On Design with Justyna Green

Anab Jain is the co-founder of design studio Superflux. Superflux specialises in designing possible future scenarios – sometimes utopian, often distopian, based on the world we currently live in, with its trends and social, economic and political shifts. Their work is heavily involved with environmental issues, technological advancements, and the drawbacks of the Anthropocene era.

In this episode, we dive into Superflux’s work and some of its most prominent projects, discuss the importance of hope in difficult times and explore how to live in uncertain times.

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Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production: Green Podcast Productions

Fredrik Hellberg is the co-founder of Spacepopular, a research-driven art, design and media studio. Fredrik runs the practice together with Lara Lesmes, and the two met when studying architecture at London’s Architectural Association. In our conversation, we discuss Spacepopular's research into the possibilities of Web3 and metaverses and Fredrik shares his expertise on how those spaces can be designed and most importantly, how our physical and digital worlds will be interacting in the future.

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Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production: Green Podcast Productions

Yuri Suzuki is a sound designer and partner at Pentagram. Yuri’s artistic installations often aim to bring people together, use AI machine learning and crowdsourced data, whilst his commercial work, looks at creating innovative solutions to problems such as the introduction of sound in electric cars. In our conversation we talk about the use of physical synthesizers and capturing tactile sounds, the problem with Thomas Heatherwick’s bus, sound design for the public transport, the sound design scene in Japan in the early 2000s and many more topics.

Mentioned in the episode:
Yuri's website:https://www.yurisuzuki.com/

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Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production: Green Podcast Productions

Alex Proba is a New York and Portland-based creative director of Studio Proba. She's a multidisciplinary designer, focused on brand design, art direction, product design, illustration and murals and you must have seen online her playful sculptural installation Tomorrow Land from Design Miami 2021. In our conversation, Alex shares with me her educational path, which spanned dentistry, architecture and product design. We discuss her career in creative industries, which included design roles at Kickstarter and Nike before she established Studio Proba in 2013. We also chat about making work that makes people happy, setting yourself 100-day projects and sometimes, putting your personal life plans first.

Mentioned in the episode:
Alex's website: https://www.studioproba.com/

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Podcast music: James Greenfield, production: Green Podcast Productions

Our guest today is Stephen Briars - the creative director at The Conran Shop. With the high street and physical retail undergoing tremendous change, we dive into what The Conran Shop is now, discuss its 50 years of 'baggage', and look into the future. Stephen also shares his thoughts on the importance of both digital and physical retail experiences, finding young new talent and how the furniture industry could learn from fashion.

Mentioned in the episode:
The Conran Shop website: https://www.conranshop.co.uk

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Podcast music: James Greenfield, production: Green Podcast Productions

Jade Purple Brown is a New-York based artist. If you’ve used Adobe Illustrator at any point last year you’d be familiar with Jade’s work, as her illustration was the Illustrator’s splash page of 2021. Her works are colourful and bold, championing optimism, individuality and empowerment, and include illustrations, packaging design, murals and soft furnishings too.

In our chat we dive into what Jade refers to JPB world, and her plans for its future. We also follow Jade’s career, discuss the importance of being both a creative and a business person for a successful career, and how she was sacked from her first job as art director.

Mentioned in the episode:
Jade's website: https://jadepurplebrown.com

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Podcast music: James Greenfield, production: Green Podcast Productions

Marylou Faure is a London-based French illustrator and artist, known for her easily recognisable female characters and bold, colourful, graphic style of illustration. In our conversation we learn about Marylou’s career journey, discuss some of the most fun commercial projects and dive into the importance of personal work, when doing what you love becomes commercially valid. Marylou also offers tips for sticking to your creative guns and how to weather the storms of freelance life.

Mentioned in the episode:

Marylou's website: https://maryloufaure.com/

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In this episode, we speak to Manijeh Verghese who’s the Head of Public Programmes at the Architectural Association and co-founder of Unscene Architecture – a practice that operates across disciplines to reveal the unseen forces that shape our cities. She’s also the co-curator of this year’s British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, with an installation that focused on the privatised public spaces. In our conversation, we speak about Manijeh’s view of architecture and approach to cities with their public and private spaces, how the issues raised within the Venice Biennale installation became even more important in the pandemic, and Manijeh shares her thoughts as well on not always having a plan, and trusting the unknown.

Mentioned in the episode:

Architectural Association’s Public Programme: https://www.aaschool.ac.uk/publicprogramme

British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale: https://venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org/the-garden-of-privatised-delights

Unscene Architecture: https://www.unscenearchitecture.com/

This episode was produced by Green Podcast Productions.

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Allison Filice is a freelance illustrator, designer, and fellow podcaster based in San Francisco. Her style of illustration is graphic with black lines and bold colours and the themes she explores are our inner and outer worlds and illustrating the invisible things. In our conversation, we talk about how Alison got into illustration and how she’s brought her interests in psychology and spirituality into her visual practice. She also reveals her new dream project and discusses the importance of personal work.

Mentioned in the episode:

Allison's website: https://allisonfilice.com/

The Friendly Unknown podcast: https://thefriendlyunknown.com/

This episode was produced by Green Podcast Productions.

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This week's guest is Monica Ahanonu. She's an LA-based illustrator, known for her bold, colourful vector works, which celebrate beauty in all its forms. Monica worked with clients including Google, Facebook, Peloton, Time Magazine, and Vanity Fair among many, many others.

In our conversation, Monica shares her personal story, which features professional gymnastics, surgery on both feet and being in a wheelchair for a period of time, studying animation, getting into Dreamworks and then deciding that she wants to pursue her own creative path, which led her to the present-day success.

Mentioned in the episode:

Monica's website: https://www.mahanonu.com/

Icons book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/icons-monica-ahanonu/1136271010

Bold Words from Black Women book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/bold-words-from-black-women/tamara-pizzoli/monica-ahanonu/9781534463943

This episode was produced by Green Podcast Productions.

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