Did I Do That?

Rerun summer continues! In this timely episode from way back in 2022, Future Fonts co-founder and all around rad person Lizy Gershenzon joined Sean to talk pieces of flair, the opposite of missed connections, and The Rainbow Passage. We’re going back to high school and making font magic in an episode that’s got milk—just not in an officially licensed form.

Since this episode came out way back in early 2022, Lizy and Travis have launched the Vectro Type Foundry, home of favorites like the acclaimed Chartwell, Kicker, and Whoa, but also home to new fantastic faces like the incredible Kablammo—check them out and give them a download! Lizy and Travis, along with fellow co-founder James Edmundson of Ohno Type Co., co-founded Future Fonts, where you can get experimental typefaces while they're still in development and help support their creators through the process! It's one of the best places to find new and emerging type, and a great place to start for someone who's new to type and wanting to find out how fun it can be first hand. Check them out at futurefonts.xyz, or at the Future Fonts and Friends event!

• Did I Do That? will be live in Seattle as part of the Seattle Design Festival's mainstage! The show is happening Saturday, August 17, 2024 from 4:15–5:15pm at Lake Union Park in Seattle. The show is free and open to the public, and I'd love to have you there in person, though it will also be streamed after the fact by Seattle Design Festival itself! To learn more, check out their site: seadesignfest.org!
• Fontroversy host Lena Hall and I will be presenting a talk as part of TypeCon on Thursday, July 25 about Fontroversy and teaching type through popular emerging media—it'll be fun, but unfortunately it's only open to TypeCon attendees. You can learn more and get tickets for TypeCon's Education Forum over at the TypeCon's website! (shout out to past guest Kyle Letendre, who made the TypeCon hero art this year!)
• If you missed it last year, Future Fonts and Friends' TypeCon party is back, and just like before is free and open to all! I'll be back with the Making Mistakes Confessional again, so if you missed it before, now's your chance to be a part of it! This year's party will be on Thursday, July 25 from 6–9pm at Outlet (2500 NE Sandy Blvd. in Portland). Bring your best design confessions and hope to see you there!

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Summer break continues, and we've got big news: we're launching a newsletter! You can hear the latest about Did I Do That?—including some stuff coming later this summer that's still under wraps—first by going to dididothat.design/newsletter to subscribe.

We're also turning back the clock to season 2 for one of Sean's favorite episodes! Kate Carter (founder and creative director of Saint Friend) joined Sean way back in October 2022 to talk about the heated rivalries between niche dog enthusiast magazines, the parts of the phone that art directors DON’T want you to see, and how to visit a mausoleum on hard mode.

You can find Kate’s work with Saint Friend on the studio’s website, saintfriend.co, or on Instagram @saint_friend. Kate, Nick, and the whole team at Saint Friend do some of the best, most joyful branding work out there, and that team brimming with some of PSUGD’s best and brightest alums to boot. Check them out!

This episode was recorded on Saturday, November 5, 2022 on the campus of Portland State University.

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Wake your partner up at 2 in the morning, because it’s all been building to this—our season 4 finale! David DaCosta (designer, illustrator, and writer of both Jokey Jokes: A Collection of Illustrated Dad Jokes and the new Jokier Jokes: Another Illustrated Collection of Dad Jokes) joins Sean to talk rock and roll accounting, the circular file, and Too Much Good(?) Stuff.

• You can find and order Jokey Jokes, the new Jokier Jokes, and all of the Jokey Jokes Merchy Merch (including the gorgeous Dad Jokes hat) at jokeyjokes.com! The books are gorgeous and the merch is great! Pick up one for a kid or a dad joke lover in your life!
• You can find David’s other work on the web at therealdacosta.com or on the ‘gram at @dacostadraws!
• If you’re intrigued by David’s work on Snack Watch, his vending machine news and reviews blog from his magazine days, good news! He was kind enough to share the final issue here—drop in some quarters and remember the days when Lay’s was courageous enough to think anyone at all wanted cheesy garlic bread flavored chips.

This episode’s cold open included clips from our episodes with Kristin Rogers Brown and Emily Tate; you can hear the full conversations, which are chock full of more mascot chat, in our back catalog. That segment also featured the song “Action Strike,” written and performed by Rafael Krux and distributed under a CC0 license.

This episode was recorded Saturday, April 27, 2024 in the Rat’s Nest, which I am beginning to think is less an office and more a locus at which the earth’s EM radiation is focused to a fine and impossible-to-filter point. Thanks, 1920s architects and 1950s electricians, for your fine work on this monument to buzzing. I only hope not too much of it made it to air, but if you can hear it, I apologize—I did my best!

This episode was once again guest edited by the great Orion Cortez; I couldn’t have done this season without him!

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Feeling like your week is lacking a dash of Did I Do That? You could add something—it’s just a suggestion! Freelance brand and identity designer César Sierra joins Sean to talk about gamifying Jiffy Mix, getting lost with Matt, and Busytown careers. Will Sean get rabies before the season is over? There’s only one way to find out!

You can find César’s work on their website, cesarsierra.net! If you’re looking to hire César, connect with them on Linked in at linkedin.com/in/cesarvsierra!

This episode was recorded Sunday, April 14, 2024, in the Rat’s Nest. Though I (again) forgot to shout him out in the outro, this episode was edited by the great Orion Cortez! Thanks, Orion!

