Scratching the Surface

Perrin Drumm is a writer, editor, and publisher. She’s currently the head of publishing at A24 and is the co-founder and previous director of Eye on Design. In this episode, Perrin and Jarrett talk about studying creative writing and fine art, the origins and editorial direction of Eye on Design, and the role of criticism. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/152-perrin-...

Rachel Berger is a designer, writer, and educator based in California. She’s currently the chair of Graphic Design at CCA and her writing as appeared in Design Observer, Significant Objects, and CLOG. Previously, she was a designer at SYPartners and Pentagram. In this episode, Rachel and Jarrett talk about her early interest in writing, how teaching has changed her practice, and why she takes grap...

Susan Sellers is a founding partner and executive creative director at 2x4, a senior design critic at Yale School of Art, and from 2013 to 2016, was Head of Design for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this episode. Jarrett and Susan talk about the changing definitions of design, putting ideas into the world, and the importance of craft and story. Links from this episode can be found at scratchin...

Margo Halverson is a designer, educator, photographer, and artist. She’s a professor of graphic design and Chair of the Graphic Design department at Maine College of Art and the co-founder of DesignInquiry, an amorphous collective centered around ideas of disciplinary discourse, expanded practice, and design research. In this episode, Jarrett and Margo talk about her journey from photography to de...

Henry N. Cobb, who passed away yesterday at 93, was a founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the architecture firm he co-founded with I.M. Pei and Eason Leonard in 1955. From 1980-1985 he was the chair of the department of architecture at Harvard University and in 2018, published Henry N. Cobb: Words and Words 1948-2018 where he uses his career to trace what he calls ‘the predicament of ar...

Leslie Roberts is an author, journalist, essayist, and educator. She’s the chair of the graduate writing program at California College of Arts in San Francisco and the author, most recently, of Here Is Where I Walk. At CCA, Leslie teaches courses on writing for designers and is the cofounder of Ecopoesis, a multidisciplinary group focusing on making and messaging around ecologies. In this episode,...

Justin Davidson is the architecture and classical music critic at New York Magazine. He previously studied music at Harvard and Columbia and began his journalism career as a staff writer at Newsday. In this episode, Jarrett and Justin talk about the role of the critic, the similarities between writing about music and architecture, and what happened after he broke the story about The Met’s new logo...

Martin Venezky is a graphic designer, photographer, artist, and educator. Since 1997, he's operated Appetite Engineers to produce books, installations, and illustrations and since 1993, he's been on the faculy of the California College of Art in San Francisco. A new book of his photography, What I Know About Photography was released last year by Jon Sueda on Kickstarter. In this conversation, Jarr...

Rosanne Somerson is a furniture designer, educator, and President of Rhode Island School of Design. After studying industrial design at RISD and running her own practice, she returned to the school in 1985 to teach furniture design, and became the first leader of the new furniture design department. In 2015, she was appointed the 17th president of RISD. In this episode, Jarrett and Rosanne talk ab...

Reed Kroloff is a renowned educator, writer, critic, and consultant. He’s the newly appointed dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture and previously served as the director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and dean of the school of architecture at Tulane University. He was also the editor-in-chief of Architecture magazine and runs the consultancy Jones Kroloff. In this e...

Mary Banas is a graphic designer and educator. Her independent creative practice, Yes, is More, spans research, teaching, and design. She also collaborates with Breanne Trammell and is on the faculty at California College of the Arts. In this episode, Jarrett and Mary talk about her roundabout journey into teaching, the value of an expanded practice, and how to set up better critiques in the class...

Josh Owen is an industrial designer and educator. He runs his own design studio, Josh Owen LLC, and is a Full Professor and the Chair of the Industrial Design Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he also works with the Vignelli Center for Design Studies. In this episode, Jarrett and Josh talk about spending his summers on archeological digs with his father and how that influe...

