Co-founder and editor-in-chief of Deem Journal, Alice Grandoit-Šutka says, as a child of Haitian immigrants, her essential function was to listen. Now this practice, a ritual that keeps her grounded in the possibilities of better futures, informs all of her work. A cultural researcher, designer, publisher, and host - Alice’s work exists at the intersection of arts, community engagement, and food. Images, links and more from Alice! Clever is hosted and produced by Amy Devers , with editing by Ric...
Nov 29, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 180
Creature World’s Danny Cole began drawing the Creature in a dusty church basement in youth. He had his first public exhibition before graduating from high school. His work has since evolved from graffiti and paintings to include immersive art experiences, NFTs, clothing capsules, and adventures in virtual reality. All in an effort to bring us together in a shared version of a more divine reality. Images, links and more from Danny! Clever is hosted and produced by Amy Devers , with editing by Ric...
Nov 15, 2022•49 min•Ep. 179
Taylor Levy, half of the multidisciplinary studio CW&T, found adventure and drive early as a competitive skier. Now, Taylor and her life and art partner, Che-Wei Wang, root their practice in transparent, iterative processes that span art, engineering, and design. CW&T received the prestigious Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, a testament to their groundbreaking, and thought provoking work. Images and more from Taylor on website! Clever is hosted and produced by Amy Devers , with editi...
Oct 18, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 178
Baronfig founder, Joey Cofone, grew up in New Jersey learning to speak his mind from his strong, single, adoptive mother. A systems thinker, his lens on the world has always been adept at zooming way in and way out with an alarming self-awareness. This has served him well, both in designing “tools for thinkers” and in recognizing the patterns of invention for his book, The Laws of Creativity. Images, links and more from Joey! Clever is hosted and produced by Amy Devers , with editing by Rich Str...
Oct 04, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 177
Ashleigh Axios spent her youth entertaining herself with crafts, immersed in her grandma’s world, finding kinship with the neighbors. After college, she gained a unique bouquet of experience that all added up to a position in the Obama White House as creative director. Now, as an owner of Coforma, she is a fierce advocate for design's ability to create positive social change. Images, links and more from Ashleigh! Clever is hosted and produced by Amy Devers , with editing by Rich Stroffolino , pr...
Sep 20, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 176
Nancy Baker Cahill spent her youth gaining an appreciation for both civic engagement and dark humor. Her creative passions were ignited with a powerful youth arts program, but then went dormant for a difficult spell in adulthood. Now, fully in her stride as a new media artist known for work that examines power, selfhood, and embodied consciousness, her AR artwork can be found covering Times Square, at international festivals, and floating in unexpected, intangible places, worldwide. Images, link...
Sep 06, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 175
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 the Bobby Berk Home brand was born. Oh! He used to be the singer of a Christian rock band called His ...
Aug 30, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 100
Principal of Commune Design, Roman Alonso grew up in Caracas Venezuela, often traveling around in a motorhome with his family to escape to nature, before moving to Miami as a teenager. He attended Boston University, with the underlying fantasy of getting to New York. After college, he got a job at Barney’s in New York, wrote for the style section of The New York Times , and started a publishing company, Greybull Press. Commune was founded in 2004 in Los Angeles and since then Roman and partner S...
Aug 23, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 146
We are rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes while we recharge our batteries with a summer break. Enjoy and we'll be back with fresh episodes soon! Fashion designer Mimi Plange talks to Amy and Jaime about being born in Ghana, growing up in California, and nurturing herself on a steady diet of fantasy movies. She's always known she’d become a fashion designer, but an invitation to the White House by Michelle Obama came as a total surprise. Plus, she's got cred with both Beyoncé and Jay Z....
Aug 16, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 24
We are rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes while we recharge our batteries with a summer break. Enjoy and we'll be back with fresh episodes soon! LA-based interior designer Kelly Wearstler recounts to Amy and Jaime the journey from creating and selling crafts in her youth to building her namesake global lifestyle brand. Along the way she's worked waiting tables, battled painful shyness, and become a hockey mom. She also describes her closet in mouth-watering, vivid detail. Images and mo...
