Debbie Millman, designer, author, educator, curator, artist, and pioneering podcast host, joins Designers On Film to talk about Arrival (2016), a movie that has all the ingredients to keep you engaged and make you curious about life on this planet, or life beyond this planet. Amy Adams is Louise Banks, Jeremy Renner is Ian Donnelly, and together they're brought into a government operation to understand, analyze, and hopefully communicate with visitors from another planet. In addition to sharing everything about the movie that she loves, Debbie also talks about how science has been an integral part of her own life, why she believes in alien lifeforms, and ponders big questions about language, love, and time.

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Debbie Millman is host of the pioneering podcast Design Matters. Fast Company called her "one of the most creative people in business" and Graphic Design USA called her "one of the most influential designers working today." She's a "woman of influence" as Success Magazine has said, building a career at the intersection of design, storytelling, and cultural commentary. As the founder and host of Design Matters, one of the first and longest-running podcasts in the world, she's interviewed more than 700 of the world's most creative thinkers and makers, having earned the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, multiple Webby awards and Ambie nominations, and numerous accolades from Apple Podcasts who named Design Matters one of their "All-Time Favorites" three times. Debbie worked on the concept and design of the vault plate that's aboard NASA's Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's moon. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Magazine, The Baffler, The New York Review of Books, and Fast Company. The author of two books of illustrated essays, plus author of eight books, she's also Editorial Director of PrintMag.com which she co-owns, Debbie and her business partners rescued the publication from bankruptcy in 2019, preserving its 80-year legacy. Debbie and her wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay, recently acquired The Rumpus. Debbie lives in New York City and Los Angeles with her beautiful wife, two lovable cats and a very charismatic dog.

https://www.printmag.com/author/debbie-millman/

https://www.instagram.com/debbiemillman/

https://designmattersmedia.com/

https://apple.co/designmatters

https://debbiemillman.com/

https://therumpus.net/

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Zipeng Zhu is a Chinese-born artist, designer, educator, and founder of the award-winning creative studio Dazzle in New York City. He wants to make every day a razzle-dazzle musical and has collaborated with iconic brands such as Apple, Adidas, Adobe, Coca-Cola, Instagram, MTV, Microsoft, Netflix, The New York Times, The New Yorker magazine, Samsung and Uber. His work has been exhibited at major museums and institutions in cities all over the world, including New York, Barcelona, Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, and Mumbai. Zipeng dedicates his days running both the Dazzle Studio and merch shop Dazzle Supply, bringing his dazzling design to clients and fans around the globe.

https://dazzle.studio/

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Arrival (2016)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/‍ ‍

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5384213/‍ ‍

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

https://amzn.to/4rfSiBk‍ ‍

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Other movies, shows, and books discussed:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Contact (1997)

Interstellar (2014)

The Twilight Zone, S3.E24: To Serve Man (1962)