When it was released in early 2017, the Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design quickly distinguished itself as something more than just the design world’s answer to Chef’s Table. It was beautifully shot, showed a deep understanding of the various disciplines it explored, and most importantly, it featured great subjects.
The brainchild of former Wired editor-in-chief Scott Dadich, the series highlighted various creatives in the field of design—all of whom navigate the world of creative process and design in their own particular ways. The first season featured Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield, illustrator Christoph Niemann, architect Bjarke Ingels, stage designer Es Devlin, graphic designer Paula Scher, interior designer Ilse Crawford, photographer Platon, and automotive designer Ralph Gilles.
Nearly three years later, the series is back for another season and yet another ensemble of fascinating creatives operating at the top of their industry. This season takes everything that made season one great—intimate character studies of leading creative minds—and invites us to dive deeper into understanding what makes them tick.
Story By Simon martin
Design by tri vo
Get to know them
The Creatives You’ll
Meet on the New Season of
Get to know them
Get stunning visual
stories every week.
Click to learn about the visionaries featured in the second season of Netflix's hit show.
OLAFUR ELIASSON
NERI
OXMAN
CAS
HOLMAN
RUTH
CARTER
IAN
SPALTER
JONATHAN
HOEFLER
Olafur Eliasson
season 2 - episode 1
Instalation artist
Born: Denmark, 1967 | Based: Berlin
The work you know: 2008’s New York City-commissioned Water Falls, a summer installation of cascading water under the Brooklyn Bridge.
The work you don't: Whenever the Rainbow Appears, 2010 multi-media work at The Israel Museum.
Neri oxman
season 2 - episode 2
Bio-Architect, Professor at the MIT Media Lab
Born: Israel, 1967 | Based: Boston
The work you know: 2013’s Silk Pavilion, which featured a dome spun from 6,500 silkworms.
The work you don't: As the founder of MIT’s Mediated Matter research group, she has led a team in exploring the fusion of natural and synthetic materials using digital fabrication, 3D printing, and computational design.
Ruth
Carter
season 2 - episode 3
Costume Designer
Born: Springfield, MA, 1960
Based: Santa Monica
The work you know: Black Panther, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, the Academy Award she won last year.
The work you don't: The orange catsuit Halle Berry wore in 1997’s BAPS.
Cas Holman
season 2 - episode 4
founder and principal designer of Heroes Will Rise, professor Rhode Island School of Design
Born: 1974 | Based: Providence, RI
The work you know: The Rigamajig, a construction playset designed to encourage invention.
The work you don't: AnjiPlay, a play-based childhood curriculum system serving more than 14,000 children in China from ages 3 to 6.
ian
spalter
season 2 - episode 5
Head of Instagram Japan
Born: New Rochelle, NY | Based: Tokyo
The work you know: The look, feel, and user experience of Instagram.
The work you don't: Nike Fuelband
Jonathan Hoefler
season 2 - episode 6
typeface designer
Born: New York, NY, 1970 | Based: NYC
The work you know: Apple iPhone and Barack Obama
The work you don't: Natural Resources Defense Council. In 2014, Hoefler and his partner Tobias Frere-Jones split, with Frere-Jones suing Hoefler for his share of the company.
STORY BY simon martin
DESIGN BY tri vo
From his Berlin studio, installation artist Olafur Eliasson—whose works span from ambitious public works like New York City Waterfalls to an open digital platform for drawing on the moon—invites us into his process and reveals a relentless appetite for shaping and challenging perceptions with immersive constructed realities.
Get more stunning visual stories every week.
Driven by an urgency to avert an ecological crisis, MIT Media Lab professor Neri Oxman has spent the past few decades combining additive manufacturing with material science to grow new materials that more closely emulate nature for architectural applications. Among other projects featured in this episode include Silk Pavilion—a robotically-spun dome made from over 6,500 silkworms.
Costume design veteran and 12-time Spike Lee collaborator Ruth Carter is known for her exceptional ability to tell stories through fashion, as evidenced by her Oscar-winning Afrofuturistic costume design for the film Black Panther. From breaking down a script and pulling out visual storytelling elements such as color palettes, to fabricating the one-off garments to meet the specific needs of each actor, Carter takes us behind the scenes of her design process for an oft-overlooked element of creative filmmaking.
As the founder and principal designer at the independent toy company Heroes Will Rise, industrial designer Cas Holman creates products designed to spearhead imagination and invention through play. From her design workshop in Rhode Island, where she teaches industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design, Holman breaks down how she finds opportunities for new products, creates sketches to iterate through her ideas, and ultimately, convert those ideas into three-dimensional objects such as the Rigamajig, a construction play set designed to spark invention.
