Jeremiah Chiu is a creative director, artist, synthesis, and educator. He is an Assistant Professor at Otis College of Art & Design, a lecturer at Art Center College of Design, and a resident DJ at Dublab. His studio, Some All None, is a hybrid creative studio working at the intersection of graphic design, art, music, and technology. His most recent album, recorded with Marta Sofia Honer, is called Recordings from the Åland Islands. In this conversation, Jeremiah and Jarrett talk about balan...
Mar 01, 2023•55 min
Andrés Jaque is the founder of the Office for Political Innovation and the newly appointed dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. His work spans architecture, performance, publishing, curating, and research. In this conversation, Jarrett and Andrés talk about what he wants to do in his new position at Columbia, the intersection of politics and architecture, and how thinking in scales influences his work. Links from this episode can be found at scr...
Feb 15, 2023•50 min
Katherine McCoy is a graphic designer and educator. From 1971 to 1995, she was the co-artist-in-residence with Michael McCoy of the pioneering design department at the Cranbook Academy of Art. With Mike, she is the co-author of Cranbrook Design: The New Discourse and continued to teach at a variety of schools around the world. In this conversation, Katherine and Jarrett talk about the state of graphic design in seventies, learning how to teach design, and the influence of Dutch design on Cranbro...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Michael McCoy is an industrial designer and educator. From 1971 to 1995, he was the co-artist-in-residence with Katherine McCoy of the pioneering design department at the Cranbook Academy of Art. With Katherine, he is the co-author of Cranbrook Design: The New Discourse and continued to teach at a variety of schools around the world. In this conversation, Michael and Jarrett talk about his early industrial design education, how he and Kathy joined Cranbrook, and how they fostered a space of expe...
Jan 18, 2023•51 min
Carson Chan is an architecture writer, curator, and educator. He is the inaugural director of the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment at MoMA and a curator in the department of architecture and design. He previously co-founded the Current Collective for Architecture History and Environment and the Berlin-based project space PROGRAM. In this conversation, Jarrett and Carson talk about the ambition of the Ambasz Institute, the process of redefining arch...
Jan 04, 2023•50 min
James Bridle is a writer, artist, and technologist. They are the author, most recently, of Ways of Being and previously wrote New Dark Age. They've exhibited art in galleries and institutions around the world and have written for publications like Wired, The Atlantic, and the Guardian. In this wide-ranging conversation, Jarrett and James talk about the limited ways we talk about artificial intelligence, why human-centered design might just be corporation-centered design, and the value of working...
Dec 21, 2022•51 min
Iker Gil is an architect and director of MAS Studio, the editor-in-chief of MAS Context, and the Executive Director of the SOM Foundation. He was the co-curator of Exhibit Columbus 2020-2021 and associate curator of the US Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016. In this conversation, Jarrett and Iker talk about the relationship between architecture and editing, sustaining a publication, and the value of organizing and administration in creative work. Links from this episode ca...
Dec 07, 2022•53 min
Sam Grawe is the Chief Brand & Marketing Officer at The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity. He previously was the Global Brand and Editorial Director at Herman Miller and the editor-in-chief at Dwell. In this conversation, Jarrett and Sam talk about the intersection of branding and editorial, the early years at Dwell, and the enduring influence of the Eames's philosophies. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/221-sam-grawe. — If you enjoy the show, please consid...
Nov 23, 2022•54 min
Elvia Wilk is the author of the novel, Oval, and the essay collection, Death by Landscape. She's contributed to publications like Frieze, Artforum, 4Columns, Rhizome, and e-flux and was a founding editor of the design and architecture publication uncube. In this wide-ranging conversation, Jarrett and Elvia talk about the intersection of criticism and fiction, how writing essays is a type of design, and the tensions between complicity and critique. Links from this episode can be found at scratchi...
Nov 09, 2022•52 min
Matthew Wizinsky is a designer, researcher, educator, and author of the new book Design After Capitalism. He is an Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director in the Ullman School of Design at the University of Cincinnati, PhD researcher in Transition Design at Carnegie Mellon University, and Associate Editor for Visible Language. In this conversation, Jarrett and Matthew talk about the relationship between design and capitalism, what post-capitalist design might look like, and why desig...