Aug 09, 2022•55 min•Ep. 18
We are rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes while we recharge our batteries with a summer break. Enjoy and we'll be back with fresh episodes soon! Artist and designer, Chris Schanck, moved upwards of 22 times in his youth. He credits Uncle Rocco with firing up his creative engine at an early age, and an arts magnet school in adolescence with “saving his life.” That’s not an overstatement. Fast forward a few years and he’s developed a distinct visual language, has a solo show at a prestig...
Aug 02, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 63
We are rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes while we recharge our batteries with a summer break. Enjoy and we'll be back with fresh episodes soon! Designer, artist, author & influencer Justina Blakeney spent her youth teaching art to abused/neglected teenage girls at a residential treatment program run by her parents, where she witnessed the healing power of art & kindness. After formative years in Switzerland and Italy, she settled in Los Angeles and harnessed the Internet to bu...
Jul 26, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 64
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 every 7 years. He’s got a brain for planning and long-term data which allows for a very optimistic long ...
Jul 19, 2022•50 min•Ep. 113
We are rebroadcasting some of our favorite episodes while we recharge our batteries with a summer break. Enjoy and we'll be back with fresh episodes soon! Digital designer and writer Amélie Lamont is a native New Yorker and daughter of Jamaican immigrants. A self-proclaimed nerd, she grew up reading Encyclopedia Britannica and teaching herself to code. A life-long learner, she has pursued many different areas of study in school and hated them all, which is probably why her long-term vision for h...
Jul 12, 2022•58 min•Ep. 91
We are taking some time off for the summer, but we're sharing some classic episodes from the archives. Sit back, be inspired, and enjoy. This Old House Master Carpenter Norm Abram charms Jaime and Amy with stories of a youth spent building pinewood derby cars and learning the trade from his father, who lives on in the walls of the house they built together as adults. He got his start in TV by accident, but thanks to an unfailing dedication to patience and safety, that’s about the only major acci...
Jul 05, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 28
Design entrepreneur and founder of Colony, the designer’s co-op, Jean Lin, grew up in suburban Massachusetts as one of a handful of non-white kids. With two brothers, she was a card-carrying tomboy until her teenage years when she leaned into fashion as a way to express herself. Influenced by her mother’s work as an educator for the incarcerated, she initially followed a career path into social services before reconciling with her undeniable yearning to study fashion design. After getting fired ...
Jun 28, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 174
Multidisciplinary designer and art director, Luca Nichetto, grew up in Murano, Italy, steeped in the glassmaking traditions of the region and his ancestors. He got started in design by selling his drawings to local factories for pocket money. As a teenager, he became a rising basketball star and considered going pro, but eventually chose his other love, design, instead. After college and some fruitful early collaborations, he set up his own shop, Nichetto Studio, in Venice in 2006. Five years la...
Jun 14, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 173
Airbnb’s Global Head of Marketing, Hiroki Asai, grew up riding his BMX through the orchards of Cupertino, CA. But it was the visual language of skateboard culture that ensnared his creative imagination and grew into a passion for graphic design. Always industrious, he took night school art classes as a teenager, went on to earn a BA in Graphic Design, and then got straight to work freelancing. Not long after, he began working with Apple - eventually rising in the ranks to Vice President of Globa...
May 31, 2022•42 min•Ep. 172
Beat Baudenbacher was born in Switzerland, where he grew up exposed to the dynamic artistic world through his mother and the rational lens through his surgeon dad. Always fascinated by words, he fell in love with typography, and dabbled in graphic design in high school. He did an exchange year in California with no intention of pursuing design, but after his dad mentioned that a friend’s daughter was attending Art Center, a lightbulb went off and he scrambled to create a portfolio. A serendipito...
May 17, 2022•54 min•Ep. 171
Co-Founder of Deem Journal, designer Nu Goteh was born in Liberia and came to the US with his family as a refugee at the age of 3. His first career ambition, as a model son of African parents, was to become a doctor / lawyer. But as a sneakerhead, skater, and early-adopter of the internet, he kept making opportunities for himself in marketing, promoting, and graphic design. He even landed a job at Puma while he was only a Sophomore in college. After successful roles at Red Bull and Sonos, he was...
May 03, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 170
Chief Curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, Llisa Demetrios grew up in a family of brilliant sculptors, authors, and designers. Her mother’s parents were none other than Charles and Ray Eames, the legendary mid-century design duo. In addition to pioneering design work, apparently they were excellent grandparents as well, imparting on Llisa a way of engaging with the world through curiosity and a lens for new possibilities. This approach to creative problem-solving has guided Llis...
