Design is Everywhere

What does it look like to brand for a community? You may be familiar with the impact of branding, but what does it look like when a brand can help connect a community to their mission? In this episode, Sam meets with Nadia Husain, Design Director at Trollbäck+Company to learn how their team collaborated with Mixteca, a Brooklyn community-based organization addressing the health, educational, legal needs of New York’s Latin American immigrant community. Nadia shares her design process and how she approaches translating values into brand values. Later on in the show, they are joined by Maria Carolina Simon, the VP of DEI at CFW Careers and Board Co-Chair at Mixteca. Maria talks about how she joined Mixteca and the collaboration process with the team at Trollbäck+Company to make Mixteca’s vision come to life. Together, they discuss what a shift in brand identity has done to grow the organization’s reach. 

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Creating a Brand for a Community

How can design be a tool for impactful change? In this episode, Sam meets with Boyuan Gao, a designer and futurist who is partnering with companies to create equitable products, services, content, and experiences. Boyuan talks about how she and Jahan Mantin founded Project Inkblot and how the core of their work centers around the “why.” Later on in the show, they are joined by Antionette Carroll, the President and CEO of the Creative Reaction Lab, a nonprofit educating and deploying youth to challenge racial and health inequities impacting Black and Latinx populations. Antionette shares what led her to her work, the value of taking a break, and the ramifications around language. Together, Boyuan and Antionette dive deeper into work that designs with diversity.  

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Designing With: Moving Towards an Equitable Future for All

What makes video game storytelling unique? In this episode, Sam chats with Shawn Kittelsen, the VP of Creative Development of Games at Skybound Entertainment. Shawn chats about how his background in playwriting and screenwriting contributes to storytelling in video games and developing narratives that connect the player to the games. Later on in the show, they are joined by Mike Pondsmith, a role playing, board and video game designer who founded R.Talsorian Games and the creator of the acclaimed Cyberpunk series. Mike chats about the value of storybuiling in video games and how he came to develop the Cyberpunk Universe. Together, they chat about their favorite recently played video games. 

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The Emotional Design Behind Video Games

From the Design is Everywhere live show, Sam Aquillano learns more about how to design for empathy in the classroom. He is joined by Susie Wise, an equity design ally with a focus on culture change and building belonging in organizations and an Adjunct Professor at the d.school where she founded and led the K12 Lab. Susie chats about how to define empathy and what empathy looks like in the classroom. Later on in the show, they are joined by Matthew Kressy, the founding director of the MIT Integrated Design and Management program and the Innovation Advisor and Trustee at NEIA, the first middle and high school that prepares innovators to shape the world through human-centered design. Together, they discuss teaching empathy, empathy’s inherent quality, and the work at NEIA. Susie and Matt take questions from the live audience. 

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How do we teach empathy?

How can students learn how to problem-solve with design thinking? In this episode, Sam chats with Design Museum Everywhere’s very own Director of Learning and Interpretation, Diana Navarrete-Rackauckas, about launching the Neighborhood Design Project to teach youth design skills in an accessible, engaging, and meaningful way. Diana explains the reasons behind the program and why it is important for students to choose their own challenges. Later on in the show, they are joined by Manny Guardado, the Director of Innovation at Notre Dame Academy. Manny shares more details about designing and launching Notre Dame Academy’s Innovation Lab and the tools for learning. Together, they discuss teaching creativity to be a force of change and how design thinking can be used in the classroom. 

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Making Youth Design Education Real for Students

We’re all able to connect through our phones and social media, but humans crave coming together, and yet participation in the classic religious and civic communities has declined over decades. COVID-19 has certainly complicated our ability to gather in person. Community is so important to us at the Design Museum, and like anything, you can be intentional about designing creating, maintaining, and growing community. It’s more than simply bringing people together and watching the magic happen, even though that’s definitely part of it! In this episode we talk to two community experts. Sara Sigel is a product and community builder who advises and invests in profit-from purpose companies — she’s an Advisor and Investor at Rev Boston. And Sascha Mombartz is a multidisciplinary design director, and the Founder of The Office for Visual Affairs. Sascha and his 2 other community-loving friends created the Community Canvas, which is a framework that will help you build a community. Plus we have our weekly dose of good design.

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From the Archive: How Do You Design a Community? Start with the Why or the Who

How do design and music influence one another? In this episode, Sam learns more about music’s impact on design and the shared mindsets of the creative process. He chats with R. Michael Hendrix, Partner and Global Director of Design at IDEO, singer, musician, and co-author of Two Beats Ahead: What Musical Minds Teach Us about Innovation alongside his co-author Panos Panay. Michael talks about the influence of design thinking in music and how he uses music in his design process. Later on in the show, they are joined by Adam Larson, founder and Executive Creative Director of A&Co, a creative consultancy designed for the modern era. Adam chats about how he approaches his design process, collaborating with artists, and how he translates music to a visual medium. 

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The Shared Mindsets of Designers and Musicians 

How do you design for a healthier mindfulness routine? In this episode, Sam learns more about how to design a mindfulness and gratitude routine that is practical, helpful, and consistent. Sam chats with Tracy Swyst, a Design Operations Consultant, Producer, and a member of Design Museum Everywhere’s Board of Directors. Tracy shares her mindfulness and gratitude routine and how she began her own mindfulness practices. Later on in the show, they are joined by Rahul Kulkarni, the CEO and co-founder of Sukhi. Together, they chat about mindfulness, emotional pulse checks, and how companies can incorporate mindfulness practices. 

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Designing for Mindfulness and Gratitude

How do designers craft the perfect book cover? In this episode, Sam learns more about how book covers are designed. He is joined by Scott Berkun, an author and popular speaker whose talks range in topics from creativity, leadership, public speaking, design and more. Scott chats about the collaboration process and the surprising reality behind book cover design. Later on in the show, they are joined by Jon Key, an artist, designer, writer and educator who co-founded the Brooklyn design studio Morcos Key with Wael Morcos. Together, Jon and Wael designed the long-awaited Black Futures book by New York Times journalist Jenna Wortham and art curator Kimberly Drew. Jon chats about how he uses writing during his design process and landing on the cover for the Black Futures book. 

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The Story Behind Designing Book Covers

As part of our monthly Design is Everywhere live series, Sam Aquillano learns how designers use wayfinding as an indicator of space that guides people through a physical environment. He is joined by Kayte Muse, a designer and strategist who is passionate about creative problem solving, design strategy, storytelling, teaching, and mentoring. Kayte is a co-chair of the Boston Chapter of SEGD- the Society for Experiential Graphic Design. She discusses what experiential graphic design is and how wayfinding is used. Later on in the show, they are joined by Cliff Selbert, the founding partner of Selbert Perkins Design, a collaboration between him and Robin Perkins and their team. Together they discuss the importance of landmarks in the built environment and the process of designing notable landmarks. And they take questions from the live audience. 

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Wayfinding the Future: Logos to Landmarks, Live show