Oct 26, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Tripp Mickle is a tech reporter for The New York Times and the author of After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul, a book about the tension between design and commerce in a post-Steve Jobs Apple. In this conversation, Jarrett and Tripp talk about how design is viewed inside Apple, what happens when design gets a seat at the table, and learning to write about design for a general audience. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/219-tripp-m...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Eva Hagberg is an author, architecture writer, and editorial and publication strategist. Her new book, When Eero Met His Match, is a hybrid biography of Aline Louchheim Saarinen and an account of her time working as an architectural publicist. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Dwell, The Architect’s Newspaper, Wallpaper, and more. In this conversation, Jarrett and Eva talk about writing memoirs, the role of publications in design media, and how we’re all living in the world Aline S...
Sep 28, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Maria Nicanor is the director of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. She previously was the executive director of the Rice Design Alliance at Rice University’s School of Architecture and a curator at the design, architecture, and digital department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In this conversation, Jarrett and Maria talk about the mandate of the Cooper Hewitt, the role of museums, and why design can be the great equalizer. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface....
Sep 14, 2022•50 min
This episode originally aired April 11, 2018. — Bryan Boyer is a partner at Dash Marshall, an architecture and strategic design studio based in New York and Detroit, where he leads their Civic Futures practice. Bryan studied architecture and interior renovation before heading to Finland to help start the Helsinki Design Lab, where he worked on a team that helped improve public institutions through design. In this episode, Bryan and I talk about the value of an architecture degree, the ideas behi...
Aug 31, 2022•53 min
This episode originally aired June 24, 2020. — Deanna Van Buren is an architect, activist, and the design director and co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, an architecture and real estate development non-profit working to end mass incarceration by building infrastructure that attacks its root causes: poverty, racism, unequal access to resources, and the criminal justice system itself. In this conversation, Deanna and Jarrett talk about design as ideology, the relationships between...
Aug 17, 2022•52 min
This episode originally aired May 16, 2018. — Rudy VanderLans is a graphic designer, type designer, and co-founder of Emigre, the type foundry and magazine he created with his wife Zuzana Licko. In the 1990s, Emigre Magazine became the place to read and discuss issues of graphic design, design criticism, and theory and gave a platform for some of the best design writers like Randy Nakamura, Mr. Keedy, Anne Burdick, and Kenneth FitzGerald. In this episode, Rudy and Jarrett talk about Emigre and h...
Aug 03, 2022•1 hr 21 min
This episode originally aired April 19, 2017 — Sara Hendren is a designer, artist, writer, and professor whose work centers around adaptive and assistive technologies, prosthetics, inclusive design, accessible architecture, and related ideas. She teaches inclusive design practices at Olin College in Massachusetts and writes and edits Abler, her site to collect and comment on art, adaptive technologies and prosthetics, and the future of human bodies in the built environment. In this episode, Sara...
Jul 20, 2022•46 min
This episode originally aired June 27, 2018. — Cameron Tonkinwise is a design theorist, educator, and writer based in Australia. He’s written on subjects ranging from sustainability to interaction design, design thinking to systems design and has taught in design institutions around the world. In this conversation, Cameron and Jarrett talk about his early interest in philosophy and politics and how design became a way he could bridge the gap between those, the challenges with design’s newfound c...
Jul 06, 2022•1 hr 5 min
This episode originally aired June 28, 2017. — In the final episode of my June series on my professors, I talk to the co-director of MICA’s MFA graphic design program Ellen Lupton. In addition to her work at MICA, Ellen is the Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, and a prolific author of notable design books like Thinking with Type, Type on Screen, and Graphic Design: The New Basics. In our conversation, recorded a few days after graduation, I talk with Ellen about her own car...
Jun 22, 2022•39 min
This episode originally aired July 26, 2017. — Jack Self is an architect and writer based in London. He recently founded The Real Foundation, an architecture practice and curatorial institute. The Foundation’s flagship publication, The Real Review is a quarterly magazine about architecture, material culture, and what it means to live today. In this conversation, Jack and Jarrett talk about his career as both architect and writer, the goals and ideas behind The Real Review, and the types of disco...
