Did I Do That? is a podcast about creativity and failure, because you can’t work in one without dealing with the other.
Every other Thursday, host Sean Schumacher sits down with a guest to talk through their design practice and the bad stuff they had to make on the way to getting where they are now. We talk through design mistakes ranging from strange student work, career communication kerfuffles, and freelance flops, in between talking about the (even stranger) things in culture that shape who we are and how we make stuff.
Whether you've been doing design for ages or just want to laugh along as somebody describes their creative regrets, it’s a good time.
You can listen here on the site, or subscribe wherever you get podcasts.
Sean Schumacher (he/they) is a graphic design communicator and educator whose research focus is on increasing public access to the field of design through work in new media. Their show, Did I Do That?, is a conversation-style oral history podcast about the people who make creative work and the failures they deal with while trying to make it. Sean’s podcasting work has been presented live at AIGA Design Conference, Seattle Design Festival, and the Future Fonts and Friends showcase for TypeCon.
As a designer, Sean has specialized in creating projects for artists and arts institutions for over a decade, including works for PICA’s TBA Festival, artist Lexa Walsh for the de Young Museum, and the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
They currently serve as an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design with the PSUGD program, part of the Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design at Portland State University. As an academic, Sean has presented projects and scholarly research at TypeCon EdForum, the UCDA Design Educators Summit, the Mid-America College Art Association Conference, the International Conference on Design Principles & Practices, and the Open Engagement Conference.
Graphic design is our passion, but it’s also a dumb, weird, fun thing where we fart around and get to make cool stuff. I’m a big believer that getting goofy helps make the real design talk go down a bit smoother.
Are you a mid-career or later designer, art director, creative director, or other creative practitioner? I'd love to have you on the show! While I often reach out to guests who I know or come across in my research, I'm always open to creatives who have a story to tell. Dig out your best and strangest stories, and maybe a piece of work or two from your past that you'd be okay laughing about, and reach out over email here.
All episodes are recorded live and in person in-studio on the campus of Portland State University in downtown Portland, Oregon. While I do sometimes travel (see our stories on @dididothat.design on Instagram for a rough sense of our travel schedule) and record there, I never record shows over Zoom—nothing against it, it just isn't especially conducive for the kind of show I want this to be. However, whether you’re local to me or not, feel free to reach out to let me know you’re interested.
Please note that Did I Do That? is fairly single-minded in its premise, and doesn't really do episodes on specific prepared topics, current news/trends, or interviews around a particular project. I can't really accept pitches around anything other than guest themselves and their lived experiences—this show really is about the people and failure as a part of creative practice.
Did I Do That? is mostly recorded in downtown Portland, Oregon. Our home base, known as the Rat’s Nest, is located on the campus of Portland State University.
The show is mostly a one-person operation, with Sean Schumacher producing, editing, and designing promotions for each episode. The multitalented Orion Cortez is the co-producer of Fontroversy and serves as an occasional guest editor of Did I Do That?. The staff copy editor of dididothat.design (and all around rockstar) is the mighty Kat Mergens.
TYPOGRAPHY:
Usj by Ohno Type Co. and Sligoil by Ariel Martín Pérez for Velvetyne