If you want to level up your graphic design skills, this list of must-watch TED Talks for Designers is just what you need!

I’m a bit of a podcast addict. When I’m not listening to music, I’m listening to a podcast. Basically, there’s very rarely any silence when I’m working. And there’s no better podcasts (they can be considered podcasts, right?) than TED Talks.

Here’s a list of ten of the very best TED Talks for designers:

1. Designing with slogans – Stefan Sagmeister

Rockstar designer Stefan Sagmeister delivers a short, witty talk on life lessons, expressed through surprising modes of design (including … inflatable monkeys?).

2. Taking imagination seriously – Janet Echelman

Janet Echelman found her true voice as an artist when her paints went missing — which forced her to look to an unorthodox new art material. Now she makes billowing, flowing, building-sized sculpture with a surprisingly geeky edge. A transporting 10 minutes of pure creativity.

3. Design, discovery and humour – David Carson

Great design is a never-ending journey of discovery — for which it helps to pack a healthy sense of humour. Sociologist and surfer-turned-designer David Carson walks through a gorgeous (and often quite funny) slide deck of his work and found images.

4. Great design is serious, not solemn – Paula Scher

Paula Scher looks back at a life in design (she’s done album covers, books, the Citibank logo …) and pinpoints the moment when she started really having fun. Look for gorgeous designs and images from her legendary career.

5. How giant websites design for you (and a billion others too) – Margaret Gould Stewart

Facebook’s “like” and “share” buttons are seen 22 billion times a day, making them some of the most-viewed design elements ever created. Margaret Gould Stewart, Facebook’s director of product design, outlines three rules for design at such a massive scale – one so big that the tiniest of tweaks can cause global outrage, but also so large that the subtlest of improvements can positively impact the lives of many.

6. My life in typefaces – Matthew Carter

Pick up a book, magazine or screen, and more than likely you’ll come across some typography designed by Matthew Carter. In this charming talk, the man behind typefaces such as Verdana, Georgia and Bell Centennial (designed just for phone books — remember them?), takes us on a spin through a career focused on the very last pixel of each letter of a font.

7. Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is. – Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd doesn’t judge books by their cover, he creates covers that embody the book — and he does it with a wicked sense of humour. In one of the funniest talks from TED2012, he shows the art and deep thought of his cover designs. This talk is from The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.

8. The beauty of data visualisation – David McCandless

David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut — and it may just change the way we see the world.

9. Design and the elastic mind – Paola Antonelli

MOMA design curator Paola Antonelli previews the groundbreaking show Design and the Elastic Mind — full of products and designs that reflect the way we think now.

10. Designers – Think big! – Tim Brown

Tim Brown says the design profession has a bigger role to play than just creating nifty, fashionable little objects. He calls for a shift to local, collaborative, participatory “design thinking” — starting with the example of 19th-century design thinker Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Conclusion

And there you have it! Those ten TED Talks from some of the world’s most creative designers will put you on the path to levelling up your own design skills.

And if you’re here looking for ways to develop your design skills, these six design projects are an excellent place to start!

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