MEGAN LUEDKE: Hello I’m Megan Luedke.

JENS BRINGSJORD: Good evening, I’m Jens Bringsjord. This is Design Atlas.

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JB: Tonight:

ML: Architectural innovation. We dive into the mind of Theodore Spyropoulos, exploring how quantum physics and AI are shaping the future of our built environments.

JB: Let’s talk color. Pantone recently unveiled the Color of the Year for 2025—Mocha Mousse—a shade that makes our mouths water for that rich distinct flavor.

ML: Light’s essence. Meet Mary Royall Wilgis, an artist whose works capture fleeting moments of illumination, challenging the boundaries between abstraction and realism.

JB: Timeless design. A new book uncovers the unsung pioneers of British modernist graphic design, whose bold visions transformed post-war Britain but are only now seeing the light of day.

ML: And bringing the theme park into the workplace. A Stockholm-based design studio dares to defy the mundane with a bold, one-of-a-kind installation—a roller coaster winding through their office. Is this a new benchmark for creative spaces, or just a ride for those who dare?​

ML: Design Atlas, the January 16th edition. The podcast that keeps your imagination on the edge of its seat!

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2025 PANTONE COLOR OF THE YEAR

JB: Can I get a drum roll please? [Drum roll sound effect] After much deliberation—or perhaps a flash of inspiration—the Pantone Color Institute has unveiled the Color of the Year 2025: Mocha Mousse. And no, it’s not edible, but you’d be forgiven for wanting to drizzle it over a dessert.

Described as a “delectable brown,” this warm, rich hue is more than just a color; it’s a vibe. It’s the kind of shade that makes you think of cozy sweaters, steaming mugs of cocoa, or a luxurious leather chair bathed in soft light. Pantone says it’s all about “sensorial warmth” and “effortless sophistication.” And honestly, who doesn’t want a bit of that?

This versatile shade is already making waves across industries. In fashion, Mocha Mousse flows seamlessly from plush knits to sleek shoes. In home décor, it brings a comforting, earthy elegance to walls, furniture, and textiles. And for packaging, it whispers luxury while hinting at delicious indulgences like chocolate or coffee.

But here’s where it gets philosophical. Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute, says Mocha Mousse reflects our collective yearning for authenticity, simplicity, and understated elegance. In a world dominated by digital overload and fleeting trends, this grounded brown feels like a call to pause, connect, and savor.

Of course, not everyone will see it that way. For some, it’s just brown. But for Pantone, it’s a whole lot more—a shade that invites us to find beauty in the natural, the tactile, and the timeless.

Whether you’re layering it over your sofa, slipping into a buttery suede jacket, or using it to package an artisanal soap, Mocha Mousse effortlessly proves that simplicity can be its own kind of luxury. 

But after all this talk of rich chocolaty tones and indulgent textures, let’s be honest—Mocha Mousse has me craving a chocolate bar more than ever right about now.

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ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION

Featuring Guest: Theodore Spyropoulos

JB: Visionary architect and educator Theodore Spyropoulos is redefining the possibilities of the built environment with his groundbreaking exploration of design and technology. One of his most recent works, Quantum, delves into the intersections of quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and second-order cybernetics, challenging traditional architectural paradigms. 

Theodore is the director of the Architectural Association's Design Research Lab in London and the co-founder of Minimaforms, an experimental art and design practice. Through projects like The Order of Time, his work continues to reshape how we perceive relationships between humans, objects, and the environment. 

With accolades from institutions like MOMA and the Barbican Centre, Theodore is recognized as a thought leader in the evolving landscape of architecture. 

We reached Theodore in London, England.

ML: Why don't you start off by giving our listeners just an explanation of who you are, what you do, and what your work is about. 

TS: Thank you for having me. So I, I've been trained as an architect, but I kind of find myself, sitting really at the crossroads of art, architecture, science and technology. A lot of the work that I'm involved in is very research oriented. Let's say a half of my life is dedicated to education and running a design research lab at the Architectural Association in London. Which I've been doing for over two decades. And that's really about trying to explore a basically an expanded sense of what architecture can be. And looking at, history of computation and technologies that basically can offer people more in terms of how we think about the built environment from the scale of the brick, to the scale of the city.

TS: In parallel to that, I run a studio with my brother Stephen. I was trained as an artist, and that is really much more of an experimental space that we really try to, you know, in general challenge the orthodoxies of how people consider design. I don't really believe in disciplinary distinctions. So our work is really, very much in response to humanizing technology and asking

more fundamental, conceptual questions about things and that sort of leads us sometimes to designing interfaces or ephemeral structures or, you know, interests in quantum physics or, and, you know, much more AI responsive robots and things like this. We basically have a very multifaceted paths that I think research, and design research is really at the heart of how we explore our art practice and that that really sort of leads us in many different kinds of conceptual terrains.

ML: Can you tell us just a little bit more about what are the areas of research and technology that you are really focusing on? You did mention, like artificial intelligence and, and like, quantum physics, but like what else are you looking into? 

TS: Yeah. I mean, I think simultaneously, I mean, I'm originally from, New York and, moved with my brother at a time to basically study in England, where a in the early dawn of, I think a lot of, computational practices and, new tools that were being afforded that kind of made, things in some sense kind of much more open, to be thought about more as frameworks. We were really interested in engaging people and kind of human curiosity and really wanted to enable people to participate. So a lot of our work was really motivated in kind of human engagement. And that led us, you know, to very human, kind of participatory models, but at the same time to really non-human ones as well.

TS: So, my history and a lot of the research that I've been looking at, looked at early cybernetic experiments, looked at early AI machine learning strategies, but also to, I think, very influenced by the, you know, the movements in art, particularly in the 70s, where people were just really asking maybe more profound questions about, you know, postwar kind of thinking with a certain wisdom and a kind of social responsibility.

TS: So we, I think, are very engaged in kind of contemporary technologies wherever they may lead, in a way to somehow demystify that stuff. But at the same time, we never really foreground technology for the sake of it. So that's where I think we said somewhere in between art, architecture, you know, technology and, and let's say a deep interest in science because I think conceptually, it really opens up the way that we relate to the world, I think, in pretty profound ways.

ML: Could you maybe define, I know you mentioned, cybernetics and I think we have a couple questions related to some of your work here. Can you define what cybernetics is? 

TS: Of course. I mean, so cybernetics is, you know, really it's a system of communication and control. And, and the states, you know, early days, it was really looked at, you know, from very different perspectives. But our, our main interest, came from the UK, where people were trying to think of how to model the brain. They were really interested in lifelike systems and, you know, we were interested in these kinds of meetings like the Macy's Conference, which brought people that could be, you know, studying sociology, people that were biologists, you know, people that were early days of computation.

TS: And so it was really, you know, in a way, trying to problematize contemporary society and a lot of the things that were really rapidly accelerating. And so I think cybernetics for us, particularly second order cybernetics, is basically an acknowledgment that people are part of the system. Their observation, even in the most objective sense. And science is still, you know, part of a larger kind of world building view.

TS: And I think that's why a lot of the interest in cybernetics, from this perspective, which is much more conversational and more participatory and relational, I think tied to certain interests in quantum physics, which basically saw the whole world as a series of relations. We find that that's very kind of interesting. So from a systemic point of view, it’s a way to really address complexity.

TS: And so when problems get to be very complex, cybernetics is in some sense an acknowledgment of that, from the second order perspective. 

ML: Thank you so much for that explanation. And, all of those details, I think, it's fascinating to hear, through your perspective on all of that. So in our research, you know, we found out that a couple of years ago you developed, sort of an art installation called The Order of Time at Le Quadrilatère Art Center in Beauvais. Can you describe briefly, like, what that installation looked like? 

