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32 Jessica Helfand on Redefining Design Ethics for the Digital Age Feb 12, 2020

Show notes

It's not an overstatement to say that Jessica Helfand is a renaissance woman of the design world. She co-founded Design Observer, an authoritative digital publication on the state of visual culture and an oracle of wise and thoughtful discourse on design for many of us. She also co-hosts two podcasts: The Observatory and The Design of Business/ The Business of Design. In all aspects of her work and writing, she asks profound questions about creative practice and challenges our assumptions about how to reconcile an ethical design practice with a successful one.

In addition to her thriving art and design practices, Jessica is also a prolific author of numerous books, including her latest work, Face: A Visual Odyssey, recently included on the "new and noteworthy" list of the New York Times. With encyclopedic thoroughness, Jessica examines the cultural significance of the face and its centrality in human experience, from archival mug shots through selfie culture and facial recognition technology.

Her academic career has been no less impressive than her literary and creative accomplishments. She has taught design at Yale University, her alma mater, since 1996. She currently serves as the second-ever Artist in Residence at Cal Tech, which is located a few blocks from ArtCenter in Pasadena. Later in the episode, we'll join her there in the classroom for a fascinating peek at how she's opening pathways of design to the quantitatively-minded students of science and engineering.

A fascinating conversationalist, Jessica readily peppers her answers with cogent insights into social media's impact on the next generation of designers and a very honest and moving sense of the ways in which personal experience invariably shapes creative practice.

Related links:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1532413

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2019/films/bully-coward-victim-the-story-of-roy-cohn/

http://indianpointfilm.com/

https://www.sundance.org/projects/heir-to-an-execution

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29 Saki Mafundikwa and Sadie Red Wing on Decolonializing Design Oct 23, 2019

Show notes

Sadie Red Wing and Saki Mafundikwa grew up a world and two generations apart. Sadie was born into the Lakota tribe and also considers herself a citizen of the Spirt Lake Nation of Fort Totten, South Dakota—two longstanding American indigenous communities. Saki, on the other hand, didn't set foot in the United States until he left his native Zimbabwe at age 24 in 1979, almost twenty years before Sadie was born.

Despite their different points of origin, their approach to their chosen profession is strikingly similar. They're both pioneering designers who focus their practices on giving voice and context to underrepresented communities whose rich visual languages have often been subsumed or ignored by mainstream design's bias toward Western modes of communication.

Saki and Sadie joined forces for the first time in a joint workshop at ArtCenter entitled: Finding Our Way Home. The four-hour workshop created a space for students of all backgrounds to visually identify themselves, exhibit pride in representation and come away inspired to allow their heritage to inform their design work. We've also included a first-hand perspective on the workshop from participant, Amina Maya, a photographer and designer who works as a Junior Creative Director at Black Girl in Om, and Founder of Naturaliste Apothecary.

This thought-provoking episode of Change Lab explores some of the most vital issues facing both design and academia through the lens of Sadie and Saki's unique but parallel journeys toward better representing their own cultures in their work and encouraging diversity and inclusivity throughout the arts.

https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-saki-mafundikwa

https://www.sadieredwing.com

http://www.aminamaya.com

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28 Recent Alum Vicente Magaña on Solving the Riddle of Mass Transit in California Oct 09, 2019

Show notes

ArtCenter's Transportation Design program has a type and, at first glance, Vicente Magaña seems to fit it perfectly.

A lifelong obsession with cars? Check.

A childhood spent sketching every type of vehicle his imagination could conjure? Check.

An insatiable desire to land a job designing supercars and road testing them at top speed?

Well…that's where Vicente, a Summer 2019 ArtCenter alum, separates himself from the pack. Vicente is the rare car guy whose driving passion is not to design the ultimate driving machine. Instead, Magaña dreams of designing a public transportation system that turns cars into more of a luxury for weekend joy rides than a necessity for getting from Point A to B. We were particularly intrigued to learn more about the motivating factors guiding Vicente's unique spin on a quintessential ArtCenter career-path, which is why we selected him for this season's recent interview.

As the son of Mexican immigrants (and the first person in his family to attend college), Vicente's upbringing instilled a desire to use his education to improve the quality of life for those who need it most. While attending ArtCenter, Vicente seized every opportunity he could to apply his seasoned problem-solving skills toward the greater good. Nothing illustrates this more than his thesis project, Incog-NEATO, a modular system designed to convert most sedans into a discrete space for living and working out of a vehicle.

Intrigued and impressed by Vicente's unique combination of courage, empathy, and humility, Lorne dedicated this episode of Change Lab to tracking the journey that brought him to ArtCenter and where he hopes to go from here.

