Scratching the Surface
267 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 days ago - ★★★★★ - 53 ratingsScratching the Surface is a podcast about design, theory, and creative practice. Hosted by Jarrett Fuller, each episode features wide-ranging conversations with designers, architects, writers, academics, artists, and theorists about how design shapes culture. Previous guests include architecture critic Paul Goldberger, MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli, architect and OMA partner Reinier de Graaf, Pentagram partner Michael Bierut, RISD President Rosanne Somerson, writer Kurt Andersen, and designer Jessica Helfand. Featured in Architectural Digest, Dezeen, Curbed, and Eye. New episodes every other Wednesday.
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Episodes
16. Ruben Pater
February 15, 2017 05:09 - 44 minutes - 82 MBRuben Pater, working under the name Untold Stories, describes his work as creating "visual narratives about geopolitical issues" and creating "new relations between journalism and design". He most recently is the author of the book, The Politics of Design, where Pater explores the cultural and political context of the typography, colors, photography, symbols, and information graphics that we use every day. In this conversation, I talk with Ruben about the book and the relationship between des...
15. Rianne Petter and Mark Mulder
February 08, 2017 05:02 - 49 minutes - 90.2 MBRianne Petter and Mark Mulder are designers and researchers from the Netherlands. The couple operates independent practices that span graphic design, research, writing, and education. Last fall, the couple visited Baltimore to lead a weekend workshop on design research of Maryland Institute College of Art's graduate graphic design department and I sat down with them at the end of the weekend to talk about their own practice, the role of research in the graphic design process, and the differen...
14. Jon Sueda
February 01, 2017 05:07 - 50 minutes - 91.8 MBJon Sueda is a designer, curator, and educator. He is the founder of the Stripe, a graphic design studio based in San Francisco specializing in printed material, identity, and exhibition work and the Chair of the MFA Design program at California College of the Arts. He's also curated the exhibitions for the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, the 25th International Graphic Design Biennial in Brno, Czech Republic, and SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. In this conversation, Jon ...
13. Prem Krishnamurthy
January 25, 2017 05:07 - 44 minutes - 81.3 MBPrem Krishnamurthy is a designer, curator, and writer. He is a founding principle, with Adam Michaels, of the New York design studio Project Projects and founder and curator of P!, an experimental exhibition space in New York's Chinatown. Additionally, Prem is an editor for the art journal Paper Monument and on the board of directors for Triple Canopy. In August, I visited Project Projects's office to talk with Prem about these range of projects. Over the course of the conversation, we talk a...
12. Bryn Smith
January 18, 2017 05:13 - 42 minutes - 78 MBOn this week's episode, I talk with Bryn Smith, a designer, writer, and editor based in New York City. Bryn is a graduate of SVA's Design Criticism MFA and the co-author of the new book, Twenty Over Eighty. We talk about her experience in SVA's program, what a design critic could do at major publications, and how to use design artifacts to write about larger cultural issues. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm
11. Khoi Vinh
January 11, 2017 05:21 - 37 minutes - 69 MBKhoi Vinh is currently Principle Designer at Adobe, Design Chair at Wildcard and co-founder of Kidpost and previously co-founded Mixel and was the design director of The New York Times online. Khoi's site, Subtraction.com, was one of the first blogs I started reading when I started designing over a decade ago and in this episode, I talk to him about how he started blogging, how writing has influenced his design career, and the the need for a more rigorous criticism around digital product desi...
10. Armin Vit
January 04, 2017 05:35 - 28 minutes - 51.8 MBArmin Vit is the co-founder of Under Consideration with his wife Bryony Gomez-Palacio, the site behind popular blogs like Brand New, FPO, and SpeakUp. In this conversation, I talk to Armin about how he started writing, why he shut down SpeakUp in 2009, why everyone is critiquing logos now, and how social media is changing the design discourse. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.
09. Jessica Helfand, part 2
December 21, 2016 05:12 - 41 minutes - 75.3 MBIn my second conversation with Jessica Helfand — recorded earlier this month when Jessica was in Baltimore — we talk about Winterhouse (the studio she co-founded with William Drenttel), publishing, the role of design (and design criticism) in Trump's America, and what she's learned in her first semester teaching design at the Yale School of Management. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.
