Transcribed with Otter.ai
Guest Cheryl D. Miller
Speaker 1 0:02
Hey. Hey everyone. Welcome to unique ways with Thomas GIRARD in audio podcast, we had a really awesome guest on today, but before we go there, I want to say that today’s episode is sponsored by a book by Kevin Bethune called reimagining design. It’s by MIT Press, and it’s really great book. You can pick up a copy@kevinbethune.com Our guest today is an American graphic designer, Christian minister, writer, artist, theologian and decolonizing historian. She is known for her contributions to racial and gender equity, sorry, equality in the graphic design field, and establishing one of the first black woman owned design firms in New York City. Please join me in welcoming Cheryl Miller, welcome. Welcome. Hi. How are you good? You ready for 20 Questions?
Speaker 2 0:51
Well, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll answer as many as we can get through
Speaker 1 0:56
perfect question one, tell me a little bit more about yourself. What do you do
Speaker 2 1:02
at this point? I am. I’m a writer of design criticism, and specifically other stories than the Euro angle centric, male centric perspective to graphic design, and I’m a professor at several universities, and I’m spending my time publishing my scholarship
Speaker 1 1:32
great and just a note for our audience, if you’re interested in the New York City episodes, check out our early supporter, Debbie Millman, that was a great one. Um, question two, what’s a key piece of knowledge that makes you different?
Unknown Speaker 1:46
I know myself,
Unknown Speaker 1:49
and I know my gift, and that’s what we
Speaker 2 1:53
that’s what we sent her on, and I would say that that’s
Unknown Speaker 1:59
a hard,
Speaker 2 2:01
hard piece of information that many seek their whole lives for. And I was able to figure that out early and have stayed focused to it
Speaker 1 2:15
great. So that brings us to question three, why this of all things? Why do you do what you
Unknown Speaker 2:21
do I do want to do because I know I’m supposed to do it.
Speaker 2 2:26
It’s a call when you get clarity, when you’re young and you know your gift, you also know your assignment, kind of like mission, impossible. Will you do this? And I answered yes, and thus I have longevity in the career. And I actually celebrate 50 years of my work. I started professionally in 1974 we’re here 2024 so staying focused and knowing what you’re supposed to do in life, that’s my key
Speaker 1 3:02
great. And some people struggle with number four. But the question is, what does your future look like?
Speaker 2 3:08
It looks like I am going to continue to do what I’ve been doing until I find a place of completion.
Unknown Speaker 3:19
And one of the things that
Speaker 2 3:23
one of my mantras online is you don’t want me to go to glory without my telling you everything I know, and I’m eyewitness to a tremendous amount of design history that either has not been recorded or is in card catalog and has not crossed over the digital divide. And so writing,
Unknown Speaker 3:49
writing, writing historical content,
Speaker 2 3:53
and making sure I leave that footprint is and telling those stories and telling those narratives that pretty much is the way it’s going to be
Speaker 1 4:04
great, and five, we say, is unique to this show. The question is, let’s talk about location. How does the notion of place play into what you do?
Unknown Speaker 4:13
Well, place is the globe for me,
Speaker 2 4:17
and I find that my advocacy and legacy speaks to more than North America and any place that is wanting a design social justice, a broadening of design narrative, is the place Where I go to share that sense of empowerment. So as far as I can see is this is as as far as I will go.
Speaker 1 4:49
Great. And six, if you had to start from the beginning, what advice would you give your former younger self, uh, to
Speaker 2 4:58
enjoy the moment of where. I am I was, and not worry about the future, that that which I’m, that which I envision is going to happen. So where I am now is clearly what I saw in my younger self, and I would have possibly enjoyed more of in the moment, not worrying about if I’m going to get where I see I’m supposed to be going
Unknown Speaker 5:23
enjoy the moment a little bit more
Unknown Speaker 5:26
great. And what’s a day in your life like
Unknown Speaker 5:31
I do a lot of
Speaker 2 5:34
early I start with a lot of envisioning, and I
Unknown Speaker 5:41
have a to do list, a bucket list of
Speaker 2 5:45
things that I want to accomplish. And after I spend a moment of quiet time and reflection, I take off working until, you know, eight, nine o’clock at night, I would say I put in 12 hours a day,
Speaker 1 6:01
great, and eight is around lifelong learning. It’s a popular topic. How do you stay up to date?
Unknown Speaker 6:07
I spend about
Speaker 2 6:10
a minimum of four, a maximum of eight hours of screen time in researching and looking at really what’s going on in design, and so I spend a lot of time with online study and online reading and articles, Talking to people, a lot of YouTube University. So I I use my social media and internet skills to keep up with what’s going on. A lot of reading, and I would say a minimum, a minimum of four, a maximum of eight hours a day. And that’s not all at once. That’s what my phone tells me I do, and I know what I do on my phone. Okay, so
Unknown Speaker 7:03
and I curate.