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Mel Larsen Gutierrez (Art Director at the Oregon State Parks & Recreation Department) joins Sean to talk Mr. Sketch, the Man in the Yellow Hat’s job, and The Rachel (or The Rachael?).

You can find Mel on the internet over at melerrez.com, where you can see some most of the work we talked about in this episode. Mel can also be found on the ‘gram at @melerrez as well. Too, if you want to see Mel’s awesome illustrated timeline, that can be found on the episode’s page at dididothat.design!

This episode was recorded Friday, April 12, 2024 in the Rat’s Nest. Though I forgot to shout him out in the outro, this episode was also edited by the great Orion Cortez! Thanks, Orion!

If you are hearing this as it comes out and are in the Portland area, please come out to Be Honest on Saturday May 4, 2023! Be Honest is PSUGD’s annual student portfolio showcase, which I help organize with Kate Bingaman-Burt! It’s a really exciting time, and we get to take over three floors of Wieden+Kennedy for design work, hijinks, and good times. You can find out more about it at psu.gd/behonest or @psugd_behonest on the ‘gram!

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We do it for the love! Calvin Ross Carl (Creative Director at Parliament) joins Sean to talk about Allen Ludden’s followers, watching the old ways of web design disappear, and drinking hot dog water—finally a platform we can get behind!

You can find Calvin’s work all over the ‘net—despite his strong luddite leanings! You can see work from the full spectrum of his career on his website (calvinrosscarl.com), and you can give him a follow on Instagram (@calvinrosscarl) to see what he’s been working on lately.

This episode was recorded on Sunday, April 7, 2024 in the Rat’s Nest. This episode was edited for the first time not by me, but instead by the great Orion Cortez! Thanks, Orion!

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One more important thing (or two)!

• Are you an academic in art, design, or a closely related field? Do you currently hold a tenured rank (associate or full professor?) at a four year university? I NEED YOU! I am beginning the process of applying for tenure this month, which requires me to form a committee of outside evaluators of my materials and offer recommendations to the university about my promotion and tenure. If you already know about this show and understand my work, you’d likely be a good candidate! Please reach out before April 30 and we can talk: [email protected].
• If you’re a listener to this show and aren’t in the above boat, you can still help! I’d love to have quotes, letters, and more for my packet describing the impact this and my other research or teaching work has had on you. Those can be collected throughout the summer, but sooner would be better! Reach out if you want to help—I’d really appreciate it! [email protected]

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Throw away your phones and pick up your oil paints! Rachel Frankel (Senior Brand Designer at Zendesk) joins Sean to talk portfolio lust, Apple allergies, and the weirdest social network’s weirdest pivot yet (and it’s only partially to video).

You can find Rachel’s work all over the ‘net (and IRL):

• You can find Rachel’s portfolio, and more of her work, on her website: rachelevefrankel.com!
• Transmute and all of Phosphene’s other albums—as well as Rachel’s awesome album design for them—are available to enjoy at their Bandcamp page, phosphenepdx.bandcamp.com. Buying albums there gives the band way more money than streaming fees, but you can also find Phosphene on Spotify, Apple Music, and the like as well.
• You can find Rachel’s book, She Can Really Lay It Down: 50 Rebels, Rockers, and Music Revolutionaries (Who Happen To Be Women) (published by Chronicle Books in 2019) on Indiebound/Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, or wherever else you should happen to shop for books.

This episode was recorded Sunday, March 31, 2024 in the Rat’s Nest.

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OMFGCO Creative Director and author/designer of Rural Kimberly Sutherland joins Sean to talk the horrifying truth about figs, the top ten signs you’re in romcom, and the crowning of Portland’s #1 (vegan) ice cream boi. Why not grab a Gatorade and join the fuuuuuuuuuuuuun!

You can find Kimberly’s work all over the ‘net (and IRL):

• You can find more of Kim’s work—both design and art related—on her website, kimberly-sutherland.com!
• The OMFGCO Journal, which Kim co-writes with Fritz Mesenbrink, is the best place to go to learn the latest from the studio, and is where you can go first to hear about when the And Then What?! podcast drops. Along with their Journal articles, you can also find audio versions which might be considered soft pilots for the show all on their own! Keep your eyes (and ears) peeled for it and their upcoming merch!
• If you’re planning on attending Creative Works West 2024 in Seattle at the end of April, Kim will be hosting a workshop on Brand Concepts & Frameworks alongside OMFGCO’s Fritz on Saturday, April 27 at 9am! If you’re interested, hop on over to the Creative Works site to learn more or their Eventbrite to register! As of this writing, tickets are still available!

Addendum: Since I’ve come to record this episode, I’ve learned that there are in fact some varieties of figs that do not require wasps to pollinate them. Still, the truth that most figs pretty much consume wasps in order to become figs is undeniably A PROBLEM that we must reckon with as a species if we are going to continue to live on this planet.

This episode was recorded Friday, March 15, 2023 in the Rat’s Nest.

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Get those offer codes ready! Creative Director Matt Graff joins Sean to talk Pee-Chee folder portfolios, unusual interview questions, and the six quadrants of action sports marketing.

You can find Matt’s work on his website, mattgraff.com. He’s currently looking for his next Creative Direction role, so if your studio is looking for someone, reach out! Matt can also be found on LinkedIn at inkedin.com/in/mattgraff.

This episode was recorded Saturday, March 2, 2024 in the Rat’s Nest.

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