquette of lurking online, AND the woke Kansas state license plate fiasco (brought to you by Canva...
Liquid Metal AI Sea Slugs
December 02, 2023 20:03 - 1 hour - 104 MBThis week we delve into the odd history of fax memes; we try and see if there is any there there in the Figma state of the designer report; we learn about the weird things people are trying to do to sea slugs; we visit Kim K in her 7-11/office at the top of the Empire State Building, and we try and get our dating-app eggs to hatch before they're cooked. It is so confusing! Thanks for joining us!
Carnival Optimism with B3n J4n Az and M2c A7n
November 03, 2023 16:30 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBThis week we look into the medieval street scene that is the internet and ask ourselves, where did all these jesters come from? And why are several of them named Brian Jordan Alvarez? AND we take a trip to the best of all possible techno-optimistic worlds with Marc A-seven-n.
AI Fashion Food Pyramid (Reduxxx)
October 14, 2023 20:55 - 49 minutes - 68.2 MBNOTE: We accidentally swapped in the wrong audio on this, so we're reposting!!! Hey baybees! We're back! In this week's episode, we pour one out for Burkey Belser, the designer of the original Nutrition Facts label, and how raw information can compete with raw obfuscation. It's a rabbit hole! Also we talk for way too long about Humane AI's AI pin and what a future without screens, apps—or desire itself—might look like!
Fusion So Good
August 04, 2023 15:00 - 44 minutes - 61.6 MBThis week—we dodge the floating pharmaceutical logo lockup with medical spokesperson, lady gaga, we liquidate our savings buying virtual ice cream for Pinkydoll, we compare tactical battle strategies with I Can Talk Barbie, we stick our arms into tiny black suits to visit the puppet pet cemetery—AND we also might have talked about the glassdoor drama! Only one way (for us) to find out!
Category Liquidation
July 14, 2023 18:51 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBThis week we wait for a flight in Meta’s shiny new Threads lounge, we are led by Gilbert the floating head through a very special video essay about the state of Graphic Design, we are led by an AI chat-panion we’re calling “Figgy” through Figma’s annual IRL conference, CONFIG, and we see what happens when you put an obscure piece of film history in the Magic Chef. Check out some visual references and an episode breakdown at https://40trilliondpi.substack.com/
Sanrio Cinematic Universe
June 10, 2023 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.7 MBThis week, we take our rightful place as characters in the Sanrio Cinematic Universe, we embrace life on the grid at a digital nomad spreadsheet cafe, and we head to the abandoned SEARS in Second Life to try and buy a hat.
Its A**h*le Might be Its M**th
May 03, 2023 16:54 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBThis week we go grocery shopping with AI Drake, we take a walking tour of every single place you’ve ever seen on AirBnB, we check on Dril as his native Twitter habitat collapses around him, and we join a larger-than-expected study group at LoFi Girl’s house. AMMAAR RESHI'S CHATGPT INSTACART ORDER: https://twitter.com/ammaar/status/1645934107304787968 Jordan Pearson/Motherboard, "A Viral AI-Generated Drake Song by ‘Ghostwriter’ Has Millions of Listens": https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxj...
Special Announcement: Odd Pedagogy April 7th at Eternal Now!
April 01, 2023 13:06 - 2 minutes - 2.96 MBBay Area friends! Or people who are really into traveling! We're releasing a broadsheet poster/publication called: “Go Deep/What Your Favorite Photoshop Tool Says About You” and to help usher this poster into the world, we've asked a few friends to give short presentations/talks/performances/visuals on the theme of “Odd Pedagogy.” We will also introduce the publication, maybe show some strange educational movie montages, and DJ YNG GMA will play far out PBS-core tunes to round out the evenin...
