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Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People Hardcover – February 22, 2022
| Debbie Millman (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Foreword by Roxane Gay
“Debbie Millman brings her Design Matters podcast, ‘about how the most creative people in the world create their lives,’ to the page with this excellent interview anthology. Sharpened by Millman’s penetrating commentary, the candid musings teem with insight and empathy. This sparkling collection is one to be savored slowly.”—Publisher’s Weekly
The author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast Design Matters showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.
“Debbie Millman has become a singular voice in the world of intimate, enlightening conversations. She has demonstrated time, and again, why design matters.”—Roxane Gay, from the foreword
Over the course of her popular podcast’s fifteen-year reign, Debbie Millman has interviewed more than 400 creative minds. In those conversations, she has not only explored what it means to design a creative life, but has, as Millman’s wife, Roxane Gay, assesses in her foreword, “created a gloriously interesting and ongoing conversation about what it means to live well, overcome trauma, face rejection, learn to love and be loved, and thrive both personally and professional.”
In this illustrated, curated anthology, Millman includes approximately 80 of her best interviews with visionaries from across diverse fields. Grouped by category—Legends, Truth Tellers, Culture Makers, Trendsetters, and Visionaries—these eye-opening, entertaining, and enlightening conversations—offer insights into new ways of being and living.
Accompanying each entry is a brief biography, a portrait photographed by Millman, and a pull quote written in Millman’s artistic hand. Why Design Matters features 100 images and includes interviews with:
Marina Abramovic, Cey Adams, Elizabeth Alexander, Laurie Anderson, Lynda Barry, Allison Bechdel, Michael Bierut, Brené Brown, Alain de Botton, Eve Ensler, Shepard Fairey, Tim Ferriss, Louise Fili, Kenny Fries, Anand Girhidardas, Cindy Gallop, Malcolm Gladwell, Milton Glaser, Ira Glass, Seth Godin, Thelma Golden, Gabrielle Hamilton, Steven Heller, Jessica Hische, Michael R. Jackson, Oliver Jeffers, Saeed Jones, Thomas Kail, Maira Kalman, Chip Kidd, Anne Lamott, Elle Luna, Carmen Maria Machado, Thomas Page McBee, Erin McKeown, Chanel Miller, Mike Mills, Marilyn Minter, Isaac Mizrahi, Nico Muhly, Eileen Myles, Emily Oberman, Amanda Palmer, Priya Parker, Esther Perel, Maria Popova, Edel Rodriguez, Paula Scher, Amy Sherald, Simon Sinek, Pete Souza, Aminatou Sow, Brandon Stanton, Cheryl Strayed, Amber Tamblyn, Christina Tosi, Tea Uglow, Chris Ware, and Albert Watson.
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper Design
- Publication dateFebruary 22, 2022
- Dimensions10 x 1.25 x 10.5 inches
- ISBN-100062872966
- ISBN-13978-0062872968
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Debbie Millman brings her Design Matters podcast, ‘about how the most creative people in the world create their lives,’ to the page with this excellent interview anthology. Sharpened by Millman’s penetrating commentary, the candid musings teem with insight and empathy. This sparkling collection is one to be savored slowly. — Publishers Weekly
Product details
- Publisher : Harper Design (February 22, 2022)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062872966
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062872968
- Item Weight : 4.52 pounds
- Dimensions : 10 x 1.25 x 10.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #27,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #112 in Creativity (Books)
- #183 in Motivational Management & Leadership
- #423 in Success Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Named “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, brand strategist and host of the podcast Design Matters. Debbie is Chief Marketing Officer at Sterling Brands, where she has worked with over 200 of the world’s largest brands. As the founder and host of Design Matters, the first and longest running podcast about design, Millman has interviewed more than 250 design luminaries and cultural commentators, including Massimo Vignelli, Milton Glaser, Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Barbara Kruger, Seth Godin and more. In the ten years since its inception, the show has garnered millions of downloads and a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award.
Debbie is the author of six books, including two collections of interviews that have extended the ethos and editorial vision of Design Matters to the printed page: How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer and Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits. Both books have been published in over 10 languages. In 2009 Debbie co-founded with Steven Heller the world’s first graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Now in its sixth year, the program has achieved international acclaim. The inaugural class wrote and designed the Rockport book Brand Bible: The Complete Guide to Building, Designing and Sustaining Brands, in 2013 the students created branding for the Museum of Modern Art’s retail program, Destination: New York and the class of 2015 worked to reposition a Kappa Middle School in Harlem.