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27 IBM Design Chief Phil Gilbert on Leadership as Love Sep 25, 2019

Show notes

Though Phil Gilbert's official job title is General Manager of Design at IBM, he's more often referred to as IBM's very own design evangelist. But ask him to describe his earliest creative impulses and he'll tell you without hesitation that he was an entrepreneur from "day one."

It quickly became clear that Phil is all these things and more after spending the day with him at IBM's colorful, post-it-strewn design studio in Austin. In other words, to use a tech-speak term of art: Phil is a unicorn.

Need proof? Look no further than his decision to embed design thinking at scale across a company that spans 387,000 employees and 170 countries. Fast Company recently praised Gilbert's accomplishment at IBM as "establishing a modern standard for increasing the role of arts in business."

Under Phil's leadership, the legacy computer brand has resurrected and expanded its venerable design program and transformed itself into a nimble, forward-thinking company employing a fleet of designers, charged with applying their problem-solving skills to innovative software and B2B infrastructure initiatives, like quantum computing and state of the art digital security. To wit, ArtCenter alum Tina Zeng, a design researcher on IBM's security team, offers an insider's perspective on how design is being deployed on a day to day basis under Phil's leadership.

Over the course of a lively Change Lab conversation (conducted in IBM's employee programmed radio station) Phil opened up about his appreciation for the school busing program in Oklahoma City that first exposed him to the value in a diverse learning environment, his evolution as a leader and the importance of seeing every day as a prototype that can be improved upon.

Related links:

https://www.ibm.com/design/

http://www.tinalzeng.com/

https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/gooddesign/

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Encore Episode: Wendy MacNaughton on Road Testing Inspiration Sep 11, 2019

Show notes

In the lead up to the launch of Change Lab Season 5 on September 25, we're releasing a series of "Encore" episodes. For this final installment, we caught up with graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton to discuss her latest creative endeavor: A Honda Element she's tricked out to function as a mobile studio. The car features a custom-made drafting table, art supply storage, and a double bed to catch some zzz's on longer road trips. Wendy embarked on the project after realizing that solo time on the road has always been a reliable source of creative inspiration.

Wendy called us from her idea-generating machine in San Francisco to update us on her most recent wanderings. We hope you enjoy the episode. Don't forget to tune in for a whole new season of conversations on creativity and transformation kicking off with Lorne's incisive interview with IBM design chief, Phil Gilbert.

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Encore Episode: Reconnecting with Jesse Genet on the Growth of Lumi and the Future of E-Commerce Aug 28, 2019

Show notes

In the lead up to the launch of Change Lab Season 5 on September 25, we're releasing a series of "Encore" episodes.

For this installment, we caught up with designer and entrepreneur Jesse Genet for an update on the big changes she's undergone in the short time since we last spoke. As the home-shopping revolution continues to redefine the way we shop and live, Lumi, Genet's packaging business, has become an integral part of the e-commerce pipeline. To accommodate this growth, Lumi has moved into a larger space near the Arts District in Downtown L.A. Genet invited us into Lumi's new HQ to give us the lowdown on the latest developments in her dynamic career.

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Encore Episode: Reconnecting with Jackie Amézquita on Crossing Borders into Parts Known and Unknown Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

In the lead up to the launch of Change Lab Season 5 on September 25, we're releasing a series of "Encore" episodes. For this debut installment, we caught up with artist Jackie Amezquita before she embarked on a three-week journey from Southern California through Mexico, primarily on foot, all the way to her native Guatemala. Amezquita refers to this emotionally and physically arduous journey as a performance titled "De Norte a Sud." Over the course of her three-week trek, she'll be retracing the path she took as a young Guatemalan migrant to an unknown life in the United States of America, only this time in the opposite direction. Amezquita uses her interactions and conversations with people along the way to explore the myriad cultural, economic, and racial divides so entrenched in this part of the world.

This bonus episode interweaves two conversations with Amezquita, recorded more than a year apart, producing an illuminating and intimate portrait of the lived experience of an issue that's too often reduced to sensational headlines. We hope you enjoy this updated episode. Don't forget to tune in for a whole new season of conversations on creativity and transformation kicking off with Lorne's incisive interview with IBM design chief, Phil Gilbert.

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26 Father Greg Boyle on Reducing Gang Violence through Radical Kinship at Homeboy Industries May 23, 2019

Show notes

For thirty years, Father Greg Boyle has made it his mission to heal those afflicted by the epidemic of gang violence. As the founder of Homeboy Industries, Father Greg has been instrumental in turning the tide on violent crime in Los Angeles and beyond. The secret to his success begins with reframing a question. Instead of asking "how can we serve gang members?" Father Greg asks, "how can we stand with them, in awe of the pain they carry, and allow ourselves to be reached by them?"

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