With our fourth Design Confessional event happening the night this episode is released, we're this week pairing our event news with a rehashed version of the show's very first confessional event four years ago! How can you find peace when faced with cross crossworders, ghost(ed) cookbooks, and duck pornography? There’s only one way to find out! (To be clear: the way is listening; you must listen to find out.)
Thursday, August 6 from 6–9pm (that's tonight as this episode drops!)
Outlet, 2500 NE Sandy Blvd., Portland OR
Presented by Future Fonts as part of TypeCon 2026!
Free and open to all! Featuring: DJ Music by @keanunarciso_, Drinks by @baerlicbrewing & (past guest Andy McMillan’s) @heckbrewing, food by @astralpdx, and snacks by @ordertypefoundry. Artwork/Design by @colbybrooksstudio using the Future Fonts Grenat by @theoguillard, Zetkin by @ingaploennigs, and a little HEX Franklin by @hex_projects. Promo sounds (on the Future Fonts IG post) by Klaxlorq aka @travis.kochel.
Wanna get a taste of the event? Here our previous Design Confessional episodes here: Confessional #3, Confessional #2, or listen through this episode to hear #1!
Saturday, August 15 at 5:30pm
Seattle Design Festival Mainstage at Lake Union Park, Seattle WA
Did I Do That?: Back to the Bottom of the Barrel gives the Seattle design community a chance to dig into their archives and share that shame with the world live on stage, defanging it with laughter in the process. A panel of Seattle’s best graphic designers will talk through their most hilariously regrettable projects live on stage.
Together, we’ll reflect on what made that work the way it the way it is and how making it has helped them grow. Then, you’ll help decide whose work is bad enough to win our trophy made out of a trash can. It’s a funny, irreverent chance to unpack the fear of feedback while celebrating something that rarely gets to be at center stage—the messy work you have to make to get to somewhere better.
Colby Nichols is a creative leader who dreams big, supports others, and brings a bright spark to teams and projects. His approach to work and creative management is heart-forward with a focus on collaboration. He spent the last 12 years co-running the collaboration-focused design and illustration studio, Jolby. During that time he co-founded an award-winning space of inclusivity, put to use his unique approach to leading projects and solving big problems, directed projects across multiple teams for global entertainment and consumer brands with a focus on storytelling, recruited, cultivated, and inspired creative teams, led artists in commissions including the creation of artwork, voice over, music, animation, design, writing, editing, and coding, maintained meaningful client and vendor partnerships, did the hard thing, shared the spotlight, and made people smile. Currently, Colby serves as Art Director, Print Innovation for Magic: The Gathering at Wizards of the Coast.
Sean Bucknam is a Designer and Maker of things working in the Seattle area. Los Angeles born and raised, PNW local by choice. He can see the bigger picture in any simple brief while concepting and creating designs that stand out from the crowd. He always aims to provide an elevated, imaginative, and fresh way of thinking through pictures rather than words. He has collected a wealth of knowledge while honing his design and art direction with companies like Amazon, Starbucks, Nike, REI, and Brooks Running. A problem solver at heart, Sean is skilled in Typography, Branding and Identity Design, Illustration, and Art Direction. Currently, Sean serves as a Senior Designer at Starbucks.
Wanna hear last year’s to get a sense of the event? You can find it in audio form on the Did I Do That? website, or in video on YouTube.
Thanks again to Seattle Design Festival and to Travis & Lizy at Future Fonts for including this silly show in your events!
Did I Do That? is a podcast about graphic designers—the ups and downs they face in creative practice, because making design means making lots (and lots) of mistakes.
Every other Thursday, host Sean Schumacher (Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University) is joined by a designer guest to share stories about their own mistakes starting out and how they ended up where they did. It’s very weird, pretty silly, and definitely not serious—but neither are designers.