Debbie’s written and visual essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer and Fast Company. She is the author of two books of illustrated essays: Look Both Ways and Self-Portrait As Your Traitor; the later of which has been awarded a Gold Mobius, a Print Typography Award, and a Bronze Medal from the Art Directors Club. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Chicago Design Museum, Anderson University, School of Visual Arts, Long Island University and The Wolfsonion Museum. She has been artist-in-residence at Cranbrook University, Old Dominion University and Notre Dame University, and has conducted visual storytelling workshops at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, the University of Utah, Hartford University and the High School of Art and Design in New York. She has designed wrapping paper and beach towels for One Kings Lane, greeting cards for Mohawk, MOO and Card-To-Art, playing cards for DeckStarter and sketchbooks for Shutterstock.
Debbie is President Emeritus of AIGA, one of five women to hold the position in the organization’s 100-year history. She is also a past board member and treasurer of the New York Chapter. She is a frequent speaker on design and branding and has moderated Design Yatra in India, presented keynote lectures at Rotman School of Management, Princeton University, Michigan Modern, the Melbourne Writers Festival in Australia, Design Thinkers in Toronto, the American Package Design Summit, the Festival of Art and Design in Barcelona, and many more. She has been a juror for competitions including Cannes Lions, The Art Directors Club, The Type Directors Club, Fast Company, HOW Magazine, Print Magazine, ID Magazine, AIGA, The Dieline, and more. You can see more of her work at www.debbiemillman.com
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There are certainly principles of book and magazine typography that could have been used to make it a more comfortable experience. The interviews are 4 column walls of tightly spaced text per spread with no space between paragraphs. My eyes never got used to the peripheral text, making it uncomfortable to focus on the text I was reading.
After 50 pages I started using a blank white card stock sheets to block out peripheral columns. I improves the experience but it’s disappointing that it’s necessary. Granted, I’m 52 years old so my eyes aren’t what they used to be but this is the only book I’ve ever found uncomfortable to read.
I’ll give it a few more sessions but think I might be happier trading my hardcover in for a Kindle version.
A few other things:
Content-wise, I’m curious to know whether these are abridged interviews. They seem to be because often times, after an interesting answer, usually just one paragraph, a new question comes in the isn’t a natural followup to what was just said.
Another thing I had to get used to were pull quote pages at the end of each interview that were neither from the preceding interview nor the following one. A visual break to be sure but confusing to me as the reader trying to figure out why the quote is there beyond just adding more content.
Lastly, the type on a path treatment for quotes on the inside covers isn’t worth the difficulty reading to keep reading them all. Strange for a book that should prioritize legible content over design flourishes to prove that design matters.
By Janine Lazur on February 27, 2022
There are certainly principles of book and magazine typography that could have been used to make it a more comfortable experience. The interviews are 4 column walls of tightly spaced text per spread with no space between paragraphs. My eyes never got used to the peripheral text, making it uncomfortable to focus on the text I was reading.
After 50 pages I started using a blank white card stock sheets to block out peripheral columns. I improves the experience but it’s disappointing that it’s necessary. Granted, I’m 52 years old so my eyes aren’t what they used to be but this is the only book I’ve ever found uncomfortable to read.
I’ll give it a few more sessions but think I might be happier trading my hardcover in for a Kindle version.
A few other things:
Content-wise, I’m curious to know whether these are abridged interviews. They seem to be because often times, after an interesting answer, usually just one paragraph, a new question comes in the isn’t a natural followup to what was just said.
Another thing I had to get used to were pull quote pages at the end of each interview that were neither from the preceding interview nor the following one. A visual break to be sure but confusing to me as the reader trying to figure out why the quote is there beyond just adding more content.
Lastly, the type on a path treatment for quotes on the inside covers isn’t worth the difficulty reading to keep reading them all. Strange for a book that should prioritize legible content over design flourishes to prove that design matters.
By Amazon Customer on February 28, 2022
"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
The same can be said of Steve Jobs and of Debbie Millman as well as most (if not all) of "the world's most creative people," many of whom she has interviewed for her "Design Matters" podcasts since 2005. However different these people may be in most other respects, all of them agree that form and function are not only important but in fact [begin italics] interdependent [end italics]. In most cases (if not all), the personal lives and professional careers of those interviewed also seem interdependent. That is especially true of Millman.
