The Ups and Downs of a Freelance Climate Designer

Season 2: Episode 13 – Gianna Romero & Michelle Ngyuen

What is it like to be a freelance designer who cares about the climate crisis? What are the challenges? What are the best practices to thrive? Recent graduates from the Univ. of Illinois graphic design (Michelle Nguyen) and SCAD industrial design (Gianna Romero) programs share their stories of trying to “design for good” while paying the bills. They also explain what ways their design education could have better prepared them for this journey.

Listen to this episode on: Spotify, Apple, Google and other places you get your podcasts

About our guest

Michelle Nguyen is a multidisciplinary designer passionate about creating effective design solutions for the common good. She especially takes an interest in exploring the intersection of design and sustainability.

Gianna Romero is a multidisciplinary Industrial Designer who specializes in humanizing products and building great brands. Her expertise includes product branding and package design, consumer research and interpretation, and the development and implementation of everyday products/brands. With her love of design diversity, she aims to make impactful decisions for brand values, the environment, and for good. Eco-conscious design is good design.

On the web

michellenguyen.design

giannaromerodesigns.com

Music in this episode

Theme music by Casual Motive

 

Climate Design Assignments

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

 
 
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What the Ocean Can Teach Designers

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Climate Design in the Big World Part 2