Co-hosts Gabe and Sean take their first steps into Did I Do That?: First Steps to talk through Airbnb’s Frutiger Aero, the BREATHTAKING geometry behind the Pepsi Smile, and Prince’s font floppies. Plus: Gabe’s Gauntlet and Design Student Confessions!

You can find about Gabe Bidney as @gabe_bidney on Instagram, or on LinkedIn as Gabriel Bidney. Gabe leads PSUGD Design Club, which you can find about on Instagram as @psudesignclub. You can also find Gabe here all throughout summer as co-host of Did I Do That?: First Steps, so check back in this feed or the Did I Do That? website for each episode! New episodes will drop every other Thursday.

Show art by Joel Williams. Music by Nica Mork, with additional compositions by Albert Marlowe/S.I. Publishing (licensed from Pond5). Production support by Mycah Brandley.

Did I Do That?: First Steps is produced with students from DES 425 Rodeo, part of the Portland State University Graphic Design program. To learn more about PSUGD, visit psu.gd.

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Starting out in design can be like taking your first steps. To learn how to walk, you have to do a lot of falling down, too.

That’s why we made Did I Do That?: First Steps, a miniseries about designers who are just starting out, and the things we stumble through while learning what this field is all about. It’s hosted by Sean Schumacher, a design teacher, and Gabe Bidney, a design student. On each episode, Gabe, Sean, and a special student guest talk through what’s inspiring us—and what's making us sweat—as we figure out where we fit in this whole big world of graphic design.

New episodes drop in this feed every other Thursday all summer long, starting on July 17.

Did I Do That?: First Steps is produced by Sean Schumacher and created with students from DES 425 Rodeo at Portland State University during Spring term 2025. To learn more about the PSU Graphic Design program, visit psu.gd.

Special thanks to the student team behind this project: Gabe Bidney, Mycah Brandley, Nica Mork, and Joel Williams. Additional thanks to the students whose voices featured in this trailer: Gabe Bidney, Jillian McWhorter, Mycah Brandley, Nicholas Zapata, and Nica Mork.

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Could it be? Did I Do That?’s season 6 finale is also our especially nice 69th episode?! In this world, it’s possible! Illustrator, art director, and soft-spoken metal-hardcore singer Colin Strandberg joins Sean to talk about his design mistakes, as well as vehicle wraps, The Family, and Sonic’s wallet woes.

You can find all kinds of Colin’s design and illustration work up on his website, colinstrandbergdesign.com, including some to buy through his shop on Imprnt! You can also follow him on Instagram as @colinstrandbergdesign.

That’s not all! Though this is the finale of season 6, there is more new pod to come this summer! Right here in two weeks time, you’ll hear the trailer for what we’ve been cooking up behind the scenes this past spring! Too, we’ve likely got a few big events coming up this summer! Keep an eye (or an ear) on our social media feeds (including Substack and Instagram) for the latest on when and where they’ll be happening!

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Say goodbye to solvable problems because Did I Do That? is back! Thom Hines (Professor of Interaction Design at Portland State University) joins Sean on the pogcast to talk about early 2000s burner culture, fake search engines, and the tireless Tom Hanks.

You can stream Happy Ending on either Prime Video and Fandango starting on June 27, so keep your eyes on both of those services to see it, or follow the movie on Instagram (@happyending.movie) for the latest—it’s a great fun time! Thom teaches interaction design with me at PSUGD, and the best way to know what he’s like in class is, as he mentioned, to join Portland State University (just be sure to leave him a good Rate My Professors review). You can find more about his personal work over at thomhines.com.

Apologies again for the delay in releasing this episode—thankfully, though, new equipment has been ordered and the show is back on track! Our 6th season will draw to a close in two weeks on June 19, but there may be more in store this summer! Subscribe to our Substack or follow us on Instagram to hear the latest!

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Let a new Did I Do That? light a fire under your ass! Legendary illustrator Lisa Congdon joins Sean to talk about what’s in teachers’ dreams, poetry awards, and hamster wheels.

You can find Lisa’s work all over the internet, but why not visit her website at lisacongdon.com first! There, you can find her work, classes, and more. Lisa is on Instagram as the one and only @lisacongdon. If you happen to be in Portland, you can also find Lisa’s shop at Cargo Emporium—it’s a massive space full of work from Lisa and a few other past guests, and is just cool to explore!

This episode was recorded March 25, 2025 in the Rat’s Nest.

One programming note: This is our last recording that was banked before the big break-in. As such, there may be some delay in publishing the next episode. While I’ll do my best to keep that from happening, please keep an eye on the Instagram, Bluesky, or Substack for the latest, whatever the case may be (and hey, if you want to kick a couple bucks my way to help out while things are getting figured out, too, I won’t say no to that). Thank you for listening and sorry for any potential upcoming interruption!