In the film Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins) channels Marcus Aurelius when asking F.B.I. agent Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster), "What does Buffalo Bill do?" Pause. "He cuts!" I was again reminded of that scene as I worked my way through the 66 mini-interviews for the first time. Millman has a unique talent for collaborating with those interviewed to get to the essence of the given subject or issue. One significant difference: Lector is talking about someone else, a serial killer. Those interviewed are talking about themselves and their own experiences amidst their complexities and, yes, contradictions.
In or near the central business district of most large cities, there is a farmer's market at which --at least until COVID19 --several merchants offer slices of fresh fruit as samples of their wares. In that same spirit, I now offer two brief excerpts from the book.
* * *
First: "It doesn't take very long to design something, and the way I make my paintings, they're very laborious and they take a very long time. And design is done quickly, running around with other assistants and help and it's highly social, whereas I am painting by myself in a room. So they're very opposite things.
"Designers have a hard time with this. They'll say, 'My work is art,' meaning 'My work is fine art.' And they use it as a value judgment. I don't see it that way. I think that the difference between fine art and design is financial. If you're a fine artist, you go wherever you go and you make whatever you make, you determine what you're going to make, and if you're lucky you stick it in a gallery someplace or you just look at it by yourself. If you're a designer, you more or less engage with a client and there's criteria for the work. There's a size for it. There's a materiality that's an expectation. There's a series of set parameters. Design and fine art are not the same act and they're not approached the same way, but they don't require different value judgments."
Paula Scher is one of the most influential graphic designers in the world. Described as the “master conjurer of the instantly familiar,” Scher straddles the line between pop culture and fine art in her work. Iconic, smart, and accessible, her images have entered into the American vernacular.
Scher has been a partner in the New York office of Pentagram since 1991. She began her career as an art director in the 1970s and early 80s, when her eclectic approach to typography became highly influential. In the mid-1990s her landmark identity for The Public Theater fused high and low into a wholly new symbology for cultural institutions, and her recent architectural collaborations have re-imagined the urban landscape as a dynamic environment of dimensional graphic design. Her graphic identities for Citibank and Tiffany & Co. have become case studies for the contemporary regeneration of American brands.
* * *
Next, Milton Glaser: "I've always had principles and I've always tried to do no harm. I don't think it becomes easier as you get older or more successful. Quite the contrary, I'm a great believer in simply observing what is, and if you don't want to change your behavior, at least you know what your behavior is. From that point, I think it's necessary for designers to be aware of what they do when they are participating in misrepresentation or causing someone's death. They should simply know that's what they're doing and not pretend that they have no role...The real question is, 'What are you going to do if you are in the business, and you're participating in a capitalist enterprise which serves to maximize profits above all else?' What is your role in that?...I think designers can do only what good citizens do, which is to react, to respond, to publish, to complain, to get out on the streets, to publish manifestos, and to be visible. They can't do more than citizens can do except they have one great advantage: they know something about communication."
The legendary designer Glaser passed away on his 91st birthday on June 26, 2020. As the world mourns the loss of this visionary—who is best known for the “I ❤️ NY” logo—there is comfort in knowing that his influence will continue to live on in the creative world.
In addition to designing the inimitable phrase about the Big Apple, Glaser helped found the influential Push Pin Studios with Seymour Chwast, Edward Sorel, and Reynold Ruffins in 1954. During the 1960s, Glaser also produced a now-iconic psychedelic Bob Dylan poster (which he'd later revisit in ads for the TV show Mad Men) and co-founded New York Magazine in 1968.
* * *
Scher and Glaser are representative of those who, in Millman's words, "create their lives." As she explains, "This book represents a body of work, a love letter to creativity, a testament to the power of curiosity. In these pages, you will find conversations with the world's most renowned designers, artists, writers, and public thinkers. You will read about their most enviable successes, the devastating failures that almost derailed their careers, the joys and sorrows of their personal lives, and how they've given themselves over to the act of creation."
I now re-read one or more portions of Why Design Matters every day, usually just before sunrise, my favorite time of the day. It has become an essential, invaluable new component of -- a source of nutrition for -- what has been my personal "design for living" for decades. Thank you, Debbie Millman, for what you and your friends so generously share. It is a precious gift. I feel blessed.












