The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) with F. Ron Miller

Based in Los Angeles, California, F. Ron Miller has designed numerous movie posters and title sequences, as well as an impressive number of covers for The Criterion Collection, who releases important classic and contemporary films. Ron’s always been a big fan of The Bad and the Beautiful, starring Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, and Elaine Stewart. It tells the story of a ruthless producer played by Kirk Douglas, who works tirelessly to reach the top of the Hollywood system with no care for how others get left in the dust. We also talk about movies that are about making movies, David Lynch, Citizen Kane, as well as imposter syndrome, how designers work, design magazines, design culture, and design history.

Anora (2024) with Erin Prus [more thoughts]

Erin Prus recorded the initial Anora episode, Part 1, January 2025 when the movie had already earned plenty of accolades. Weeks later, in February 2025 with even more news swirling about the movie and Oscar buzz, this follow-up episode was recorded. Is the controversy surrounding the movie, which did not have an intimacy coordinator on set, worth debating over? Does it make the movie better, or worse? Does it make Anora, as a work of art, a bolder creative act? Are comparisons to the Julia Roberts and Richard Gere romantic comedy Pretty Woman appropriate? Plus, we discuss stunt coordinators, sports cars, the Madonna-whore concept, and the 2016-2022 HBO series Westworld.

Anora (2024) with Erin Prus

Erin Prus is a design leader living in the heart of the Midwest, focused on the ways words (and their systems and styles) shape design, along with UI design elements, accessibility, and more. Her experience spans copywriting in advertising; short and long form in publishing; editorial, brand-building, and big healthcare. She sees her love of language at the center of many design experiences. Erin shared her thoughts on Anora, in an episode recorded well before the Oscars, where the movie won many statues. Sean Baker’s movie tells the story of an exotic dancer from Brooklyn, she is also an escort. Anora, who goes by Ani, meets a young, wealthy Russian boy but their romance and subsequent marriage go from Cinderella story to a maelstrom of unfortunate events.

The Princess Bride (1987) with Mónica Malavé

Mónica Malavé is a marketing and branding strategist, and CEO of Elevate It Now. Originally from Puerto Rico, she has a passion for design, marketing, and all things creative and is a big believer in “people helping people.” Her specialties include branding, social media management, technical and creative marketing, and innovative marketing strategies. She’s an Adobe Express Ambassador and also a Marketing Mentor with the American Marketing Association, DC Chapter. A big fan of movies, including but not limited to 2015’s Cinderella, Michael Keaton movies like Mr. Mom, Johnny Dangerously, and Batman, she suggested we discuss The Princess Bride, a true gem of a movie.

Purple Rain (1984) with Tony Best

Art historian and design historian Tony Best knows visual culture and as president of Sunset & Madison LLC, a research-based communications firm, his work is rooted in creative services management, archival practices, and mass media studies. Tony suggested a couple of movies to discuss, but ultimately landed on Purple Rain. Prince is The Kid, a young musician facing challenges at home, he strives to be the best artist, the best possible musician that he can, no matter the distractions. If you grew up in the 80s, then you know the music, featuring Prince and the Revolution, The Time and Apollonia 6. On March 5th, 2025, theaters around the country re-release Purple Rain for one night only, an exclusive Dolby Cinema Engagement with visuals and audio that improve upon the 40th anniversary edition from May 2024.

Moonlight Bonus Memories with Silas Munro

Silas Munro and I had a lot to talk about when we discussed 2016’s Moonlight, and this bonus episode has even more. Family, friends, spending time together, enjoying a meal together, and preparing a meal, as well as swimming, all play a pivotal role in the movie. In this short bonus episode, Silas talks about the importance of food and family in his own life.

