Clever with Amy Devers

Industrial designer Tom Dixon discovered the transformative power of clay at a young age. Later, after dropping out of art college, he toured with his band and when a motorcycle accident ended his bass playing career, he taught himself to weld. Now his eponymous global design brand specializes in furniture, lighting, accessories and interiors. After 30+ years as a designer, he still fancies himsel...

Legendary art director Giulio Cappellini first fell in love with cars, then studied architecture, and took the family furniture business into the stratosphere with his bold curatorial vision and knack for spotting international talent. His true gifts may lie in his instinctual approach to risk taking, a dedication to longevity over market trends, and his truly familial approach to building relatio...

This rebroadcast is presented as part of WantedDesign Manhattan Online Conversation Series, presented by Clever and Design Milk. Visit wanteddesignnyc.com/online to view the schedule and register for live talks.  Internationally acclaimed designer Humberto Campana grew up in small-town Brazil and found imaginative freedom in crafts and the local movie theater. During his adolescence it was co...

Industrial designer Ayse Birsel grew up thinking she’d become a lawyer until a revelation with a teacup enlightened her to the principles and practice of design. Always a playful soul, her essence of playfulness is an important part of her creative process - a process she’s used to design award-winning products as well as to help people design a life and work they love. Now, she shows us an optimi...

Interior designer and art consultant Elena Frampton grew up in Southern California drawing floor plans and going to open houses. Sensitive and introverted as a child, her rebellious adolescence belied her unwillingness to conform to others’ expectations and may or may not have involved a stolen convertible. Now, as a professional interior designer and art advisor she operates as a sort of conduit...

In this special Clever extra we teamed up with Paintzen to talk wall power. Walls are the backdrops of all our spaces. They are in the prime position to set the vibe and ambience of our lives. Paint and wallpaper have the power to transform, brighten, warm, refresh, and personalize a space. Two experts help break down the style and execution of wall treatments, Casey DeBois, Interior Designer and...

Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister did not care for engineering in high school. He found designing a poster that would communicate a vibe and draw crowds to an event to be way more compelling. After design school, the Austrian native decided that New York is the city that fits him best. With many awards and a big name in his field, he’s now focusing on art, exhibitions and taking a sabbatical ever...

Industrial designer Catherine Bailey grew up playing with the old school computer punch cards that were the technological accoutrements of nearby Bell Labs. A public school art teacher gave her the push she needed to find her way to industrial design. After stints designing sneakers and snowboard boots, she and her husband Robin embarked on a creative adventure together stewarding the beloved and...

These are strange and difficult times. People are feeling anxious, isolated, and frightened. *raises hand* We reached out to friends and familiar voices you know and love from previous Clever episodes to bring you messages of solidarity, hope and coping strategies. Now, we really want to hear from you - How are you doing with all this? To leave us a voice message: call (323) 387-3329 (inside the U...

Artist and designer Misha Kahn grew up hustling his lakeshore Minnesotan neighbors with tin foil wrapped baked goods, sewing clothes and hanging with exchange student stragglers. A year of guzzling weird culture in Brussels set him on a path to study furniture design in school. Now, at the young age of 30, his career has snowballed and earned him a reputation in the art world as an exciting and pr...

Furniture and interior designer Claudia Washington grew up in El Salvador during the civil war. It was not safe for her to play outside so she spent her days clipping pictures from architecture magazines and redesigning her bedroom. In college, she predicted whom she would marry from seeing a work of his art. Now, Claudia and Harry Washington are designing work for international clients and champi...

Artist, illustrator & author Lisa Congdon grew up being praised for hard work but not for creativity. She studied history in college, spent years as a classroom teacher, and didn’t even start dabbling in art until her early 30’s. At that time of internet nascency, Lisa was an early adopter sharing her work and getting positive feedback. It’s all blossomed into a thriving career, social media s...

This special Clever Extra, taped live at RISD as the keynote presentation of Design Week RI, four creative thought leaders come together for a discussion on the power of creativity. As a social value, creativity often gets dismissed as “making things pretty” rather than being understood as the fundamental impulse and effort behind every creation. Here, with Panelists Rosanne Somerson, Sara Ossana,...

