First of Kind

Everett Katigbak, creative director and storyteller behind work at Facebook, Stripe, Pinterest, and Anthropic, and filmmaker of cultural documentaries. He talks about a non-linear career guided by a “golden thread.” He explores humanizing tech, the power of analog practices in digital storytelling, choosing place over job, and launching an independent creative practice.

Joseph Cohen, cofounder and chief designer of Infinite Machine, reimagines urban transport with electric 'non-car' vehicles like the P1 and Alto. He discusses designing from first principles, a hard-modernism aesthetic, prototyping tools shaping vehicle form, and building mobility focused on short trips and social freedom.

Jorn van Dijk, co-founder of Framer and product designer with a knack for creative direction. Koen Bok, co-founder and designer-entrepreneur who led Framer’s strategic shift. They recall Framer’s near-death pivot from prototyping to a web design platform. They discuss choosing problems you love, the pivotal lunch that changed course, design-to-dev handoff pain, and how AI shapes future workflows.

Katie Dill, design leader who built teams at Airbnb, Lyft, and Stripe. She connects pilot training and architecture to product design. Short stories include the chair pullback from flight school and the Gray Room at Airbnb. She explains how craft, simplicity, and beauty shape trust in high-stakes systems like payments.

Ryo Lu, founding designer at Notion and current design lead at Cursor, blends design and engineering to rethink how software is built. He discusses collaborative workflows where engineers design, building Cursor inside Cursor, the rise of agentic interfaces, and a pattern language of composable primitives. He also outlines the evolving role of designers and why learning Cursor matters for builders.

Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and the U.S. Chief Design Officer, left tech to modernize federal digital services. He recounts prototyping a digital retirement system, tackling paper archives, and building the National Design Studio. Conversations cover consumer-grade government experiences, designing trust at scale, and assembling a design dream team to touch every federal digital surface.

Susan Kare, pioneering iconographer who designed the original Macintosh visuals and Chicago typeface. She talks about finding symbols in signage, folk art, and nature. She recalls rapid iteration at early tech teams, the thrill of seeing work on screen, and why collaborative, tinkering cultures shape lasting design.

Nicholas Jitkoff, software designer and builder behind Quicksilver and several side‑project platforms, with leadership stints at Google, Dropbox, Meta and Figma. He discusses hiring early designers and hybrid skill sets. He talks about pathfinding in design, rapid experimentation platforms, rethinking interfaces for AI and LLMs, input modalities, and how side projects feed product and platform thinking.

Julie Zhuo, design leader and author who rose to senior product design at Facebook and founded Sundial. She talks about high-level design for teams and systems. She contrasts consumer-scale product thinking with enterprise accountability. She explains hiring for curiosity, teaching judgment through retrospectives, and why writing helps surface ideas.

Jessica Hische, lettering artist and type designer who builds beautiful, tactile work and small creative businesses. She talks about balancing craft and product thinking, landing high-profile creative briefs, making physical heirlooms, and building Studio Works as boutique software for makers. Conversations cover collaborating with exacting directors, sustainable slow-growth business, and how parenthood and neurodiversity shape her practice.