Mid-Pacific Funko Trash Island
March 24, 2023 13:00 - 48 minutes - 45.1 MBThis week, we travel to the mid-Pacific garbage island created by $30 Million worth of Funko Pops; we raise all kinds of wrenches in salute to Tradeswoman magazine; we contemplate Spotify's recent efforts to TikTok itself to death, and we sit down with America's hottest invasive species: Copi! Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/40000000000000dpi/ and check out: https://40trilliondpi.substack.com/
Biblically Accurate Zazzle Designers in the Age of Streaming
February 13, 2023 14:30 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBThis week, we talk inscrutable type design for coin-sized albums; biblically accurate unicode glyphs and the bizarro world Zazzle battles. For episode description and more, visit our Substack: 40trilliondpi.substack.com Andddd, follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/40000000000000dpi Thanks babies!
Singularity as a Service
January 19, 2023 14:00 - 51 minutes - 48.1 MBThis week we walk down the CGI pathways of the uncanny valley where we meet real people trying to make people think they’re AI, we meet fake AI that other people are trying to make real people, we meet a very blue person stuck somewhere on Na’Vi way—and then we talk about mahjong! We're @40000000000000dpi on Instagram—and, if you want rundowns of the big ideas from each episode, extended show notes and outtakes, and other bonus content, follow us on Substack at 40trilliondpi.substack.com! ...
Wearable Erotic Tech in the Metaverse Goth Target
November 26, 2022 14:00 - 47 minutes - 64.7 MBThis week: we get into the erotic fiction compilation, Look Homeward Erotica and the history of marketing the lives of "real housewives;" we take trip into the surreal hellscape that is the Goth Target inside Horizon Worlds; and finally, we time travel back back back to the origins of FABRIC as clothing and as tool and technology! Thanks for joining us! LINKS TO THINGS WE DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE VIKINGS: https://hakaimagazine.com/features/no-wool-no-vikings/ medieval.eu/viking-sails/ ...
Caslon Kahle: Toy Catalogs, Sweaty Basements, and The Internet's Phone Book
November 12, 2022 16:00 - 55 minutes - 51.4 MBThis week we talk with Caslon Kahle a physical archivist, donation coordinator, musician, low-key wizard, and wanderer from the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive (archive.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive has an historical web collection (the Wayback Machine) of ov...
Rory King + Brenden Lovejoy: Let the Design Out!
October 07, 2022 14:01 - 56 minutes - 52.3 MBOn today’s show, we’re joined by designers-extraordinaires, Rory King and Brenden Lovejoy. Rory is a multidisciplinary designer, art director, and writer based in New York City. He received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy Of Art, and has collaborated with artists, architects, curators, and musicians in addition to working with various agencies and companies such as 2×4, Sony Music Entertainment, Instrument, Look Studios, OnePlus, 321 Gallery, and Cranbrook Art Museum. He is currently a Prin...
Summer Recap: Cyclopean Fast Food, Negative-Freedom-Algorithm-Training, and (Artificial) Artificial Intelligent Rap-Fluencers
September 16, 2022 15:33 - 52 minutes - 71.4 MBThis week, we look wistfully back at the recently passing summer of cyclopean fast food, negative-freedom-algorithm-training, and artificial artificial intelligent rap-fluencers. Summer’s almost over! Let’s get into it!
Silas Munro on Strikethrough! Typographic Messages of Protest
August 26, 2022 14:00 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBY'all! We are so excited and honored to have the opportunity to talk with Silas Munro (of Polymode) about the amazing exhibition, "Strikethrough", he co-curated at the Letterform Archive. Strikethrough features over 100 objects (including broadsides, buttons, signs, t-shirts, posters, and ephemera) by ACT UP, Amos Kennedy, Jr., Sister Corita Kent, Emory Douglas, Favianna Rodriguez, Guerrilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, W. E. B. Du Bois, and many many more. Make sure to check out the show, get in o...
Composures
August 12, 2022 14:00 - 47 minutes - 65.4 MBThis week we lose composure over the new Gmail compose button, we vigilante-creep on anono-racist hackers, and we share a newly redesigned six pack (or ten) with a very sweet Japanese businessman who seemed perfectly fine when we left him to catch his train home.
