High Maintenance

More than a decade after Michael wrote Innovation Is the New Black, innovation is still the new black, from design studios to classrooms to President Obama celebrating innovators at the White House.

But what about the people who keep things going?

On this episode, Michael and Jessica talk about why we need to value maintainers, inspired by a conference that celebrated Maintainers from engineers who kept the Erie Canal open to Mary Poppins.

Also mentioned:

Maintainers manifesto essay by conference organizers Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell;
Parag Khanna, A New Map for America
Kashmir Hill, How an internet mapping glitch turned a random Kansas farm into a digital hell
The Next Rembrandt
Tim’s Vermeer
Algorithmic Mondrian and Hans Hofmann

Thanks to the Porto Design Summer School for sponsoring this episode.

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Posted in: Arts + Culture, The Observatory

Comments [1]

Without innovation I don't see how the world can progress to be honest. It's a good thing that it's still being encouraged in a day and age where we think that almost anything that there is to be invented has already been. With a bit of luck, the next Edison will find the next light bulb for us!

Paul Chau
05.03.16
01:56

Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati, and has been a partner in the New York office of Pentagram since 1990. Michael is a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art.

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

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Jobs | November 14