Sway Podcast

In this episode, we critique the new identities for Cooper Hewitt and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, both designed by Pentagram, and the growing trend of designing evolving logo systems. Looking back and looking ahead, we speculate about the future of the identity design and remember some of our favorite logos of recent years. This all wraps up with a debate on clever versus smart work and what type of work we want to do. Links from this episode are available at this-is-sway.tumblr.com.

In an emotionally charged episode, Rory kicks it off talking about the Group Material monograph, Show and Tell, that leads to a discussion on art and design and how to define them. The conversation meanders through a variety of topics including the public’s perception of graphic design, the idea of multiple publics, who design is for, and what is the goal of our work. The episode wraps up with both of us reflecting on why we find design so interesting in the first place and some thoughts on why we started Sway a year ago. Links from this episode are available at this-is-sway.tumblr.com.

We open this episode reflecting on Massimo Vignelli's death and the influence he had on our work through the years. This leads to a discussion on how the internet has changed our approach to design and how we view a design's longevity. We spend the second half of the episode discussing the public face of graphic design and the how we communicate the value of our profession to those who no nothing about design.

We spend this episode reflecting on our recently completed Five Obstructions project. We talk about our favorite weeks, the hardest part of the project, and how we approached each week’s obstructions. In addition to talking about what we learned and the challenges we faced throughout the project, we look at how this would translate to a class assignment and the value of working within constraints for design students.

Inspired by the last episode’s discussion on manifestos and our guiding design principles, we use this episode to talk about the one piece of design that has had the most influence on our own practices and was fundamental in shaping our view of design. Rory talks about Tibor Kalman’s lecture Good History/Bad History and how that has guided his thinking on process, aesthetics, and design history. Then Jarrett talks about how Project Projects’s identity for SALT showed him that design was much bigger than he originally thought and how one can use design to foster your own interests.

In this episode, we spend a lot of time talking about the new 2014 edition of the First Things First manifesto. We compare it to the 1964 and 2000 versions and how we approach it different now that we are working designers. This leads to a discussion on our personal manifestos and the things we value in our own practices. We wrap up this episode comparing the design and science disciplines, using Anthony Bourdain and Neil deGrasse Tyson as examples for a hypothetical television show that can teach the public about visual culture.

After a quick follow up on The Five Obstructions, we jump into a conversation about how to insert ourselves into the design discussion and whether or not we have anything valuable to add and if we are even worth being heard. This leads to a conversation about diversifying the content we consume and how the internet has turned publishing into a level playing field. The second half of the episode revolves around the separation between professional and personal work and the false divisions we put up around our work.

In the second episode of the Sway Podcast, we talk about Squarespace and the rise of DIY design tools and what the democratization of design means for designers and the profession at large. A discussion on the redesign of Newsweek’s website leads to some thoughts on the idea of "designer as journalist" and what we can learn from journalism to make ourselves better designers. Once again, we close the episode with some more ideas for design education and using Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth’s film The Five Obstructions as a framework for a new type of assignment.

In the first episode of the Sway Podcast, a discussion about design philosophies leads into how to think critically about your design process and then making your process a part of the design. By looking at design as a vessel that needs to be filled with content, we discuss the idea of design being a tool and a lens through which to explore the world and develop a point of view. This is all wrapped in some thoughts on design education and we talk about ideas of how to teach students to think about their work as more than strictly visual.