Before the world confused fame for mastery.
Before young designers were lost in the black hole of on-line portfolios and a million design posts a day.
Before the number of clicks and followers determined your worth, we used to learn about masters of design through their work on the street, in stores or through a small number of carefully curated design magazines and annuals.
Today, almost all of those magazines and annuals are gone.
But those masters were — and continue to be — the ones we look to for inspiration. Not only because of their remarkable work or enormous talents, but because of their tenacity — and an endless desire to reinvent themselves and the world around them for the better. The word “retire” never even crossed their mind.
This short film on the remarkable designer Deborah Sussman represents the first of a series of conversations with such masters. It was the last interview she filmed.
Masters never run dry on ideas or patience. Despite insanely busy schedules, not one of them turned us down, the inheritors of their craft. And we continue to be inspired by them every day. Today, our own hope is to expand upon the vision they established.
We thank the ADC Hall of Fame laureate Deborah Sussman for allowing us to create this brief portrait.
She never put fame before mastery.
And in this film, it shows.