LISTEN TO FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE
In an industry that has barely stretched over a decade, it’s not often the word ‘legend’ gets thrown around; but if the shoe fits, it belongs on the foot of Debbie Millman. ‘The Podmother of Design’ started her hit show Design Matters back in 2005. The show features wide-ranging conversations with designers, writers, artists, curators, musicians and other luminaries of contemporary thought.
Past guests on Design Matters include Milton Glaser, Malcolm Gladwell and Barbara Kruger.
From 1995 to 2016, Debbie served as President of the Design Division and Chief Marketing Officer of Sterling Brands where she played a key role in campaigns for Gillette, Colgate and Pepsi. She even did the most recent redesign of the Burger King logo.
What many people may not be familiar with is the influential work she has done in the world of hip-hop. From 1993 through 2005, Millman served as Creative Director for Hot 97 in New York City. In that role, under the leadership of general manager, Judy Ellis, and Promotion Director, Rocco Macri, she was tasked with transforming a dance music radio station into the very first hip-hop radio station in the country. This led her to designing the Hot 97 logo.
In our exclusive interview with Debbie on the OPP podcast, she chats with Corey Cambridge about her time at Hot 97 and states, “It was a gift because I had the experience to work with the same group of people and it was the same group of people for 12 years. We did all of the photoshoots together, we did all of the ideation together. I was a part of every photoshoot and every creative decision. They trusted me. I trusted them. We all became really good friends and it was amazing.”
Be sure to check out our exclusive podcast interview with Debbie Millman on OPP at the top of this article and her podcast, Design Matters on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
– Corey Cambridge, Editor in Chief of OPP News
Click here to listen to more of our exclusive interviews. Hot
