Paddy Donnelly designed poster, a backers gift for Kickstarting the 3rd Season of 99% Invisible. An ode to the audio cassette and a time when a pencil could solve all of our problems.
One of the coolest things about visiting a design studio and shadowing a designer is seeing their work in action. It's amazing to see a design come to life, and to watch designers ask and answer all the questions that designers do. That's also the beauty of solid design writing and journalism—the best writers are storytellers who find the tidbits that make design such a compelling field.
"I felt there was a real way to tell these stories in a cool way. And you can tell that the awareness of different aspects of design is at an all time high," said Roman Mars, the producer, host and founder of 99% Invisible, a popular radio show about design. As a host for Public Radio Exchange, Mars brought his public radio experience to the design show and met with numerous designers and architects to refine the concept.
99% Invisible host Roman Mars.
Everyone he spoke with mentioned a quote from legendary designer and innovator Buckminster Fuller, who talked about the "99% invisible" forces that shape the world and with this inspiration, the show was born. What started as a 1 minute spot soon evolved into a 4 1/2 minute radio show with even longer episodes for the popular podcast.
While it might seem difficult to talk about such visual work in an aural medium, Mars has a knack for finding the remarkable in daily life. And it's by identifying the compelling stories behind design that his program shines. In one popular episode, "Frozen Music," he talks about just how radical it was record music:
But no effect has been as world changing as that original innovation: freezing music in time onto a recording, where a single version of a song, a single performance of a song, became the song. An inherently mutable method of communication was fundamentally changed.
"That's sort of my favorite part," Mars explained, "a little factoid about something that makes you see that thing differently and that makes you appreciate it and find some kind of genius or wonder in everyday things. I tend not to cover amazing or innovative design that makes you ooh and aah."
"I kind of like to cover manhole covers," he continued. "That's more my beat."
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