Debbie Millman
Named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, and “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, curator, and host of the podcast Design Matters, one of the world’s first and longest-running podcasts and listed as one of the best podcasts in the world by Business Insider.
Debbie is the author of six books is currently working on an illustrated book for HarperCollins titled Why Design Matters, which will be published in 2020, along with and a documentary about the making of the book, produced by Adobe. She was a writer for the world’s first design blog, Speak Up, the Editorial and Creative Director of Print Magazine, and a columnist for N Magazine.
In 2009 Debbie co-founded the world’s first graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Now in its ninth year, the program has achieved international acclaim.
Her illustrations have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer, and Fast Company and her artwork is included in the Boston Biennale, Chicago Design Museum, Anderson University, School of Visual Arts, Long Island University, The Wolfsonion Museum and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art.
For 20 years, Debbie was the President of Sterling Brands and was instrumental in the firm’s acquisition by Omnicom in 2008. While there she worked on the logo and brand identity for Burger King, Hershey’s, Haagen Dazs, Tropicana, Star Wars, Gillette, and the No More movement.
She is also President Emeritus of AIGA, one of five women to hold the position in the organization’s 100-year history. She is a frequent speaker on design and branding throughout the world and has been a juror for competitions including Cannes Lions, The Clio’s, the One Club, and many, many more. This year she will be the Jury President for the branding competition for the D&AD Awards in London.
Debbie is currently working with Law & Order SVU actor and activist Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation to eradicate sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, and the rape-kit backlog.
3 words to describe Nature?
Cosmic. Magical. Breathtaking
3 things Nature taught you?
Patience
Scale
Humility
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Pacific Northwest, United States
Machu Pichu, Peru
Easter Island, Chile
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Powerful
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Peaceful
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Awe
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Curious
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Safe
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Dramatic
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
All!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I was at a sleep-away summer camp; it was mid-late August, very early evening. I was in a meadow in upstate New York with my campmates. It had rained and the grass was wet. We all ran outside when we realized that a rainbow had suddenly appeared. We were in awe. I might have been wearing pajamas.
Daan Roosegaarde
Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde is a creative thinker and maker of social designs which explore the relation between people, technology, and space.
Roosegaarde has been driven by nature's gifts like light emitting fireflies and jellyfish since an early age. His fascination for nature and technology is reflected in his iconic works such as SMOG FREE PROJECT (the largest outdoor air purifier which turns smog into jewellery) and VAN GOGH PATH (bicycle path which glows at night).
Roosegaarde studied Fine Arts and graduated from The Berlage Institute in Rotterdam with a Master in architecture. He founded Studio Roosegaarde in 2007, where he works with his team of designers and engineers towards a better future.
Roosegaarde has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the London Design Innovation Medal, the INDEX Design Award, DFA Gold and Grand Award Hong Kong, LIT 2017 Lighting Designer of the Year Award, Platinum A'Design Award 2017, D&AD Awards 2017, Core77 Design Awards 2017, Dutch Artist of the Year 2016, the World Technology Award, two Dutch Design Awards, the Charlotte Köhler Award, and China's Most Successful Design Award. He exhibited at the Design Museum London, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Tate Modern, Tokyo National Museum, Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, Victoria & Albert Museum, and various public spaces across the globe.
Through lectures across the world Daan frequently shares his visionary ideas and projects.
Daan Roosegaarde has been selected by Forbes and Good 100 as a creative change maker and a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum. He is currently a visiting professor at Tongji University in Shanghai.
3 words to describe Nature?
Experience
Knowledge
Surrender
3 things Nature taught you?
The Art of Communication
Beauty is evolution
Harmony - everything has a purpose
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Night diving in Bali
Watching Northern Lights in Norway
In some bizarre way, looking at snowflakes under a microscope!
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Curious and hungry for knowledge. The ocean is a pool of knowledge we understand so little
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Humble and fascinated. All these trees that communicate with each other! All this information stored and shared. The forest exemplifies beauty and communication into one.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Puzzled and mystified. What can we do with the hidden energy. There is so much power, so much potential.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Aware of our relationship with the universe. A sense of movement that is beyond us.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Excited! This explosion of energy, this release of pure power.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Cold. Brings me back to these long cold Dutch nights when were working on developing sail prototypes, how to harvest the energy from the wind.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I was ocean, but recently, after being in Dubai, I have become a desert person.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
8 on a personal level. But our society should be a 10, in a way that our creative and engineering should be based on the way nature does it, like Biomimicry. Nature has so much to teach us. We have so much to learn from it.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I was night diving in Indonesia when suddenly all these creatures started to produce light. We work so hard at creating light, spending so much energy and material so that we can illuminate our lives. And here were these simple organisms emitting so much light in a way that was natural and effortless. It was so humbling! We have so much to learn from Nature.