Industrial designer Konstantin Grcic grew up in Germany, listening to punk rock and dreaming of building boats. In England, he trained in cabinet making at The John Makepeace School for Craftsman in Wood, and studied design at the Royal College of Art. Since starting his own studio in 1991 he’s designed several iconic pieces like Chair One for Magis, and the Mayday lamp for Flos. Even though he’s...

Design impresario Murray Moss grew up in a house his father engineered with a drinking fountain in the dining room. At 5, he redecorated his farmhouse bedroom with a Chinese motif. In college, after accidentally burning down his apartment with a fondue pot, he found his love of theatre. The ‘90s were all about MOSS, his Soho New York boutique that lit up the global high-design scene and paved the...

Graphic designer Paula Scher grew up drawing pictures to escape a turbulent home life. Later, rebelling against suburban existence, she ventured to art school and became a hippie, and then art directed album covers in NYC. She’s been a partner at Pentagram since ‘91. In her ~50 years in the business she has blazed trails, upended boys’ clubs, committed “typographic blasphemy,” given form to the ze...

Experience designer Kristy Tillman was a very studious child, extremely driven academically. Always on the advanced track, she assumed she would one day be a lawyer like Clair Huxtable. Coding and art were background passions until a friend made her aware of design as a profession and she immediately redirected them to the foreground. Having recognized the need and summoned the courage to “invite...

Jeansmith and co-founder of Raleigh Denim Workshop, Victor Lytvinenko, was born with tons of energy and curiosity. As he grew it led to playing soccer, building small engines, and digging deep into whatever was capturing his attention - woodworking, cooking, wine-making... until he found a sewing machine and became obsessed with making the perfect pair of jeans. Together with his now-wife Sarah Ya...

Google’s Head of Hardware Design, Ivy Ross, learned from her industrial designer father how to see the world for how it’s made, and for the possibilities of how it could be remade. Early professional success as a jewelry designer taught her that life is not about ego hits, it’s about the journey. Fueled by curiosity, she’s traveled through the corporate world as a way to keep learning. She approac...

Happy holidays + new year! We’re rebroadcasting a favorite episode from the archives. Enjoy! Streetwear designer Bobby Hundreds grew up as a minority of a minority, being both Korean-American and into the socal skate punk scene. He loved to draw, but was not encouraged to pursue the arts so he got a law degree instead. When he started The Hundreds with a classmate, it took off like a rocket and he...

Happy holidays + new year! We’re rebroadcasting a favorite episode from the archives. Enjoy! Graphic designer, illustrator and lettering artist, Jessica Hische forged her fierce independence. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be an artist, but it necessitated a school transfer to pursue that dream. With candor and self-awareness, she’s forthcoming about the challenging aspects of her wo...

Furniture & interior designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance moved from Paris to the “super boring” French countryside in his youth where he spent all day on his bicycle inventing new worlds in his mind. After a brief attempt at becoming a movie star, he found design. He came home from a trip to Morocco with both a baby, and a job designing a high profile restaurant (not with the same people). Now ba...

Furniture designer Jeff Martin grew up in Vancouver, BC struggling with punctuation and hiding in a dilapidated abandoned boat. He spent his teenage years expressing himself through skateboarding and snowboarding. Following a devastating accident and subsequent slow recovery, he found his voice through writing and reconnected to his body through physical labor and making. Now he’s using his voice...

We teamed up with Tarkett for this Clever Extra to unpack the idea that we can consciously impact our wellbeing through design choices. We spoke with Mausi McDaniel of Tarkett about the cultural drivers that are influencing our collective consciousness, and with joy expert, Ingrid Fetell Lee, about our unconscious emotional responses to cues in our surroundings. Goal: We can work with all of this...

Interior designer and star of Netfllix’s Queer Eye, Bobby Berk grew up in the rural south, feeling like an outsider. Before coming out as gay, he struggled with anger, depression and tension with his religious family. After running away from home and coming out, he made a break for Denver, and then NYC. Always designing opportunities for himself, he found his way to e-tailing, then retailing and t...