DESIGNHEADS: Reggie James
What’s design got to do with it?
7.2.22
DESIGNHEADS is an interview series profiling the next generation of designers, tastemakers, and creatives *shaking up* the design world.
![]()
Name: Reggie James
Age: 27
Location: Brooklyn
Instagram: @hipcityreg
Website: https://hipcityreg.substack.com/
Are you a designer? Why or why not?
I think so. My process typically starts with writing though. I let my subconscious do like 90% of the work. And then I’ll sit down for hours and crank out a fully formed essay. And that tends to kick off a lot of conversation, sketches, extended concepts -> that turn into “designed works”. Text is an undervalued part of the design canon, yet it governs (particularly in America) so much of our lived reality and codified values. So I feel that starting with writing is one of my edges.
One word to describe your take on design: lived
The last thing you made: An essay for Enzo the Magazine
The next thing you want to make: those are company secrets
A designed object you adore: Pioneer CDJs
![]()
A designed object you can’t stand the sight of:
never give your opps free clout like that, but Bored Apes
A moment of pure creative joy:
I was sitting in church listening to my dad’s sermon, and I had a vision of what a prayer chapel could look like. And I sketched the whole thing down, posted that I needed some help rendering it. And we made nearly exactly what was in my head.
When we say “designing the future,” what comes to mind?:
I think it’s an aspiration to know that what we are creating has a place in the future. Coming from technology, people are obsessed with trying to create an effort that lands at the center of some imagined future. But I think that framework is wrong. Because you’re already stating an endpoint for the work. The line you draw starts today, and ideally gets thicker overtime forever.
![]()
If you could show your work to anyone in the world, who would it be?:
Ye
Your aesthetic embodied as a...
sound?: Bon Iver vocalizer on 715-CREEKS
color?: varsity green
texture?: stained glass (does that count?)
Your *grail*: if you could own one iconic design work, what would it be?:
Dune Sofa
What’s next for you?:
I need a vacation, so going to Italy with bae and getting inspired.︎
Interested in being featured?
**Send your responses to the following prompts AND a hi-res full body photo to hello@pinkessay.space**
7.2.22
DESIGNHEADS is an interview series profiling the next generation of designers, tastemakers, and creatives *shaking up* the design world.
Name: Reggie James
Age: 27
Location: Brooklyn
Instagram: @hipcityreg
Website: https://hipcityreg.substack.com/
Are you a designer? Why or why not?
I think so. My process typically starts with writing though. I let my subconscious do like 90% of the work. And then I’ll sit down for hours and crank out a fully formed essay. And that tends to kick off a lot of conversation, sketches, extended concepts -> that turn into “designed works”. Text is an undervalued part of the design canon, yet it governs (particularly in America) so much of our lived reality and codified values. So I feel that starting with writing is one of my edges.
One word to describe your take on design: lived
The last thing you made: An essay for Enzo the Magazine
The next thing you want to make: those are company secrets
A designed object you adore: Pioneer CDJs
A designed object you can’t stand the sight of:
never give your opps free clout like that, but Bored Apes
A moment of pure creative joy:
I was sitting in church listening to my dad’s sermon, and I had a vision of what a prayer chapel could look like. And I sketched the whole thing down, posted that I needed some help rendering it. And we made nearly exactly what was in my head.
When we say “designing the future,” what comes to mind?:
I think it’s an aspiration to know that what we are creating has a place in the future. Coming from technology, people are obsessed with trying to create an effort that lands at the center of some imagined future. But I think that framework is wrong. Because you’re already stating an endpoint for the work. The line you draw starts today, and ideally gets thicker overtime forever.
If you could show your work to anyone in the world, who would it be?:
Ye
Your aesthetic embodied as a...
sound?: Bon Iver vocalizer on 715-CREEKS
color?: varsity green
texture?: stained glass (does that count?)
Your *grail*: if you could own one iconic design work, what would it be?:
Dune Sofa
What’s next for you?:
I need a vacation, so going to Italy with bae and getting inspired.︎
︎︎︎
**Send your responses to the following prompts AND a hi-res full body photo to hello@pinkessay.space**