Her career has helped her recognize the importance of slowing down, and of trusting that she doesn’t have to approach everything-writing, teaching, special projects, love-as if it’s her last chance to experience it. A decade later-after Design Matters evolved into the anchoring show on the website Design Observer and expanded to include guests from other artistic industries, such as musician David Byrne, artist Marilyn Minter, and Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel-Millman realized what she’s really trying to do with each interview: trace the arc of a person’s creative life, and understand how they became who they are. Millman jumped at the chance to put her know-how to use by interviewing people in her field that she admired. Along the way, in 2004, she received a cold call from the internet radio network Voice America, asking if she wanted to host a talk show on design and branding. She even moonlighted as the first-ever creative director of the pioneering hip-hop radio station Hot 97. She later applied that knowledge to her work at several prominent New York City agencies, including Sterling Brands, for which she served as chief marketing officer and president of its design division for 20 years, and was part of teams that created identities for brands such as 7Up, Burger King, Tropicana, and Twizzlers. During college, she worked at her father’s pharmacy in New York’s Hudson Valley, observing how and why people bought the sundries it carried. As a young girl, she fanatically collected Goody barrettes, captivated by their capacity to make her feel prettier simply by wearing them. Millman has long thought about and explored design’s ability to reveal people’s innermost desires in various ways. Now, she believes, if she’s a little more patient with what she takes on, life will unfurl in the ways it’s meant to.
The parallels between aims in her work and life are no coincidence: Millman’s professional projects are often her way of searching for answers to life’s deepest questions, and as she nears 60 (her birthday is on October 29), have brought her to a place where she sees that she no longer needs to strive for security or validation. For Millman, part of branding’s allure stems from the exercise of clearly and confidently expressing a purpose and meaning-a challenge that she has concurrently grappled with on a personal level. Today, as the host of the Design Matters podcast (which was recently translated into a book, out next month) and the chair of the School of Visual Arts’s Master’s in Branding program, the discipline is constantly on her mind. Instagram Twitter LinkedInįor much of her life, artist and designer Debbie Millman has been fascinated by the power of branding. Time Sensitive is produced by The Slow down, a multi-platform media ecosystem that provides context and clarity around some of the most pressing issues of our time: culture, nature, and the future. For Wisdom, Andrew created portraits of, and conducted interviews with, more than 50 luminaries, including Nelson Mandela, Andrew Wyeth, Jane Goodall, and Madeleine Albright. Designed by Apple in Californi a (2016), a book exploring 20 years of Apple design, was the result of a multiyear commission. He has published multiple books and exhibitions, including Creature (2007), Wisdom (2008), Bird (2009), Music (2010), and Flower (2012). Much of his work is concerned with the intersection of nature and technology. Spencer has interviewed hundreds of leading architects, artists, designers, and others, including David Adjaye, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, Ian Schrager, and Kanye West. He is the author of In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials (2020).Īndrew is a photographer, filmmaker, and creative director. From 2013 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Surface magazine. The editor-at-large of the publisher Phaidon and a contributing editor at Town & Country magazine, he has written at length about architecture, art, culture, design, and technology for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Newsweek, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Spencer is a writer, editor, and journalist. THE HOSTS: SPENCER BAILEY AND ANDREW ZUCKERMAN Co-hosts Spencer Bailey and Andrew Zuckerman respectively interview a leading mind who has made a profound impact in their field, contributed to the larger conversation, and is concerned with the planet.
Time Sensitive features candid, revealing portraits of curious and courageous people in business, the arts, and beyond who have a distinct perspective on time.