This spring, the acclaimed Insights Design Lecture Series returns to the Walker Art Center in partnership with AIGA Minnesota. The annual series presents leading designers and design thinkers from around the world. This year’s program pairs four in-person lectures with expanded online programming, exploring the evolving studio through a variety of perspectives and approaches.
On March 5, Insights 2025 kicks off with a lecture from Philadelphia-based Shannon Madonado, Creative Director and founder of Yowie. Programming continues throughout the month with talks from Actual Source founders JP Haynie and Davis Ngarupe; Zeynep Orbay, Amsterdam-based creative director for Wieden+Kennedy; as well as Odd Mart, a local “store of the strange” and epicenter for new approaches to comics and illustration.
“The Walker Design Studio has a decades-long engagement at the leading edge of design practice, and this year we have been thinking a lot about world-making and shopkeeping,” said Walker Design Director Mark Owens. “Whether through retail spaces, online stores, brands, or comic books, this year’s speakers each bring the tools of design to the creation of singular, total environments whose reach is simultaneously fiercely local and far-reaching.”
Free expanded engagements include workshops exploring the possibilities of creating tangible, physical forms using digital learning, breaking past the unadventurous inherent in AI writing, and collaborating with printers to discover new processes. A guest-edited series on the Walker Reader by Unknown Unknowns will explore the relationship between physical and digital publishing.
For more than 30 years, Insights has brought together leading designers from around the world to explore innovations, trends, and possibilities in the field of design. Prior speakers have ranged from luminaries such as Sheila de Bretteville, April Greiman, Lance Wyman, Lorraine Wild, Cornel Windlin, and Armand Mevis, to vanguard artist/designers like Martine Syms, Bráulio Amado, Bart de Baets, and Sara de Bondt. Additional information about the 2025 program follows.
Insights 2025 Design Lecture Series
March 5–April 5, 2025
Walker Art Center
INSIGHTS 2025 DESIGN LECTURES
Shannon Maldonado, Yowie
Wednesday, March 5, 7 pm
$24 ($19 Walker and AIGA members; $10 students)
Walker Cinema
Trained as a fashion designer, Shannon Maldonado shifted her practice to focus on interiors and objects with the opening of Philadelphia retail boutique Yowie in 2016. Embracing a minimal and cozy aesthetic, Yowie gathered a cornucopia of design objects produced and sourced from around the world. Merging studio practice with hospitality, in 2024 Yowie launched Yowie Hotel, recently named one of the top hotels in the world by Travel + Leisure, and Wim, a “day cafe” located next door. A unique space combining hotel, retail, and studio, Yowie continually reconsiders traditional definitions of designer, shop, and host.
Zeynep Orbay, Wieden+Kennedy
Wednesday, March 12, 7 pm
$24 ($19 Walker and AIGA members; $10 students)
Walker Cinema
Amsterdam-based Turkish Creative Director Zeynep Orbay has forged a practice that spans spearheading campaigns for major international brands like Nike and Hennessy with projects that tackle media censorship, LGBTQIA+ rights, and climate change. Working simultaneously globally and locally, Orbay has developed an inclusive approach to design that considers the limits and opportunities found within passion projects, as well as those for clients including Instagram, Samsung, and Montblanc.
Actual Source
Wednesday, March 19, 7 pm
$24 ($19 Walker and AIGA members; $10 students)
Walker Cinema
Founded by Davis Ngarupe and JP Haynie, Provo, Utah’s Actual Source is a design collaborative that spans studio practice, editor, publisher, bookstore, and brand. Working with a community of collaborators, they design and produce a variety of projects, including traditional design work–such as books, visual identities, and interiors for clients like A24 Films, Adidas, and Honda–as well as publishing limited edition books, apparel, and objects. Blurring the lines between traditional boundaries of creative practices, Actual Source reconsiders how design can be collectively created.
Odd Mart
Wednesday, March 26, 7 pm
$24 ($19 Walker and AIGA members; $10 students)
Walker Cinema
Founded in 2023 by Brad McGinty, Odd Mart is the “store of the strange” located in the Uptown district of Minneapolis. Emerging out of GLORP Gum, a small business featuring “the only gum that comes with a free t-shirt,” Odd Mart has mutated into a hub for many of the Twin Cities’ new and emergent approaches to underground comix, illustration, Zines, and more.
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING
Experimenting with Analog Forms and Online Systems
Saturday, March 29, 1 pm
Free
Online
Books are made for readers, but the internet is built for “users”—a distinction that fundamentally shapes how we experience information. This free workshop, led by artist and data scientist Angie Waller of Unknown Unknowns, explores how analog forms can be used to emulate and humorously critique digital spaces. Through online sleuthing and creative experimentation, we’ll reimagine our role in our online ecosystem. We’ll discuss ways design can transform us from passive users into empowered and intentional readers of the internet.
Designer and Printer Collaborations
Saturday, April 5, 1 pm
Free
Online
The relationship between designers and printers is at the core of any book or physical ephemera project. This free online digital workshop pairs leading international printers with designers to present case studies of new technology, collaborative practices, and ways of thinking about what can be achieved with physical print.
TICKETS
Ordering tickets is easy: visit walkerart.org/tickets or call 612.375.7600. Prices include all applicable fees.
ACCESSIBILITY
The in-person Insights Design lectures will have ASL interpretation.
For more information about accessibility at the Walker, visit our Access page.
For questions on accessibility, or to request additional accommodations, call 612.375.7564, or email access@walkerart.org.
ABOUT THE WALKER ART CENTER
The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. Its multiacre campus includes 65,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, the state-of-the-art McGuire Theater and Walker Cinema, and ample green space that connects with the adjoining Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Garden, a partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, is one of the first urban sculpture parks of its kind in the United States and home to the beloved Twin Cities landmark Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Recognized for its ambitious program and growing collection of more than 15,500 works, the Walker embraces emerging art forms and amplifies the work of artists from the Twin Cities and from across the country and the globe. Its broad spectrum of offerings makes it a lively and welcoming hub for artistic expression, creative innovation, and community connection.