TS: Yeah. Of course. I mean, we were invited, in 2002 to, basically respond to a very kind of provocateur, radical architect, planner, a theoretician, and who had passed away, 2 or 3 years before. He was a Hungarian born French kind of architect, and he had very particular ideas of, the theory of immobile architecture infrastructures that were not determined.

TS: And they had these concepts of the spatial city, which were really kind of like interventions within existing cities. And he wanted people to basically have agency in terms of how they, you know, they lived and how they organize themselves. So because of the work that we had done with projects like Memory Cloud, which were these, participatory, ephemeral clouds and in public spaces like Trafalgar Square, and the city of Detroit, we were invited basically to create a piece of art that engaged that.

TS: And I guess my background in architecture and art, was Stephen and my colleagues, were really trying to engage. I think these deeper questions that he was also speculating on, which is more, the kind of architecture towards more of a scientific architecture, he called it in 1978, published a book, and it was a kind of response to somebody named, Le Corbusier, who was like one of the modern masters who wrote a book called Towards a New Architecture in 1923.

TS: So what we were looking at, we basically wanted to look at complexity. We wanted to look at, you know, computing and, really, considered models that would allow things to kind of evolve over time, to really challenge the whole notion of a master plan or a blueprint. And in doing so, the name of the piece, The Order of Time is coming from Carlo Rovelli, quite an important book on physics.

TS: Quantum physics is very important because it reminds us there's like no concept of future past in physics. Everything that is understood remains really in the present, in the now. And we just felt that, that, resonated so much with us doing more of rational and intervention-like work. But systematizing that, we really tried to bring through computational models that were really generative that everybody could participate and nobody could control the thing.

TS: So it was challenging the kind of orthodoxies of top down thinking. And the piece itself with, kind of cellular automata piece made out of glass and, you know, spoke to different organizational models basically. 

ML: For sure. Fantastic. That was, absolutely fantastic explanation of what you guys built there and what, how your audience sort of interacted with it. As you know, artificial intelligence is sort of integrating itself with humanity more and more, every single day. What role do you think artificial intelligence plays in sort of, the evolution of design, research labs and, like, how do you see it transforming architectural practice sort of in the next decade and, and everybody's day to day.

TS: I mean, I think artificial intelligence is something, you know, that's been around for about 60 years, but recently, it's really caught people's attention. And I think it's an opportunity, I think, to make, you know, complex ideas accessible to people. You know, I teach some workshops, you know, for some, younger children between the ages of like eight and 12, that come to the AA (Architecture Association), through an Open City initiative.

TS: And they use, you know, they have no background in architecture. They probably don't know what architecture truly is, but we use AI in a sense to, you know, allow them to discover architecture and also see their influence in it. So I think it's an opportunity really to have much more public engagement. I think this is the part that I'm quite positive about. As a tool, in our own work and things like that. I see it much more as a conversational practice. I mean, when people talk about AI, they usually talk about it as something other, and they usually qualify that in response to human intelligence. But I think all things have forms of intelligence. And I think the more that we can speak to that, I think the more we can really engage in some of the more, difficult questions that we're having in society today.

TS: So I think AI, if done and explored in the  right way, I think, you know, can create an opportunity for us to really tackle more complex problems and make them more accessible to people. 

ML: What is sort of the most significant question or problem in architecture today that you believe needs more attention? 

TS: I think that there is a lot of goodwill and architecture and, and people really wanting to make a difference. But at the same time, I feel like there is a general indifference to architecture when it comes to the, let's say, the larger oversight of the kinds of challenges that we face. And so I just feel like it's very important for people not to lose their optimism and belief in each other. I think architecture is really, collective art.

TS: So, I mean, we in society generally, you know, speak about a architectect. But it’s usually many, many different people working together to realize any of these projects. I think that that collective endeavor is very important to me. It's how I structure a lot of the research that we do at the Design Research Lab and, and my own studio. So I think this kind of collective experiment, when we're really trying to, you know, demand that people deserve better and that that means basically challenging all of our orthodoxies and experimenting and also allowing failure to be part of the process, not the end result.

TS: But, really aspiring basically for something that is more optimistic. 

ML: Well, Theodore, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. That is all of the questions that I have for you. But again, it's been great talking to you. 

TS: Megan, Thank you so much for the thoughtful questions. And if people are interested in the work, they can check out the Minimaforms and the Design Research Lab. Thanks a lot.

JB: Theodore Spyropoulos is the co-founder of Minimaforms, an experimental art and design practice exploring the intersections of technology, architecture, and relational systems. We reached him in London, England.

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ROLLER COASTER IN THE OFFICE

JB: It’s been a while since I last stepped foot in a theme park, braving one of those massive roller coasters that toss your stomach into your throat and send your heart racing to your head. You know the feeling. 

When Petter Kukacka surveyed the creative landscape, he felt a similar kind of jolt—but for all the wrong reasons. It wasn’t excitement; it was disappointment. The routine and predictable had taken over. So, he decided to shake things up—by building a roller coaster.

Not in an amusement park or a public plaza—but inside an office.

This wasn’t just any roller coaster, though. Named The Frontal Lobe, it’s a bright red, 60-meter steel track that winds through the workspace of The Great Exhibition, a Stockholm-based creative studio. The track cuts through the kitchen, storage spaces, and even employee desks, bringing a thrill ride to the heart of their work environment.

The idea was simple yet daring: break the mold, create strong memories, and inspire creativity in the most unexpected way. For The Great Exhibition, this roller coaster marks a bold shift in their identity—a move away from safe and predictable ideas toward crafting real-world, emotional experiences.

The roller coaster project wasn’t without its challenges. The four-ton steel structure took over a year to design and build. Many questioned whether it was practical—or even possible—to construct a roller coaster in an office. Yet, the team pressed on, driven by the belief that bold ideas, when pursued with commitment, can lead to extraordinary results.

To them, the roller coaster represents more than a fun ride. It’s a statement—a celebration of creativity’s power to defy expectations and bring people together.

And the best part? The Frontal Lobe isn’t just for employees. The Great Exhibition has opened its doors to the public, inviting visitors to experience the roller coaster at their studio in Stockholm’s Liljeholmen district.

This roller coaster represents more than just a thrilling ride—it’s a symbol of creativity, bold risks, and thinking beyond the ordinary. It challenges the idea of what an office space can be, inspiring others to reimagine their environments and embrace the unexpected.

Can you picture working in an office with a roller coaster—or even riding one yourself? We’d love to hear what you think! Share your thoughts on social media or drop us an email at hello@designatlaspod.com.

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LIGHTS ESSENCE

Featuring Guest: Mary Royall Wilgis

JB: The vibrant art scene in Brooklyn is home to many talents, but few stand out like Mary Royall Wilgis. Known for her mastery of light and texture, Mary Royall’s work is both captivating and deeply evocative. She combines painting and multimedia elements to explore the interplay between light and space, often layering materials to create depth and movement. Her unique perspective, shaped by a sensitivity to color and a background in architecture and literature, sets her apart in the contemporary art world. To dive deeper into her world, we reached Mary Royall at her studio in Brooklyn, New York.

ML: So we read in an article that you perceive color uniquely, even describing how closing one eye changes the way that you see the world. How did this early experience shape her journey as an artist? 

MRW: So when I was about, I think it was something like seven or 9 or 10. It's blurry. But when I was younger, I came to my mom and I was like, mom, when I close one eye, the world is cool. And when I close one eye, it's warm and reds and oranges. And she was obviously a little bit concerned by that. So she took me to a neurologist and they did all these scans. They couldn't figure out what's wrong. Took me to a pediatrician. Nothing was wrong. And finally she took me to an eye doctor, and they said that I simply had an acute sensitivity to color. Which makes a lot of sense. Everything I've seen in the world I've seen and experienced through color, I see areas of my life in certain colors, and I actually wrote my college admissions essay on the different colors of my memories.

ML: So light, like light and color really just plays a huge role in your life and in how you see the world. What color is this era of life that you're in right now? 

MRW: Chartreuse. Definitely 

ML: beautiful. I love that. So we've noticed that light seems to play a really, central role in your work.How do you approach capturing things? It's sort of shifting nature in, in the work that you do. 

MRW: What's so beautiful about it is that it is transient and it's never the same, but it's also the only constant that we have. Not the only. But it's one of the only constants we have in our existence. Like, every single thing that we're encountering or experiencing is defined by light. Any shape, any color, the way we view the world when we're walking to the grocery store, it's all determined by light. So there's something beautiful about the fact that it's always changing. And in five minutes, the same walk can look like a completely different universe because the late has shifted from the clouds covering or the sun coming out or something like that.

ML: Speaking of light. Dusk and dawn and light from the same tree seem to document fleeting moments beautifully. Can you share what inspired those, specific pieces? 

MRW: Yeah. So those actually were both made in Barcelona. 

ML: That’s incredible. 

MRW: So I did my first artist residency, half in Barcelona and then half in Paris with the show in Paris this summer. And one of the things that I was trying to capture was the essence of light. I got a really good critique. I didn't go to art school, so I didn't get the normal, like, art school critique and do all the things. But I got a really good critique by one of the people who was leading the residency that said, you're basically just capturing the visual of light, but you're not capturing light itself.

MRW: Like, why don't you try and like, push your concept of light and from representational to more abstract? And from there I just got really lost. I went through a spiral, I started crying, I was like, what is happening? I don't know what I'm doing. I'd made that the basis of my work is false. But then it created some beautiful work.

MRW: I started to take canvases out and take the imprint of light itself. And then dusk and dawn is the inverse of that. So it's cutting out the imprint of light itself. And then I found a fabric store and couldn't communicate what I wanted. So I ended up with like ten yards of tool, which was not on purpose, and just started to incorporate these sort of more ephemeral soft elements in my work.

ML: Can you describe for our listeners who maybe haven't seen what these pieces look like, just like using words to describe what each of them looks like and represents. 

MRW: So like from the same Tree was made by taking one single canvas out into the yard behind the studio and laying it under one tree. And so as the sun would pass, I would take the imprint of the sun and paint it with flash ink, which is super fast, dry.

MRW: And then I would go over and paint with oil paint. And to create these really thin transparent layers, we're trying to capture the exact shape of the light in that moment. And then I go over that with cut out layers of tulle so that when the sun hits it, you actually get this interaction. And these feelings of sunspots, like basking in the sunlight.

MRW: Dusk and dawn is another interpretation of light, where I'm trying to create the inverse of the light filtering on the ground and cutting out the light. And so I also created this technique where I use this fluorescent paint on the back. And then I create distance between the board and the fabric until it creates this really warm glow.

ML: Beautiful. How did you develop each of these techniques? Was it just trial and error, or was it just like you said, you just walked around up in a fabric shop, like what made you pick the tool and use it in your work? 

MRW: All happenstance. I wish I could say there was some nice useful formula, but honestly, my studio space is almost always a disaster, and it's almost always because I have a bunch of different ideas going at once and I'll have scraps literally cut out. Yesterday I cut out scraps from my coffee paper bag because I liked the color, and I took that back to the studio and I taped it on the wall, and it just looks like I taped trash to the wall. 

ML: That's great. 

MRW: But there is a thought process. 

ML: Yeah, no, everything has a meaning in art. I think that's fantastic.

MRW: Like the art of noticing and gathering. And it's kind of like those birds that gather all these supplies for their nest, and then they end up with these really beautiful shiny ness of, like, tinfoil and stuff like that. 

ML: That's a great way to describe, I think, an artist's studio. I feel like that's how that works. Usually. That's great.

