This week we’re joined by our friend, Holiday Black. Holiday is a concept-forward art director with a passion for youth culture, creativity, and their two cats. They’ve been art directing for the past four years, and have had the opportunity to work on alcohol, fast food, cars, fashion, and footwear. Outside of work, Holiday can be found crafting, looking for hot springs, reading a book, or googling whether or not mercury is in retrograde. You can find Holiday’s work at www.holiday.black. We talk with Holiday about their work, royal photoshop fails, corgi eugenics, and design as a portal to spiritual ego death and ultimately enlightenment. Thanks for listening! Ciao!

This week we spend our life savings on numerological sports betting meal deal life hacks at whop.com; and we quit school to work on our sports betting meal deal life hack startup with a grant from Molly Mielke’s Moth Fund; and then we bathe in the bisexual lighting cast by a full screen view of Monotype’s neuroscience type reports. Turns out we were right all along!

This week we bring fine art to our fine faces with Marina Abramovic’s new line of spiritually-invigorating skincare products. We get a head start on our 2024 thumb fitness goals with T-9 in our TV at CES. AND we go into existential crisis mode in a post-creator world with whatever Metalabel is.

This week we talked to David Chathas: a graphic designer, type designer, educator, sometimes artist who would have rather been a UFC fighter. We talked to Dave about lots of things you can and cannot drink: Bud Light (comma) the history of, high end baby skin care products, energy drinks that look like automotive fluids, and automotive fluids that look like energy drinks—we also discussed the etiquette of lurking online, AND the woke Kansas state license plate fiasco (brought to you by Canva)! You can find a breakdown of this episode with images and further digressions at: 40trilliondpi.substack.com AND you can find Dave’s work at: bestgraphicdesignerintheworld.com

This week we delve into the odd history of fax memes; we try and see if there is any there there in the Figma state of the designer report; we learn about the weird things people are trying to do to sea slugs; we visit Kim K in her 7-11/office at the top of the Empire State Building, and we try and get our dating-app eggs to hatch before they're cooked. It is so confusing! Thanks for joining us!

This week we look into the medieval street scene that is the internet and ask ourselves, where did all these jesters come from? And why are several of them named Brian Jordan Alvarez? AND we take a trip to the best of all possible techno-optimistic worlds with Marc A-seven-n.

NOTE: We accidentally swapped in the wrong audio on this, so we're reposting!!! Hey baybees! We're back! In this week's episode, we pour one out for Burkey Belser, the designer of the original Nutrition Facts label, and how raw information can compete with raw obfuscation. It's a rabbit hole! Also we talk for way too long about Humane AI's AI pin and what a future without screens, apps—or desire itself—might look like!

This week—we dodge the floating pharmaceutical logo lockup with medical spokesperson, lady gaga, we liquidate our savings buying virtual ice cream for Pinkydoll, we compare tactical battle strategies with I Can Talk Barbie, we stick our arms into tiny black suits to visit the puppet pet cemetery—AND we also might have talked about the glassdoor drama! Only one way (for us) to find out!

This week we wait for a flight in Meta’s shiny new Threads lounge, we are led by Gilbert the floating head through a very special video essay about the state of Graphic Design, we are led by an AI chat-panion we’re calling “Figgy” through Figma’s annual IRL conference, CONFIG, and we see what happens when you put an obscure piece of film history in the Magic Chef. Check out some visual references and an episode breakdown at https://40trilliondpi.substack.com/

This week, we take our rightful place as characters in the Sanrio Cinematic Universe, we embrace life on the grid at a digital nomad spreadsheet cafe, and we head to the abandoned SEARS in Second Life to try and buy a hat.

This week we go grocery shopping with AI Drake, we take a walking tour of every single place you’ve ever seen on AirBnB, we check on Dril as his native Twitter habitat collapses around him, and we join a larger-than-expected study group at LoFi Girl’s house. AMMAAR RESHI'S CHATGPT INSTACART ORDER: https://twitter.com/ammaar/status/1645934107304787968 Jordan Pearson/Motherboard, "A Viral AI-Generated Drake Song by ‘Ghostwriter’ Has Millions of Listens": https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxj5gw/heart-on-my-sleeve-ai-ghostwriter-drake Alex Murrell, "The Age of Average": https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average?mc_cid=5c3a906e88&mc_eid=c0768607a8 Nate Rogers/The Ringer, "Dril Is Everyone. More Specifically, He’s a Guy Named Paul.": https://www.theringer.com/tech/2023/4/12/23673003/dril-twitter-interview-profile-identity Lofi Girl | Know Your Meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lofi-girl

Bay Area friends! Or people who are really into traveling! We're releasing a broadsheet poster/publication called: “Go Deep/What Your Favorite Photoshop Tool Says About You” and to help usher this poster into the world, we've asked a few friends to give short presentations/talks/performances/visuals on the theme of “Odd Pedagogy.” We will also introduce the publication, maybe show some strange educational movie montages, and DJ YNG GMA will play far out PBS-core tunes to round out the evening. Suggested dress code is “NOVA/Ways of Seeing/Encarta97/BYOT(Bring your own turtleneck)"! We hope to see you there! Reception at 6pm, program at 7pm, hanging out afterwards with DJ YNG GMA. Friday, April 7th • 6-9pm Eternal Now, 2419 San Pablo Ave, Oakland

This week, we travel to the mid-Pacific garbage island created by $30 Million worth of Funko Pops; we raise all kinds of wrenches in salute to Tradeswoman magazine; we contemplate Spotify's recent efforts to TikTok itself to death, and we sit down with America's hottest invasive species: Copi! Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/40000000000000dpi/ and check out: https://40trilliondpi.substack.com/

This week, we talk inscrutable type design for coin-sized albums; biblically accurate unicode glyphs and the bizarro world Zazzle battles.  For episode description and more, visit our Substack: 40trilliondpi.substack.com Andddd, follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/40000000000000dpi Thanks babies!