Having made a name for himself as the Head
of Design for Instagram and leading digital products for Nike, Ian Spalter has single-handedly helped shape the current fabric of our modern digital culture. In fact, 1 in 7 people on the planet is using a product that Spalter created or at one point oversaw. Between crafting digital experiences inspired by real-world physics, to the creation of the iconic Instagram logo, Spalter takes us behind the scenes of modern digital product design and just how much consideration goes into crafting the perfect user experience.
As one of the most influential type designers of our time—whose work spans everything from Apple to the Obama campaign—Jonathan Hoefler understands better than most just how important a well-crafted typeface can be delivering a message to a viewer. Here, Hoefler dives into some of his favorite examples of effective type design while explaining the elements of a well-balanced typeface.
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Get to know them
Introduction
Get to know them
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Click to learn about the visionaries featured in the second season of Netflix's hit show.
OLAFUR ELIASSON
NERI
OXMAN
CAS
HOLMAN
RUTH
CARTER
IAN
SPALTER
JONATHAN
HOEFLER
Olafur Eliasson
season 2 - episode 1
Instalation artist
Born: Denmark, 1967 | Based: Berlin
The work you know: 2008’s New York City-commissioned Water Falls, a summer installation of cascading water under the Brooklyn Bridge.
The work you don't: Whenever the Rainbow Appears, 2010 multi-media work at The Israel Museum.
From his Berlin studio, installation artist Olafur Eliasson—whose works span from ambitious public works like New York City Waterfalls to an open digital platform for drawing on the moon—invites us into his process and reveals a relentless appetite for shaping and challenging perceptions with immersive constructed realities.
Neri oxman
season 2 - episode 2
Bio-Architect, Professor at the MIT Media Lab
Born: Israel, 1967 | Based: Boston
The work you know: 2013’s Silk Pavilion, which featured a dome spun from 6,500 silkworms.
The work you don't: As the founder of MIT’s Mediated Matter research group, she has led a team in exploring the fusion of natural and synthetic materials using digital fabrication, 3D printing, and computational design.
Driven by an urgency to avert an ecological crisis, MIT Media Lab professor Neri Oxman has spent the past few decades combining additive manufacturing with material science to grow new materials that more closely emulate nature for architectural applications. Among other projects featured in this episode include Silk Pavilion—a robotically-spun dome made from over 6,500 silkworms.
ruth carter
season 2 - episode 3
costume designer
Born: Springfield, MA, 1960 | Based: Santa Monica
The work you know: Black Panther, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, the Academy Award she won last year.
The work you don't: The orange catsuit Halle Berry wore in 1997’s BAPS.
Costume design veteran and 12-time Spike Lee collaborator Ruth Carter is known for her exceptional ability to tell stories through fashion, as evidenced by her Oscar-winning Afrofuturistic costume design for the film Black Panther. From breaking down a script and pulling out visual storytelling elements such as color palettes, to fabricating the one-off garments to meet the specific needs of each actor, Carter takes us behind the scenes of her design process for an oft-overlooked element of creative filmmaking.
Cas HOlman
season 2 - episode 4
founder and principal designer of Heroes Will Rise, professor Rhode Island School of Design
Born: 1974 | Based: Providence, RI
The work you know: The Rigamajig, a construction playset designed to encourage invention.
The work you don't: AnjiPlay, a play-based childhood curriculum system serving more than 14,000 children in China from ages 3 to 6.
As the founder and principal designer at the independent toy company Heroes Will Rise, industrial designer Cas Holman creates products designed to spearhead imagination and invention through play. From her design workshop in Rhode Island, where she teaches industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design, Holman breaks down how she finds opportunities for new products, creates sketches to iterate through her ideas, and ultimately, convert those ideas into three-dimensional objects such as the Rigamajig, a construction play set designed to spark invention.
ian Spalter
season 2 - episode 5
Head of Instagram Japan
Born: New Rochelle, NY | Based: Tokyo
The work you know: The look, feel, and user experience of Instagram.
The work you don't: Nike Fuelband
Having made a name for himself as the Head of Design for Instagram and leading digital products for Nike, Ian Spalter has single-handedly helped shape the current fabric of our modern digital culture. In fact, 1 in 7 people on the planet is using a product that Spalter created or at one point oversaw. Between crafting digital experiences inspired by real-world physics, to the creation of the iconic Instagram logo, Spalter takes us behind the scenes of modern digital product design and just how much consideration goes into crafting the perfect user experience.
Jonathan hoefler
season 2 - episode 6
typeface designer
Born: New York, NY, 1970 | Based: NYC
The work you know: Apple iPhone and Barack Obama
The work you don't: Natural Resources Defense Council. In 2014, Hoefler and his partner Tobias Frere-Jones split, with Frere-Jones suing Hoefler for his share of the company.
As one of the most influential type designers of our time—whose work spans everything from Apple to the Obama campaign—Jonathan Hoefler understands better than most just how important a well-crafted typeface can be delivering a message to a viewer. Here, Hoefler dives into some of his favorite examples of effective type design while explaining the elements of a well-balanced typeface.
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