Experience designer Kristy Tillman was a very studious child, extremely driven academically. Always on the advanced track, she assumed she would one day be a lawyer like Clair Huxtable. Coding and art were background passions until a friend made her aware of design as a profession and she immediately redirected them to the foreground. Having recognized the need and summoned the courage to “invite herself to the table,” she is now Head of Global Experience Design at Slack. Still on the advanced track, obvs.

Follow Kristy on Twitter.

Watch her 2016 talk from 99U on inviting yourself to the table:

About this presentation Have you ever had an idea that you wanted to execute or be involved in, but it never quite happened for you? For Kristy, this was not only true for her, but at times it felt like the defining sentiment of her career. While we live in a world of interconnection, it's still so easy to feel like we're not making the impact that we'd like or taking advantage of all of our opportunities. However, instead of asking for permission or waiting for life to happen to us, Kristy urges us to invite ourselves to the table. In July 2014, Kristy and her partner Tiffany Bell, started the Detroit Water Project, an organization started in response to united officials shutting off the running water for single mothers in the Detroit area. Neither she nor Tiffany knew anything about utilities, yet both understood that something needed to be done. Today, they've paid more than $240,000 in water bills to keep the water going for these families and expanded their business. Kristy invited herself to this table after being discouraged by officials and knowing little about the industry, yet "committed to the process and not the outcome that put me in place to land meaningful opportunities than I could have imagined," she says. In this talk, Kristy challenges us to "restate the problem: How might [you] begin to make [your] own opportunities? By inviting yourself to the table." About Kristy Tillman Kristy Tillman currently serves as the Design Director for Society of Grownups, a Boston-based start-up whose mission is to democratize financial literacy for the young adult set. There she leads design teams dedicated to crafting exceptional experiences across both digital and physical platforms. Prior to Society of Grownups, Kristy was a designer at IDEO, an award-winning global design consultancy where she helped solve design problems across a variety of industries including consumer product goods, finance, education, and healthcare. She also did a tour through the footwear industry as a product graphic designer at PUMA and Reebok. Kristy believes in a future where design is a tool that aids underserved communities in solving sociocultural problems. As the former co-founder of the Detroit Water Project and founder of Tomorrow Looks Bright, Kristy has a strong commitment to furthering the accessibility of design. She is an alumna of Florida A&M University.

Clever is produced by 2VDE Media. Thanks to Rich Stroffolino for editing this episode.
Music in this episode courtesy of El Ten Eleven—hear more on Bandcamp.
Shoutout to Jenny Rask for designing the Clever logo.

Keep Listening

Featured

Ep. 237: Curator Alyssa Velazquez on Craft-itarianism: Community Action Through Craft

Curator Alyssa Velazquez grew up with theater as her first form of community—a foundation that continues to shape her curatorial work. Her current exhibition at Center for Craft, Craft-itarianism: Community Action Through Craft, explores how craft can add joy, distribute resources, and foster community among at-risk and marginalized people. Velazquez brings a unique interdisciplinary approach to her curatorial practice at Carnegie Museum of Art, pulling from past work in art preservation, acting, and scenic design. Alyssa teaches us that the act of making can form resource generation within communities that need life-affirming support, and that craft methodologies—from job training to art therapy to social enterprise—can be applied to create meaningful social change.

Ep. 236: The Living Architectural Dream Worlds of Dennis Maher

Artist and designer Dennis Maher has spent decades exploring the life cycles of buildings. After studying architecture at Cornell, he moved to Buffalo, New York—where a job in demolition introduced him to the visceral reality of the built environment constantly breaking down and rebuilding itself.

That experience sparked a practice rooted in salvaged materials, forgotten objects, and the imaginative transformation of ordinary spaces. Maher’s work now spans sculptural installations, living environments, and his most ambitious project: The Assembly House, an evolving artwork housed inside a historic church that also serves as a training ground for the building arts.

Part immersive artwork, part cultural attraction, part educational engine, The Assembly House teaches people to build while reconnecting them to the tactile, communal experience of craft. Through what he calls “architectural dream worlds,” Maher explores how memory, materials, and imagination reshape the way we understand the spaces we inhabit—and the role we play in building them.

Ep. 235: Secret Mall Apartment’s Michael Townsend on Ephemeral Art with Enduring Impact

Public artist Michael Townsend grew up in a military family that relocated often—at least ten times during his childhood. He learned early how to explore new locales and seek out new friends before moving on to the next temporary hometown. His final relocation was to study art at RISD, when he chose Providence as home—and began quietly reshaping it. He founded the Tape Art movement in 1989 and built a thriving practice rooted in ephemeral public murals, deeply private underground installations, and highly clandestine collaborations, including the now-legendary Secret Mall Apartment.

For more than 30 years, he has created hundreds of temporary murals and collaborative public works around the world, including the 9/11 Hope Project and the invention of the BOOM! Projector. Now, with the success of the Secret Mall Apartment documentary on Netflix, it’s clear that he and his collaborators were deeply intentional about incubating that narrative until it was ready to be heard.

Moving fluidly in and out of the shadows—showing up, making an impression, then dissolving underground only to emerge again—turns out Michael himself may be a work of ephemeral art.

Ep. 234: From Band to CCO: Laura Stein’s Road to Creative Leadership

Chief Creative Officer of Bruce Mau Design, Laura Stein grew up on Nun’s Island outside of Montreal, a near utopia where kids never had to cross the street. Her psychiatrist father and museum-involved mother cultivated curiosity about emotions, critical thinking, and the arts. A move to Texas in her teens resulted in quite a culture shock. Laura found an innate knack for peer reviews and analysis, which became a strength throughout the rest of her academic and professional career. Originally graduating with a degree in English, she returned to school to study art, where she found not only her community, but her band mates. From there, it was a wild ride - record signing (Sub Pop,) touring, and navigating all the ups and downs of being in a girl band in the ‘90s – the ultimate creative boot camp. Now in leadership at Bruce Mau Design, she’s deploying the wisdom garnered from all these experiences to build a culture focused on keeping possibility alive.

Ep. 233: Clever Extra - Mick De Giulio on Designing Kitchens That Sing

For over 40+ years, Mick De Giulio has been dedicating his talents to designing kitchens that sing. It all starts with listening, and the results are masterpieces of flow, proportion, beauty, utility and emotional resonance. A devotee of craft, he’s known for having an unusual command of detail and materials. He brings it all together in service of designing dynamic shared spaces that foster connection, care and magic moments. The author of two books, Kitchen Centric and Kitchen, with a third out in 2026, he is an unmatched leader in the field who also supports the industry and elevates the art of kitchen design by way of the Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove Kitchen Design Contest.

Ep. 83: Experience Designer Kristy Tillman

Keep Listening

Hear every episode with one click.

Resources

Listen

Ep. 83: Experience Designer Kristy Tillman

Keep Listening

Ep. 84: Streetwear Designer Bobby Hundreds

Ep. 82: David Schwarz of HUSH Studios

Hear every episode with one click.

Resources

Listen