The Design Of Business | The Business of Design

 In 2015, interior designer Jonsara Ruth and architect Alison Mears received a grant to study the use of building materials in affordable housing. This grant led to the creation of the Healthy Materials Lab, a design-led research lab based out of the Parsons School of Design that raises awareness about toxins in building materials and draws attention to healthier alternatives. Almost a decade later, they’re still asking big and necessary questions: What if we could make building materials a little more slowly with an eye towards health and sustainability? And what if these materials were accessible by everyone? What would that mean to the health of the world? 

In this episode of DB|BD, Ruth and Mears discuss why the Lab continues to focus on  affordable housing, what harms typical materials in our built environment cause, what healthy alternatives exist,  and how these healthy materials can become accessible and affordable at scale.

On this season of DB|BD,  co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for. 

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte. 

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

To learn more about the Healthy Materials Lab, visit their website. 

Material Health: Design Frontiers, a book by the Healthy Materials Lab

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Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

Franklin Leonard is the founder and CEO of The Black List, a platform that nurtures emerging screenwriters and gives screenplays that aren’t attached to a big producer, actor or studio a chance to be produced. Since The Black List’s founding in 2005, 440 scripts from its annual survey have been produced as feature films, grossing $30 billion in box office worldwide. These films have earned 267 Academy Award nominations and 54 wins, including four Best Picture Oscars (Spotlight, Slumdog Millionaire, The King’s Speech, Argo). 

In this episode of DB|BD, Leonard talks about the most pressing issues Hollywood faces, the business case for giving more diverse screenwriters a shot, and why he believes making the film industry a true meritocracy will naturally lead to more diverse filmmaking.

On this season of DB|BD,  co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for. 

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte. 

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

To learn more about The Black List, visit their website. 

Franklin Leonard’s Ted Talk: How I Accidentally Changed the Way Movies Get Made

The Black Film Archive

Follow The Design of Business | The Business of Design on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. 

Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

Carrie Mae Weems is a multidisciplinary artist. Her body of work stretches over four decades and across many mediums, but with a singular focus—  depicting the reality of Black life.  

Weems talks about her work, her role in public life, the intersecting crises in the world, and the power of convening people through art to confront big truths.

On this season of DB|BD,  co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for.

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte.

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

To learn more about Carrie Mae Weems’ work, visit her website.  A write up of Carrie’s Cyclorama in the New York Times.

Varying Shades of Brown was a project featuring major installations and programs by Carrie Mae Weems across Brown University.

If you enjoyed this conversation with Carrie, check out Jessica and Ellen’s conversation with Avery Willis Hoffman, the artistic director of the Brown Arts Institute.

Follow The Design of Business | The Business of Design on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. 

Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

While The Design of Business | The Business of Design is between seasons, we wanted to share with you a recent conversation we think you will find valuable. Previous DB|BD co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt sat down with Design Observer podcast host and founder of Other Tomorrows, Lee Moreau and Cindy Chastain who leads customer experience and design at Mastercard.

For three days in March, Design Observer and Mastercard leaders gathered with some sixty people—designers and scholars, social entrepreneurs and independent consultants, creative leaders and senior practitioners from across a range of industries—to discuss the current state of everything from collaboration and craft to cultural transformation, technological innovation, and the social and systemic changes impacting the ways we live and work.

The Design of Business | The Business of Design will be back soon with season eleven! To hear more from our archive, find us on Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcast app!

Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook is a guidebook to the institutional transformation of design theory and practice by restoring the long-excluded cultures of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities.

To hear more from our archive, find The Design of Business | The Business of Design on Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcast app!

Kaleena Sales and Omari Souza discuss past episodes featuring Kunal Kapoor and Dori Tunstall.

To hear more from our archive, find The Design of Business | The Business of Design on Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcast app!

Dr. Elizabeth “Dori” Tunstall is the Dean of the Faculty of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design.

To hear more from our archive, find The Design of Business | The Business of Design on Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcast app!

Kaleena Sales and Omari Souza discuss past episodes featuring Norman Teague and Kim Erwin.

To hear more from our archive, find The Design of Business | The Business of Design on Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcast app!

Kim Erwin is the Director of the Equitable Healthcare Lab and Associate Professor of Practice at IIT Institute of Design.

To hear more from our archive, find The Design of Business | The Business of Design on Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcast app!