Designer Archives | The Great Discontent (TGD)

Schessa Garbutt

Artist, Designer, Writer / By The Great Discontent

Schessa Garbutt is the founder of the Inglewood–based design studio, Firebrand. An educator, lecturer, and published essayist (see The Black Experience in Design anthology, a must-read). Garbutt works at the intersection of co-design practices and making huge, mind-bending ideas and histories ring clear as a bell. Garbutt spoke with The Great Discontent about cultural memory as the foundation for their practice, the pains of delegating, and the strength of rooting in a local community.

Mira Nakashima

Architect, Designer, Furniture Maker / By The Great Discontent

In 1970, Mira Nakashima joined the family business run by her father, renowned furniture designer and craftsman George Nakashima. Since his death in 1990, Mira has helmed Nakashima Woodworkers, now a 21-building complex and National Historic Landmark nestled among the trees in New Hope, Pennsylvania, overseeing the production of her father’s iconic pieces while also designing her own. As she writes in her new book, The Nakashima Process Book, each piece is “the culmination of much effort, a conscious simplification of design that allows the wood to tell its own story, modulated by an architect’s eye for proportions and structure.” The 82-year-old continues to uphold a tradition of exquisite craftsmanship, deep respect for materials, and the humanity inherent in making something by hand.

Taekyeom Lee

Artist, Designer, Educator / By The Great Discontent

Taekyeom Lee is a graphic designer with a fine artist’s sensibility. As a researcher, educator, and maker — born and raised in South Korea, now living and teaching in Madison, Wisconsin — he works in the space where tactility and technology meet, combining ancient materials and cutting-edge techniques with endless curiosity. Whether he’s 3D printing ceramics or learning to read braille, Lee is interested in communication beyond visuals, looking, so to speak, at what’s possible through the lenses of immigration, community, and accessibility.

Rick Griffith

Designer, Educator, Writer / By The Great Discontent

Rick Griffith is a British-West-Indian designer, collagist, writer, educator, letterpress printer, and optimist futurist based in Denver, Colorado. He works at the intersection of programming, policy, and production. He co-founded MATTER—a design consultancy, letterpress/typography workshop, and retail bookstore which he currently runs with his partner Debra Johnson.

Sheyam Ghieth

Artist, Designer, Filmmaker, Writer / By The Great Discontent

Sheyam Ghieth (she/they) is an artist and queer Egyptian-American abolitionist known for her work on the comedy-drama television series Ramy, FX’s The Americans, and the web series BROTHERS. They now live in Portland, OR, where they are prioritizing queer joy as a radical act of resistance and dancing/walking/creating their way through intergenerational healing.

Carly Ayres

Designer, Strategist, Writer / By The Great Discontent

Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed to addressing systematic challenges in their communities through creativity and emerging ideologies. Buy Now According to your website, “Carly Ayres is a writer using language and interaction to engage people in new and interesting ways.” It feels like there’s …

Carly Ayres Read More »

Giorgia Lupi

data humanist, Designer / By The Great Discontent

Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed to addressing systematic challenges in their communities through creativity and emerging ideologies. Buy Now Can you speak a little bit about where you grew up and how that place shaped you? I grew up in a little town …

Giorgia Lupi Read More »

Tony Whlgn®

Artist, Designer / By The Great Discontent

Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed to addressing systematic challenges in their communities through creativity and emerging ideologies. Buy Now Let’s start at the beginning—back to the environment where you grew up. What did it look like, and why is it meaningful to you? …

Tony Whlgn® Read More »

Jordan Wong

Artist, Designer / By The Great Discontent

Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed to addressing systematic challenges in their communities through creativity and emerging ideologies. Buy Now Will you talk about the neighborhood and the community where you grew up? I’m second-generation Chinese American, and I grew up in a predominantly …

Jordan Wong Read More »

Sheharazad & Meena

Artist, Creative director, Designer, Educator / By The Great Discontent

Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed to addressing systematic challenges in their communities through creativity and emerging ideologies. Buy Now Reflecting The Great Discontent’s commitment to accessibility—in all forms, including language—this interview with Sheharazad (Pezeshkpour) Fleming and Meena Khalili was translated in the print edition …

Sheharazad & Meena Read More »

Designer