In this episode, John Kudos chats with David Jon Walker, a designer and lettering artist producing politically-charged work as a Black designer with 3 kids, a stylus, and a French bulldog.

David shares his journey from a designer in Nashville TN to a tenured professor and an Arts Fellow at Yale School of Art. His exhibition, “Shining Light on Truth”, spotlights the buried knowledge about the roles of the enslaved and free Black people in creating New Haven and Yale.

• 0:00 Introduction
• 4:00 Early Career & Self-Taught Design Journey
• 9:00 The Pandemic & The Shift to Lettering
• 16:30 Lettering as a Recognized Discipline
• 22:00 Education vs Industry Experience
• 26:30 Exhibition Design & Yale’s Complex Past
• 36:30 3D Typography & Materiality in Design
• 42:00 Running Streak and How It Builds Resilience
• 49:30 Commitment to Storytelling in Design
• 56:00 Final Thoughts: Recognizing Your Own Process