Beyond Aesthetics

In part 2 of Art & Education in Design with Margaret Hull, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, we will continue our conversation about the connections between art education and design. We will dive further into how research plays a role in the artistic practice and how art is a pedagogy...or is it?

You will hear more content on this podcast about how art and design are similar and what we can learn from one another. So to kick this off, we have a two-part series with Margaret Hull, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, who describes herself as straddling the worlds of art and design. In part one, you will hear about feedback/critiques and the importance of knowing your audience/user.

What is the relationship between systems, futures, and design thinking? We talk with Adam Zeiner, senior strategic designer at theDesign Institute for Health, about applying future thinking as a mindset for designers.

In this episode:

• Adam’s path towards building expertise in design futures
• How he sees the overlap between art and design
• Futures Literacy as an important 21st-century skill
• How and when you should integrate these into your design practice

Please find out more of what Adam is working on at Dezein.co or follow him on Twitter @_dezein

How do you build a UX research practice as a working designer? In this episode of Beyond Aesthetics, we talk to Basim Al-Baker, a UX research consultant who has worked with Soundcloud and Blinkist. We hear about how he became a UX researcher, some best practices for setting up a research practice, and what he hopes to see in the future of UX research.

What does it look like to build resilience in your design career? In this episode, we talk with Janko Jovanovic, a design manager at Zalando, the leading online fashion platform in Europe with over 14,000 employees and 30 million customers. Janko talks about his path from programmer to design manager and his experience with coaching younger designers. We also talk about what good mistakes we have made in our careers and how system thinking could be the key to building resilience.

Have you been hearing the buzz of Notion around your design friends? Maybe you've seen an article or event using Notion. In this episode you will hear about how designers can use Notion in their workflow, a love letter from our guest Cristina Colosi about how she has been using it, and also how we at The Fountain are prototyping on the platform.

Every wonder when or if you should specialize in your career path? Are there benefits to generalizing in the beginning of your career? We break down these questions plus many more for in house junior designers or freelancers.

In part 2 of our inaugural episode of Beyond Aesthetics co-founder Jeff Humble discuss his journey from graphic design, to UX design, to founder.

In the inaugural episode of Beyond Aesthetics, a podcast brought to you by The Fountain Institute, co-founder Hannah Baker discuss her journey from artist, to educator, to designer, to founder.