An inspiring podcast on everything you need to know about color!
Our first episode after the summer holidays is with landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, Founder of Gustafson Porter + Bowman. She knows how to create magic.. stay tuned….live end of September!
S7E07 Color Rebellion with Mehek Malhotra
This interview features Mehek Malhotra, founder of Giggling Monkey Studio, discussing how her Indian heritage and the psychology of color inform her narrative-driven design work. She describes color as an innate, universal language—akin to a lifelong tattoo—and uses the "masala dabba" (spice box) metaphor to explain India's consistent yet versatile palette. A central theme is her philosophy of "serious play," which encourages designers to reclaim the judgment-free creativity of childhood to develop original, commercially viable ideas. Mehek also explores her preference for "lived-in" aesthetics over sterile perfection, reflecting on projects for IKEA and Google that translate personal memories into universal experiences.
The colorful and brilliant designs of Mehek Malhotra, a young designer based in Mumbai, India, are well-known for their fusion of modern aesthetics with traditional Indian elements. Malhotra, who has experience in graphic design, visual communication, and drawing, has made a name for herself in the competitive Indian design industry. Her portfolio features a wide range of projects in fields as diverse as product design, packaging, brand identity, and more.
Breaking Stereotypes with Ghalia Elsrakbi
In this podcast, Ghalia will talk about how she is creating a platform for the under-represented narratives in the design world in her region, the Middle East and how she is keen on breaking design stereotypes. How can color be used as a tool to surpass digital censorship so designers may speak up and communicate what they stand for?
Ghalia Elsrakbi is a design professional, researcher, and design educator. After obtaining her a Master's degree in Design at the Sandberg Institute, Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, she joined the post-academic interdisciplinary program " Design Negation" at Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Her research was dedicated to the investigation of populist politics from the perspective of design and theory.
In 2009, she co-founded with South African designer Lauren Alexander Foundland Collective, an art and design practice based between Cairo and Amsterdam. Foundland’s projects explore under-represented political and historical narratives by working with archives via art, design, writing, educational formats, video making, and storytelling. It aims to critically reflect upon what it means to produce politically engaged work from the position of non-Western artists working between Europe and the Middle East.
Ghalia is an Associate Professor of Practice in Design at the Graphic Design program at the American University in Cairo. She is a co-founder and the Artistic Director of Cairotronica, Electronic and New Media arts festival in Cairo.
Ghalia received a nomination and was a fiunalist for the Dutch Prix de Rome prize in 2015 and the Dutch Design Awards in 2016. She was awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in 2015/2016 for research in the Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC.
Ghalia has lectured and exhibited widely in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, including Centre Pompidou (FR), The Rotterdam International Film Festival(NL), ISPC (NYC), Ars Electronica, Linz (AT), IMPAKT Festival (NL), London Art Fair (UK), Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Fikra Design Biennial (UAE), Porto Design Biennial (PT), Amman Design week (JOR).
Driving Change through Color with Gustavo Castillo
Gustavo is one of these persons that strongly believes in the fact that color can enact change for the good. In our talk we will talk about the colors of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and how his latest campaign for June Pride month and now Pride History month had inspired him and his team. He will talk about the great social difficulties in Latin America and how he believes that color can create community, awareness and even empathy. From the March 8th purple coloured protests for women rights in Mexico City to the green coloured scarf movement in Buenos Aires for the legalisation of abortion, color is definitely assisting us in creating change.
Gustavo Castillo is Partner and Creative Director of Estudio CH; a multidisciplinary creative agency part of the Coolhuntermx group, focused on developing brand identities, conceptualisation, execution of experience design and the generation of multimedia content.
Working with accounts in Mexico, Latin America and Europe, such as Comex, Adidas, Reebok, Johnny Walker, Bombay, as well as clients with local and national emerging products. Gustavo has more than 10 years of experience in the creative industry.
His restlessness has led him to diversify and work in other disciplines such as creative direction for streetwear brands and restaurants, art installation (Carnaval de Bahidorá 2020), and most recently the cinematographic direction of the documentary Generación Espontánea.
“Excellent series about color. It’s a complex topic and Judith approaches it from a variety of angles with her guests. Always entertaining and insightful. I look forward to listening to each episode and learning something new about color and the visionaries in the color world.”
— Review Apple Podcast