Join host, Diana Varma, as she explores the wonderful world of design and printing, typography and branding, books and publishing. In each episode Diana aims to answer many age-old, deep philosophical questions such as: Where the heck did Comic Sans originate? Why do the majority of printed books have blank pages at the end? What is the world's ugliest colour? What does a sassy three-year-old have to say about the visible colour spectrum? Ready to have some fun? Let's talk paper scissors.
Down the rabbit hole we go! Each conversation in this series connects in unexpected ways. Every new episode spurring a new line of inquiry, like tunnels turning off in different directions, each with an origin that’s traced back to episodes 273, 276, and 280.
This episode features net.art pioneer, Olia Lialina. She is credited with founding one of the earliest web galleries, Art Teleportacia. She is cofounder and keeper of One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age archive and a professor at Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, Germany. In this conversation, you’ll hear Olia’s origin story as a net artist, cross-pollinating film and Internet technology to tell interactive stories. You’ll hear her approach to capturing and cataloging the early web and how it’s evolved over time, including her long-standing GeoCities project. You’ll hear the surprising connections between interface design and stage design, how AI is changing the Internet and those who shape it, and how we can all reclaim our corners of the web.
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Happy Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina 2026!
Graphic designer and illustrator, Paul Twa, is here and he’s full of insights and passion for Olympic design joy!
In this conversation, we talk all things design systems at Milano Cortina 2026. Paul shares the importance of human gesture, energy, and motion to this system, the unique public vote that took place for the games’ emblem, as well as AI use and its implications. Paul helps us understand what works beautifully and what works less beautifully in this system, as he helps us understand the understory of “the look of the games”.
This podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Olympic Committee.
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
This is the third episode in a 3-part guest lecture series, speaking with a diverse range of design and typography pros from across North America!
This episode features the owner of foundry Type Du Nord, Libbie Bischoff.
In this conversation, you’ll hear how Libbie got started in type professionally and what a typical day looks like as a foundry of one. You’ll hear about the way Libbie’s signature may actually be your signature, now or in the future and the storytelling power of type. We talk revival fonts, what success looks like beyond measurable metrics, advice for making type for a living, and how advancing technology is changing (or not changing) Libbie’s approach to her work.
This episode was recorded as part of a guest lecture series in GCM 230 - Typography in fall 2025 at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University.
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
This is the second episode in a 3-part guest lecture series, speaking with a diverse range of design and typography pros from across North America!
This episode features a Creative Director dedicated to social change and inclusive city building, Jay Wall.
In this conversation you’ll hear about Jay’s origin story as a designer and the evolution of his path towards designing for social change. You’ll hear about the Design Justice Network (DJN) and learn a less naïve way to frame the question “can design save the world?” You’ll hear concrete examples over the last 70 years that have challenged the status quo and helped catalyze change in a variety of contexts, both on the streets and on the screen. Lastly, you’ll hear what Jay’s currently up to regarding inclusive city building; a project called ‘Yonge Tomorrow’, a project with the City of Toronto to redesign downtown Yonge Street, nodding to the past, embracing present needs, and planning for a more accessible future.
This episode was recorded as part of a guest lecture series in GCM 230 - Typography in fall 2025 at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University.
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
This is the first episode in a 3-part guest lecture series in GCM 230 Typography, speaking with design typography pros from across North America!
This episode features type designer and educator at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, Leo Vicenti.
In this conversation, you’ll hear how Leo believes typography can support Indigenous language and culture, the ways in which typography isn’t always necessary, Indigenization of digital spaces, and why fixed systems don’t necessarily work (Unicode, for example).
This episode was recorded as part of a guest lecture series in GCM 230 - Typography in fall 2025 at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University.
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
Today’s episode features two authors with two new books on two interrelated topics: David Berry (How Artists Make Money & How Money Makes Artists) and Raymond Biesinger (9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off: An Informal Self-Defence Guide for Independent Creatives).
In this conversation you’ll hear the macro and the micro of economics and art; David and Raymond share history’s most interesting examples, alongside personal examples of the ways in which art and money are intertwined. We talk challenges for early career creatives, artists vs. AI, and what it means to create in a rapidly-shifting media ecosystem. There’s so much richness in this conversation, so many incredible insights, and so much food for thought. If you consider yourself an artist, a designer, an author, a creative… you won’t want to miss this one.
Illustration Credit: Raymond Biesinger
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Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
Allow me to point something out…
From Medieval manuscripts to 19th-century advertising, modern interfaces, and emoji culture, this episode follows the curious history of the iconic pointing hand, commonly referred to as the “manicule”.
Inspired by a letterpress project created for the Canadian Letterpress Alliance, I step back in time to print postcards on a 170-year-old press at Mackenzie House Toronto, using historic wood type found in a cabinet of typographic curiosities.
We explore its origins as a reader’s mark, its many aliases, its evolution through print and persuasion, and its quiet persistence today, right down to the moment I realized that my cursor is a modern-day manicule.
💅🏽 See the final print and process at talkpaperscissors.info/letterpress
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
Down the rabbit hole we go! Each conversation in this series connects in unexpected ways. Every new episode spurring a new line of inquiry, like tunnels turning off in different directions, each with an origin that’s traced back to episode 273.
This episode features Jill Blackmore Evans who created GeoCities Memory, a personal and scholarly project designed to capture some of the most interesting examples of websites in Web 1.0. In this conversation, you’ll hear well as what Jill has found to be surprisingly similar about the web now vs. 20-30 years ago, as well as what feels different. She explains the interesting links between the maturation of the web and colonization and control, pondering “Is the Internet forever?” Finally, Jill and I ask and answer big questions about digital ownership and if future generations will event want what we’ve created online.
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
Today’s conversation is with Alanna Munro of Arcane Type Foundry. She is a certified letter nerd, designer, and educator. In this conversation you’ll hear about Alanna’s creative process for designing type, the importance of squinting, and common misconceptions about independent foundries. You’ll also hear helpful, actionable advice about font licensing. And for all students here: listen up! Alanna lets type design students know how they can get professional critique on your type design work.
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
Today I’m joined by Andrew Huot, who is book making royalty: a book artist, bookbinder, printer, and conservator whose artists’ books are in collections across the US, from the Art Institute of Chicago to Yale University.
In this conversation, you’ll hear what the term “book arts” means. You’ll learn what a typical day in Andrew’s studio looks like, including his most necessary tools: from bone, to surgical scalpels, to teflon. Andrew shares how he repairs paper (my mind is blown!), the oldest book he’s ever worked on, and he debunks a popular book handling myth (again, my mind is blown!). Finally, Andrew speaks to the importance of books in a highly digital world, and he shares the best next steps for aspiring book artists, which might just be you after hearing this episode!
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)
Meet emerging typeface designers, Ivana Vukmirovic and Mahrukh Saeed! Ivana designed a typeface called Lindworm and Mahrukh designed a typeface called Khabartoon. In the following conversation, you'll get to hear about each typeface, their perfect type pairings, sensory descriptions of each, as well as what each of these emerging typeface designers plans to do next in the world of letterforms. Let the type geekery begin!
I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)