SF Art Book Fair Special!
July 30, 2022 02:14 - 55 minutes - 51.1 MBSF Art Book Fair Edition This week we take a trip to the SF Art Book Fair, a three-and-a-half day book party in a tent—and in the Minnesota St Project. The fair brought out like, hundreds of publishers? Basically it was overwhelming. In this episode we talk SF Art Book Fair, fairs in general, the riso-coil industrial complex, micro-capitalism—and we accost a small number of fair participants with an even smaller microphone in a very busy room. Thanks to everyone we talked with at the fair...
SF DESIGN WEEK: Panels, Light Snacks, Butterfly Zoos, and Confusing Parties
July 01, 2022 17:27 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBNEW EPISODE ALERT This week we take a work vacation at SF Design Week—a five day series of events and gatherings put on by AIGA/SF. We went to a mixed bag of panels, “mixers,” Adobe shit, rooftop captive butterfly zen-office zoos, studio cheese tables, and a confusing party. AND We have our own first merch! We got so excited about Acquaintance Cards (If you don’t know what an acquaintance card IS—check out our last episode) and we decided to make some of our own. Visit our website at de...
Surreal Muppet Generations and Primordial Dating Apps
June 17, 2022 14:00 - 42 minutes - 39.7 MBIn this week's episode, we jack into the surreal muppet matrix of AI generated image grids—and we take a lo-fi time-trip to the 19th century creation of the world’s first dating app, the acquaintance card. Thanks for listening!
Earth's Curse (w/special guest Helen Shewolfe Tseng)
May 27, 2022 14:00 - 1 hour - 88.6 MBWhat's up! This week, we're excited to be joined by our first ever guest designer/host, Helen Shewolfe Tseng! Helen is an artist, designer, and witch. Her art practice centers inquiry, obsession, and non-linear experience, often in conversation with the ancestral, diasporic, ecological, interspecies, speculative, and cosmic. You can find her work at helentseng.com. We talk with Helen about ancient cursed stones, plagues of spiders, nine tailed fox spirits, youtube brain, cough drops' new lo...
36 Days of Bimbo
April 22, 2022 14:00 - 1 hour - 84.1 MBWelcome to another episode of 40 Trillion DPI! This week, we warm the bench for the social design competition, 36 Days of Type, we dust off our tube tops for the arrival of peak bimbo, we get real at the same time every day for exactly two minutes with the new social app, BReal—and we summon the Sagmeister Tamogotchi from behind a rack of weird infographic Target clothes. Thanks for listening!
Money is Colors
March 12, 2022 16:00 - 53 minutes - 73.7 MBHelp the people of Ukraine! Donate to our friend, Anna Sergeeva—a Ukraine-born artist living in NYC, who is sending $$$ for mutual aid projects organized by people in Ukraine. Anna is great and anything you send her way will go to a good place. Find Anna at: https://www.stopallwar.org/ Anything/everything helps! In other news: Web3 goons are attempting to monetize the very concept of color; Beeple has mounted a physical painted art show for some reason; we talk Ukraine and instant mytho...
Trend Bender: 2022
February 12, 2022 20:49 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBWhat does 2022 hold for design? On today's episode, we take a look at trend forecasts from around the internet. Is the 90s revival going strong, or going away? Will the much-hyped Metaverse honestly have any impact on anything? How do designers and so-called amateur content creators affect one another's aesthetics? And, what exactly is "Frasurbane?" Plus! We try and make some predictions of our own. Visit designfreaks.cafe for more episodes, and/or follow us on Instagram at @40000000000000d...
CCA Strike Primer with Ana Llorente
February 07, 2022 16:43 - 36 minutes - 50.8 MBCCA is going on strike! And we are so fired up about it!!! We caught up with CCA adjunct professor, Ana Llorente about what's going on with the strike, why it's important, and what you as a community member can do to support it! The strike starts Tuesday morning at the SF campus, with rallies and events throughout the week. Hope to see you there! MORE INFO Follow and support CCA Staff and Adjunct Instagram Accounts @cca_adjunctunion @cca_staff_union Send emails demanding fair contracts for...
