This is not Casual Encounters! We’re trying to do design here! The great Dave Pabellon (Assistant Professor of Design at University of Notre Dame) sits down with Sean to talk about his design mistakes… as well as the Costanza Maneuver, Scantron aesthetics, and the Rivers that run through it (it being multiple Chicago neighborhoods in very different parts of town).

ABOUT THE GUEST: Dave Pabellon is a design educator, researcher, and practitioner under the moniker It Is Just Dave LLC, with over 25 years of experience. Pabellon’s studio work has been recognized by Sappi’s Ideas That Matter, the STA 100, the Chicago Design Archive, the Typeforce Annual, and Communication Arts. Pabellon’s research centers on the history and practice of graphic design labor as a means of building solidarity among communities of color and activist spaces. Specifically, he studies and researches how BIPOC designers have worked with and alongside liberation movements in the past and explores/experiments with contemporary models. In addition to his professional and academic practice, Pabellon is a Core Organizer for the Design As Protest (DAP) Collective, a Mobile Makers Chicago board member, and is an active member of the Dark Matter U. roster. You can find Dave’s work on the web (itisjustdave.com), Instagram (@it_is_just_dave), or by going to Notre Dame’s website (artdept.nd.edu/people/dave-pabellon).

You can find the Anti-Racist Design Justice Index, a tool for architects, designers, planners, policymakers, and community activists committed to taking action towards identifying and dismantling systemic racism within our practices, organizations, academic institutions, and local governments, at dapcollective.com/index. If you want to get a copy of the newspaper, you can order a copy (or 50) at dapcollective.com/newspaper.

This episode was recorded Saturday, August 8, 2026 during TypeCon 2026.