40,000,000,000,000 DPI

Hello friends! This week, we wander Costco with Chinese influencers flexing their institutional-size muffin hauls; we explore the strange, crumbling metaverse of Neopets; and we gaze deeply into the MLM/DAO, Mirror.xyz. It's a wild ride as usual! Thanks for listening! 

Find us on instagram at:
@40000000000000dpi

Or on Twitter
@40TrillionDPI

Articles mentioned in this episode:

CHINESE INFLUENCERS
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypzny/pose-costco-influencer-photos-china

NEOPETS
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/11/03/arts/design/neopets.html?searchResultPosition=3

MIRROR.XYZ
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypzbq/surprise-the-future-of-media-involves-a-crypto-based-popularity-contest-mirror
https://decrypt.co/83041/mirror-daos-and-the-exclusivity-problem

Episode 10: (Pink/Green): This episode is actually two episodes! One is pink, one is green. Listen to one, listen to both.

Episode 10 (Green): We are made to experience bad dad art with Kanye, Drake and... Damien Hirst (for some reason!) and we follow Gabby Petito’s sad story into the strange world of the TikTok Tabloids. Thanks for listening! Visit designfreaks.cafe for more info!

Some of the articles we mention or reference in this episode https://www.are.na/claire-l-evans/corporate-memphis https://qz.com/quartzy/1728767/why-editorial-illustrations-look-so-similar-these-days/ https://www.protocol.com/workplace/why-is-tech-illustration-stuck-on-repeat-ask-the-overworked-underpaid-illustrators https://airbnb.design/your-face-here/ https://buck.co/work/facebook-alegria https://www.humaaans.com/ https://humanipo.app/id/mike.merrill https://humanipo.app/ https://www.wired.co.uk/article/corporate-memphis-design-tech https://ninachanel.com/murals-1 http://www.muzaesesay.com/ https://www.xoanaherrera.com/work https://www.are.na/s-k-y-e/small-cartoon-people-building-big-interfaces https://www.insider.com/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-missing-found-true-crime-tiktok-2021-9 https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkb5j8/gabby-petito-internet-sleuth-investigation-tiktok-instagram-spotify

All our music is from freemusicarchive.org (the best!)

Regular Intro Lobo Loco “Last Thoughts”

Drum Intro Pika “Drum Solo”

Orchestral intro Bach Harpsichord Concerto D minor BWV 1052

Other Chad Crouch, Pilgrim’s Progress Water Features, Age Of Æschylus (Luxury Version) Ketsa, Motion Forward Bio Unit, Solitary Defrini, Obligatory Filler Track Defrini, Acid Grinder Axletree, The Hare in the Moon

Episode 10: (Pink/Green): This episode is actually two episodes! One is pink, one is green. Listen to one, listen to both.

Episode 10 (Pink): We follow small people into big interfaces trying to find the fabled location of Corporate Memphis. Thanks for listening! Visit designfreaks.cafe for more info!

Some of the articles we mention or reference in this episode
https://www.are.na/claire-l-evans/corporate-memphis
https://qz.com/quartzy/1728767/why-editorial-illustrations-look-so-similar-these-days/
https://www.protocol.com/workplace/why-is-tech-illustration-stuck-on-repeat-ask-the-overworked-underpaid-illustrators
https://airbnb.design/your-face-here/
https://buck.co/work/facebook-alegria
https://www.humaaans.com/
https://humanipo.app/id/mike.merrill
https://humanipo.app/
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/corporate-memphis-design-tech
https://ninachanel.com/murals-1
http://www.muzaesesay.com/
https://www.xoanaherrera.com/work
https://www.are.na/s-k-y-e/small-cartoon-people-building-big-interfaces
https://www.insider.com/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-missing-found-true-crime-tiktok-2021-9
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkb5j8/gabby-petito-internet-sleuth-investigation-tiktok-instagram-spotify

All our music is from freemusicarchive.org (the best!)

