At Unnecessary Inventions Matty designs, builds, documents and shares a new product with his millions of followers each week. Pulled from an endless list of ideas he has for gadgets we don’t need but still might be entertained to have, his fans, talk shows and brand partners can’t get enough of his wit. Josh and Evan visited Matty in his new studio in Burlington, VT to see this self-described “evil genius” madness first hand. With his success he could have a staff working with him, yet he prefers to handle everything himself. He shares how he got here, why he has a need to create, how his unusual process makes sense, and that he may have some ideas in a folder that are NSFW that could someday be revealed.

@unnecessaryinventions on all social channels

unnecessaryinventions.com (which includes links to all the social channels)

Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com.

This episode of Design Tangents was produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group.

Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte, Hannah Viti, Wize Grazette, and Samantha Sager.

Transcripts, show notes, and links for each episode of Design Tangents can be found at surroundpodcasts.com/design-tangents

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Around the world photography is a male-dominated industry and in Kenya that’s an understatement. Thandiwe Muriu is the country’s first woman commercial photographer and in recent years the first to find her voice as a photographic artist. In this episode Evan and Josh sit with the Nairobi-based creative to hear how she learned the craft, found her artistic self and is unfolding and reinterpreting the visual language of Kenya for a global audience. Her energy, optimism and enthusiasm are immense and you can feel the love, power and creativity from the opening moments all the way through the conversation.

Links

thandiwemuriu.com

instagram.com/thandiwe_muriu

Photograph courtesy of Thandiwe Muriu / Institute

Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com.

This episode of Design Tangents was produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group.

Transcripts, show notes, and links for each episode of Design Tangents can be found at surroundpodcasts.com/design-tangents

This episode was produced by Rob Schulte.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It typically takes five years from imagining a new car to bringing it to market. In about that same amount of time, Genesis has created their brand and introduced all new models. The cars and the design leadership have gotten the attention of just about every automotive award around the world, and the brand has fought hard to create its mark in a challenging and increasingly fast-paced market. This is a team effort led by the collaborative dynamic duo of Luc Donckerwolke and SangYup Lee. Josh and Evan traveled to Seoul to immerse themselves in Korean culture and learn how innovation has been accelerated across a range of businesses, including automotive. In this episode they sit down with the creative duo, who they’ve known for the last decade, to hear how they’ve developed the Genesis brand, built a team, design cars that people desire, and bring the brand to life across the many touch points that people interact with. Feel the love and learn about the power of design.

Links:

coolhunting.com/genesis

genesis.com 

Genesis Instagram

Genesis Twitter

Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com.

This episode of Design Tangents was produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group.

Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte, Hannah Viti, Wize Grazette, and Samantha Sager.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A multi-hyphenate creative, Matthew Dear is a tech-forward composer and performer, a DJ, digital artist and web3 enthusiast. COOL HUNTING first wrote about him in 2007, and he appeared in our video podcast then, early in his musical career. Over the years Josh and Evan followed his work and developed a friendship. Thinking about creating theme music for Design Tangents Matthew was the first and only person on the list, and it was a no brainer to also have him on as a guest. We went back to Ann Arbor, where we shot our video 15 years ago, to talk about what he’s interested in making today, what went into writing our theme music, and how having children, fishing, technology and the Detroit scene all play a role in his creative process.

Links

coolhunting.com/culture/matthew-dear-nu

coolhunting.com/?s=Matthew dear

ghostly.com/artists/matthew-dear

www.instagram.com/matthewdear

twitter.com/matthewdear

Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com.

This episode of Design Tangents was produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group.

Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte, Hannah Viti, Wize Grazette, and Samantha Sager.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Whenever Josh, Evan and Jihan Zencirli get together the energy is high and the tangents are profound. Jihan is an installation artist, big thinker and positive pop culture force. In this episode they cover her early days making balloon sculptures, the pageantry of religion, art cults, Donatella Versace and learnings from her time in web3 working with the Doodles.

Links:

coolhunting.com/tag/geronimo

geronimoinspace.com

designtvbysandow.com/programs/jihan-zencirli-geronimo-cool-hunting

Social:

@Geronimo

Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com. This episode of Design Tangents was produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group.

Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte, Hannah Viti, Wize Grazette, and Samantha Sager.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It takes a certain kind of compatibility to be creative collaborators and for those who are life partners as well—like hosts and COOL HUNTING founders Josh and Evan—even more nuanced. That’s one of the reasons they were especially excited to visit artists Nick Cave and Bob Faust in their Chicago studio and home to dig into their respective creative process and the Venn diagram of their community activism, personal and joint work, and their private lives. In this episode you'll hear how upcycled knitwear brought Nick and Bob together, how they support each other’s work, fostering community, developing projects that create an impact and toward the end, a fashion vision we all want to see manifest!

Links

Bob Faust

faustltd.com

instagram.com/faust_____specialprojects

Nick Cave

jackshainman.com/artists/nick_cave

instagram.com/nickcaveart

Facility (the space that houses the artists’ studios and public galleries)

facilitychicago.org

instagram.com/facility_chicago

Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com. This episode of Design Tangents was produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group.

Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte, Hannah Viti, Wize Grazette, and Samantha Sager.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Conversations about data can be pretty dry, but not when you’re talking to Giorgia Lupi—an information designer and partner at world renowned design firm Pentagram. In this episode we get to hear her passion for crafting data into humane, engaging and exciting visualizations and the opportunities for data to enhance creativity as well. She even uses data to track things in her personal life—like dating! Giorgia flips the script a couple times asking Josh and Evan a few questions and the resulting conversation offers a bit of background about COOL HUNTING.

pentagram.com/about/giorgia-lupi

giorgialupi.com/publications

twitter.com/giorgialupi

instagram.com/giorgialupi

coolhunting.com/tag/giorgia-lupi/

Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com. This episode of Design Tangents was produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group. Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte, Hannah Viti, Wize Grazette, and Samantha Sager.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.