Episode 12: Decorative Jony Ive Plates, Mysterious Chrome Cubes, Fascist A.I., and the Uncanny Copy Valley
December 13, 2021 17:32 - 1 hour - 85.9 MBHello! This week, we pay tribute to the majesty of nature with Jony Ive, we stare blankly into block.xyz’s liquid chrome abyss, we go through Spotify’s uncanny copy valley, and we track down Microsoft’s insta-fascist AI twitter bot, Tay. It's a such a journey! Thank you for joining us! ––– ALSO: The California College of the Arts union is in the midst of a labor dispute with management and potentially may go on strike very soon. If CCA employees do strike, it will be the first time this h...
EPISODE 11: Costco Influencers, Neopia in Flames, and Crypto-Mirrors
November 14, 2021 17:59 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MBHello friends! This week, we wander Costco with Chinese influencers flexing their institutional-size muffin hauls; we explore the strange, crumbling metaverse of Neopets; and we gaze deeply into the MLM/DAO, Mirror.xyz. It's a wild ride as usual! Thanks for listening! Find us on instagram at: @40000000000000dpi Or on Twitter @40TrillionDPI Articles mentioned in this episode: CHINESE INFLUENCERS https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypzny/pose-costco-influencer-photos-china NEOPETS http...
Episode 10 (Green): Bad Dad Art Energy and the TikTok Tabloid Myth Machine
October 08, 2021 19:00 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MBEpisode 10: (Pink/Green): This episode is actually two episodes! One is pink, one is green. Listen to one, listen to both. Episode 10 (Green): We are made to experience bad dad art with Kanye, Drake and... Damien Hirst (for some reason!) and we follow Gabby Petito’s sad story into the strange world of the TikTok Tabloids. Thanks for listening! Visit designfreaks.cafe for more info! Some of the articles we mention or reference in this episode https://www.are.na/claire-l-evans/corporate-mem...
Episode 10 (Pink): In Search of Corporate Memphis
October 08, 2021 19:00 - 31 minutes - 43.4 MBEpisode 10: (Pink/Green): This episode is actually two episodes! One is pink, one is green. Listen to one, listen to both. Episode 10 (Pink): We follow small people into big interfaces trying to find the fabled location of Corporate Memphis. Thanks for listening! Visit designfreaks.cafe for more info! Some of the articles we mention or reference in this episode https://www.are.na/claire-l-evans/corporate-memphis https://qz.com/quartzy/1728767/why-editorial-illustrations-look-so-similar-...
*Sound Bath Journey* with architects Amy Louie and Cooper Rogers of Waters Bathing Collective
September 17, 2021 16:28 - 29 minutes - 40.4 MBSOUND BATH EDITION! This week's episode is so special. We are so excited to share it with y'all. A few weeks ago, we went out to Good Hot Sauna pop up and talked (and sweated) with architects Amy Louie and Cooper Rogers, the founders of Waters Bathing Collective. We had an amazing time roasting and talking with them about maintenance and accessibility and leisure and work. You can read an excerpt of our conversation here. After our interview, we sent them a couple of trippy questions, which ...
Supergraphics in the Suburbs, Wu-Tang Wannabes, and a Trip to a Very Beige Metaverse
August 30, 2021 22:00 - 47 minutes - 65 MBHello! On today's episode, we visit US Government websites in search of pharma-bro Martin Shkrelli's one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang IRL NFT, we think about how design can align or misalign incentives—and we somehow travel through the holes in the giant letters nailed on the side of a suburban house/barn into some kind of utopian/dystopian beige metaverse. It's kind of a Magic (design) School Bus situation. Also, it is a JOURNEY. Thanks for tuning in! ARTICLES WE TALK ABOUT / REFERENCE https://www....
Sharing Accessibility, Dating App Cafés, Signed Copies of the Internet, and Lesbian Revenge!
