Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, the show is hitting the road, and we’re stepping back into the design confessional with a bevy of anonymous guests. But when the rubber meets the road, will our guests get absolution for all the trouble they’ve been cookin’? There’s only one place to find out.
CONFESSIONS:
This episode was recorded Thursday, August 7, 2025 at Future Fonts & Friends, organized for TypeCon 2025, and held at OUTLET in Portland, Oregon. Special thanks to Lizy Gershenzon and Travis Kochel for having me back once again, to the organizers and attendees at TypeCon who filled up my SD card with confessions, and additional thanks to Kate Bingaman-Burt and Leland Vaughn for your support and help making this event happen. All music provided by Pond5.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ron Bronson (Former Head of Design at 18F, the federal government’s digital services office, as well as champion tennis coach, professor of practice at University of Michigan, radio host, and accidental footwear entrepreneur) joins Sean to talk about his design mistakes, as well as the magical land of Wisconsin, Apple’s thinnest new product, and the dangerous allure of ribbon cuttings.
You can find Ron online by searching his name (in your engine of choice) or by going the direct route: visiting ronbronson.com. There, you can find links to Ron’s podcast with Joel Goodman Future Perfect Book Club, as well as many other projects he’s been involved in.
The set of design principles and guides the team at 18F developed about how to ship and deliver in the government do indeed live on, and can be freely found at 18f.org; they’re must-read resources for those wanting to do good in public service anywhere and at all levels. Whether you’re in public service or not, though, getting involved in a thing that can help your community is more important and necessary in this time.
DID I DO THAT? AT AIGA DESIGN CONFERENCE 2025
As of this publication, I am out in Los Angeles at AIGA Design Conference—I'll (hopefully) be recording episodes, but mostly just experiencing the event! See you out there, or follow @dididothat.design on Instagram for updates!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Type designer Chris Skillern joins Sean to talk about his design mistakes, as well as forgotten Saturday morning kids shows, circle drawing, and Italic character sets.
You can find Chris’ work on the web at tulseytype.com, or on Instagram as @tulseytype. There, you can find links to Chokecherry, Chris’ blend of midcentury-modern whimsy with Cherokee syllabary support, at FutureFonts. You can see the Cherokee syllabary families Chris has been working on most recently—November Cherokee, November Stencil Cherokee, October Cherokee, and Lava Cherokee—over at Typotheque’s website. If you’re interested in more of the process that went into this work, Chris walked through both his research into the Cherokee syllabary and development in an recent article for Typotheque.
DID I DO THAT? AT AIGA DESIGN CONFERENCE:
Did I Do That? is going to be covering this year’s AIGA Design Conference from October 9–11 at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles!
Long-time listeners know that the community around AIGA Design Conference has been a huge part of this show’s evolution—from all the way back in season 2 when I talked with Lee-Sean Huang at the 2023 conference in Seattle to performing Fontroversy with Lena Hall as part of last year’s mainstage conference program. It’s rare to get to participate in a national platform and share space with folks in this field from all over the United States, and even more special to be a part of it. This year’s theme about the intersection of design and performance couldn’t be more spot on for this show, so if you like silly stuff like this about design, this just might be the gathering for you.
Listeners of this show can use the code 25DIDIDOTHAT15 at checkout to take 15% off your registration for the conference. Plus, it lets all the folks at AIGA know that you came from here. Win win!
It’s going to be a great time—hope to see you in LA this October!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It’s our season 7 premiere! Illustrator, cartoonist, and author Gemma Correll joins Sean to talk about her design mistakes, as well as Beano’s "Attitude" era, copying the Old Masters, and Patience & Fortitude.
You can find all of Gemma’s work, including her books and other merch, on the web at gemmacorrell.com! The Worrier’s Guide to Life is the perfect companion to this episode, and a great gift for any Starfleet officers in your life who also happen to be Klingon. You can also follow Gemma as @gemmacorrell on Instagram, Facebook, and tons more platforms to see her comics!
