Continuing on the mission to introduce more voices to the podcast, we’ve invited Berlin’s #1 fan Muj Abdulzade to co-host with James. When we first asked Muj about hoping on the podcast Naïma Ben Ayed was at the top of her list of people to talk to.

We spent a lovely afternoon chatting with the London-based type designer on her family, the laziness of certain tech companies and the general challenge of working on Arabic type in a world that seeks to stay rooted in Latin. Naïma’s honesty opened space for James and Muj to relay their own experiences with language and culture in the globalized design world.

It’s amazing to be releasing the 50th conversation! Thank you to all our past guests and for all the love from our listeners.

Keep a look out on our Substack for more updates from GSG and news about Naïma’s forthcoming Arabic type design book!

Practice, practice, practice. Whether or now practice makes perfect it's about putting in the hours, the work, the sweat, the tears and the reflections. Bryan Collins of Poetic State joined me, James, in a calm and collected conversation with designer and illustrator Alex Kirsch. We connected on how drawing and soccer have been pillars in his life since childhood, yet the two worlds haven't always merged together. Alex shares how his love of sport and the discipline it has taught him has influenced how he's pushed himself as a designer who now occupies several different spaces.

Thanks for the support.

We R Here 4 U.

We’re back for another season of Graphic Support Group. Kicking off for Season 6 is another episode of our beloved “Behind the Screen” series. If you haven’t heard it our first installment was with Hasan Askari.

This time we got to speak with LA print legend David Mayes. He's long been a part of the LA design community, going beyond his role as a printer to be a steward of design in the city. He shared the development of his career and the many relationships he’s fostered through his work as a printer. David was honest and candid about the weight of being responsible for executing so many people’s work. Throughout the years he’s created lasting bonds and helped bridge the gap between printers and designers. His involvement in AIGA LA has added depth and meaning to his business and the community that’s grown around him. We’re so grateful for his story and helped us better understand the humanity behind the service. Be kind to your printers!

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This year we’ll be bringing some new voices to the podcast to join as co-hosts. Thank you all for supporting this project and we hope to grow the community of creativity and care.

Before we begin we have a special message from Bryan and Poetic State.

Hey, listeners. I'm Bryan Collins, founder of Poetic State, and I'm a career coach who helps multidisciplinary creatives break through whatever is holding them back. If you're stuck, unclear about your next steps or just ready to get outta your own way, I'd love to hear your story. We're offering free 30 minute discovery calls for the listeners of the podcast where we can talk about where you are, where you want to go, and your next action. Follow the link below to book your session with me.

Take him up on this and don’t miss out!

As we wrap up the year and our Season 5, we welcomed back Bryan Collins to help us work some stuff out. James admitted his suspicion of Bryan and recruiters. Drew lets off a little steam about the pressures of collaboration. Through it all Bryan was there with us and helping bring our attentions to the center.

Thank you all so much for supporting Graphic Support Group this year. We have had a chance to reflect on how great this podcast platform is and what it means to us.

We R Here 4 U.

Our guest, Aurélia de Azambuja has been speaking at conferences more recently with her talk, “How to make the logo bigger when the world is burning?” – a provocation that confronts what it means to practice design in today’s world, and more broadly, how to find meaning in design at all. It’s a particularly dark time for humanity, and, once we caught wind of the talk as it went semi viral on Instagram, we were drawn to find out more about Aurelia and her presentation. We were curious about her role in the design world as a member of Base Brussels’ team, how these provocations and honest opinions intersect with her daily work life, and her thoughts on being a designer during great uncertainty and escalating upheaval. She was joined by Editorial Director of Base Julie Tentler to provide even more context to the talk and the culture and life working at Base.

Aurélia is a Senior Designer at Base Design Brussels, where she has been working for the last 8 years. She orchestrates teams of copywriters, illustrators, and art directors to bring bold, conceptually rooted design to life. Her passion about the power of design as a tool for change has her frequently (and now more publicly) asking the big questions – challenging her creative approach, her team, and the design world at large.

Julie Tentler is the Editorial Director at Base Design, leading global communications across the network’s studios. Her focus is on strengthening the Base brand – defining its values and point of view with an engaging tone. Spanning all six studios, she brings a transversal perspective that guides storytelling so the brand shows up with clarity and consistency worldwide.

Base Design was Started in the early ’90s and is an international network of creative studios in Brussels, New York, Geneva, and Melbourne, with a new studio in Saigon and a Digital studio that operates without a physical location. For more than three decades, they’ve built brands that are memorable, human-centric, and crafted for good business.

Rather than replicating the same model everywhere, each of their studios thrives on its local culture – while staying united by a shared mission: to help companies create brands with vision, clarity, and empathy.

In conversation, we hear how Julie and Aurélia are bringing a caring and inquisitive perspective to spaces like the design conferences out of the Base studios to spark important questions. We’re happy to share this episode with everyone and hope it scratches your brains a little to move with your hearts.

We R here 4 U. Thanks.

We’re back with another episode of Graphic Support Group and we’re filled with joy to share this one. Our guest Nontsikelelo Mutiti “is a Zimbabwean born designer, visual artist, and educator whose conceptual approach to design spans the mediums of print, moving-image, web design, fine art, and community engagement.” That introduction doesn’t even begin to capture the breadth of wisdom that Nontsi shared with us. As the spring semester came to an end this past May (she is the current Chair of Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design at Yale University) the multidisciplinary designer spent a gracious couple of hours with us.

