Hosted by COOL HUNTING founders Evan Orensten and Josh Rubin, Design Tangents takes listeners on a journey into the minds of artists, designers, musicians, tech pioneers and visionaries. The podcast explores the creative processes and inspirations that drive these changemakers and offers behind-the-scenes insights into their careers, challenges and philosophies.
Design Tangents is a proud member of the SURROUND Podcast Network
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Design Tangents is presented by Genesis and produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group. Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte, Hannah Viti, Wize Grazette and Samantha Sager and to Amber Lin for creating our show art. Discover more design podcasts from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com.
Season One
Episode 1: Giorgia Lupi—Information Designer and Partner at Pentagram
Conversations about data can be pretty dry, but not when you’re talking to Giorgia Lupi—an information designer and partner at world renowned design firm Pentagram. In this episode we get to hear her passion for crafting data into humane, engaging and exciting visualizations and the opportunities for data to enhance creativity as well. She also uses data to track things in her personal life—even dating! Giorgia flips the script a couple times asking Josh and Evan a few questions and the resulting conversation offers a bit of background about COOL HUNTING.
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Episode 2: Nick Cave + Bob Faust—Artists, Collaborators and Partners
It takes a certain kind of compatibility to be creative collaborators and for those who are life partners as well—like hosts and COOL HUNTING founders Josh and Evan—even more nuanced. That’s one of the reasons they were especially excited to visit artists Nick Cave and Bob Faust in their Chicago studio and home to dig into their respective creative process and the Venn diagram of their community activism, personal and joint work, and their private lives. In this episode you’ll hear how upcycled knitwear brought Nick and Bob together, how they support each other’s work, fostering community, developing projects that create an impact and toward the end, a fashion vision we all want to see manifest!
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Episode 3: Jeff Staple—Creative Visionary and Founder of Reed Art Department and Staple Pigeon
Is it a vibe or is it a discipline? Designing streetwear requires understanding a far-reaching and often unexpected mix of cultural queues. For Jeff Staple, a pioneer in the space, synthesizing these observations is second nature. In this episode Josh and Evan talk to Jeff about his journey of discovering design, disappointing (and then impressing) his parents, mastering product collaborations and more. We also hear some key lessons along the way including a spot-on gumbo metaphor and recognizing the power of 17 year olds.
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Episode 4: Jihan Zencirli—Artist and Philosopher
Whenever Josh, Evan and Jihan Zencirli get together the energy is high and the tangents are profound. Jihan is an installation artist, big thinker and positive pop culture force. In this episode they cover her early days making balloon sculptures, the pageantry of religion, art cults, Donatella Versace and learnings from her time in web3 working with the Doodles.
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Episode 5: Matthew Dear—Musician and Audiovisual Composer
A multi-hyphenate creative, Matthew Dear is a tech-forward composer and performer, a DJ, digital artist and web3 enthusiast. COOL HUNTING first wrote about him in 2007, and he appeared in our video podcast then, early in his musical career. Over the years Josh and Evan followed his work and developed a friendship. Thinking about creating theme music for Design Tangents Matthew was the first and only person on the list, and it was a no brainer to also have him on as a guest. We went back to Ann Arbor, where we shot our video 15 years ago, to talk about what he’s interested in making today, what went into writing our theme music, and how having children, fishing, technology and the Detroit scene all play a role in his creative process.
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Episode 6: Luc Donckerwolke and SangYup Lee—Genesis Design Visionaries
It typically takes five years from imagining a new car to bringing it to market. In about that same amount of time, Genesis has created their brand and introduced all new models. The cars and the design leadership have gotten the attention of just about every automotive award around the world, and the brand has fought hard to create its mark in a challenging and increasingly fast-paced market. This is a team effort led by the collaborative dynamic duo of Luc Donckerwolke and SangYup Lee. Josh and Evan traveled to Seoul to immerse themselves in Korean culture and learn how innovation has been accelerated across a range of businesses, including automotive. In this episode they sit down with the creative duo, who they’ve known for the last decade, to hear how they’ve developed the Genesis brand, built a team, design cars that people desire, and bring the brand to life across the many touch points that people interact with. Feel the love and learn about the power of design.
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Episode 7: Thandiwe Muriu—Pioneering Photographer
Around the world photography is a male-dominated industry and in Kenya that’s an understatement. Thandiwe Muriu is the country’s first woman commercial photographer and in recent years the first to find her voice as a photographic artist. In this episode Evan and Josh sit with the Nairobi-based creative to hear how she learned the craft, found her artistic self and is unfolding and reinterpreting the visual language of Kenya for a global audience. Her energy, optimism and enthusiasm are immense and you can feel the love, power and creativity from the opening moments all the way through the conversation.
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