This is our seventh season premiere, and if you’re new to the show, this is a great time to get on board! We’ll have new episodes through mid-December, so stick around wherever you heard it, or visit dididothat.design to see more options.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
With summer drawing to a close, First Steps is taking its last steps! Gabe and Sean are joined by our show art’s illustrator, Joel Williams, to talk through Xzibit’s fascination with aquariums, ripping off mother nature, and childhood crush comics. Plus: Gabe’s Gauntlet and Design Student Confessions!
You can find Joel on Instagram as @joelmadethis, or on LinkedIn as Joel Williams. As mentioned above, Joel did indeed do our First Steps show art, and if you want to see more work, the best place to go is joelmadethis.myportfolio.com.
You can find about Gabe Bidney as @gabe_bidney on Instagram, or as Gabriel Bidney on LinkedIn. Gabe leads PSUGD Design Club, which you can find about on Instagram as @psudesignclub.
Show art by Joel Williams. Music by Nica Mork, with additional compositions by Albert Marlowe/S.I. Publishing and others (licensed through Pond5). Production support by Mycah Brandley.
Did I Do That?: First Steps is produced with students from DES 425 Rodeo, part of the Portland State University Graphic Design program. To learn more about PSUGD, visit psu.gd. You can learn more about Rodeo, the class this project was borne from, at psu.gd/rodeo or @psugdrodeo.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
First Steps is turning 3?! Where does the time go? Gabe and Sean are joined by our favorite Texan, Mycah Brandley, to talk through where emo meets oil, Taco Bell pastels, and prosciutto posters. Plus: Gabe’s Gauntlet and Design Student Confessions!
You can find Mycah Brandley on Instagram as @_imagine.nation for his design and @mycahdevin.pdf for his memes. You can also watch Mycah’s Rodeo Roundtable series, which unpacks a little bit more about the class that birthed this project and many others, on the Rodeo Instagram, as @psugdrodeo.
You can find about Gabe Bidney as @gabe_bidney on Instagram, or as Gabriel Bidney on LinkedIn. Gabe leads PSUGD Design Club, which you can find about on Instagram as @psudesignclub.
Show art by Joel Williams. Music by Nica Mork, with additional compositions by Albert Marlowe/S.I. Publishing and others (licensed through Pond5). Production support by Mycah Brandley.
Did I Do That?: First Steps is produced with students from DES 425 Rodeo, part of the Portland State University Graphic Design program. To learn more about PSUGD, visit psu.gd. You can learn more about Rodeo, the class this project was borne from, at psu.gd/rodeo or @psugdrodeo.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Gabe and Sean are joined by the show’s musical director, Nica Mork, to talk through puppet-making, the aesthetics of Korean skincare, and how Bruce Wayne lost his fortune. Plus: Gabe’s Gauntlet and Design Student Confessions!
You can find Nica Mork as Veronica Mork on LinkedIn, or on Instagram as @slumptownn. You can also hear the music Nica has been putting out throughout this and every episode!
You can find about Gabe Bidney as @gabe_bidney on Instagram, or as Gabriel Bidney on LinkedIn. Gabe leads PSUGD Design Club, which you can find about on Instagram as @psudesignclub.
Show art by Joel Williams. Music by Nica Mork, with additional compositions by Albert Marlowe/S.I. Publishing (licensed from Pond5). Production support by Mycah Brandley.
Did I Do That?: First Steps is produced with students from DES 425 Rodeo, part of the Portland State University Graphic Design program. To learn more about PSUGD, visit psu.gd. You can learn more about Rodeo, the class this project was borne from, at psu.gd/rodeo or @psugdrodeo.
These events are free and open to the public. See you there!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Co-hosts Gabe and Sean take their first steps into Did I Do That?: First Steps to talk through Airbnb’s Frutiger Aero, the BREATHTAKING geometry behind the Pepsi Smile, and Prince’s font floppies. Plus: Gabe’s Gauntlet and Design Student Confessions!
You can find about Gabe Bidney as @gabe_bidney on Instagram, or on LinkedIn as Gabriel Bidney. Gabe leads PSUGD Design Club, which you can find about on Instagram as @psudesignclub. You can also find Gabe here all throughout summer as co-host of Did I Do That?: First Steps, so check back in this feed or the Did I Do That? website for each episode! New episodes will drop every other Thursday.
Show art by Joel Williams. Music by Nica Mork, with additional compositions by Albert Marlowe/S.I. Publishing (licensed from Pond5). Production support by Mycah Brandley.
Did I Do That?: First Steps is produced with students from DES 425 Rodeo, part of the Portland State University Graphic Design program. To learn more about PSUGD, visit psu.gd.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Starting out in design can be like taking your first steps. To learn how to walk, you have to do a lot of falling down, too.
That’s why we made Did I Do That?: First Steps, a miniseries about designers who are just starting out, and the things we stumble through while learning what this field is all about. It’s hosted by Sean Schumacher, a design teacher, and Gabe Bidney, a design student. On each episode, Gabe, Sean, and a special student guest talk through what’s inspiring us—and what's making us sweat—as we figure out where we fit in this whole big world of graphic design.
New episodes drop in this feed every other Thursday all summer long, starting on July 17.
Did I Do That?: First Steps is produced by Sean Schumacher and created with students from DES 425 Rodeo at Portland State University during Spring term 2025. To learn more about the PSU Graphic Design program, visit psu.gd.
Special thanks to the student team behind this project: Gabe Bidney, Mycah Brandley, Nica Mork, and Joel Williams. Additional thanks to the students whose voices featured in this trailer: Gabe Bidney, Jillian McWhorter, Mycah Brandley, Nicholas Zapata, and Nica Mork.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Could it be? Did I Do That?’s season 6 finale is also our especially nice 69th episode?! In this world, it’s possible! Illustrator, art director, and soft-spoken metal-hardcore singer Colin Strandberg joins Sean to talk about his design mistakes, as well as vehicle wraps, The Family, and Sonic’s wallet woes.
You can find all kinds of Colin’s design and illustration work up on his website, colinstrandbergdesign.com, including some to buy through his shop on Imprnt! You can also follow him on Instagram as @colinstrandbergdesign.
That’s not all! Though this is the finale of season 6, there is more new pod to come this summer! Right here in two weeks time, you’ll hear the trailer for what we’ve been cooking up behind the scenes this past spring! Too, we’ve likely got a few big events coming up this summer! Keep an eye (or an ear) on our social media feeds (including Substack and Instagram) for the latest on when and where they’ll be happening!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Say goodbye to solvable problems because Did I Do That? is back! Thom Hines (Professor of Interaction Design at Portland State University) joins Sean on the pogcast to talk about early 2000s burner culture, fake search engines, and the tireless Tom Hanks.
You can stream Happy Ending on either Prime Video and Fandango starting on June 27, so keep your eyes on both of those services to see it, or follow the movie on Instagram (@happyending.movie) for the latest—it’s a great fun time! Thom teaches interaction design with me at PSUGD, and the best way to know what he’s like in class is, as he mentioned, to join Portland State University (just be sure to leave him a good Rate My Professors review). You can find more about his personal work over at thomhines.com.
Apologies again for the delay in releasing this episode—thankfully, though, new equipment has been ordered and the show is back on track! Our 6th season will draw to a close in two weeks on June 19, but there may be more in store this summer! Subscribe to our Substack or follow us on Instagram to hear the latest!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Let a new Did I Do That? light a fire under your ass! Legendary illustrator Lisa Congdon joins Sean to talk about what’s in teachers’ dreams, poetry awards, and hamster wheels.
You can find Lisa’s work all over the internet, but why not visit her website at lisacongdon.com first! There, you can find her work, classes, and more. Lisa is on Instagram as the one and only @lisacongdon. If you happen to be in Portland, you can also find Lisa’s shop at Cargo Emporium—it’s a massive space full of work from Lisa and a few other past guests, and is just cool to explore!
This episode was recorded March 25, 2025 in the Rat’s Nest.
One programming note: This is our last recording that was banked before the big break-in. As such, there may be some delay in publishing the next episode. While I’ll do my best to keep that from happening, please keep an eye on the Instagram, Bluesky, or Substack for the latest, whatever the case may be (and hey, if you want to kick a couple bucks my way to help out while things are getting figured out, too, I won’t say no to that). Thank you for listening and sorry for any potential upcoming interruption!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We’re wreaking havoc but at least we’re not raging a-holes! Advertising idea guy and art dude Peter Yue joins Sean to talk about Jeff Bezos’ hedge fund, Las Vegas bartenders, and the most terrifying thing Gen Z found inside Pandora’s Box.
You can find Peter online at peteryue.com, or very rarely on the ‘gram at @peteryue.
This episode was recorded April 13, 2025 in the Rat’s Nest (well before The Incident took the iMac mentioned in this episode).
Apologies to the folks at AdAge, who I incorrectly characterized in this episode as having selected Jake from State Farm over the M&Ms the winner in the final round of their March Madness Brand Mascot championship bracket. In actuality, it was M&Ms who narrowly defeated Jake, however it is frankly still bizarre that Jake beat—y’know—dozens more mascots that are ACTUAL MASCOTS. Ad industry, I know you don’t understand TikTok, but just because Jake has a TikTok doesn’t mean young people are going to buy his overpriced insurance when neither they nor I can afford cars.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Call in the pygmy goats and have Gunther pour you a hot cup of cereal, because a little indie show called Did I Do That? has hit the midpoint of season 6! Merchandise Designer and Design YouTube powerhouse Kel Lauren joins Sean to talk about anniversary cereals, the intersection of goth and twee, and what a rock star does with three grand.
You can find Kel all over the internet, from their website to their YouTube channel to their Instagram. Kel and fellow design content creator Elliot Ulm create their own hilarious and joyful design show called kelliot!—if you want to watch them work, you can find their collaborative channel on YouTube, but you can also find them across the podcast player spectrum, including the big names like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Anyone who is a fan of this deeply non-serious design podcast is definitely going to enjoy theirs, so go give them a listen! Too, if you really like kelliot! and want even more, you can hear their Unmedikelliot! bonus show through the kelliot! Patreon.
This episode was recorded March 14, 2025 in the Rat’s Nest.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feeling too arty for the nerds and too nerdy for the artists? Did I Do That? is the sweet spot for you! The great Ben Barry (co-founder of the Facebook Analog Research Laboratory and founder of Nonlinear) joins Sean to talk about edible arrangements for Spring, the secondary market for guillotines, and realizing that it’s time (for Frasier) to move on (from the hit NBC sitcom Frasier).
You can find Ben’s work on his personal site, benbarry.com; that’s also where you can find links to his prints and book through particular.co. Ben brought me a copy of his book One Hundred Patterns and I can’t recommend it highly enough; it is more than 200 pages of gorgeous offset-printed patterns! Ben writes about all things tech on his blog, Active Matrix. Finally, you can find some of his more recent work on both Instagram and Threads as @benbarry.
This episode was recorded March 8, 2025 in the Rat’s Nest. This episode was edited by the one and only Orion Cortez—one of the best there is and always a miracle worker!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Call up the Michaels and bust out as many classroom gimmicks as you can because Did I Do That? is wrapping up our trip to the Old Bay (aka San Francisco) by going back to school. The legendary Bob Aufuldish (partner at Aufuldish & Warriner and Professor of Design at CCA) joins Sean in Bob’s San Anselmo studio to talk about designer golfballs, the challenge of being taken seriously as a young professor, and typeface impulse buys.
Bob’s long-time practice with his wife and partner Kathy Warinner, Aufuldish and Warinner, can be found online at aufwar.com. You can find the interview Bob did a few years back for AIGA SF with fellow CCA professor Eric Heiman on the AIGA SF website—that article expands on a few of the stories we talked through here and is a ton of fun! You can buy Bob’s type work as FontBoy on MyFonts, or just check out the (lovely but frozen in amber) FontBoy website at fontboy.com.
This episode was recorded February 1, 2025 in Bob’s studio in the wilds of Marin, in beautiful San Anselmo, California. Thank you so much to Bob and Kathy for hosting me (and letting me scarf down so many of their Trader Joe’s cookies while I was out there)!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We’ve clawed our way here to San Francisco for the season 6 premiere of Did I Do That?! The incredible Alyssa Walker (Creative Director at WIRED) joins Sean to talk about where new toys come from, grind mode, and the Miyazaki of Rite Aid.
The best way to see Alyssa’s work is to subscribe to WIRED, which comes in print and digital subscriptions and starts as low as $10 for the first year. Better still, your subscription gives you access to some of the best tech journalism (and journalism at the intersection of politics and tech) that you can find. You can also find Alyssa on the web at alyssawalker.me, or on Instagram @_alyssawalker.
This episode was recorded January 30, 2025 in the offices of WIRED in downtown San Francisco. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to both Alyssa and to WIRED podcast producer Boone Ashworth for so generously lending their time, their space, and equipment for this recording!
This episode kicks off Season 6 and it’s going to be a big one! Please share the show with a friend if you enjoyed this episode, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts! It really means a lot! Too, if you’re tired of social media or your podcast player not delivering new shows straight to your inbox, try our refreshed Substack, which does just that!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Everybody who's ever tried to make something has done it: ball up a terrible idea and throw it in the trash before anyone else managed to get their eyes on it.
When you do creative work for a living, though, mistakes just come with the territory. Did I Do That? gives designers a chance to un-ball that shame, and show it who's boss by laughing about it.
Every other Thursday, Sean Schumacher (Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University) sits down and talks to a guest designer about how they got to where they're at, as well as all the good, bad, and weird things that happened along the way. Whether you do creative work or just want to see how the sausage gets made, it's a good time!
Our 6th season premiere drops March 6, and Sean is venturing out of the studio in Portland to kick things off with some very special conversations. You won't want to miss it—tell a friend and see you there!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We're closing out our inter-season break yet another thing that's new to you—and in this case, everybody else, too—the world premiere of a new video podcast! Ali Hart's new show The Snack Table takes some of the strangest snacks out there and gives them the taste test you frankly may have both wanted to see and feared in equal measure. It's easily one of the funniest things I've ever been involved with, and Ali has graciously allowed us to hear the premiere episode where she and I review gummies a day early—in audio only form.
If you want to see what we're eating (and the horrible reactions we're having to it), the only way to watch is by subscribing to The Snack Table's channel. One secret tip for listeners of this show: even though the premiere is technically happening tomorrow, this episode will actually go up later today (February 6, 2025), so keep your eyes peeled for it!
We'll be back in two weeks with our season 6 trailer for Did I Do That? so keep your ears peeled! I've been working hard to kick off our season with a slate of amazing guests and I'd love for you to share the show with a friend when that trailer drops. See you in two weeks!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
To kick off 2025, Did I Do That? is turning back the clock back to the waning days of Brat Summer for Fontroversy, live at the AIGA Design Conference! Host Lena Hall (freelance designer) and producer Sean Schumacher (Host of Did I Do That? and Ass’t Professor at PSUGD) talk through type’s best known knock-off(?), Arial. Is it a grotesque Frankensteining or merely a case of typeface carcinisation? Is Arial hate the design blogosphere’s first hot take? Is Lena the only person ever to have actually watched the Minecraft: Story Mode show?
ABOUT THE SHOW: Fontroversy is a limited series podcast created by Portland State University Graphic Design students in 2023. You can learn more about PSU’s Schnitzer School of Art, Art History, and Design at pdx.edu/art-design. This edition was presented as part of the AIGA Design Conference in October 2024. Special thanks to Lee-Sean Huang and the team at AIGA for selecting us to be a part of the conference. We <3 AIGA!
WANT TO HEAR MORE? For more episodes of Fontroversy and our parent show Did I Do That?, visit dididothat.design or wherever you find podcasts: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / YouTube / Pocket Casts / Overcast / Castro
CREDITS:
NOTE: This episode differs slightly from the live version due to technical issues on the stream. Apologies for the less-than-ideal audio quality, particularly in the first ten minutes.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