Her words moved us through the many worlds and spaces she occupies in her life. The conversation helped Drew and I to re-think some ideas about Modernism, community and representation that admittedly had us in knots over the years. Sometimes the complexity of the world has a simpler, more honest solution. We’re so happy to share this generous episode and hope it’ll bring some joy to the beginning of the fall. We hope you all will find some joy in the episode and maybe consider becoming a dragon slayer.

We R Here 4 U.

The work of branding and strategy agency PORTO ROCHA needs little introduction. Founded by Leo Porto and Felipe Rocha after meeting and collaborating together in New York City, the studio has quickly grown and set a high standard for quality work. Drew and I have long wanted to have them on the podcast, but for many reasons we were hesitant to reach out. Even after being linked in the agency’s fantastic “annual report” Design Threads, we were still too shy to approach Leo and Felipe. But finally, this past spring, we sent an email and were honored to have them on as guests.

The two designers have managed to balance many parts of their lives and selves through their partnership. They were candid about the struggles, but spoke with a frank optimism about striving forward and respecting resources. We really appreciated their honesty, care and general openness about their experience. A lot of wisdom was shared, along with some tough questions about competition and perceptions that come with growing a business and studio culture. It was especially touching to hear about a recent project they completed for the Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland. For Leo, Felipe and the PORTO ROCHA team it was a beautiful full-circle project. As to why it was, you’ll just have to listen to the episode.

As always, thanks for listening.

We R here 4 U.

Warning: this episode speaks about autism and mental health. We remind listeners that the Graphic Support Group hosts are not medical professionals. Please listen with care and understanding.

I met Able during my junior year as a passionate and painfully green design student. What I remember was that he was a tall, older guy who was simultaneously disarming for his height and earnestness. For a chronically detached art student, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know how to take in. Him and I only attended school together for one semester, but he’s taken that education and gone very, very far. He’s currently a Group Creative Director at Thought Matter in New York and previously worked at Noom, been a Creative Director at Deustch NY and LA, member of the AIGA NY board and taught at SVA.

Over the years, Able and I have been in sporadic touch through past projects and social media. From a afar, he’s defined persistence for me and I’m so glad we got to spend some time together on the podcast. Able bares all about the many obstacles he’s overcome including a life threatening illness, financial precarity and mental health struggles. Through it all he’s remained hopeful and grateful to be who he is. Able is a truly creative human being and I’m very fortunate to know him. I hope that his story can be of support for anyone. For me, it was yet another reminder of how much good there can be in the work we do and to not be tied up in the implications we can’t always control.

Check out some of the projects he’s mentioned in the episode: his music as Kamuter, his partner Julia Parris’ creative studio Analog is Heavy, his own work at WTF Studio and some of his collage works.

Choose gratitude friends.

Note: The first part of this episode has some clicks because of a connection issue. We tried to clean the sound up as best as we could. Bare with it because we really think it’s worth listening to! This one’s a long one, but one of our most amazing conversations.

Drew and I spoke with Julie Cho and Erin Segal about their collaborative publishing project Thick Press. The two friends who met when they were 15 have been working together as graphic designer and social worker, asking hard questions about the value of work, juggling life and professions and sticking with relationships.

We recorded this episode on November 8, 2024, two days after the US Presidential election. Despite the disappointment of the time, Julie and Erin showed up for our conversation in a way that can only be described as generous and present. Drew and I always joke that the podcast is “our therapy” and this episode couldn’t be more validating of our motivations. We got to share about how we’ve struggled to keep Graphic Support Group going, the evolution of our friendship and admit to each other that we’re still here and making the project happen. Julie and Erin took such care to hear us and opened up their stories for us to learn and reflect together. We are so appreciative of their time and words.

Thick Press officially published “An Encyclopedia of Radical Healing” shortly after we recorded. They share the details about the massive project in the episode, so please check out their Instagram for more information and support their work with an order.

They’ve also been super busy since we spoke! Here is a listing of some of their upcoming activities and recent publications:

* Thick Press will be at the LA Printed Matter Art Book Fair at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena on May 15-18.

* They have published Change the World: A Research Book for Children and Adults by Sibylle Peters, is based on 20 years of performance-based research at the Fundus Theatre in Hamburg.

* The second, may we dream and design felt futures: where our creative being and practice can feel the sensations of care, intimacy, and liberation, by Denise Shanté Brown, is both a memoir and a guide to creative social practices.

* The third, It’s Too Late. Do It Anyway! A Book about Being a Cultural Worker in the Apocalypse + a Hologram Starter Kit edited by Cassie Thornton and Magdalena Jadwiga Härtelova, is about a mutual aid protocol called The Hologram.

Growth and collaboration!

Warning: this episode contains some foul language. If you are sensitive to this or are listening around young children please use your own discretion before you tune in.

James here :) I was able to sit down with Gabrielle Widjaja, who works under the name Gentle Oriental, and asked her about how she navigates the highs and lows of her creative practice. Gabby began her career as a graphic designer and over the years went through many hurdles to be able to tattoo full-time today. She shared her journey with me, and the two of us compared our different, but connected Asian American lineages.

Gabby would like to shout out a Gentle Pokes, Studio Bumi and Ricky Wang! Check ‘em out!

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We’re really excited to be sharing this episode with the GSG family. Thank you always for the support. If you appreciate this platform for creativity and care, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. We’re planning many things for the GSG community, so stay tuned. We R Here 4 U.