Design Futures

In this sixth and final episode of season 5 of Design Futures , I talk with Taneisha Lugo, a principal product designer at Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, where she designs interactive features including mini games, short form content, and experiences tied to major properties like the NBA and the Olympics. Taneisha has previously worked at companies including Instagram, BuzzFeed, HuffP...

In episode 5, I talk with Alex Terry, the Global Social Creative Innovation Lead at Motorola, who develops large-scale digital and social campaigns for global audiences. Alex’s work spans brand, advertising, and social media innovation, and includes campaigns connected to Super Bowl 59 as well as work for brands such as Rocket Mortgage, Walgreens Health, 92 Shoes, and Sky Zone. Alex is also an ent...

In this episode of Design Futures, I talk with Alyssa Varsanyi, a UX/UI designer, formerly of Oomph, where they worked on high performance digital solutions for mission driven organizations including the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, National Environmental Education Foundation, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Columbia Health, and Massachusetts Legal Help. In 2024, they were named a Person t...

In this third episode of season 5, I talk with Brett Lindstrom, founder and head of creative at Fish and Chips, a Web3 and crypto-focused creative agency and 2011 graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design. Brett’s career spans an unusually wide spectrum: former head of design at CBS Sports Fantasy Sports, former creative director at Citibank, creator of the Rolling Loud brand, Billboard-chart...

In this second episode of season 5, I talk with Casey Ligon, an associate creative director at VML, where she concepts, builds, and animates content for major brands including Wendy’s, Nintendo, Disney, and Netflix. Casey is also a lettering artist, food stylist, chalk muralist, photographer, and prolific maker of tactile images. Casey is a 2012 graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design. We t...

In this episode, I talk with Soleil Paz, a 2018 graduate of The College of Saint Rose and an associate designer at Macmillan Publishers who specializes in book cover design for non-fiction, social justice, and popular science titles. We trace the origins of Soleil’s creativity, from drawing to survive summer math workbooks to discovering typography through early computer graphics classes, and how...

Hey future and current designers, it’s been a minute, but I’m back with Season 5 of Design Futures. Starting in January you’ll hear all new stories from former students. In this season I talk to designers that are probably the most diverse in terms of their experiences. On one end of the spectrum there’s a designer who makes type and image with food, among other non-traditional materials and on th...

In episode 10, the last episode of season four, I talk with Jonny Ouellette, the co-founder and creative director of the motion design firm, Kill 2 Birds and 2002 graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. We talk about our interactions in the graphic design program at MassArt and our passion for making type move on screen. Jonny shares stories of his client work that involve some of t...

In episode nine of season four I interview Ringling College of Art & Design graduate and Director of Product Design at BILL, Greg Tariff. We discuss his appreciation for design’s role in the business world and how to navigate a career in Silicon Valley. Greg talks about how his interest in cars led to an internship at General Motors, how networking in New York City led to an agency job in Hilton H...

In episode eight I interview 2015 graduate of Russell Sage College and Director of User Experience at Upside Collective, Krystal Hinckley. In our discussion Krystal shares details of working on large-scale websites for the state of New York, including the attorney general’s website that she spent two years working on. She also talks about scrolling through the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society photos f...

In this episode I talk with 2016 graduate of the College of Saint Rose, Rachel Suflita McKee, about her path from intern to art director at the Boston-based design studio, Pinkergreen. She talks about how the diversity of projects (Boston University Global Music Festival, Flex Rx, Flyte 70, The Bug Club, etc.) at a small studio is special and keeps her engaged with graphic design and the people sh...

Five, four, three, two, one… Happy New Year. In this first episode of 2024 Saint Rose alumni and technical UI designer, Nael Uppal, talks to me about starting a degree in his home country of Pakistan, continuing his education in Albany, NY, and completing his degree back home — it’s called a sandwich degree. Apparently that’s a term. Somewhere in the middle of this culinary delight is some work ex...

As 2023 comes to a close, I interview Lindsay Agnew, 2010 graduate of the Ringling College of Art & Design and creative director at Panama Jack (She has since moved on to Entertainment Retail Enterprises). In this episode we discuss the trajectory of her career that started at Disney Imagineering working as an environmental graphics designer, where she focused on designing signage and way-finding...