MRW: All these little fun little artifacts and things that look like trash, that aren’t. They are just inspiration for the next big thing. 

ML: That's fantastic. Amazing. So you mentioned that you didn't go to art school. Can you give us a little bit more info on your background? Did you go to school? What did you go to school for? And, like, how did that sort of lead up and influence your work and how you structured your life? 

MRW: I really wanted to go to art school, actually, that was my dream. But I was greatly discouraged by my family about going to art school. Come from a very traditional background. And I respected that and said, I'm going to go to, liberal arts school. I went to UVA and there I studied English and architecture. My architecture classes were the closest I could get to art school, and they were my most impactful. But I'm actually really glad I didn't go to art school. I think art school is a great place to develop your style, but it doesn't teach you how to be a working artist very well, at least from my experience of other artists who are my friends who I've talked to.

MRW: Who’ve gone to an art school. And I got a regular job out of college and I went to a normal liberal arts education and I got a regular job, and it taught me so much about how to build a business and how to exist in the working world. And therefore when I did decide, okay, I'm going to do this full time. The foundational skills to be able to exist in that space. 

ML: That's a great, I think, way to sort of figure out how to, to manage life and business. I think art school can be our school. It is great for those who want to do it. But I think for those who really, really want to be a success, business is a huge part of that. And being able to, to learn, in a different way, doesn't mean that you can't be an artist. 

MRW: There's an art to the best. Like, I, I actually find it really beautiful. And if I'm just thinking, okay, this is just letting me do what I love, then yeah, it becomes kind of fun to think of the business side as well.

ML: Okay. So your work often blurs the line between abstract and realism. How do you decide which approach to take, with a particular piece? 

MRW: I think in my head, I usually go in one of two directions, which is the more representational pieces, which are actually the more commercially successful pieces and or what, like pays for my studio space and then the more experimental pieces, which are the more abstract. And those I think are more interesting works of art, but they actually are not as successful. Business wise. But I love the process of making the more abstract pieces. It is what is more interesting to me right now. Like it's a really layered process that they're about time and they're about capturing a moment in time. And they take a lot of time because I take the canvases out into the sun the same time every single day for multiple days. So it's sort of like a film, like it just develops over time. 

ML: Like how do you sort of decide, when to start a new piece and if you like, as you're going through deciding, is it more of just like a business standpoint of like, let's make this one realism so that I can, you know, sell more and continue on? Or is it that I have this great idea and I want to just do this abstract thing and take time and do this every single day? Do you, like, have a moment where you are trying to do that? 

MRW: I usually do both on the same day. 

ML: Do you? Okay. 

MRW: I think they play off of each other.Something about the realism is grounding and it's grounding to create. And then something about the abstraction is what's the word. It's more transcendent and spiritual for a spiritual practice. But they come from the same place. And so it's just kind of like the same way you might dress up in as one version of yourself to go out with your best friend and then another version of yourself out with your family, like they're just different versions of self.

ML: Gotcha. That makes a lot of sense. Amazing. So, you've said your goal is to really, like, preserve sort of ephemeral moments. Why is that so important to you? 

MRW: I think it's just like the act of meditation. Light is something that exists everywhere, all the time, and it's the most constant thing. I found it when I found it. I mean, it's always existing, but I discovered it as a meditative practice. When I was going through some health issues, and it was the most constant thing, I would go on these, what I call light walks and just start noticing the light. And then when I had to get treatment and was in bed for long periods of time, I would notice how the light tracked time across the wall like the sun. So,I think just because it is the most grounding thing and the most rewarding thing is when someone comes to me and they see, say that they saw my work or in a show or they saw my content or whatever it was, and they say, now I can't stop noticing light everywhere. That is the exact thing that I want to inspire is like, oh my gosh, wait, this is everywhere. And it's, it's beautiful. And I just didn't even see it before. 

ML: Yeah. Would you say that is the thing that you hope viewers take away from your sort of your work in your experience or, is there something else that you would hope you like viewers of your work would take away from it? 

