Some of the most inspiring and empowering conversations occur among a group of people when they have formed their friendship based on their shared goals of making a positive impact through the work they do and the community they’re building. Join me in a fun and reflective conversation with my two badass friends, Caterina Rizzoni and Lindsay Meletesta as we reflect on a year of challenges, growth and wins navigating our design career and activism work, as well as how our friendship has continued to empower us to become a better version of ourselves.

How might one’s identity and cultural background shape the way someone approaches their design, and how might community building help strengthen and evolve one’s design philosophy? In this episode, my dear friend Ana Mengote Baluca, a designer, educator and activist, joins me in a conversation to talk about how she uses design as a medium to weave culture, history, and philosophies to create impactful products and solutions, and how community building plays an active role in the work she does. Ana’s recent pop-up exhibit “Bagay at Buhay”, curated with culturally defining yet seemingly insignificant objects for Filipinos in the diaspora, was an enriching and thought-provoking experience for anyone who seeks to further explore and connect with their identities through untold stories and unrecognized artifacts. Ana also shares how she has found her voice and value in design by continuing to challenge the Eurocentric design standard, and how she has established more equitable practice by taking on an independent journey through her creative agency “lowercase innovation”.

The pandemic has triggered many people to reassess their current work and life, resulting in nearly a third of the people in the U.S. looking for a new opportunity that feels more aligned with their values and beliefs in the last year and a half. Changing jobs is never an easy transition, and it can be overwhelming to evaluate whether your next job is a better fit. In this episode, our friend of the pod, Hanya Moharram, a UX Designer and Design Researcher at Nava, joined the conversation with me to discuss how we each navigated our career transition—from deciding to look for a new opportunity to assessing whether this opportunity is the right opportunity, to actually accepting the job offer and getting to know our new jobs and companies. Most essentially, we discussed the importance of having a diverse and inclusive culture, and how it will make you feel integrated, supported and valued regardless of your backgrounds and your level of experiences.

If you’re someone who’s currently looking for some changes in your career, I hope this episode will provide you with some insights on how to navigate this journey and feel empowered to take the leap of faith to find your next opportunity.

In this episode, I spent some time talking to two of my favorite designers, Hector Silva and Mauricio Garcia Villaseñor from Advanced Design about a topic that’s been trending in the digital art world for the last couple of months—NFTs. We talked about how NFTs started and how it gained so much popularity within last few months, how it has impacted the digital art world as well as our environment, actions we need to take from an individual, corporation, and government level when it comes to a new disruptor like NFTs, and lastly, we discussed what we envision the future of the art world might look like in the next few decades. You will be hearing the first half of our conversation on NFTs in this episode, and you can catch the rest of our conversation in Part 2. You can find Hector Silva on Instagram at @hectorius_, Mauricio Garcia Villaseñor @mau_g.v, and Advanced Design @adv_des. You can find more information about Advanced Design at https://advdes.org/.

Here are a few resources that we have mentioned during this episode:

• "Defuturing : A new design philosophy" by Tony Fry

• "The problem of CryptoArt": https://joanielemercier.com/the-problem-of-cryptoart/

• "NFTs, explained": https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq

• "Cryptocurrency's Newest Frontier": https://open.spotify.com/episode/2shRH9pSnWzmqINgAEXnca?si=hhRQfd9qRmO6_oeTMOgthA

Note: The Novel "The Last Day of A Condemned Man" should be attributed to Victor Hugo but not Albert Camus.

This episode is a continuation of the conversation I've had with Hector Silva and Mauricio Garcia Villaseñor about NFTs. We talked about how NFTs started and how it gained so much popularity within last few months, how it has impacted the digital art world as well as our environment, actions we need to take from an individual, corporation, and government level when it comes to a new disruptor like NFTs, and lastly, we discussed what we envision the future of the art world might look like in the next few decades. You will be hearing the second half of our conversation on NFTs in this episode, and you can catch the first half of our conversation in Part I. You can find Hector Silva on Instagram at @hectorius_, Mauricio Garcia Villaseñor @mau_g.v, and Advanced Design @adv_des. You can find more information about Advanced Design at https://advdes.org/.

Here are a few resources that we have mentioned during this episode:

• "Defuturing : A new design philosophy" by Tony Fry

• "The problem of CryptoArt": https://joanielemercier.com/the-problem-of-cryptoart/

• "NFTs, explained": https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq

• "Cryptocurrency's Newest Frontier": https://open.spotify.com/episode/2shRH9pSnWzmqINgAEXnca?si=hhRQfd9qRmO6_oeTMOgthA

Note: The Novel "The Last Day of A Condemned Man" should be attributed to Victor Hugo but not Albert Camus.

This episode is a continuation of the conversation between Mari and myself where we dive deep into the history of anti-Asian violence, discuss the importance of solidarity, and share our suggestions on a few actionable suggestions we have for people who’d like to support the AAPI community. Note the prohibition of the entry of Chinese women to the United States was from 1875 Page Act but not from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

In this episode, I shared two announcements as I become the host of this podcast and join the "That's Not Canon Productions", and spent some time talking to a friend of mine whom I admire and look up to—Mari Miller—to discuss the recent waves of violence towards the AAPI community in the United States, a topic that has been close to our hearts and something we feel obligated to share with our audience. We talk about our experiences being an Asian and Asian American in this country, how we navigated the design world with our Asian backgrounds, our thoughts on the recent surge of anti-Asian racism, and suggestions on supporting the AAPI community during this trying time and onwards. And because we covered so many topics, we ended up having a 2-hour long conversation, so our conversation has been split into two episodes, and I hope you will take the time to listen, reflect and learn with us.

We've all had to change our habits and behaviors in the past year due to COVID. We got used to wearing masks in public and front-liners wear intense PPE on a daily basis. Many of us are ordering takeout and grocery delivery more frequently as well. All of this means more waste. Takeout containers, plastic shopping bags and wrappers, gloves, disposable masks, plastic face shields, etc. In this episode we discuss the environmental impact of these behavioral changes and the intersection of the climate crisis and the pandemic.

We welcome our first guest, Tiffany Do, as we discuss the topic of gender disparity and inequality in the design industry. This episode was inspired by the discussion surrounding Yanko Design's post sharing gender disparity metrics and the response of many male designers in the comments. We discuss our reactions to the post, and share our experiences as women in design school and the workplace.

About our guest:

Tiffany Do is a Industrial and User Experience Designer working in Hillrom’s frontline care business. In school, she interned in various roles, from soft goods design or robotics research. Tiffany is a design community advocate in her time outside of work and she also serves on the board of directors at Advanced Design, where she actively helps plan events and new methods to engage those in the design community.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Prototypes, group projects, late studio nights, oh my!