Design Notes

Liam Spradlin
  • 4.8 (24)
  • DESIGN
  • UPDATED MONTHLY
Design Notes

Design Notes is a podcast about creative work and what it teaches us, hosted by Google's Liam Spradlin. Each episode we talk with people from unique creative fields to discover what inspires and unites us in our practice. Find episodes on your favorite platform: pod.link/designnotes

  1. Beauty Across the Board: Rich Fulcher, UX Director

    JAN 14

    Beauty Across the Board: Rich Fulcher, UX Director

    This season's special series celebrating ten years since the launch of Material Design closes out with Rich Fulcher, former Google UX director and Material design lead. Fulcher remembers the career-defining journey of creating Material, what it was like to make beauty a UX priority, how to pressure test a system, and what he’s learned about world-building across disciplines. Today, he’s creating board games, continuing to apply the design-thinking and problem-solving skills developed during his time at Google. Leave us a rating, and subscribe so you don't miss new episodes with creative practitioners across disciplines.

    52 min
  2. Breaking Silos (and Metaphors): Adrian Secord, ‘Roving Engineer,’ Google

    12/09/2024

    Breaking Silos (and Metaphors): Adrian Secord, ‘Roving Engineer,’ Google

    This season's special series celebrating ten years since the launch of Material Design continues with Adrian Secord, who describes himself as a “roving engineer.” Adrian has over a decade of experience building systems and tools that transform design into robust product engineering at scale. Plus, a PhD in Computer Graphics. Here, he reflects on the evolution of Material Design and the (potentially) exciting possibilities for AI-driven UI. He shares insights on the complexities of large-scale design systems and highlights the need for designers and engineers to find common ground.

    54 min
  3. Code, Creativity, Performance: Will Larche, Engineering Manager, Google

    10/21/2024

    Code, Creativity, Performance: Will Larche, Engineering Manager, Google

    This season's special series celebrating ten years since the launch of Material Design continues with Software Engineering Manager and Musical Theater Writer Will Larche, who talks about his path to become an engineering manager at Google. Larche, a self-proclaimed “design fan,” describes engineering as “creativity with constraints.” Here, he explains how the development of Material over the years has led to closer collaboration between design and engineering, and imagines how new AI experiments might open up a new era of “Star Trek design.”

    44 min
  4. Fab Components: Bethany Fong, Design Director

    09/09/2024

    Fab Components: Bethany Fong, Design Director

    This episode is part of a special series celebrating ten years of Material Design. In the episode, Liam speaks with Bethany Fong, a Design Director at Meta who was a pivotal figure in the creation of Material Design. During her time at Google, Fong was responsible for designing the first set of Material components (including Material’s signature Floating Action Button), and went on to become a design Lead on the team. In their conversation, Liam and Bethany talk about the tactile nature of design, the importance of keeping a notebook, and how the heady early days of Material unfolded. 👉 Read a full transcript 📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    45 min
  5. Facing Our Interfaces: Matías Duarte, Google

    05/15/2024

    Facing Our Interfaces: Matías Duarte, Google

    This season begins with a special series celebrating ten years since the launch of Material Design, which will explore the inception, evolution, and future of Google’s design approach. The first episode features the founder of Material Design and Design VP Matías Duarte, whose work on the system has pushed design forward at Google and across devices everywhere. In their conversation, Liam and Matías unpack how interfaces are made, used, and understood—and identify opportunities to move them further into the future via a highly crafted, individualized design approach. 👉 Read a full transcript 📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    45 min
  6. Designing Better Code: Connie Shi + Matvei Malkov, Google Material Design

    03/14/2023

    Designing Better Code: Connie Shi + Matvei Malkov, Google Material Design

    Liam speaks with Googlers Connie Shi, a software engineer on Material Design, and Matvei Malkov, a software engineer on Jetpack Compose, and the trio unpack what makes coding a creative practice, and which creative choices are required when you build a design system for other developers around the world. The wide-ranging conversation turns from complex problem solving and technical logic to the concept of creativity as the question-provoking quality of a thought. 📝 Read a full transcript 📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    42 min
  7. How Fonts Change the World: Dave Crossland, Google Fonts

    01/31/2023

    How Fonts Change the World: Dave Crossland, Google Fonts

    Liam and Google Fonts Specialist Dave Crossland explore what digital type can teach us about digital production, emotional expression, and where we fit in the world as designers; and how – with a little imagination – we might unlock new possibilities. 📑 Read a full transcript 📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    37 min
  8. Coding (and Decoding) Social Spaces: Judith Donath, Founder, MIT Sociable Media Group

    12/20/2022

    Coding (and Decoding) Social Spaces: Judith Donath, Founder, MIT Sociable Media Group

    In this episode, Liam speaks with Judith Donath, the founder of MIT’s Sociable Media Lab, inventor of e-cards, and author of The Social Machine: Designs for Living Online. Donath’s work offers crucial insights into the sociality of digital products and platforms, and the opportunities we have as digital producers to make things that truly meet sociable ends. In the episode, Donath unpacks some of this work, exploring potential futures for life online and the joy of learning (and sharing) something new. 📑 Read a full transcript 📻 Subscribe to Design Notes

    37 min
See All (58)

Trailer

4.8
out of 5
24 Ratings

About

Design Notes is a podcast about creative work and what it teaches us, hosted by Google's Liam Spradlin. Each episode we talk with people from unique creative fields to discover what inspires and unites us in our practice. Find episodes on your favorite platform: pod.link/designnotes

Information

  • Creator
    Liam Spradlin
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2025
  • Episodes
    58
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Design Notes

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada