Design Goggles

Chances are, you’re reading this paragraph on your phone. And our phones are just one of the numerous screens permeating our lives. Considering how much time we spend interacting with our devices, you might say we spend as much time focused on digital space as we do physical space. We design and curate the physical spaces — shouldn’t we do the same for the digital ones? Of course! To help us sort out the details, we welcome Blake Scott, who harnesses a traditional architectural design education to inform how he writes code for our modern world of hybridized digital/physical spaces.

Just say the words “Post Truth” and journalism comes to mind. Whether you think the news is full of information or disinformation depends completely on who we trust to frame the facts, and our differing opinions are bringing a lot more polarization into our daily lives. How will we escape the Post Truth era? Will we be able to at all? What can we do to try to come together more, if not on a grander scale, at least in the communities where we live? For this third episode in our series on Post Truth, we invited returning guest, Monica Guzman, Director of The Evergrey, a digital news publication here in Seattle, back to the studio to light up the path forward.

We are all living in the Post Truth Era, whether we choose to believe it or not. Once upon a time, we all experienced the world accepting basic, fundamental truths, but, as of late, that's just no longer the case. Basic concepts, like science, are being called into question, and when that happens, everything goes out the window. Nowhere is this more evident than in graphic design: ground zero for the battle between fiction and fact. Gabriel Stromberg, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Civilization, a design practice here in Seattle, helps us with our cognitive dissonance, understanding how powerful design can be, but also, ruining smoothies in the process.

We are all living in the Post Truth Era, whether we choose to believe it or not. Once upon a time, we all experienced the world accepting basic, fundamental truths, but, as of late, that’s just no longer the case. Basic concepts, like science, are being called into question, and when that happens, everything goes out the window. How do we design experiences for retail spaces when each and every element is approached with distrust and skepticism? Chris Guillot, a retail consultant with Merchant Method, joins us to help us separate the feels from the facts.

Design is often perceived as a luxury, something that is the exclusive domain of the privileged. The fact is, though, design makes a real difference every day in communities in need around the world. Today, we’re joined by architect Fabian Bedolla, who, along with the 14+ Foundation, proved that design brought to those in need can have a huge impact.

We talk about taste all the time, yet it’s one of the most difficult concepts to define in any creative genre. Who has good taste? Who has bad taste? Who tells you if you have it and what do you do with it? We chat about that and more, including fever dreams, houses made out of doors, and Scandinavian crime dramas. This is a great episode, trust us, we have great taste.

It seems like Seattle has switched its relationship status with architects and developers to ”It’s Complicated.” Sandy, who has a ton of experience both with managing Seattle developers and (it turns out) speed dating meetups is the perfect person to help us work it out!

Seattle’s nickname is the Emerald City, but how important is color to the city of Seattle, a place that’s grey for nearly half the year? How do the colors that surround us affect our quality of life in the PNW? Is color a little-talked-about life sustaining resource, just as important as air and water?

There are a bunch of big, high-profile projects being built in Seattle, but it’s the smaller custom projects where the magic really happens, and PNW makers, artists, and fabricators are making it happen here every day. How do they make these small custom projects memorable, and through experiencing them, perhaps even revive the soul of the city of Seattle?

Design affects everyone who interacts with it, and the public rarely has a hand in the process. How do designers make values-based decisions during their design process, while still serving their clients and being true to the creative process? How does design in Seattle specifically interact with our ethical boundaries?