08. Jessica Helfand, part 1
December 14, 2016 05:16 - 46 minutes - 85.7 MBJessica Helfand is a designer, writer, podcaster, and publisher. She cofounded Design Observer in 2002 with Rick Poynor, Michael Bierut, and William Drenttel and most recently wrote the book, Design: The Invention of Desire. In this episode, the first part of a two-part conversation, Jessica and I talk about the origins of Design Observer, how she started writing, writing about design in relationship to culture, and how emerging mediums like video and podcasts can provide a new platform for d...
07. David Reinfurt
December 07, 2016 05:09 - 48 minutes - 88.8 MBDavid Reinfurt is a design polymath operating at the intersection of design, publishing, curation, and exhibitions. His studio, O-R-G, is now a small software company "that programs, publishes, and sells apps, websites, screensavers, and other small chunks of code". With Stuart Bailey, he's the co-founder of Dexter Sinister and with Bailey and Angie Keefer, he publishes The Serving Library. In July, I interviewed David about his work across mediums and how they intersect, the fluid boundaries...
06. Sara M. Watson
November 30, 2016 05:03 - 1 hour - 111 MBSara M. Watson is a technology critic and currently the writer in residence at Digital Asia Hub, a Research Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and an affiliate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Last month, she published Toward a Constructive Technology Criticism, a meta-critique of technology criticism that's very similar to what I'm thinking about with design criticism. In this episode, I talk to Sara about her ...
05. Michael Bierut
November 23, 2016 05:05 - 53 minutes - 97.1 MBMichael Bierut needs no introduction. As a partner at Pentagram since 1990, he's worked on projects ranging from logos and environmental signage systems, books and packaging for clients including Verizon, The New York Times, MIT Media Lab, and Hillary Clinton. Michael is also a prolific writer, having co-founded Design Observer in 2003 and co-editing the Looking Closer series and in this episode, I talk with Michael about that writing. We talk about the origins of Design Observer, how he star...
04. Michael Rock
November 16, 2016 05:13 - 51 minutes - 94.7 MBOn this week's episode, I talk with the designer and writer Michael Rock. Michael is the co-founder and creative director at 2x4, teaches at Yale and Columbia, and writes for The New York Times T Magazine. This summer, I visited Michael at 2x4's New York headquarters to talk about his own history, how he thinks about his roles as a designer and writer, the importance of theory in design practice, and writing about design for a general audience. Links from this episode can be found at scratch...
03. Steven Heller
November 10, 2016 03:00 - 35 minutes - 64.3 MBOn this week's episode of Scratching the Surface, I'm joined by the design writer Steven Heller. Heller is the author or co-author of over one hundred books on design and visual culture, co-chair of the School of Visual Arts MFA Designer as Author program, and helped start SVA's Design Criticism and Interaction Design programs. Steven and I talk about his career, design writing, and why most publications don't need graphic design critics. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthes...
02. Alexandra Lange
November 02, 2016 04:03 - 1 hour - 121 MBIn this week's episode of Scratching the Surface, Jarrett talks with architecture critic Alexandra Lange. Alexandra is currently writing for Curbed and has previously written for publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Dwell. In this conversation, we meet in a Brooklyn coffee shop to talk about how one becomes a critic, the role of criticism within the architecture profession, writing for an audience, and Alexandra's own writing process. Links from this episode can be found ...
01. Rob Giampietro
October 26, 2016 04:06 - 48 minutes - 88.2 MBIn the first episode of Scratching the Surface, Jarrett talks with designer and writer Rob Giampietro. Rob is currently the Design Lead for Material Design at Google New York. In this conversation, we talk about how Rob approaches writing and designing, design as a critical activity, and the design writing he'd like to see more of. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.
00. Introduction
October 19, 2016 04:04 - 3 minutes - 5.28 MBWelcome to Scratching the Surface, the brand new design podcast interested in the intersection of criticism and practice hosted by Jarrett Fuller. Released weekly, each episode will feature conversations with designers, writers, critics, educators and people who do a combination of these. We’ll talk about the role of design criticism, the state of design writing, and try to figure out new ways to talk about graphic design. For more information and links from this episode, visit scratchingthes...