Design Observer
Culture is Not Always Popular

Michael is a partner in the New York office of Pentagram. His book How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (Every Once in a While) Change the World accompanied a 2015 retrospective of his work, which was part of the School of Visual Art’s Masters Series. Cofounder of Design Observer and cohosts of two podcasts, he is on the faculty at Yale School of Art and Yale School of Management and a recipient of the AIGA Medal, the design profession’s highest honor.

Jessica is the author of numerous books on design and visual culture including Design: The Invention of Desire. Cofounder of Design Observer and cohosts of two podcasts, she is on the faculty at Yale School of Art and Yale School of Management and a recipient of the AIGA Medal, the design profession’s highest honor.

Ashleigh is the Design Exponent at Automattic, an AIGA national board member, the creator of DotGovDesign—an initiative connecting and empowering government designers, and an advocate for design’s ability to break barriers and create positive social change. Prior to her role at Automattic, Axios served as the creative director and a digital strategist at the Obama White House.

Thomas, the inaugural winner of the Winterhouse Award for Design Writing and Criticism, is the author of the forthcoming book Slow House: Fixtures, Features, Neighbors, Masters, and a Year in Pursuit of a Better American Home.

Steven is the co-chair (with Lita Talarico) of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design / Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program and the SVA Masters Workshop in Rome. He writes the Visuals column for the New York Times Book Review, a weekly column for The Atlantic online and The Daily Heller.

Karrie is a professional observer of the manmade landscape. She writes regularly for Architect and Curbed, and is a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts MA program in Design Research, Writing, and Criticism, where she teaches students how to understand and interpret the design-rich environment all around them. She was the founding editor-in-chief of Dwell and the founding executive editor of Benetton’s Colors. She is the author of The Perfect $100,000 House (2006) and coauthor of Angry Graphics (1992).

Jarrett is a designer, writer, educator, and podcaster. He runs twenty-six, a multidisciplinary design and editorial studio; hosts Scratching the Surface, a weekly podcast about design criticism; and teaches in both undergraduate and graduate programs at Pratt Institute, The New School Parsons School of Design, and the University of the Arts. He previously worked as a designer at Facebook, Warby Parker, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. He received his BFA in graphic design from Kutztown University and his MFA in graphic design and critical studies from Maryland Institute College of Art. Fuller designed and co-edited Culture is Not Always Popular: Fifteen Years of Design Observer