Upcoming Event
Thursday, October 23 2025
6:00–7:30 pm

Designing Motherhood
A Conversation on Design, Health, and Humanity

Thursday, October 23 2025
6:00–7:30 pm
Designing Motherhood
A Conversation on Design, Health, and Humanity
A conversation on the products, graphics, and systems that make and break our births.
AIGA NY and the Museum of Arts and Design present a panel inspired by Designing Motherhood: Things that Make and Break Our Births.
Moderated by Alexandra Lange, design critic and author, the discussion features Meg Crane, inventor of the home pregnancy test, Melissa Cullens, founder of Charette, and Christa May, designer and advocate. Together, they will explore how design has shaped and continues to shape experiences of (in)fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenthood.
From medical tools and graphic campaigns to everyday products, this conversation invites graphic and product designers alike to consider their role in shaping access, dignity, and cultural narratives around reproductive health.
Designing Motherhood: Things that Make and Break Our Births is generously sponsored by Ruth Ann Harnisch and the Harnisch Foundation.
Major support for Designing Motherhood has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and the Graham
Event Series: Fresh Dialogue
These events are critical discussions that focus on current events, issues of cultural relevance and emerging topics in the world of design.
Tickets
We are committed to keeping events accessible to all participants. Your ticket supports AIGA NY and costs associated with event production. If ticket cost is a barrier, please contact Stacey@aigany.org.
Schedule
- 6:00 pm Doors open & check-in
- 6:30 pm Event begins
- 7:30 pm Event ends
Tickets
- Non-members $30.00
- AIGA Members $25.00
- MAD Members $25.00
Museum of Arts and Design
—
2 Columbus Circle - Auditorium lower level
New York, 10019
Moderator

Alexandra Lange
Alexandra Lange is a journalist, design critic, and author. Her essays, reviews and profiles have appeared in numerous design publications including Architect, Harvard Design Magazine, and Metropolis, as well as in The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, and the New York Times. She is a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab, and has been a featured writer at Design Observer, an opinion columnist at Dezeen, and the architecture critic for Curbed. In 2025 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for a series on how urban design and architecture affect children and families.
Panel

Meg Crane
Meg Crane studied at Parsons and worked as a freelance graphic designer. She invented the first Home Pregnancy Test.

Melissa Cullens
Melissa is a designer with 20 years of experience turning behavior, emotion and mindset into innovative experiences that reach product/market fit. Her work at Ellevest transformed the financial industry for women — bringing more of us together to confidently talk about money and start building wealth.
She led the reinvention of Vogue.com and the digital experience of SiriusXM, designed events for IBM and some of the first online iterations of American Express. She currently runs Charette Studios — a customer-obsessed brand and product studio that helps companies launch better, scale faster and pivot smarter.

Christa May
Christa (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based designer, researcher, and cultural worker. Her independent project They Have You by the Ovaries: Commodification of Reproductive Biology explores how social and political forces lead many women to freeze their eggs, only for that biological material to be managed and sold back through subscription models run by venture-backed fertility companies. The project situates egg freezing alongside the way matrescence, the transition into motherhood, is marketed as a luxury lifestyle. Through historical research, design analysis, and personal narrative, it considers how reproductive futures are being packaged, monetized, and enclosed.
Her experience includes work with Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. She has held fellowships with the NYC Public Design Commission, the Center for Urban Pedagogy, and NPR’s How I Built This Summit. She invites conversations with individuals who have experience in assisted reproductive technology.
Museum of Arts and Design
—
2 Columbus Circle - Auditorium lower level
New York, 10019