Teachers teach you things. But how do they teach you things? I’ve had great hands-on teachers that kept a tight-knit circle of superfans. I’ve also had terrible teachers that instructed through counterexamples. I’ve even had teachers I’ve never met, whose work I tried to emulate. But over time, I’ve learned that the most effective teachers shared a common trait — instead of giving students information, they guided them to it. In this chapter, I’ll share conversations I had with several teachers that I’ve seen as mentors and guides, leading me down my own path to become a designer (and a teacher, too).
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In design school, I felt pressure to have favorite designers. In reality, my influences were outside the world of graphic design and in the worlds of music, film, theater, and — most importantly — video games. Nicklas is a video game designer whose work I loved because it was similarly multi-disciplinary. He made games that were both cinematic and performative through the use of interactive audio, with nearly every player action coinciding with some sort of dynamic audio cue. I talked with Nicklas to hear how he arrived at this approach and what his thoughts were now that he’s released several games using this technique.
I haven’t finished editing this conversation yet, but I will. When it’s finished, I’d love to meet you back here so that I can share it with you.
What was the first website you ever visited? While I don’t remember exactly what mine was, I do have an earliest memory of the Internet. That experience was going to a weird, seemingly useless website called sometimesredsometimesblue.com. Its title gives away its appearance. For some reason, the site really stuck with me no matter how much time passed. Over ten years later, I would discover its designer Damon was still as productive as ever making websites, both artistically and professionally. I talked to Damon to hear what led to Sometimes Red, Sometimes Blue, and what he was up to these days.
I haven’t finished editing this conversation yet, but I will. When it’s finished, I’d love to meet you back here so that I can share it with you.
The main way teachers share design education outside of school is through books. David is the author of one of those books, spanning an entire design curriculum he conceived of and teaches at Princeton. As a new teacher, I was inspired by David’s approach to lectures, which read more like stories. Instead of attempting to cover every single influence and idea, they provide one perspective on design and let students explore that topic through conceptually challenging projects. I talked with David to hear how he came up with his courses, how he wrote the corresponding book, and what his thoughts are now that he’s taught the program numerous times.
I haven’t finished editing this conversation yet, but I will. When it’s finished, I’d love to meet you back here so that I can share it with you.
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you find someone who embodies exactly what you want to become. For me, that person was Dan Shiffman. What I admire about Dan’s approach to teaching is his endless positivity, his commitment to building communities, and his ability to make something as inaccessible as code actually inviting and fun. I talked with Dan to hear what connections he had found between in-person and online teaching, and if he had any advice for someone trying to follow in his footsteps.
I haven’t finished editing this conversation yet, but I will. When it’s finished, I’d love to meet you back here so that I can share it with you.
If you’re going to develop a design practice, it helps to have a design philosophy you’re committed to. My design philosophy comes from theater, which I studied before design. And the reason why I wanted to study theater was Cláudia. Cláudia was my first ever theater professor, teaching a wide range of practices and theories spanning from acting, to performance studies, to perfecting the essay format. Cláudia taught me how to write. In many ways, she also taught me how to teach. But she also taught me how to think critically about the meaning of art and communication. I talked with Cláudia to hear how she teaches students to think and to ask what her thoughts were on the role of a teacher.
I haven’t finished editing this conversation yet, but I will. When it’s finished, I’d love to meet you back here so that I can share it with you.
How do you teach design? RISD has many faculty worth asking that question to, but of those professors I really wanted to talk with Doug and Bethany. Both of them have had outsized influences in the undergraduate and graduate design programs, whether through directly crafting curriculums or imparting a common way of thinking to students. I talked with Bethany and Doug together to hear what they learned from their tenure at RISD and how the undergraduate and graduate programs evolved over time.
I haven’t finished editing this conversation yet, but I will. When it’s finished, I’d love to meet you back here so that I can share it with you.