Alec Stewart wrote us a profound email on addiction and design a couple years ago (we’ve shared it below). Both of us had known of Alec at RISD, where he studied as an undergrad during our time as graduate students. At the time he possessed a great energy and creativity that we found envious. We had little idea he was also struggling with addiction and great inner turmoil all the while. A now sober and radically open Stewart shares his path to recovery and how he maintains his sobriety...

Hey Everybody! We are back for our first episode of 2024! In January we sat down with multi-hyphenate design chameleon Khyati Trehan. She opened up about all things living-while-designing, including how she doesn’t have hobbies, but is slowly realizing that they could help. She also explained how her passion for her work runs through all her activities, and how she juggles (or struggles to juggle) a strong personal output with esteemed positions at Google and IDEO. Khyati’s wide-ranging...

Last September (we know, we know) we had the immense privilege of speaking with Matthew Miller, an ecstatic new presence and rising design star whose work mixes humor, psychedelia, batshit typography, insane color combos, and incredible uplifting, biting, and transparent messaging about life and the never ending hustle. Matthew is a self proclaimed “self-taught” designer with a compellingly unique trajectory and journey, which he so kindly and openly shared with us during a long talk. Since...

After much delay we are here with a new episode of Graphic Support Group. Spring has sprung, and we are back in motion! We apologize for the inconsistency in our output of late, as even support groups could use support groups, and we’ve both been overwhelmed with life changes, work changes, and all sorts of general anxiety-inducing contexts on our ends. But fear not! We are doing great and we are here! Times are exciting even when lots is going on, and we have wrangled our collected energy...

We are more than delighted to share our lovely conversation with the one and only Richard Turley, a sentence that feels like a dream to type. Over the course of 90 minutes, we talk with the former Bloomberg Businessweek, MTV, and W+K Creative Director about a career spent poking holes in the mythos of Graphic Design, touching on themes of self-esteem and collaboration, privilege, and extreme self-seriousness within the industry. Turley’s insight and wisdom from a long, winding career making...

We were so honored to chat with the Hey Sis World founder Kristel Brinshot about navigating burnout, owning your worth in a fraught industry, meditation, empowerment, and her hybrid creative coaching program, Big World NRG, designed for the BIPOC Artist & Creativepreneur. From the BWNRG site: Big World NRG™️ is the first program of its kind designed to heal your Burnout & Imposter Syndrome &⚡️jump-start your Big Visions. Kristel’s generosity, positivity, and compelling personal...

!! FULL TRANSPARENCY MODE ACHIEVED !! The indelible creative career consultant and life coach behind Poetic-State, Bryan Collins (not that Brian Collins), takes James and Drew through a Discovery Session to help unlock the their full POD-tential. We go deep into the insecurities, fears, and pitfalls of DIY Podcasting & remote creative partnership, as we try to unpack some of the sticking points that keep us up at night as we continue to grow the pod and continue to make strides towards a...

We are so thrilled and honored to have sat down with Chloe Scheffe to discuss her impressive and inventive design career. We chat with her about the highs and lows, and inner struggles developing her sense of self and self-worth, from Community College to RISD to Metahaven to Pentagram to NY Times Magazine to HERE, and now, to a budding individual design practice. Chloe digs deep into the complex reality of being on the inside of a string of highly-coveted design positions, and the trials and...

We sat down with Phillip Kim, the LA-based Korean designer who's confident, effortless typography and form-making defies rules for both small and large clients alike. We talked to him about his recent struggles with anxiety and stress, and how he's struck a balance with his life through a recent move to LA. Kim actively engages clients and takes bold risks on all of his projects, so we were pleased to learn the methodologies behind his work, and how he strives to bring clients along for a...

It’s finally here! Long in the works, here is our episode with the one and only Eric Hu. We talked to the designer extraordinaire about his dynamic and illustrious career, designing while neurodivergent, the industry’s obsession with age, his own forms of generational trauma, the early 2010s Design Twitter wars, adopting an ethos of excellence, and working like…a lion! It was an incredible conversation and we can’t thank Eric enough for spending his time with us. We hope you enjoy, too. A...

Now residing and working in New York City, Amy Fortunato grew up and spent most of her life in Southern California, after she was adopted from Korea as a young child. Amy sat down with us to patiently recount her personal story, dissect her relationship to her identity, talk about her career working with Lorraine Wild’s Green Dragon Studio, and to discuss her evolving relationship with Korea—where she eventually went on to pursue masters studies in Design. We shared a lovely, intimate...

Stephanie Specht runs her own unique design practice, which embraces bold colors, elegant typographic hodgepodges, and formal intuition. We talk with the delightfully adventurous Belgian designer about mindfulness, health scares, the great outdoors, and the importance of work-life balance. In the past, she has struggled with stress management through physical manifestations of her relationship to her mental well-being. Stephanie opens up about the effects of a life-halting health-scare and...

We chat with Montreal based Designer and Activist about his forthcoming book of essays, Design Against Design (out soon through Onomatopee), ideas of trust in design practice, and how his traumas inform his design work and his activism. Kevin’s generosity and positive spirit lead us through a warm and open conversation about what it means to create work for both profit and protest, the responsibilities of the avant-garde, Kanye, and illegibility as a tool. Trigger Warning: Childhood Sexual...

Welcome back for a new season of GSG! We are beyond thrilled to kick off a new season by sharing our chat with the one and only Eike König of Berlin’s HORT studio. A true inspiration, Eike gave us a lot to think about over the course of our abundant conversation. He shared so much of himself, talking about his community, his own battles with depression, his background in competitive gymnastics and how it impacted his ideas of discipline, and how he has attempted to challenge the rules and...

A special episode long in the making, we finally got a chance to sit down with our dear friend Elizabeth Leeper, the calming voice behind our meditations and hotline. Liz guides James and Drew through a joint Support Session, giving us a unique opportunity to reflect on our relationship and our progress in making this project. We’ve learned a lot along the way and we want to thank everyone who’s been a part of the journey, especially our lovely guests and listeners. This marks the end of...

We chat with the mercurial Belgian duo about using an alter ego as both a creative shield and a motivator to keep pushing fresh ideas. Subscribe at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com

We speak with the prolific psychedelic pattern-weaver, Dutch designer Hansje Van Halem, about a life spent in the weeds of dense form, coping with overcompensation, and how it feels to crash and burn. Subscribe at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com

We spoke with Mindy Seu, inspired by her continued excitement and exploration in design practice. She braves many precarious territories and often assumes the role of being “the least experienced person” in the room. Enjoy this conversation as we dive into leveraging ‘default’ modes of expression, humor, and staying focused in our curiosity. Subscribe at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com

We caught up with the multi-faceted designer and researcher Shruthi Manjula Balakrishna from her Austin, TX home. Her diverse career has pushed her to surprising and profound places. Listen in on how she’s adapted through her many changes and the qualms that came with each step. Subscribe at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com

We talk with Hong Kong-based cartoonist and art worker Kaitlin Chan about international school, Goop, and much more. There's a lot to unpack here and much more to confess. Subscribe at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com

Subscribe at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com

We got to spend some precious time with the Creative Director of House of Gul, Ali Godil. The Portland-based Pakistani-American designer dropped incredible wisdom and knowledge about self, immigrant identity, and just being grounded in beauty. We’re really excited to share this one! Get on the email list at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com

This is a long one, but very amazing talk with Japanese American designer Ray Masaki. Ray just self-published a book, "Why is the salaryman carrying a surfboard?". We chat about his experience moving to Japan and also the important contents of his book, which outlines the Japanese design industry being complicit with white supremacy. Get on the email list at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com