Debbie Millman is an American writer, educator, artist, curator, and designer who is best known as the host of the podcast Design Matters. She has authored six books and is the President Emeritus of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and chair and co-founder of the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She was previously the editorial and creative director of Print magazine.
Early life and academic career
Millman studied at the University at Albany, SUNY for her undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree. She majored in English with a minor in Russian literature, graduating in 1983. During her years there, she wrote for the student newspaper, which is where she credits discovering her interest in design.
Career
Sterling Brands
From 1995 to 2016, Millman was the president of the Design Division, and chief marketing officer at Sterling Brands based in New York City, where she worked with brands including Pepsi, Gillette, Colgate, Kimberly-Clark, Nestlé, and the Campbell Soup Company. She worked on the redesign of Burger King, merchandising for Star Wars, and the positioning and branding of the NO MORE movement. Millman helped grow the company from 15 employees to 150, and along with her partners, sold the company to Omnicon in 2008.
From 1993 to 2005, Millman was the off-staff creative director of HOT 97 in New York City, where she worked with Emmis Broadcasting general manager Judy Ellis and Promotion Director Rocco Macri to turn the dance music radio station into a hip-hop radio station. Millman created the HOT 97 logo in 1994 and then redesigned it again in 1999.
In 2009, Millman and Steven Heller founded a graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She serves as chair of the program. The school's inaugural class wrote and designed the Rockport book Brand Bible: The Complete Guide to Building, Designing and Sustaining Brands, and in 2013 the students designed and created branding for the Museum of Modern Art's retail program, Destination: New York. In 2015, their project was to reposition the Kappa Middle School in Harlem and in 2016, they rebranded Mariska Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation. The class of 2017 redesigned the identity of the Performance Space 122 in New York City.
Millman is the President Emeritus of AIGA, one of five women to hold the position in the organization's 100-year history. She is a former board member and treasurer of the New York Chapter. Millman is a regular keynote speaker at a variety of global educational institutions, covering topics on design and branding. In the past she has presented keynote lectures at Rotman School of Management, Princeton University, Michigan Modern, the Hong Kong Design Association, the Melbourne Writers Festival, the National Museum of Serbia, Design Thinkers in Toronto, the Festival of Art and Design in Barcelona, Webstock in New Zealand, QVED in Munich, the ING Conference in Dubai, TypoBerlin, the By Design Conference in Slovakia and more.
Millman has contributed to various media outlets including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer and Fast Company. She serves as the editorial & creative director of Print. Millman has designed campaign buttons for Hillary Clinton, wrapping paper and beach towels for One Kings Lane, greeting cards for Mohawk Paper and MOO Paper, as well as playing cards for DeckStarter and various others. In 2014, she received the Type Directors Club Certificate of Typographic Excellence for her entry in TDC61, 'Austin Initiative for Graphic Awesomeness' poster. Beginning in 2003, Millman was a writer for the design blog Speak Up, created by Armin Vit in 2002. She was a regular contributor to the site until it ceased publication in 2009.
Advocacy
Millman was involved with the creation of the NO MORE movement and worked on the team to design a new visual symbol to express universal support for ending domestic violence and sexual assault. The purpose of the symbol is to raise visibility, create awareness, encourage conversation, and help break the social stigma surrounding domestic violence and sexual assault. The NO MORE movement has been spearheaded by a broad coalition of funders, advocacy and service organizations, and private sector volunteers from leading corporations and media companies including Mariska Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation, Avon, Kimberly Clark Corporation and Verizon. Millman is also on the board of the Joyful Heart Foundation and created the identity for the non-profit with her students at the School of Visual Arts.
Curation
Millman co-curated conferences such as HOW DESIGN LIVE, the AIGA National Conference and others. Since 2013 she has curated 30 Covers, 30 Days for National November Writing Month. In September 2017, she curated a show for the Museum of Design in Atlanta titled Text Me: How We Live In Language, featuring artists and designers including Ed Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Shepard Fairey, Neil Gaiman, Deborah Kass and Lesley Dill. Arts Atlanta called the show a bold first curation.