Johanna Drucker is an author, book artist, visual theorist, and cultural critic. She's currently a professor in the Department of Information Studies at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Her research and writing has focused on visual language and letterforms, typography, visual poetry, the history of books and digital aesthetics. In this episode, Jarrett and Johanna...

Lucinda Hitchcock is a book designer, typographer, and educator. She's on the faculty at RISD, where she's currently the head of the graphic design department and has designed books for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MFA Boston, and Tufts University Art Galleries. Her research involves narrative, place, and the shape of language. In this episode, Jarrett and Lucy talk about graphic designers as c...

James Voorhies is a curator, art historian, writer, and educator. James is currently the chair of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice and a professor of fine arts at California College of Arts. He’s the director of the Curatorial Research Bureau, a bookshop, learning site, and exhibition space in San Francisco and is the author of Beyond Objecthood: The Exhibition as a Critical Form since...

Darran Anderson is a writer and author of *Imaginary Cities* and the forthcoming *Inventory*. His writing on architecture, design, and space has appeared in The Atlantic, Vice, and CityLab. In this episode, Jarrett and Darran talk about his early interest in architecture and literature, experimenting with new forms of writing, and expanding how we talk about architecture and cities. Links from thi...

Nicholas Korody is a writer and artist. He writes for Archinect, where is also the editor of their print publication, Ed; and is one-half of Adjustments Agency, a studio and artistic practice he formed with Joanna Kloppenburg to investigate the architecture of architecture. Earlier this year, Nicholas launched Interiors Agency, his new independent practice interested in the role of interior design...

Marco Steinberg is a strategic designer who works on the complex challenges that face governments, society, and the environment. Currently working independently, he previously founded and led the Helsinki Design Lab and was an Associate Professor at the Harvard Design School from 1999-2009. In this episode, Jarrett and Marco talk about the evolution of his career and move from architecture to stra...

Eddie Opara is a Pentagram partner whose work spans design, technology, and strategy. He previously ran his own studio, The Map office, and worked as a designer at 2x4 and Imaginary Forces. In this episode, Jarrett and Eddie talk about questioning the brief, why his work is considered enigmatic, and thinking about your legacy. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm.

Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, urban planner, author, and academic. He's the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, the author of A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for Urban America, and was just announced as the next dean of UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design. In this episode, Jarrett and Vishaan talk about his circuitous path to architecture, the intersection of pract...

Jenny Odell is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Oakland, California. She's the author of How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, teaches digital/physical design at Stanford and has been the artist in residence at the Recology SF (aka 'the dump'), San Francisco Planning Department, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In this episode, Jarrett and Jenny talk about her backg...

Danah Abdulla is a designer, educator, and researcher. She's a Senior Lecturer in Communication Design at Brunel University London; founder of *Kalimat*, non-profit magazine about Arab thought and culture; and a founding member of the Decolonising Design platform. In this episode, Danah and Jarrett talk about localizing design education, studying social design, and what it means to decolonize desi...

Rick Poynor is perhaps the foremost writer, critic, and editor on graphic design and visual culture. He is Professor of Design and Visual Culture at the University of Reading. In addition to founding and serving as the first editor in chief of Eye, Rick also cofounded Design Observer, continues as a columnist for Eye, and has written for Print and Blueprint. In this wide-ranging conversation, Jarr...

Mark Foster Gage is an architect, author, and educator. He's an Assistant Dean at the Yale School of Architecture, principal of Mark Foster Gage Architects, and the editor of the new book, Aesthetics Equals Politics. In this conversation, Jarrett and Mark talk about the history of aesthetics and how it shapes our experience in the world, the problems with critiques, and how narrative can obscure h...

Ali Qadeer and Chris Lee are designers and educators. Together, they edited a recent issue of C Magazine with the theme graphic design. In this episode, Jarrett talks with Ali and Chris about the issue and their ideas around the editorial point-of-view, their teaching practice, and why they like finding new definitions for graphic design. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurfac...