Did I Do That?

What’s the worst project you’ve ever made—the one you almost cringe to think about sharing with the world? It’s a feeling every designer can identity. But what if you had a chance to fish it out of the proverbial trash can and pit it toe-to-toe against some of your peers’ worst-ever work live on stage, with the hope of having it named “Worst in Show?”Did I Do That? Scrapes the Bottom of the Barrel did just that this past summer at Seattle Design Festival with special guests Isabella Medina and Maxwell Miller—and now you can hear it to celebrate our fourth anniversary and the end of season seven!Both Isa and Max are former students of mine now based in the greater Seattle area. You can follow Isa on Instagram as @is.medina, or as part of the community event series ¡snack time!, which also hosted an event during this year’s Seattle Design Festival! You can follow Max on Instagram as @stoned_cold_316, or near you at your local LINE ski and snowboard reseller!Bottom of the Barrel was presented live on stage at Seattle Design Festival in Lake Union Park on Saturday, August 16, 2025. Huge thanks to our competitors, Isabella and Max, for their generosity and good humor in being so game to be part of such a bizarre idea—you absolutely rocked it! Additional thanks to Seattle Design Festival for hosting us once again, and special thanks again to Adrian Pacheco and all our incredible SDF volunteers for helping to make this show happen!—An audio note: This recording unfortunately has a few noticeable audio issues; while I’ve done my best to improve things, these issues were also present on stage which is most evident during my opening monologue. Luckily, this improves as the show goes on, but apologies for the more-than-occasional lost syllable here and there.What work are they competing over? You can follow along using the slide deck with all the work our competitors brought here (PDF).Rather watch than listen? Check out the full video of the event, along with images of the work being discussed, on the Seattle Design Festival YouTube channel.

Canadian/Australian illustrator and designer Mariah Barnaby-Norris joins Sean to talk about her design mistakes… as well as school photo backdrops, choosing graphic design over a promising career as a rural road work flagger, and THE DID I DO THAT? 2026 TREND REPORT (based entirely on the out-of-date trade and specialty magazines available in downtown Los Angeles’ Central Library).You can keep up with Mariah’s work on Instagram at @mariah_bn, or see her portfolio over at her website, mariahbn.com. As I mentioned in the show, prints of Mariah’s piece from the recent A Sometimes Gallery exhibition “DOG” are available at asometimesgallery.com.

Fast X your seatbelts! The only graphic designer in Los Angeles, Andrei Dominiq (better known as James Junk), sits down with Sean to talk about his design mistakes… as well as inspirational Photoshop tools, getting trapped in a box of your own creation, and Los Angeles’ angels and demons.You can find Andrei’s work all over Instagram, where the James Junk account originated, at @jamesjunk.co. The James Junk account started with writing about mental health, and I was particularly taken with Andrei’s recent visual essay from early September, “Is It Too Late to Reclaim the Internet?”—give it a read here if you want to read more about the complications of making stuff that doesn’t happen to have the algorithm in mind. You can also see his larger portfolio of work, and get linked out to some of the other stuff he does online, from his website jamesjunk.co!If you want to follow Westin Luca, you can follow them on Instagram as @westinthemascot. Though the Meatball Man is always seeking out followers, it is imperative that you resist his siren call.This episode was recorded in Los Angeles, California, during AIGA Design Conference 2025. Special thanks to Lee-Sean Huang and AIGA for inviting me to attend, and to all the new folks I met there. An even more special thanks to Andrei for being generous enough to host me at his home for this recording—this literally wouldn’t have been possible without you!

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:4:53 A Critical Error Has Occurred8:56 Contractless Payment17:28 Photoshop: Hard Mode21:27 The Sin of Doubt30:45 Credit Crashout36:04 "What's a Portfolio?"42:14 A Hard Habit to Break47:57 Raster Image Guestimating56:49 The Cycle of Type ViolenceThis 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.

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 2025As 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!

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!

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.

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.