04.09.20
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Episode 124: That Thing You Do


Jessica and Michael talk this week about how artists, designers, actors, and other creative people are adjusting their practices and dreams to the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone is affected in different ways, says Jessica, but there’s a common thread:
It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, if you're living alone or with 15 people, if your industry has been disrupted or it hasn't and you never had so much work. Nothing is going to be the same.

And the only thing we have is to rethink how we might remap our expectations.

As I said to someone yesterday, you can't recalibrate your feelings. You're still you. But you can recalibrate your expectations.
Also mentioned this week: Jessica's daily essay column, The Self-Reliance Project, focuses on what it means to be a maker during a pandemic. Sign up to get it delivered to your inbox here.

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Posted in: Arts + Culture, The Observatory




Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand 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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