Speaker 2 7:06
I curate a lot of Instagram user pages. Of those, excuse me, of those that I favor and find interest
Speaker 1 7:20
great. And that brings us to tools. What tools do you use? Do you use digital and analog tools?
Unknown Speaker 7:29
Yeah, I don’t use
Speaker 2 7:32
much analog, except writing,
Unknown Speaker 7:37
sketching,
Unknown Speaker 7:41
and, you know, I have the
Unknown Speaker 7:45
apple suite and Adobe suite of things, but
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research keeps me using,
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using my computer and my
Unknown Speaker 7:56
iPad a lot,
Speaker 1 7:59
great. So halfway. Number 10, how do you deal with work life or life work balance.
Speaker 2 8:06
I stop at the end of the day, and I do no work on the weekends, and
Unknown Speaker 8:12
that’s pretty much it. I get I get it all done.
Unknown Speaker 8:17
I pretty much stop in the evening
Speaker 2 8:21
for family dinner, and I do not work on the weekends, so I don’t over commit. So over commit and keeping a tight schedule for work
Unknown Speaker 8:35
is how I keep my balance
Speaker 1 8:38
great. And if you weren’t doing what you do now, what might you be doing?
Speaker 2 8:41
I wouldn’t be doing anything other than what I’m doing. Like I said, I’ve been doing this since I was a kid with clarity, and I’m real sure of that when my kids were in college, I had opportunity to visit mostly the Mid Atlantic and northeastern colleges of and universities and for them to go to school. And I sat in information sessions and up and up and down the Mid Atlantic and Northeast Corridor. And I sat thinking, you know, Cheryl, did you make the right decision when you were young? And I came up with, if I was going to school today, I’d be doing the same thing I can. I can clearly tell you that I’ve been dedicated to this early, very, very early. It’s the only thing that has inspired me, and it’s the only thing that I’ve done, and there wouldn’t be anything else that I would do, and I’m confident of that I’ve had time to reflect upon it.
Unknown Speaker 9:48
And is there something you would not like to do with your career?
Unknown Speaker 9:53
No, I’m doing exactly.
Speaker 2 9:57
I’m doing exactly what I want to do when I enjoy. Do what I’m, what my community receives of me, and I believe I have the net take of that. I have a lot of goodwill in the business, and I’ve been at it. I’m very consistent. I’ve been at it like I said, 50 years, and I’ve been true to it.
Unknown Speaker 10:19
Great. And how about a favorite word, quote or sentence?
Unknown Speaker 10:28
I’ve got a book coming out,
Speaker 2 10:30
and I’m really excited about it, and it’s taken me 50 years to write it, and I really it really is a tell all. I’m showing you things that you’ve never seen. I’m writing you things you never you know you don’t know, you’ve never seen, you’ve never known. And my favorite, I chuckle now like if you didn’t want me writing about if you didn’t want me writing about you, now you should have treated me better than and so that gets a lot of humor. And it’s so funny because I know so many people, and I’ve been in the business so long, so many people I do write about. And so you’re going to have to read the book and read it all the way through to see if I’m talking about
Speaker 1 11:18
you. Does that also cover a least favorite word, quota sentence. Say that again, the question is, do you have a least favorite word quota sentence? No,
Unknown Speaker 11:33
that’s, you know,
Unknown Speaker 11:36
my favorite, I guess overall is
Speaker 2 11:41
success. Is when opportunity needs to prepare. So always be prepared. You never know what opportunity will present itself. And so that one, and here’s the one I usually sign my books with, um, living your life is your story. Living your life for others is your legacy. Leave a legacy. So you have all y’all. You have all three of my favorite quotes,
Speaker 1 12:08
great. And if you had to pick one word to describe yourself, what word would you
Unknown Speaker 12:12
choose? Iconic?
Unknown Speaker 12:15
What keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2 12:18
Nothing keeps me up at night. I I close my eyes and ask my honestly. I close my eyes at night. I say, whisper a few prayers, and then I talk. I talk to myself and say, if I, if I have any questions of thoughts about what I should do. I ask myself that before I go to bed, and usually when I wake up in the morning, I’ve got some direction.
Unknown Speaker 12:51
Yeah, that’s,
Speaker 2 12:53
that’s a old, that’s an old spiritual ritual that i i picked up along the way. Just ask yourself, what do you want to know in the morning when you wake up? And usually you have an answer. So after after resting, saying a couple prayers, if there’s something I you know, say, Cheryl, what are you going to do tomorrow morning, first? Or Cheryl, what you know? How are you going to handle this? And I go to sleep with that, and I will usually wake up I have some direction. And, you know, it works for me. And I recently learned something that kind of works if I’ve had too much espresso after dinner my you know, if that keeps me up. I count backwards from 100 and I’m going to sleep. So nothing keeps me up, my dear, you need to rest if you’re going to do this
Unknown Speaker 13:49
work. Nice and final stretch here, what’s the dream you’re chasing?
Speaker 2 13:55
Um, I don’t chase dreams. I see visions and of clarity. And if you stay on track to that, that which you see
Unknown Speaker 14:11
appears, we we
Speaker 2 14:16
can lose our way if we don’t have vision. I don’t have dream. I don’t have dreams. I’ve I have clarity of vision, mission and purpose, and I’m pretty consistent in that, and I don’t foresee any change in that, given I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. So the rest of the way out, I think what I’ll probably see is more recognition of or acknowledgement that the work I’ve done has been poignant, impactful, and it’s made a difference in the lives of the community that I have served
Unknown Speaker 14:58
great and last few here what is. Inspires you.
Speaker 2 15:05
I think my community inspires me to keep going, keep sharing, keep being a luminary in their lives. My community is diverse, a variety now of color, and we have so many heroes, heroes in the design business that the demographic of today’s community doesn’t always represent and so being a woman of many colors and ethnicities and unique global perspectives. I’ve traveled and I’ve four grandparents, four different races, four different places. I relate to a lot of people, and I think that my presence as a luminary gives a lot of people a lot of people a lot of hope and inspiration, and we’re not all looking at the same. In essence, white players that have dominated our visual conversation. I bring I know that my presence brings hope and inspiration for others, and
Unknown Speaker 16:21
I live in that
Unknown Speaker 16:24
great and 19, any advice you’d like to share, do it
Speaker 1 16:31
great. And finally, 20, how can our listeners keep tabs on you? What’s our call to action? Say that again. How can our listeners follow you? And what’s our call to action? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 16:43
call to action is LinkedIn.
Unknown Speaker 16:47
I think it’s Cheryl D
Speaker 2 16:50
Holmes Miller or CD. Holmes Miller, LinkedIn, and I have a lot of fun on Instagram. Cheryl D Miller Fine Arts. Cheryl Dean Miller, fine arts, yeah, I have a lot of fun over there. And I say that was before, you know, along the way, I thought I was going to do a gallery, and I opened up that Instagram account. And right before the pandemic, I thought it was going to open a gallery, and I got, I got busy continuing my design work and writing, and never did anything about it. I paint. I paint in the summer. I’ve always been a painter, and, you know, I have a little presence with that. But, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m designer, 110% and I use that for all of my I have a selfie wall, and I promote other people and young designers that I see and activities and events. So I have a lot of fun over there. And if you want to join the party, that’s where I am. They pay no attention to the username, because I thought I was going to do a gallery, but that’s not what we’re doing. We’re doing the same thing that we’ve always done. I’m a designer. I’m writing it, I lecture. I’m a professor now. And so call to action is, if you want to follow me, follow me there or LinkedIn. And
Unknown Speaker 18:14
you know, I’m I’m embracing,
Speaker 2 18:19
you know, keynoting and lecturing and writing. And I do a lot of writing, and I get invited, you know, for essays and forwards and commentaries and that kind of thing. And I have a book coming out in October, but we’re really excited about we are launching AIGA Design Week, October 2, in Washington, DC. I’m from DC. I’m going home. The name of the book is here, where the black designers are published by Princeton Architectural. Took me 50 years to write, Thomas, and so I’m really excited about that. We’re launching in DC. You can pre order where I’m so excited. We’re already number seven best seller on our pre order category under design criticism. I I’m like, oh my goodness, we’re already best seller numbers pre order number, number seven, okay, and that’s on top of the Bauhaus book. And I’m like, oh my Cheryl, you’re doing really well. So I’m really excited. I don’t know the publishers one I am. I am encouraging people to pre order their artifacts and pictures that are unseen and a story untold. And I think that’s why, even just my sharing it on LinkedIn and Instagram, the pre order ranking has has put us up to the top. So we have a great expectation. We’re planning to, you know, we’re planning a book tour now, and so we’re launching a DC, and then we’re going to roll out in New York and wherever ADC. Are pretty much wherever a GA is, in areas where there’s several design schools I’m all about, you know, I’m all about the students. So, you know, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, I’ll go out to California, Pasadena LA, and we’re looking for sponsors to buy the book. I want. You know, I as I come into each town, I don’t want, especially the students. If I can get sponsors to buy the book so I can freely give them out to the students. That’s my heart’s desire. I don’t want anybody worried about Apple Pay with me. I want to sign books. Meet everybody. Have a fire, check Q and A and, you know, bless you with a book. So any, anyone who’s listening that would like to sponsor books for the community, that’s my heart is when I come into town, especially AIG centric to design schools and universities. I’m going to give the book books away, so that’s what we’re working on. Thomas, great.
Speaker 1 21:10
Well, thanks so much for joining me. Such an honor to have you here today. Thank you. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 21:15
thank you. Well, we’ll speak some. I.
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