This week we walk down the CGI pathways of the uncanny valley where we meet real people trying to make people think they’re AI, we meet fake AI that other people are trying to make real people, we meet a very blue person stuck somewhere on Na’Vi way—and then we talk about mahjong!  We're @40000000000000dpi on Instagram—and, if you want rundowns of the big ideas from each episode, extended show notes and outtakes, and other bonus content, follow us on Substack at 40trilliondpi.substack.com!  Thanks for listening!

This week: we get into the erotic fiction compilation, Look Homeward Erotica and the history of marketing the lives of "real housewives;" we take trip into the surreal hellscape that is the Goth Target inside Horizon Worlds; and finally, we time travel back back back to the origins of FABRIC as clothing and as tool and technology! Thanks for joining us!  LINKS TO THINGS WE DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE VIKINGS: https://hakaimagazine.com/features/no-wool-no-vikings/ medieval.eu/viking-sails/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/specialprojects/interactive-assets/nggraphics/vikingsettlements-graphic/build-2017-03-27_16-28-31/ https://www.linseedjournal.com/ TARGET: https://www.oculus.com/vr/5710500479007618/ EROTICA: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2729107M/Look_homeward_erotica

This week we talk with Caslon Kahle a physical archivist, donation coordinator, musician, low-key wizard, and wanderer from the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive (archive.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive has an historical web collection (the Wayback Machine) of over 150 billion web pages, about 240,000 movies, over 500,000 audio items (including over 70,000 live concerts), over 1,800,000 texts, 1600 education items, and over 30,000 software items.   We talk with Caslon about garages full of toy catalogs, sweaty times avoiding the law in a New York Basement structurally supported by 45s, the internet’s phone book, and so much more.  For more info on the Internet Archive, visit: archive.org! 

On today’s show, we’re joined by designers-extraordinaires, Rory King and Brenden Lovejoy.  Rory is a multidisciplinary designer, art director, and writer based in New York City. He received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy Of Art, and has collaborated with artists, architects, curators, and musicians in addition to working with various agencies and companies such as 2×4, Sony Music Entertainment, Instrument, Look Studios, OnePlus, 321 Gallery, and Cranbrook Art Museum. He is currently a Principal Designer at Vox Media and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute.  Brenden is a monomaniacal hyper-collector of the weird / gross, designer toys, oddities, pop culture and most importantly, graffix. As a designer with a deep passion for YouTube fuckery and 90's sitcoms, you might find Brenden asleep on his lovingly recreated Rosanne afghan while the Will & Grace laugh track softly echoes around his pitch black room. You might also find him using the Illustrator pen tool under the watchful gaze of twenty five not-quite-right Garfield statues. He's a Libra and blue cheese addict—try him, bitch. ♡  We talk with Rory and Brenden about all the types of NUTZ, retina-bleeding accessibility panics, amateur aesthetics, and about why everyone should do anything besides talking about design. Thanks to Brenden and Rory for hanging out with us! You can find them online at brendenlovejoy.com and rorykingetc.com, respectively. 

This week, we look wistfully back at the recently passing summer of cyclopean fast food, negative-freedom-algorithm-training, and artificial artificial intelligent rap-fluencers. Summer’s almost over! Let’s get into it!

Y'all! We are so excited and honored to have the opportunity to talk with Silas Munro (of Polymode) about the amazing exhibition, "Strikethrough", he co-curated at the Letterform Archive. Strikethrough features over 100 objects (including broadsides, buttons, signs, t-shirts, posters, and ephemera) by ACT UP, Amos Kennedy, Jr., Sister Corita Kent, Emory Douglas, Favianna Rodriguez, Guerrilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, W. E. B. Du Bois, and many many more. Make sure to check out the show, get in on the rad special events they're doing, check out the custom site by Chris Hamamoto, Jon Sueda, and Minkyoung Kim—and pick up the amazing book!—if you can. Thank you to Silas Munro and to Stephen Coles from Letterform Archive for being open to having this conversation!  A few links to resources around protest and design (via Silas): Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture: https://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg One Archives at the USC Libraries: https://one.usc.edu/ Lohman Center (NY): https://www.leslielohman.org/archive National Museum of African American History & Culture (Smithsonian/DC): https://www.si.edu/museums/african-american-museum Research / writings of Colette Gaiter: https://walkerart.org/magazine/authors/colette-gaiter (profile from the Walker) Center for the Study of the Political Graphics: https://www.politicalgraphics.org/