Why Design Matters summary

So, now that we’ve broadened our idea of design and got a sense of how important and influential it can be, let’s shift gears and look at what makes some of today’s brightest creative minds tick.

Milton Glaser is of course one of the people Millman considers a “Legend.” But so, too, are people like the designer Paula Scher, the graphic novelist Alison Bechdel, the writers Eileen Myles, Anne Lamott, and Seth Godin, and the photographer Albert Watson.

Let’s move on to the second group of interview subjects: the “Truth Tellers.” This group includes such luminaries as authors Carmen Maria Machado, Tim Ferriss, and Brené Brown, journalist Anand Giridharadas, illustrator Edel Rodriguez, and graphic novelists Chris Ware and Lynda Barry.

If we wanted to pick up that thread about design serving a social purpose, there’s perhaps no better example than illustrator Edel Rodriguez. Rodriguez came to America from Cuba as a nine-year-old boy in April 1980. He was one of 120,000 Cubans who fled Cuba around that time when the port of Mariel was briefly opened by Fidel Castro following a period of intense protests in Havana.

In this blink, we’ll drop in on some of the conversations in the “Culture Makers” section. This collection includes talks with the musicians Nico Muhly and Erin McKeown, the filmmaker Mike Mills, the designers Michael Bierut and Cey Adams, the authors Malcolm Gladwell and Alain de Botton, and the painter Amy Sherald.

Debbie Millman is kind of fascinated by music. For her, creating a musical work is a mysterious process, like making something out of nothing. This comes up in most of her talks with musicians. How do you do it? How do you sit down and pull a song out of the ether?

We’ve reached blink number five, which means it’s time to dive into the category of “Trendsetters.” Yet again, this is an eclectic group of artists that includes the musician Amanda Palmer, the designers Chip Kidd and Emily Oberman, the photojournalist Brandon Stanton, the playwright Michael R. Jackson, and the chef Christina Tosi.

The word trendsetter implies doing something new, going out on a limb, taking a chance, being different. The opposite of playing it safe. So, yeah, following your muse and using your voice, sometimes it can be scary. Back in the second blink, we talked a bit about that four-letter word “fear,” and teaching yourself how to dance with it rather than hide away from it. This is something that photojournalist Brandon Stanton had to learn how to do – and do it on the job, no less.

Here we are, at the sixth and final blink – the one where we look at some of the big names – the “Visionaries.” People like musician David Byrne, artists Marina Ambramović and Shepard Fairey, illustrator Maira Kalman, radio and podcast producer Ira Glass, and internet cultural curator Maria Popova. All of these folks have, in one way or another, changed the game. Byrne, and his bandmates in Talking Heads, changed rock and roll. Ambramović changed modern art by pushing the boundaries of performance art.

Shepard Fairey is also testing boundaries, albeit in a different way. In the 1980s, Fairey was into skateboarding and punk rock. But he always had an interest in art and when he began taking classes in graphic design and screen printing, it was like he’d found his true calling. This led to Fairey making the streets his gallery of choice, putting up handmade stickers and posters.