Jun 08, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Carl DiSalvo is an Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he holds dual appointments in the School of Interactive Computing and the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. His new book, Design as Democratic Inquiry is an exploration of ‘doing design otherwise’. In this conversation, Jarrett and Carl talk about the overlap of critical design and social design, what it means to design for democracy, and the role of writing in his work. Links from this episode can ...
May 25, 2022•52 min
Liam Young is a speculative architect and director whose work spans design, fiction, and futures. He is cofounder of Tomorrows Thought Today, an urban futures think tank, and Unknown Fields, a nomadic research studio. He is also the director of the Masters in Fiction and Entertainment program at SCI Arc. His latest project is Planet City, a story of a fictional city for the entire population of earth. In this wide-ranging conversation, Jarrett and Liam talk about the elasticity of the term ‘arch...
May 11, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Nicole Killian is a graphic designer and educator whose work spans design, publishing, video, and installation. They are currently co-director of the Design, Visual Communications MFA and associate professor of graphic design at Virginia Commonwealth University. In this conversation, Jarrett and Nicole talk about studying at the Bauhaus and Cranbrook, how institutions can become more experimental, and what it means to queer design education. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthes...
Apr 27, 2022•52 min
Robert A.M. Stern is an architect, teacher, and writer. He is the founder of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, served as dean of the Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016, hosted the PBS series Pride of Place in 1986, and served on the board of directors for the Walt Disney Corporation from 1992 to 2003. He’s the author, most recently, of Between Memory and Invention: My Life in Architecture. In this conversation, Mr. Stern talks about his early interest in architecture history and the possi...
Apr 13, 2022•57 min
Lydia Kallipoliti is an architect, engineer, and scholar. She is an assistant professor at the Cooper Union School of Architecture, the author of the book The Architecture of Closed Worlds and is the co-curator of the 2022 Tallinn Architecture Biennale. In this conversation, Jarrett and Lydia talk about being an architect who doesn’t build, Lydia’s concept of ‘immersive scholarship’, and alternative forms of disseminating research. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/...
Mar 30, 2022•50 min
Chris Rudd is a designer, community organizer, and youth worker. He’s currently a professor of community-driven design at IIT Institute of Design and founder of ChiByDesign, a black-owned and people-of-color led human-centered design firm. In this conversation, Jarrett and Chris talk about the intersection of community organizing and design, the limits of co-design, and what anti-racist and post-capitalist design looks like in practice. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurfac...
Mar 16, 2022•46 min
LinYee Yuan is the founder and editor of MOLD, a print and digital magazine about designing the future of food. She previously was an editor for Core77, the entrepreneur in residence at Quartz, and has written about design, art, and food for Food52, Design Observer, Cool Hunting, and Elle Decor. In this conversation, Jarrett and LinYee talk about the intersection of design and food, the decision to make a print magazine, and what designers can learn from food systems. Links from this episode can...
Mar 02, 2022•49 min
Zara Arshad is a curator and researcher interested in twentieth- and twenty first-century material and visual culture, liminal spaces, speculative histories, and design futures. She documented contemporary design in China, conducted oral histories on South Korean graphic design, and operates a speculative design practice with media artist Yaloo. In this episode, Jarrett and Zara talk about her journey into design, the expanded definitions for describing her work, and how to think about graphic d...
Feb 16, 2022•57 min
Justin Beal is an artist and writer based in New York. His first book, Sandfuture, is both a biography of the architect Minoru Yamasaki and a personal memoir about our relationships to the built world. In this conversation, Jarrett and Justin talk about how this book came together to uncover how he arrived at its unusual structure and format, what spending time in archives taught him about architecture, and how studying architecture influences his studio practice. Links from this episode can be ...
Feb 02, 2022•48 min
Michael Gericke joined Pentagram in 1985, originally working for Colin Forbes before becoming a partner himself (making him the second longest-serving Pentagram partner!). His new monograph, Graphic Life , collects much of the work he’s done at the studio across environmental projects, posters, and identity design. In this conversation, Jarrett and Michael talk about putting together a monograph, how Pentagram has changed over its history, and why he still likes to call himself a ‘graphic design...
Jan 19, 2022•44 min