Moonlight (2016) with Silas Munro

Silas Munro is a designer, artist, writer, researcher, curator, and surfer. He founded the design studio Polymode, based in Los Angeles and Raleigh, that works with clients across cultural spheres. He’s also curator and author of Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest at Letterform Archive in 2022-2023 and contributor to W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America. He co-authored the first BIPOC-centered design history course, Black Design in America: African Americans and the African Diaspora in Graphic Design 19th-21st Century. Silas talks about the Academy Award Winning movie, Moonlight, discussing not only the Oscar blunder but also the movie’s sights, sounds, actions, and emotions, from the use of lighting and music to the hero’s journey. We see a young boy, Chiron, facing challenges and obstacles in school, mentored by Juan who takes the boy under his wings. Composed of multiple acts, we witness Chiron grow into adulthood and reunite with his long lost love, Kevin.

The Intern (2015) with Danu Ardhata

Danu Ardhata believes that living in two completely different worlds has always fueled his creative ventures. Born in Chicago and raised in Jakarta, the Indonesian-American graphic designer and brand strategist recently earned his master’s degree at ArtCenter College of Design, California. He talks about his upbringing, learning software on his own, and why The Intern is such a special movie.

Kicking Off 2025 [Jason monologuing]

Some thoughts on David Lynch, plus what’s coming in early 2025.

Nosferatu (2024) with Jessica Barness

Jessica Barness, design scholar and scholarly designer, recently began exploring a new design sci-fi writing project that deals with blacklisted visual tools and biopreferences. When Jessica was last on the show, we discussed the Wim Wenders science fiction, dystopian movie Until the End of the World. In this episode, we talk about the 2024 Christmas Holiday Special Nosferatu from Robert Eggers, comparing it to prior vampire movies and critiquing facial hair, British accents, vampire hunters and academics, pre-tenure packets, and failed scholarly pursuits.

Seven Days in May (1964) with Steven Heller

Steven Heller has spent a lifetime in design, publishing, and education with accolades including but not limited to the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement, Art Directors Club Hall of Fame Special Educators Award, The Pratt Institute Herschel Levitt Award, the Society of Illustrators Richard Gangel Award for Art Direction, and the Smithsonian National Design Award. Steven authored, co-authored, and/or edited over 200 books on design and visual culture, and with his wife Louise Fili he has produced over twenty books and design-centric products for Chronicle Books and other publishers. Steven shares his thoughts about why 1964’s Seven Days in May is as important today as when it came out, on the heels of JFK’s assassination and the Cuban Missile Crisis, with the specter of the Vietnam War looming in the distance. Plus, discussion about movie media, rare movies, books and collectibles, and archiving, and when to decide what to keep or get rid of.

Y tu mamá también (2001) with Aldo Juraidini Zorrilla

Aldo Juraidini Zorrilla is a Design Director at Studio Rodrigo. He has worked in fintech, healthcare, and the nonprofit sector, with clients including (but not limited) to Barclays, Peacock, Google, Make the Road NY, and more. Plus! Aldo leads Cinema Rodrigo once a month, when everyone is welcome to watch a film and chat about it over drinks and food. Y tu mamá también made an impact on Aldo at a young age. The movie stars Gael Garcia Bernal as Julio and Diego Luna as Tenoch, two very close friends who embark on a road trip with Luisa, played by Maribel Verdú. At the beginning of their trek, Julio and Tenoch have their own selfish intentions but as the journey progresses, Luisa teaches them a lesson or two, changing their lives in unexpected ways.

Defending Your Life (1991) with Erin Sarofsky

Motion design, animation, visual effects, live action production, typography, Erin Sarofsky and her team can do it all. Sarofsky designed titles for Guardians of the Galaxy, Werewolf by Night, and Echo, as well as James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, plus comedies Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Community. Erin talks about the 1991 comedy Defending Your Life, written and directed by Albert Brooks who starred alongside Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, and Lee Grant. Brooks plays Daniel, who dies and winds up in Judgment City, where recently deceased have access to all the food they want, plus other luxuries, but face an examination that feels like a courtroom trial.

Until the End of the World (1991) with Jessica Barness

Director Wim Wenders has inspired the likes of Beyonce and Kevin Smith, among others, and while he’s known for Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas, his lesser-known epic Until the End of the World is equally fantastic. The road trip story, interspersed with science fiction set pieces and hand-held computer devices, will make you question your own relationship with machines. How do we use technology, how do machines cripple us? Jessica Barness, design scholar and scholarly designer, talks about how Until the End of the World impacted her, and why the movie serves as a prescient warning to us all.

