Design Futures

In this second episode of Season 3, Boston-based art director, Nelson Couto, talks about balancing a design consulting business with family life and moving rocks in his front yard. One of his strategies is meditating each morning after bringing the kids to school. We also put our memories to the test and try to remember how we met at MassArt over 20 years ago. Nelson also shares his struggles with...

In this first episode of season 3 we’re going to space. That’s right, I talk to NASA designer and 2016 Saint Rose graduate, Morgan Denman, about designing for space. She shares her story about how she got into the space industry and why she wouldn’t ever leave. She also talks about being a cancer survivor and how that experience put into perspective what she really wanted to focus on in her design...

Hey future & current designers. If you’re hearing my voice you know what that means. That’s right. Season 3 of Design Futures is happening. Starting the first week of October you’ll hear all new stories from former students. In this season we go to the extremes. You’ll hear from a designer who’s work has literally been to space and back. And I don’t mean literally as in figuratively like the kids...

In episode 10 of season 2 Larry Nguyen, Creative Director of Outfit Branding & Design and 2005 graduate of the University of Denver discusses his passion for branding, working with international clients, and getting projects published in design books. Larry shares his appreciation for the eMAD program at DU (listen for the faculty shoutouts) that taught him to take risks, think conceptually, and b...

Lesia Gribbin, 2014 graduate of the College of Saint Rose and Group Art Supervisor at Neon joins me for a conversation about travel, working remotely, and creating advertising campaigns for pharmaceutical products. We talk about her time spent in the early morning hours at Picotte Hall, Saint Rose’s art building, where she would work two or three hours before class. And that one time when, because...

In this episode, 2012 graduate of The Sage Colleges, Jordan McClendon, discusses his role as Manager of Digital Communications at the ARRIVE center at the State University of New York (SUNY), his celebrated collection of animated shorts titled “Albany Shorts,” and passion for making his own projects that led him to his current success in the design field. He also talks about spending countless pea...

In episode 7, Whitney Dobladillo brings her signature energy and smile to the conversation as she shares her passion for community building and stories about the communities she’s created and led. Her most recent projects include Type Thursday; Ladies, Wine & Design; and Peruvian Sisters, a community she started with, you guessed it, her sister. We also discuss her design position at the book publ...

In this first episode of 2022, Deb Levison, 2012 graduate of Ringling College of Art & Design, talks to me about the importance of getting a routine when working remotely, the design process at Maark where she is a senior digital designer, using Figma for almost all her work, and showing or not showing high fidelity prototypes to clients. We discuss the realities of moving into a design leader rol...

Vegas, baby, Vegas. That’s right. In this episode I interview 2014 graduate of the The College of Saint Rose, Kim Szkudlarek, who quit her design job in Miami, took a road trip, and ended up in Las Vegas. Kim talks about not wanting to sit at a computer all day and instead pursued a career that consists of constructing three-dimensional objects, mixing paint to get just the right color match, and...

Put away the sketchbooks and open up your spreadsheets, calendars, and digital notepad. You’ll need those tools to take some notes on my conversation with Jibran Kutik, Product Design Manager for new customer experience at Twitter. We talk at length about user testing, product design, and all the details in an interface that help you find value in a digital product. Jibran also discusses his passi...

In this episode, Glen Carlson of Metabolon, discusses designing user experiences for scientists, starting the AIGA student group at the University of Denver, and growing up in Silicon Valley. Glen shares his no-interface design philosophy, advocating for the kind of work you want to do, and learning to embrace ambiguity. Join us for a fascinating conversation that also includes pop-culture referen...

Designer Oj Wilson of Teal Media and the College of Saint Rose joins me for a discussion about designing for agency clients, not-for-profit, and political campaigns. That’s right, all those door hangers, lawn signs, and bumper stickers you’ve been seeing the last few months were created by designers like Oj. She shares her involvement with social impact that started with working with her mom’s not...

In this first episode of season two, Saint Rose graduate and art director at TracyLocke, Susi Cadena talks about working and living in New York City, designing for big brands like Pepsi and Godiva, navigating the process of corporate sponsorship for foreign nationals working in the U.S., and TracyLocke’s Design Collective. She also shares her academic story of starting college as a business admini...

It’s time to put on the flannel, get back to school, and learn something Welcome to the best season of the year. It’s Autumn. And you know what’s going to make it even better? Yea, you know because you’re listening to this trailer. It’s time for Season 2 of Design Futures. This past summer I had the pleasure of talking with a group of amazing alumni and I’m super excited to share their diverse sto...

In this final episode of Season 1 Melike Turgut, 2011 graduate of Ringling College of Art & Design, discusses the career path that started with a company-supplied apartment in Brooklyn and led her to the current role as Design Manager of Web Expressibility at Squarespace. We talk about challenging school projects, machine learning, principle designers, and documenting design process with diagrams....

If you’re just out of school you’ll want to listen to this interview with Associate Graphic Designer at Insider, Alyssa Powell. She talks about the challenges of landing her first job and the random connection that led to it. We talk about the non-design stuff at work, including salary, deadlines, teams, and working and learning from co-workers. She also discusses making videos and chalk typograph...

In episode six we travel west to Colorado to talk with illustrator and designer Amanda Lenz. We talk about remembering how to talk to people with the help of renting a desk at a co-working space, illustrating a portrait of Oprah Winfrey for Time Magazine, and being selected for the Adobe Creative Residency Community Fund. Amanda talks about her love of nature inspired by growing up in West Virgini...

It’s baseball season. In episode five, graphic designer at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Dani Dayton talks about designing exhibition and social media graphics, inauguration tickets, and the retail catalog. We discuss the process of using wood flooring as the background for a product photoshoot, the Tao of Pooh, and that magical experience of walking in the Plaque Gallery in the early mornin...

In episode four, 2014 graduate of the College of Saint Rose, Erica Cotten and I nerd-out about user flows, prototyping with Sketch and Figma, the art of comic books, and the UI pattern of toggles. We discuss her role as a user experience designer at Salesforce, a cloud-based software company, where she works on story grooming, wireframes, user research, and rapid prototyping. Erica discusses a num...

The husband and wife team at Macaroni Creative, Ron Gibbons and Mackenzie Carey, join me in episode three. We discuss designing for consumer packaged goods, leaving their full-time jobs to start their own design firm, and being the only designers in the room. They share the challenges of teaching an online course (“props to our teachers” —Mackenzie) on Nerdabe.com and streaming their design proces...

In this episode creative director and entrepreneur, Paul Gonzalez shares stories about making pillows with his mom as a child in Sarasota, FL, his appreciation for House music, and being a professional Salsa dancer. We also discuss his New York City internship and returning to the city to begin freelancing immediately after graduating from the Ringling College of Art & Design in 2012. He also tell...

In this first episode I talk to Josh Terry, graphic designer at T Brand Studio at The New York Times, about his role as an editorial designer working on branded content articles for advertising clients. We discuss collaborating with illustrators to design editorial content for interactive experiences. Josh also reflects on drawing boxes, learning art and design history, and developing design conce...

Graphic Design? Can you make a living at that? Design Futures is a show about the lives of designers as they discover their way in the world after graduation.  Chris St. Cyr, Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the College of Saint Rose and creative director at the design firm, 2communiqué, interviews former graphic design students to find out what they’ve been doing since graduation. Maybe y...