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We’re wreaking havoc but at least we’re not raging a-holes! Advertising idea guy and art dude Peter Yue joins Sean to talk about Jeff Bezos’ hedge fund, Las Vegas bartenders, and the most terrifying thing Gen Z found inside Pandora’s Box.

You can find Peter online at peteryue.com, or very rarely on the ‘gram at @peteryue.

This episode was recorded April 13, 2025 in the Rat’s Nest (well before The Incident took the iMac mentioned in this episode).

Apologies to the folks at AdAge, who I incorrectly characterized in this episode as having selected Jake from State Farm over the M&Ms the winner in the final round of their March Madness Brand Mascot championship bracket. In actuality, it was M&Ms who narrowly defeated Jake, however it is frankly still bizarre that Jake beat—y’know—dozens more mascots that are ACTUAL MASCOTS. Ad industry, I know you don’t understand TikTok, but just because Jake has a TikTok doesn’t mean young people are going to buy his overpriced insurance when neither they nor I can afford cars.

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Call in the pygmy goats and have Gunther pour you a hot cup of cereal, because a little indie show called Did I Do That? has hit the midpoint of season 6! Merchandise Designer and Design YouTube powerhouse Kel Lauren joins Sean to talk about anniversary cereals, the intersection of goth and twee, and what a rock star does with three grand.

You can find Kel all over the internet, from their website to their YouTube channel to their Instagram. Kel and fellow design content creator Elliot Ulm create their own hilarious and joyful design show called kelliot!—if you want to watch them work, you can find their collaborative channel on YouTube, but you can also find them across the podcast player spectrum, including the big names like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Anyone who is a fan of this deeply non-serious design podcast is definitely going to enjoy theirs, so go give them a listen! Too, if you really like kelliot! and want even more, you can hear their Unmedikelliot! bonus show through the kelliot! Patreon.

This episode was recorded March 14, 2025 in the Rat’s Nest.

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Feeling too arty for the nerds and too nerdy for the artists? Did I Do That? is the sweet spot for you! The great Ben Barry (co-founder of the Facebook Analog Research Laboratory and founder of Nonlinear) joins Sean to talk about edible arrangements for Spring, the secondary market for guillotines, and realizing that it’s time (for Frasier) to move on (from the hit NBC sitcom Frasier).

You can find Ben’s work on his personal site, benbarry.com; that’s also where you can find links to his prints and book through particular.co. Ben brought me a copy of his book One Hundred Patterns and I can’t recommend it highly enough; it is more than 200 pages of gorgeous offset-printed patterns! Ben writes about all things tech on his blog, Active Matrix. Finally, you can find some of his more recent work on both Instagram and Threads as @benbarry.

This episode was recorded March 8, 2025 in the Rat’s Nest. This episode was edited by the one and only Orion Cortez—one of the best there is and always a miracle worker!

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Call up the Michaels and bust out as many classroom gimmicks as you can because Did I Do That? is wrapping up our trip to the Old Bay (aka San Francisco) by going back to school. The legendary Bob Aufuldish (partner at Aufuldish & Warriner and Professor of Design at CCA) joins Sean in Bob’s San Anselmo studio to talk about designer golfballs, the challenge of being taken seriously as a young professor, and typeface impulse buys.

Bob’s long-time practice with his wife and partner Kathy Warinner, Aufuldish and Warinner, can be found online at aufwar.com. You can find the interview Bob did a few years back for AIGA SF with fellow CCA professor Eric Heiman on the AIGA SF website—that article expands on a few of the stories we talked through here and is a ton of fun! You can buy Bob’s type work as FontBoy on MyFonts, or just check out the (lovely but frozen in amber) FontBoy website at fontboy.com.

This episode was recorded February 1, 2025 in Bob’s studio in the wilds of Marin, in beautiful San Anselmo, California. Thank you so much to Bob and Kathy for hosting me (and letting me scarf down so many of their Trader Joe’s cookies while I was out there)!

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We’ve clawed our way here to San Francisco for the season 6 premiere of Did I Do That?! The incredible Alyssa Walker (Creative Director at WIRED) joins Sean to talk about where new toys come from, grind mode, and the Miyazaki of Rite Aid.

The best way to see Alyssa’s work is to subscribe to WIRED, which comes in print and digital subscriptions and starts as low as $10 for the first year. Better still, your subscription gives you access to some of the best tech journalism (and journalism at the intersection of politics and tech) that you can find. You can also find Alyssa on the web at alyssawalker.me, or on Instagram @_alyssawalker.

This episode was recorded January 30, 2025 in the offices of WIRED in downtown San Francisco. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to both Alyssa and to WIRED podcast producer Boone Ashworth for so generously lending their time, their space, and equipment for this recording!

This episode kicks off Season 6 and it’s going to be a big one! Please share the show with a friend if you enjoyed this episode, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts! It really means a lot! Too, if you’re tired of social media or your podcast player not delivering new shows straight to your inbox, try our refreshed Substack, which does just that!

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