Apr 19, 2022•54 min•Ep. 169
Ceramicist, author, entrepreneur, photographer and public speaker Rob Forbes is likely best known for founding Design Within Reach, but his accolades expand beyond this accomplishment. He grew up a son of Southern California academics and attended boarding schools in Northern California. His first professional life was as a ceramicist. After a year riddled with tragedy, he took a year off in pursuit of researching how to make design accessible - which lead to the founding of Design Within Reach....
Apr 05, 2022•39 min•Ep. 168
Designer, entrepreneur and author, Christiane Lemieux was born and raised in Ottawa, Canada but refers to the world as her “second home” given how frequently she traveled with her family throughout her childhood. While she studied art history and fashion design academically, her business training came through first-person experience. She founded her first brand, DwellStudio, in 1999 and sold it to Wayfair in 2013. She has built several other successful brands, including Lemieux et Cie, The Insid...
Mar 22, 2022•49 min•Ep. 167
Designer, futurist, activist and artist Dror Benshetrit grew up in Tel Aviv, drawing, and building puppetry or sculptures. But it was Dror’s experience serving in the Israeli army that showed him all the different ways his creative thinking could be applied - compelling him to pursue design and attend the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Afterwards, he moved to New York - where his career exploded - from designing the Peacock Chair showcased in a Rihanna video to designing luxury houses for the Crow...
Mar 08, 2022•54 min•Ep. 166
Brooklyn-based podcaster Avery Trufelman has radio in her DNA. Her parents met while working at WNYC, so from birth she was nurtured with love and appreciation for radio. As a teenager, Avery took to expressing herself through wild, quirky thrifted fashion ensembles, much to the confusion of her peers. After cutting her audio teeth in college radio, Avery submitted a midnight application to intern at 99% Invisible and moved across the country to work in a closet with Roman Mars in beautiful down...
Feb 22, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 165
Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of ManvsMachine, Mike Alderson, grew up on the outskirts of Liverpool, England, getting into mischief, playing sports, and spending the many rainy days inside drawing ferociously. More practical than academic, Mike started off in a mechanical engineering apprenticeship before learning it was absolutely not for him. Then, after a short stint as a pro BMX racer, his best friend’s brother turned him on to design and he was hooked. He made his way to London, dec...
Feb 08, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 164
Industrial designer and founding partner of Barber Osgerby, Jay Osgerby, grew up in a small town in England, with his close-knit multi-generational family and the backdrop of his grandparents’ experiences through WWII. His childhood was filled with making things - inspired by his Swiss ancestors’ stories of watch and camera making. His parents were incredibly resourceful, whether it was opening a shop together or repurposing curtains when the local cinema closed. This pioneering spirit is someth...
Jan 25, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 163
Illustrator Yuko Shimizu was born in Tokyo, Japan and began drawing from an early age. As a preteen, her family moved from Japan to the US, a huge culture shock that included learning an entirely new language and navigating social norms in 7th grade. This experience gave her an even deeper love for drawing - something that transcends any language barrier. After college, Yuko spent 11 years at a prestigious corporate PR firm in Japan before she decided to pursue her lifelong dream. At 34, she enr...
Jan 11, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 162
A writer, speaker, and women’s creative leadership coach, Majo Molfino is a champion for smashing the patriarchy (both within and outside each of us!) and supporting women in harnessing their creative confidence and power. A precocious child, she was born in Argentina and moved with her family across the US and Canada, eventually landing in San Francisco. As an immigrant, she grew up trying to uphold the “Good Girl Myth” sacrificing her identity, her creativity, and her confidence to counteract ...
Dec 28, 2021•54 min•Ep. 153
Robyn Kanner’s personal story is twisty and beautifully American. Largely self-taught, she fought hard to find her voice, and has battled bullies, addiction and self-doubt on her path to purpose. She, alongside Carahna Magwood, led a design team that effectively imbued the Biden Harris ticket with an uplifting, hopefulness that stressed reliability, inclusive values and unification. From the hot pink Biden & Lady Gaga promos, to unifying red-blue gradients. Robyn’s is a story of acceptance, ...
Dec 21, 2021•1 hr 3 min