July 22, 2021 13:00 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBWe hope this podcast finds you well! On today’s episode we talk about the sharing economy’s attempt to commodify accessibility, Tim Berners Lee selling out the world (wide web), the Lesbian Avengers re-avenging themselves against corporate greed, and we apply for barista positions at Bumble’s brick and mortar cafe. Wish. Us. Luck. Shout out to Sarah Schulman, author of (most recently) Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993, for her article on design and pr...
Olivia Rodrigo’s Reverse Psychology, California's Vaccine Lottery, and Tripping Over the Cracks in Our Social Cement
June 23, 2021 18:59 - 31 minutes - 29 MBYes! What's up everyone! This week, we're looking at the history of the Parental Advisory sticker design (via Olivia Rodrigo's Sour), we're putting our names into the hat to win the California vaccine lottery, we're thinking about perverse incentives, and we're tripping out on how to create a better, more closely knit social reality. As usual, it's a whole thing! Thank you, thank you, thank you, as always for joining us!
Font Democracy NOW!
May 26, 2021 14:00 - 42 minutes - 39.4 MBThis week, Helen + Justin spend the entire 42 minutes trying to figure out what's going on with Microsoft's quest for a new default font. Along the way, we talk about obsolescence, the extreme skill of type foundries (respect!), the weirdness of corporate PR, and the totally un-neutral process of constructing various neutralities. It. Is. A. Journey. We hope you actively enjoy it (and are not just having it on as a sort of default noise)! Thanks for listening!
Helen's Balloon Trip to Kentucky, The Dangers of Over-Balancing, COVID-Cocoons
April 23, 2021 14:00 - 39 minutes - 37 MBHello friends! This episode is a little different in format from our last ones. Instead of talking about recent design news, we're talking to each other about some exciting recent things we have going on. In this episode: Helen is prepping for a guest facilitator role building a wild balloon palace in Lexington, Kentucky; Justin is over-doing it on balance; and we dream about what it might mean to break out of our COVID-cocoons. Thanks for tuning in! We literally love you all!
Prince Harry’s New Job, Anti-Asian Violence in Atlanta (and Beyond), Filling the Locks of Gun Stores with Glue So No One Can Get In, and California’s Mysterious Privacy Icon
April 02, 2021 14:00 - 47 minutes - 65.9 MBIn this week's episode—we are so exhausted! And so angry! We are really just contending with a lot of grief and injustice and fear and disappointment on, honestly—a massive scale. We talk about Prince Harry's new job (and the limits of privilege), Anti-Asian violence in Atlanta (and beyond), the soul-crushing process of "redesigning" "gun control"—and we dig into the mysteries of California's new privacy icon design. Thanks for hanging with us while we work through it all. We love you! If ...
Amazon’s Problem Facial Hair, Roly-Poly Brain Surgeons, The Ministry of Influencers, + (ugggh) NFTs
March 17, 2021 14:00 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBIn this episode, we talk about Amazon's ridiculous app icon redesign (and the redesign of the redesign); we try and figure out why NFTs—just... why; we imagine some jobs for micro surgeon-bugs on their days off (think, nano-cloud-defense/dot-matrix tattoo) and we talk about the goddamn city of Minneapolis trying to PAY social media influencers to spread city-approved messaging about the trial of Derek Chauvin. It's shady! In fact—all of this is shady this week! Except for the bug doctors. Ma...
Exhausted Emojis, Internet Sex Ed, Water Bottle Semiotics and the Singularity
March 11, 2021 23:03 - 49 minutes - 67.9 MBWelcome to the first episode of the 40,000,000,000,000 DPI podcast! We are so excited for you to join us! 40 Trillion DPI is a show about all the ways design manifests. It's about design both as a discipline and a cultural product. Each episode, Helen Ip and Justin Carder (two designers/weirdos/friends) get together to talk about the world through the lens of design. Thanks for hanging out with us! If you have any questions about anything, email us at [email protected] or visit our web...