Clever with Amy Devers

Taylor Levy, half of the multidisciplinary studio CW&T, found adventure and drive early as a competitive skier. Now, Taylor and her life and art partner, Che-Wei Wang, root their practice in transpar…

Baronfig founder, Joey Cofone, grew up in New Jersey learning to speak his mind from his strong, single, adoptive mother. A systems thinker, his lens on the world has always been adept at zooming way…

Ashleigh Axios spent her youth entertaining herself with crafts, immersed in her grandma’s world, finding kinship with the neighbors. After college, she gained a unique bouquet of experience that all…

Nancy Baker Cahill spent her youth gaining an appreciation for both civic engagement and dark humor. Her creative passions were ignited with a powerful youth arts program, but then went dormant for a…

Interior designer and star of Netfllix’s Queer Eye, Bobby Berk grew up in the rural south, feeling like an outsider. Before coming out as gay, he struggled with anger, depression and tension with his…

Principal of Commune Design, Roman Alonso grew up in Caracas Venezuela, often traveling around in a motorhome with his family to escape to nature, before moving to Miami as a teenager. He attended Bo…

Fashion designer Mimi Plange talks to Amy and Jaime about being born in Ghana, growing up in California, and nurturing herself on a steady diet of fantasy movies. She's always known she’d become a fa…

LA-based interior designer Kelly Wearstler recounts to Amy and Jaime the journey from creating and selling crafts in her youth to building her namesake global lifestyle brand. Along the way she's wor…

Artist and designer, Chris Schanck, moved upwards of 22 times in his youth. He credits Uncle Rocco with firing up his creative engine at an early age, and an arts magnet school in adolescence with “s…

Designer, artist, author & influencer Justina Blakeney spent her youth teaching art to abused/neglected teenage girls at a residential treatment program run by her parents, where she witnessed the he…

Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister did not care for engineering in high school. He found designing a poster that would communicate a vibe and draw crowds to an event to be way more compelling. After …

Digital designer and writer Amélie Lamont is a native New Yorker and daughter of Jamaican immigrants. A self-proclaimed nerd, she grew up reading Encyclopedia Britannica and teaching herself to code.…

This Old House Master Carpenter Norm Abram charms Jaime and Amy with stories of a youth spent building pinewood derby cars and learning the trade from his father, who lives on in the walls of the hou…

Design entrepreneur and founder of Colony, the designer’s co-op, Jean Lin, grew up in suburban Massachusetts as one of a handful of non-white kids. With two brothers, she was a card-carrying tomboy u…

Multidisciplinary designer and art director, Luca Nichetto, grew up in Murano, Italy, steeped in the glassmaking traditions of the region and his ancestors. He got started in design by selling his dr…

Airbnb’s Global Head of Marketing, Hiroki Asai, grew up riding his BMX through the orchards of Cupertino, CA. But it was the visual language of skateboard culture that ensnared his creative imaginati…

Beat Baudenbacher was born in Switzerland, where he grew up exposed to the dynamic artistic world through his mother and the rational lens through his surgeon dad. Always fascinated by words, he fell…

Co-Founder of Deem Journal, designer Nu Goteh was born in Liberia and came to the US with his family as a refugee at the age of 3. His first career ambition, as a model son of African parents, was to…

Chief Curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, Llisa Demetrios grew up in a family of brilliant sculptors, authors, and designers. Her mother’s parents were none other than Charles and R…

Ceramicist, author, entrepreneur, photographer and public speaker Rob Forbes is likely best known for founding Design Within Reach, but his accolades expand beyond this accomplishment. He grew up a s…