Episode 76: Taking License

Should you have to get a license to work as a designer? Mike Monteiro of Mule Design recently argued that they should, since UX designers are working on problems that can affect the health and well being of others.

AIGA debated licensing in the late 1990s, and one difficulty was defining a body of knowledge or skills that defined a designer. As Jessica put it,

What that would mean you would be tested and have to memorize Pantone colors?

And Michael draws a distinction between

a body of knowledge and qualifies you to actually perform your professional duties [and] the ethical and moral structure that helps shape your decisions

Also mentioned this week:

Dezeen, The Root on production designer Hannah Beachler
NYTimes, Vox, IndieWire on costume designer Ruth Carter
Alissa Walker, Curbed, Wakanda and urbanism
Legally Black UK film posters
Rupert Neate, The Guardian,Young Brixton activists recreate film posters with black leads
Tibor Kalman, Colors, Issue 4: Race
New NASA Pluto images via BoingBoing

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Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati, and has been a partner in the New York office of Pentagram since 1990. Michael is a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art.

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

More from Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand

Episode 127: Fear and Longing
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters; Hrishi Hirway and Mike Errico; The Quiz Broadcast; Shakespeare and Co. Project

Episode 126: Screens and Dreams
Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration; Unorthodox; My Brilliant Friend; The Affair; Anil Dash on the dangers of social media; Anna Wiener on Silicon Valley; quarantine dreams

Episode 125: Zoom Aesthetics
Zoom aesthetics and COVID-19; Kyle Chayka on minimalism; Deborah Berke on shared spaces; Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining”; Megan O’Grady on artistic recluses

Episode 124: That Thing You Do
Making art and design during the COVID-19 pandemic; Christoph Niemann and Daniella Zalcman; Adam Schlesinger; spec scripts for Larry David

Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors
Looking at COVID=19: Flattening the curve, Washington Post designers Harry Stevens on visualizing social distancing, Alissa Walker on how dots are people, Stephen Sondheim at 90

Jobs | November 05