In this episode, Stephanie Pepaj, 2019 graduate of the College of Saint Rose discusses her spontaneous decision, based on an over-heard conversation at a coffee shop, to go back to school to get her master’s degree in marketing from Queens University Belfast in Northern Ireland. Why not? It was the pandemic and she always wanted to live outside the U.S. While living in Belfast she worked for a dig...

In this episode I chat with Lead Product Designer, Alex Gennette, at Netflix Games. We not only discuss his role in designing for the Netflix Games platform, but we also talk about board games and those tiny figurines that come with many multi-player adventure games. We nerd-out about non-linear content and a project in Alex’s portfolio that required him to design a system for livestream motion gr...

Heather Argus, a senior brand designer at the tech company Platform.sh, is a founding member for the Asheville chapter of AIGA. In this episode I talk to Heather about her journey from upstate New York to North Carolina and from being a not-so-confident design student to a role as a design mentor. She  talks about the people, her family included, that have influenced her and continue to build her...

In this first episode of season four of Design Futures I talk with London-based designer Kristie Malivindi of Jones Knowles Ritchie. We discuss her journey from making amazing work and mistakes at the two-person design firm, 2communiqué, to mentoring young designers in her recent role as creative director at JKR, where she works on global brands such as Burger King and M & M’s. We also talk about...

Hey future & current designers it’s time for Season 4 of Design Futures. Starting the first week of October you’ll hear all new stories from former students. Season 4 is unofficially titled the international season because in this season I talk to a designer who went on to earn her Masters degree in Northern Ireland, a designer who returned to Pakistan to work in the gaming industry, and two desig...

For all those foodies and a designers out there, this is for you. In this last episode of Season 3, Ashley Tucker, 2006 graduate of the University of Denver (DU) and Associate Design Director at Penguin Random House, joins me for a conversation about food, design, and book publishing. She talks about her transition from a pre-med course of study at Northwestern University to studying graphic desig...

Wake up listeners. It’s time for episode 8 of season 3. In this episode my guest, 2019 graduate of the College of Saint Rose and Death Wish Coffee Merchandise Coordinator, Sadie Kenyon talks about her journey from designer to working with designers on the non-coffee products for the coffee company. She connects the design skills of paying attention to the details as well as giving feedback to the...

In episode seven, 2018 graduate of the College of Saint Rose, Kim Lê joins me for a discussion about all things Boston, such as what it’s like working for Opus Design, a small design studio, enjoying the T, and finding four-leaf clovers in her neighborhood park — a hobby that started as a college experiment during one summer break. We also talk about her family expectations of career and how those...

In episode six, the first of 2023, 2014 graduate of The Sage Colleges, Jared Schafer joins me for a conversation about 3D motion graphics, water-cooled computers, and creating animated videos for virtual reality. He talks about instead of watching TV he enjoyed a healthy drawing competition with his brother when they were kids that developed his illustration passion and skills. We also discuss the...

In episode five of this season, I talk with 2017 graduate of the College of Saint Rose, Moira Gilligan about her career as a designer and art director in the fashion world. We discuss big budgets, location scouting, and hiring models for fashion shoots. And she educates me in such fashion trends as dressing a goat in a cashmere sweater, chunky white dad sneakers, and high-waisted mom jeans. Speaki...

Ringling College of Art & Design and Accenture alumus (he currently works for Brunswick Creative), Yuri Priamo Canales joins me to talk about high level brand strategy in experiential design, running disruption sessions in the Mural whiteboard space, questioning what the client thinks they want for design deliverables, and trying to understand the Metaverse. He also retells the story of organizing...

In this episode, 2014 graduate of the College of Saint Rose, Taira Perrault, schools me in digital product design jargon like M.V.P.s, D.S.M.s, and sprints as we view her portfolio and nerd-out about components and templates for editorial design experiences. She also talks about her experience with a UX/UI bootcamp where she mentioned to the teachers that some of their exercises about visual desig...