Design Better

Find the transcript, show notes, and more on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/barry-katz We bet you don’t know where the term “interaction design” comes from, but Barry Katz does. Katz’s book, Make It New, captures the lost history of digital design that should be required reading for all in the software design industry. Eli first got to know Barry Katz as a professor at Stanford du...

Find the transcript, show notes, and more on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/dorrian-porter-vestaboard The sound and movement of a split flap display mesmerizes us like few things can. There’s a charm to these things. Travelers linger in front of them in train stations anticipating new information, happy to stick around to watch the magic. Dorrian Porter’s encounter with a split fl...

Find show notes, transcripts, and more at https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/paola-antonelli The Museum of Modern Art brings to mind images of Van Gough’s Starry Night, Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Memory, and Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans. But thanks to Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA exhibitions also encompass the role design has played in s...

As designers, we can’t help but be particular about the gifts we give and receive. We’ve put together a list of beautiful and useful gifts at varying price ranges to help you satisfy everyone on your holiday shopping list this year, including yourself. Wishing you and yours a happy, safe holiday season filled with love, gratitude, and connection. Your pals, Aarron and Eli *** For the full gift gui...

Find the episode transcript and show notes on designbetterpodcast.com Our show starts with a little sample of the music that fuels our creative work. Eli’s been listening to Tycho, aka Scott Hansen, since 2006. It just happened to coincide with the first time he took the leap into being a creative entrepreneur, starting his own small design consultancy as well as co-founding a magazine about under...

Find the transcript and episode notes here: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/gil-gershoni#details October is dyslexia awareness month, and we were recently introduced to Gil Gershoni, who is on a mission to help us all recognize dyslexia as a creative superpower. Gershoni runs an influential agency that’s been reshaping brands with the power of dyslexic design thinking for decades. One in five pe...

Show notes and transcript: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/ok-go Not many bands hire Russian pilots to film a Zero-G video on their cosmonaut training plane, known as the “vomit comet”. But those are the kinds of extremes that OK Go will go to in the pursuit of creativity. Tim Nordwind and Damien Kulash, the band’s founders, met at camp as pre-teens in search of a fellow creative nerd, and found...

Over the seven years doing the show, we noticed a pattern in those who achieve their career goals fastest—they consciously invest in themselves by building skills and knowledge. And one of the best ways to learn is to have direct access to people who inform and inspire. Today, we’re launching a premium service called DB+ designed to help you learn faster and grow your career. Subscribers to the Po...

Aarron first met Paula Scher as a grad student in Philadelphia. He worked at the Temple University gallery and was hanging an exhibition of her posters when they first spoke about her work. He didn’t know at the time how significant her influence on graphic design was, but her work made an impression on him. Paula’s work and kinetic typography sits in the canon of graphic design history. Described...

Show notes and transcript: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/bonus-episode-matt-d-smith#details We’ve got a special bonus episode for you today. Matt D. Smith, better known as MDS, is the founder of Shift Nudge, and he has a mission to lead a new generation of interface designers to build the digital products of the future. Matt’s courses on Shift Nudge have helped thousands of students at top com...

Show notes and transcript: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/llisa-demetrios#details Mid century modern design aesthetics are enduring and as relevant today as ever. Perhaps no designers influenced those philosophies more than Charles and Ray Eames whose body of work transcends media and is still being produced today. It’s hard not to think of the Eames’ as monolithic design heroes, but today we’r...

Hey everybody, we have a special bonus episode for you today. We're having a conversation with Bayard Winthrop, the founder and CEO of American Giant, one of our favorite clothing companies. This episode is all about the intersection of design and entrepreneurship. Designers often hear that they need to develop business acumen: they need to know how a business works, and how a product makes money....

Welcome to our second Design Better episode on the creative process. You may not know Ed Catmull’s name, but there’s almost no doubt you’re familiar with his work. As the co-founder of Pixar, he’s responsible for helping to create movies ranging from the original Toy Story on through The Incredibles, Wall-E, Moana, and Inside Out.  Ed has a background in computer science, and as someone who pionee...

Welcome to the first episode in our Design Better series on the creative process. In this series, we’re going beyond the confines of design to speak with some of the most creative people in the world, to learn how they approach collaboration, come up with innovative ideas, and overcome creative obstacles. We’ll speak with guests like Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar; Autumn Durald Arkapaw, cinemato...

Design Better co-hosts Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter explore the intersection of design, technology, and the creative process through conversations with inspiring guests across many creative fields. Whether you’re design curious or a design pro, Design Better is guaranteed to inspire and inform. Episodes are released semi-weekly. Vanity Fair calls Design Better, “sharp, to the point, and full of i...

We recently hit our 100th episode, and we have a big announcement to share. If you haven't already subscribed to our Substack at https://designbetterpodcast.com/ head over there so you can stay up to day with all the latest episodes, as well as our free newsletter. Thank you for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/bonus-episode-with-don-norman-panel In this special bonus episode, renowned scholar and author Don Norman (The Design of Everyday Things, Design for a Better World) leads a discussion with recognized design leaders about how design can and should play a role in solving the biggest challenges of humanity today. This conversation was recorded at a live o...

Subscribe for free to our show on Substack to receive episodes a week early, bonus content like post-show discussions, and more: https://designbetterpodcast.com/ Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/ole-lutjens-evidence-based-design What was it like to lead product design at Disney through the creation of Disney+, one of its biggest launches in the digital age? And how did a designer from...

Subscribe to the Design Better Podcast on Substack to get episodes a week early and other bonus content: https://designbetterpodcast.com/ Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/georg-petschnigg-product-design-and#details *** The New York Times has gone through many challenges and evolutions during its storied history. Founded in 1851—when it was called the New-York Daily Times—it faced draf...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/rewind-eileen-fisher-embracing-imperfect Hi Folks- We hope that everyone is enjoying their summer so far. We’re taking a few weeks off to be with our families, and to prepare for an exciting announcement that we plan to share soon. In the meantime, we’re rewinding to one of our favorite episodes with Eileen Fisher, founder of her eponymous fashion bran...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/donna-lichaw-the-leaders-journey “Management is a job, whereas leadership is a quality you have to earn,” as we learned way back in Episode 21 from our guest Julie Zhuo. Today, we’re diving deeper into the topic of leadership with Donna Lichaw, author of the new book The Leader's Journey: Transforming Your Leadership To Achieve the Extraordinary Donna...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/robert-brunner-where-art-and-commerce Our guest today, Robert Brunner, once joked that his tombstone will say: “Here lies the guy who hired Jonathan Ive.” But there’s much more to Robert than that. He did indeed build out the industrial design team at Apple in the 90’s, but he’s also been a partner at Pentagram Design, and was the chief designer of Bea...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/john-maeda-ai-design Today we welcome back John Maeda, who is currently Vice President of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft. You’re probably familiar with John’s work, but if not, take a listen to Episode 42 of this show, where he talks about the arc of his remarkable career. In today’s episode, we talk with John about his role at Microso...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/sheena-iyengar-choose-to-think-bigger We may not think about it all that often, but the choices that we make often end up defining who we become. Dr. Sheena Iyengar, the S.T. Lee Professor of Business at the Columbia Business School, makes the psychology of choice and decision-making the focus of much of her research. She wrote a best-selling book call...

Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-ai-and-jazz Matt Mullenweg started out as a jazz saxophonist, and went on to create WordPress, which is the platform behind an astonishing 42% of the websites in the world. We chat with Matt about his journey from musician to developer to entrepreneur, his perspective on distributed work, and his thoughts on the transformative...