Fast X your seatbelts! The only graphic designer in Los Angeles, Andrei Dominiq (better known as James Junk), sits down with Sean to talk about his design mistakes… as well as inspirational Photoshop tools, getting trapped in a box of your own creation, and Los Angeles’ angels and demons.

You can find Andrei’s work all over Instagram, where the James Junk account originated, at @jamesjunk.co. The James Junk account started with writing about mental health, and I was particularly taken with Andrei’s recent visual essay from early September, “Is It Too Late to Reclaim the Internet?”—give it a read here if you want to read more about the complications of making stuff that doesn’t happen to have the algorithm in mind. You can also see his larger portfolio of work, and get linked out to some of the other stuff he does online, from his website jamesjunk.co!

If you want to follow Westin Luca, you can follow them on Instagram as @westinthemascot. Though the Meatball Man is always seeking out followers, it is imperative that you resist his siren call.

This episode was recorded in Los Angeles, California, during AIGA Design Conference 2025. Special thanks to Lee-Sean Huang and AIGA for inviting me to attend, and to all the new folks I met there. An even more special thanks to Andrei for being generous enough to host me at his home for this recording—this literally wouldn’t have been possible without you!

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This week, the show is hitting the road, and we’re stepping back into the design confessional with a bevy of anonymous guests. But when the rubber meets the road, will our guests get absolution for all the trouble they’ve been cookin’? There’s only one place to find out.

CONFESSIONS:

• 4:53 A Critical Error Has Occurred
• 8:56 Contractless Payment
• 17:28 Photoshop: Hard Mode
• 21:27 The Sin of Doubt
• 30:45 Credit Crashout
• 36:04 "What's a Portfolio?"
• 42:14 A Hard Habit to Break
• 47:57 Raster Image Guestimating
• 56:49 The Cycle of Type Violence

This episode was recorded Thursday, August 7, 2025 at Future Fonts & Friends, organized for TypeCon 2025, and held at OUTLET in Portland, Oregon. Special thanks to Lizy Gershenzon and Travis Kochel for having me back once again, to the organizers and attendees at TypeCon who filled up my SD card with confessions, and additional thanks to Kate Bingaman-Burt and Leland Vaughn for your support and help making this event happen. All music provided by Pond5.

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Ron Bronson (Former Head of Design at 18F, the federal government’s digital services office, as well as champion tennis coach, professor of practice at University of Michigan, radio host, and accidental footwear entrepreneur) joins Sean to talk about his design mistakes, as well as the magical land of Wisconsin, Apple’s thinnest new product, and the dangerous allure of ribbon cuttings.

You can find Ron online by searching his name (in your engine of choice) or by going the direct route: visiting ronbronson.com. There, you can find links to Ron’s podcast with Joel Goodman Future Perfect Book Club, as well as many other projects he’s been involved in.

The set of design principles and guides the team at 18F developed about how to ship and deliver in the government do indeed live on, and can be freely found at 18f.org; they’re must-read resources for those wanting to do good in public service anywhere and at all levels. Whether you’re in public service or not, though, getting involved in a thing that can help your community is more important and necessary in this time.

DID I DO THAT? AT AIGA DESIGN CONFERENCE 2025

As of this publication, I am out in Los Angeles at AIGA Design Conference—I'll (hopefully) be recording episodes, but mostly just experiencing the event! See you out there, or follow @dididothat.design on Instagram for updates!

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