Look Ahead: December and More [Jason monologuing]

What’s coming in December 2024 and early 2025. Plus, an invitation to listeners: share your thoughts, tell us what you think of the Superman teaser trailer.

Playtime (1967) with Louise Sandhaus

Jacques Tati’s Playtime, aka PlayTime, leaves an impression, and it definitely impressed designer, educator, and writer Louise Sandhaus who has a lot to say about this movie that’s kind of about nothing, with the city and scenery as the star, and people merely moving through, around, and within the environment. Be mesmerized by its set pieces, odd circumstances, physical humor, and bombastic party scene that has Marx Brothers antics with Saturday Night Live stumbles and silliness. Watching Playtime, if you get the impression that it influenced Wes Anderson, or shaped the Apple TV show Severance, you’re spot on. Louise is the founder and co-director of The People’s Graphic Design Archive, a pioneering crowd-sourced platform that preserves graphic design history and is extremely inclusive. As faculty at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), she teaches The History of Motion Graphics with modules on Designer as Filmmaker and Type in Film, as well as Early Abstract Animation. 

Drive (2011) with Ian Tingen

With a PhD from the University of California Irvine, behavioral designer Ian Tingen has a range of capabilities: strategic planning, market research, management change, qualitative research, unconscious bias awareness training, behavioral science, and legal analysis, among others. As one of his clients said, “...when you need to make the impossible possible, work with Ian.” When it comes to movies, he’s a big fan of 2011’s Drive starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, and Ron Perlman. A stuntman (Gosling), who’s a getaway driver in his free time, becomes close with his neighbors, then gets twisted up in a robbery that goes wrong. Although it has some slow moments, and we see characters contemplating events and plotting their next moves, from start to finish Drive puts the pedal to the metal.

The Sandlot (1993) with Caroline Fox

What’s the best baseball movie ever? For Koto creative director Caroline Fox, there’s only one answer to that question: 1993’s The Sandlot. It tells the story of Scotty Smalls, a fifth-grader in a new town, making new friends, and learning about baseball. Co-starring Karen Allen, Denis Leary, and James Earl Jones, the movie has lessons about collaboration and overcoming challenges. Caroline talks about her work with Koto, team and client relationships, plus we dive into the fun advertising and graphic design from a bygone era, as featured in The Sandlot.

American Psycho (2000) with Tom Muller

It’s a special episode, just in time for the holidays, with Tom Muller coming back to the show to talk about American Psycho, directed by Mary Harron. Christian Bale plays Patrick Bateman, an unreliable narrator with a psychopathic alter-ego, who lives out violent fantasies that spill from his personal life onto his work life. We also discuss A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Fight Club, and Joker. Designer Tom Muller’s radical and visionary re-design for Marvel’s X-Men identity, a new visual language that included wordmarks and typography, helped launch 2019’s groundbreaking HOUSE OF X and POWERS OF X. He’s also designed for entertainment giants DC and Disney, tech pioneers like Google and Gearbox Software, as well as Wired magazine, Skydance New Media, and Wizards of the Coast.

Princess Mononoke (1997) with Keaton Haines

DayCloud Studios, the creative branding and web design agency, has had team members Liz Hunt and Chelsea Poppens on the show this season, and based on Liz’s recommendation, Keaton Haines had to be on too. “Keaton is our all-around creative guru, he heard about what you were doing and he LOVES talking movies.” Keaton immediately knew the movie to discuss, “Princess Mononoke… it’s a lifelong favorite that I think I could talk about at length.” The 1997 Studio Ghibli animated epic has adventure, mystery, and body horror, some call it one of Hayao Miyazaki’s most action-packed movies. Listen in to learn about Studio Ghibli, as well as Keaton’s upbringing in Utah, movies that reference Utah, and what it’s called when your voice morphs into Demi Moore’s.