Jarrett Fuller, Author, Graphic Designers After Graphic Design

📖 Get Jarrett's book, Graphic Designers after Graphic Design: https://jarrettfuller.store/products/graphic-designers-after-graphic-design

In this episode of Design Notes, I sit down with Jarrett Fuller—a multidisciplinary designer, educator, writer, and host of the Scratching the Surface podcast. We dug into some of the most fundamental questions surrounding the field today: What is design, how do we do it, and why does it matter?

Drawing from his latest book, Graphic Designers After Graphic Design: Designer as Publisher / Researcher / Change Maker / Performer / Artist, Jarrett looks at the evolving journeys of contemporary practitioners who have given the discipline a richer, more expansive horizon. The conversation explores how modern designers are stepping outside traditional commercial silos to operate as cultural producers, authors, and instigators.

• Jarrett's Website: jarrettfuller.com
• Podcast: Scratching the Surface

• (01:06) - Welcome & collaborating across projects
• (02:20) - Jarrett’s background: From commercial practice to cultural practice
• (05:21) - Design as a discipline vs. design as a profession
• (10:55) - The root of design's existential anxiety and invisibility
• (16:07) - The trap of systematizing design into engineering
• (18:22) - Where is the critical discourse in design?
• (23:01) - Why is graphic design always "dying"?
• (28:04) - Graphic Designers After Graphic Design and pluralistic models of practice
• (33:29) - Leaning into the blurriness and the true meaning of "graphic"
• (38:34) - Labor, specialization, and creative solidarity
• (41:04) - Advice for designers looking to expand their practice
• (47:00) - Where to find Jarrett online & Outro