MRW: I think that's it. I think it's just the meditation and the moment of silence that, like, provides us. 

ML: Your prints make your art more accessible to a wider audience. How do you sort of decide which pieces to adapt into prints versus not? 

MRW: That’s a good question. I love having prints just because I do love that anyone can. I do think art is for everybody, and it's not meant to be on this big blank white gallery wall, but super inaccessible. It's honestly such a logistical thing for prints. It's the smaller pieces. I don't like blowing up into larger prints, because the brushstrokes get out of proportion, and the pieces that are more abstract have tool over them, which is really hard to photograph and print as prints. They get super distorted when you try to do that. So therefore I really only have prints of the more representational pieces.

ML: Gotcha. That makes a lot of sense. Interesting. 

MRW: Do you ever try photograph tool? Do not recommend it. 

ML: No, I believe it, I believe it. I think that, like, does weird stuff for cameras. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds quite difficult. Especially if you're trying to get up close and, like, in the details enough to make a big enough photo for your print to look beautiful.

MRW: Printers do not like that. Yeah, I like what you do. 

ML: Yeah. Great. Okay, so I think one of one of the last main questions I have for you, is what's next for you? Do you have any exciting projects or exhibitions that we should look out for? And what are you? What are you doing next that we can watch for?

MRW: Right now, I'm actually planning my first fully. How do I say this? Like, fully produced, funded everything. Show by myself. Yeah. I really have been interested in installation lately, and that's really hard to fund, so I'm like, why don't I just put on a gallery show by myself and then do anything I want to do?

ML:That's exciting. 

MRW: So I'm planning on doing that in the spring or summer in Brooklyn, New York. And I'm going to be exploring pain and like, actually, when I started doing the, the imprint of late, the Texture of Time pieces, I realized that it looks exactly what my chronic pain looks like. If I were to visualize my pain and so I'm going to be exploring that narrative. And yeah, I'm really excited about it. 

ML: That's awesome. You're going to have to keep us posted on when that show is. And we'll look out for it, but we'll, we'll share it with our listeners so that people in New York can go see it. Thank you so much. 

MRW: Thank y'all. I really appreciate it. And I hope you have a great day.

JB: Mary Royall Wilgis is a Brooklyn-based artist whose captivating works blur the boundaries between light, space, and texture. We reached her in Brooklyn, New York. 

[Music Transition]

MODERNIST GRAPHIC DESIGN IN BRITAIN

JB: They weren’t headline names or household figures, but the pioneers of British modernist graphic design had a quiet magic of their own. These designers, active between 1945 and 1980, reshaped Britain's visual identity in a time of austerity and upheaval. A new book, Modernist Graphic Design in Britain, illuminates their remarkable contributions.

Like the Amazing Kreskin, these designers operated within the constraints of their craft, adapting to the evolving technology of their era. From working with traditional typesetting to mastering phototypesetting and lithographic printing, they conjured bold, forward-thinking designs that resonated with optimism. Yet, as the authors Ian McLaren and Tony Pritchard point out, their legacy has often been overshadowed.

Among the unsung heroes were creatives like Robin Fior and Desmond Jeffery, whose work reflected social and political ideals over personal fame. Their contributions, coupled with the rise of color television and visual media, formed the bedrock of a nation reimagining itself post-war. These designers weren’t just crafting images; they were shaping culture.

The book, as limited-edition as Kreskin's rare performances, seeks to restore these figures to their rightful place in design history, blending a bit of nostalgia with a recognition of innovation. After all, as with any great performer or creator, the true artistry lies not just in the act but in its enduring impact.

[Closing theme song]

JB: You've been listening to the Design Atlas podcast. Our show can be heard every other Thursday on your favorite podcasting app. 

ML: And you can always read more about the stories and conversations we feature on Design Atlas by visiting our website, designatlaspod.com. I'm Megan Luedke. 

JB: And I'm Jens Bringsjord. Good night.