53 episodes

Design Notes is a podcast about creative work and what it teaches us, hosted by Google's Liam Spradlin. Each episode we talk with people from unique creative fields to discover what inspires and unites us in our practice. Find episodes on your favorite platform: pod.link/designnotes

Design Notes Liam Spradlin

    • Arts
    • 4.8 • 22 Ratings

Design Notes is a podcast about creative work and what it teaches us, hosted by Google's Liam Spradlin. Each episode we talk with people from unique creative fields to discover what inspires and unites us in our practice. Find episodes on your favorite platform: pod.link/designnotes

    Connie Shi + Matvei Malkov, Google Material Design

    Connie Shi + Matvei Malkov, Google Material Design

    Liam speaks with Googlers Connie Shi, a software engineer on Material Design, and Matvei Malkov, a software engineer on Jetpack Compose, and the trio unpack what makes coding a creative practice, and which creative choices are required when you build a design system for other developers around the world.
    The wide-ranging conversation turns from complex problem solving and technical logic to the concept of creativity as the question-provoking quality of a thought.
    📝 Read a full transcript
    📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    • 42 min
    Dave Crossland, Google Fonts

    Dave Crossland, Google Fonts

    Liam and Google Fonts Specialist Dave Crossland explore what digital type can teach us about digital production, emotional expression, and where we fit in the world as designers; and how – with a little imagination – we might unlock new possibilities.
    📑 Read a full transcript
    📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    • 36 min
    Judith Donath, Founder, MIT Sociable Media Group

    Judith Donath, Founder, MIT Sociable Media Group

    In this episode, Liam speaks with Judith Donath, the founder of MIT’s Sociable Media Lab, inventor of e-cards, and author of The Social Machine: Designs for Living Online. Donath’s work offers crucial insights into the sociality of digital products and platforms, and the opportunities we have as digital producers to make things that truly meet sociable ends. In the episode, Donath unpacks some of this work, exploring potential futures for life online and the joy of learning (and sharing) something new.
    📑 Read a full transcript
    📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    • 36 min
    Aline Borges, The Florist

    Aline Borges, The Florist

    Liam speaks with Aline Borges, a Zürich-based floral designer who’s made the leap from fashion coordination for magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar to independent floral design and installations. The conversation covers what it’s like to move between different creative fields (and countries), how to think about composition to tackle almost any creative challenge, and the courage and community it takes to start on a new venture.
    📑 Read a full transcript
    📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    • 28 min
    ⏮️ Harvey Moon, New Media Artist

    ⏮️ Harvey Moon, New Media Artist

    In this episode, we revisit a conversation from Season 1 with new media artist Harvey Moon, recorded in his San Francisco studio.
    Liam and Harvey discuss how Moon’s work reveals unseen properties of the world around us, the process of creating one’s own creative tools, and the kind of art that’s only made possible through collaboration with machines.
    The conversation expands on ideas about the way the world around us is designed and redesigned, and where that places us as designers.
    Read the full transcript: https://www.iamli.am/design-notes-podcast/harvey-moon-new-media-artist 
    Subscribe to Design Notes:
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    • 30 min
    Ignacio Ciocchini, Streetscape + Public Space Designer

    Ignacio Ciocchini, Streetscape + Public Space Designer

    Liam speaks with streetscape and public space designer Ignacio Ciocchini, who’s created much of the public furniture that New Yorkers encounter every single day – from benches that provide personal space, to entire built landscapes for Bryant Park, to chargers for electric vehicles and more.
    The conversation ranges from the materiality of the built environment, to the ways in which it expands, constrains, and informs our experiences of life and socialization in a city, with a look toward the more human-focused future that Ciocchini envisions.
    Read the full transcript: https://www.iamli.am/design-notes-podcast/ignacio-ciocchini-nyc-public-furniture
    Subscribe to Design Notes:
    👉Google Podcasts
    👉iTunes
    👉Spotify
    👉Pocket Casts
    👉RSS

    • 44 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
22 Ratings

22 Ratings

Dan1777999877 ,

Fantastic!

Design Notes has quickly become a favorite in my feed! I'm consistently impressed by the engaging conversations, insightful content, and actionable ideas. I truly learn something every time I listen!

obacker19 ,

Entertaining, insightful and empowering! 👏

Whether you’re well established as someone who can translate creative energy into the impact you want to have on the world, or just getting started as a catalyst for change - this is a must-listen podcast for you! Liam does an incredible job leading conversations that cover a huge breadth of topics related to the ins and outs of building a thriving career and life you can be proud of as a designer - from leaders who’ve actually walked the path. Highly recommend listening and subscribing!

thundernixon1 ,

Concise, insightful, and inspiring

Liam consistently hosts excellent interviews with guests who are designers in a wide range of fields. I usually don't know of the guest yet, so I always come away learning something new. Very much worth your time!

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