Regular Intro
Lobo Loco “Last Thoughts”

Drum Intro
Pika “Drum Solo”

Orchestral intro
Bach Harpsichord Concerto D minor BWV 1052

Other
Chad Crouch, Pilgrim’s Progress
Water Features, Age Of Æschylus (Luxury Version)
Ketsa, Motion Forward
Bio Unit, Solitary
Defrini, Obligatory Filler Track
Defrini, Acid Grinder
Axletree, The Hare in the Moon

SOUND BATH EDITION! This week's episode is so special. We are so excited to share it with y'all. A few weeks ago, we went out to Good Hot Sauna pop up and talked (and sweated) with architects Amy Louie and Cooper Rogers, the founders of Waters Bathing Collective. We had an amazing time roasting and talking with them about maintenance and accessibility and leisure and work. You can read an excerpt of our conversation here. After our interview, we sent them a couple of trippy questions, which turned into this relaxing sound bath journey. So, pour yourself a literal bath, plug in those headphones, and sink into this healing wilderness of steam!

Cooper and Amy were so warm and patient and generous and we are super thankful for the time they spent with us. Thank you two! Visit good-hot.com to reserve a spot in their bayside sauna pop up, and thewatersbc.com to learn more about their plans for an accessible, inclusive sauna in Oakland. 

Ciao!

Hello! On today's episode, we visit US Government websites in search of pharma-bro Martin Shkrelli's one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang IRL NFT, we think about how design can align or misalign incentives—and we somehow travel through the holes in the giant letters nailed on the side of a suburban house/barn into some kind of utopian/dystopian beige metaverse. It's kind of a Magic (design) School Bus situation. Also, it is a JOURNEY. Thanks for tuning in! 

ARTICLES WE TALK ABOUT / REFERENCE

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sells-pharma-bro-shkrelis-unique-wu-tang-clan-album-2021-07-27/ 

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2340210950922/a-q-a-with-the-woman-who-installed-these-2-foot-tall-address-numbers-on-her-house

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7eqbb/the-metaverse-has-always-been-a-dystopia

We hope this podcast finds you well! 

On today’s episode we talk about the sharing economy’s attempt to commodify accessibility, Tim Berners Lee selling out the world (wide web), the Lesbian Avengers re-avenging themselves against corporate greed, and we apply for barista positions at Bumble’s brick and mortar cafe. Wish. Us. Luck. 

Shout out to Sarah Schulman, author of (most recently) Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993, for her article on design and protest: "When Protest Movements Became Brands" which we encourage you to check out here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/t-magazine/1980s-protest-movements.html

In this episode, we also give shout outs to some of our recent faves—including Zine Co-Op HK (@zine_coop on instagram) and the Scott Summers, cartographer-graphic designer of Sonoma's Mountain cemetery walking tour (https://sonomaoverlooktrail.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/2.jpg). Follow us on Instagram at @40000000000000dpi and visit our website at designfreaks.cafe for more episodes! 

See you in a couple weeks! —Helen + Justin

Yes! What's up everyone! This week, we're looking at the history of the Parental Advisory sticker design (via Olivia Rodrigo's Sour), we're putting our names into the hat to win the California vaccine lottery, we're thinking about perverse incentives, and we're tripping out on how to create a better, more closely knit social reality. As usual, it's a whole thing! Thank you, thank you, thank you, as always for joining us! 

This week, Helen + Justin spend the entire 42 minutes trying to figure out what's going on with Microsoft's quest for a new default font. Along the way, we talk about obsolescence, the extreme skill of type foundries (respect!), the weirdness of corporate PR, and the totally un-neutral process of constructing various neutralities. It. Is. A. Journey. We hope you actively enjoy it (and are not just having it on as a sort of default noise)! Thanks for listening!

Hello friends! This episode is a little different in format from our last ones. Instead of talking about recent design news, we're talking to each other about some exciting recent things we have going on. In this episode: Helen is prepping for a guest facilitator role building a wild balloon palace in Lexington, Kentucky; Justin is over-doing it on balance; and we dream about what it might mean to break out of our COVID-cocoons. Thanks for tuning in! We literally love you all!

In this week's episode—we are so exhausted! And so angry! We are really just contending with a lot of grief and injustice and fear and disappointment on, honestly—a massive scale. We talk about Prince Harry's new job (and the limits of privilege), Anti-Asian violence in Atlanta (and beyond), the soul-crushing process of "redesigning" "gun control"—and we dig into the mysteries of California's new privacy icon design. Thanks for hanging with us while we work through it all. We love you! 

If you're wondering what you can do to support Asian communities experiencing racist violence, please donate to Stop AAPI Hate, and support their work: https://stopaapihate.org/

And take a look at this list that NY Mag put together of fundraisers you can donate to:
https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-to-help-asian-communities-2021.html