Design Education Talks ep. 62 – Bradford Hansen-Smith

Lefteris Heretakis

The Second Mountain: John McFaul’s Search for Purpose in Design – Design Education Talks

Get in touch!Today on Design Education Talks, we’re joined by John McFaul , Executive Creative Director, Brand Consultant, Educator, and one of those rare, restless creatives who has never quite fitted into the neat boxes the world tries to offer. From the Wirral to New York, from art school misfit to brand visionary, John's career is a vivid testament to curiosity, risk-taking, and cultural immersion.He began his journey believing he was a failure for choosing Art & Design over Oxford or Cambridge , until his foundation year transformed everything. Since then, John’s path has included studying at Kingston, a brief stint at Central Saint Martins, and pioneering the early fusion of illustration, digital tools and boundary-breaking design. He co-founded Black Convoy, then launched McFaulStudio, working with clients like Nike, Levi’s, New Balance, Brand Jordan, and more , often blending art, fashion, photography, and culture into truly genre-defying work.After closing McFaul-Day in 2024, having led a decade-long partnership with New Balance and other major lifestyle brands, John now finds himself at a turning point , what he calls the “Second Mountain.” Diagnosed with ADHD and fuelled by a desire to create work with more purpose and community impact, he is exploring new models of creative leadership and education.In the classroom, John is known for bringing raw honesty, boundless cultural insight, and a powerful message: that creativity is messy, emotional, and deeply human. He speaks openly about failure, process, and the dangers of marketised education, and he champions a design education rooted in risk, curiosity, and authenticity.Whether consulting global brands or inspiring the next generation, John McFaul remains a passionate advocate for creative freedom, experimentation, and meaningful cultural engagement.Welcome, John.this is hilarious!Support the showSince its inception in 2019, Design Education Talks podcast has served as a dynamic platform for the exchange of insights and ideas within the realm of art and design education. This initiative sprang from a culmination of nearly a decade of extensive research conducted by Lefteris Heretakis. His rich background, intertwining academia, industry, and student engagement, laid the foundation for a podcast that goes beyond the conventional boundaries of educational discourse.See all of our work on on https://linktr.ee/thenewartschoolFollow us on twitter at @newartschoolRead our latest articles at https://newartschool.education/and https://heretakis.medium.com/Equipment used to produce the podcast:Rodcaster pro IIRode NT1 5th generationElgato Low profile Microphone ArmMonster Prolink Studio Pro microphone cableThe rest of the equipment is here 👉https://kit.co/heretakis/podcasting
  1. The Second Mountain: John McFaul’s Search for Purpose in Design
  2. From MIT to IDEO: Sheng-Hung Lee on the Future of Design and Education
  3. Zines, Books, and Beyond: The Practice of Jac Batey
  4. Costume as Sculpture: The Worlds of Gwen van den Eijnde
  5. Design Education Talks: Brian Grimwood – The Illustrator Who Rewrote the Rules

NEW YEARS SPECIAL PODCAST WORKSHOP!!!

Bradford Hansen-Smith spent the first half of his life as a sculptor; then it changed. Inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller he took ten years to educate himself in geometry and math seeing that it all goes back to the image we draw of the circle. The next thirty-two years he has been exploring folding circles with people interested. Without any degree, and no certification, he taught folding circles in and out of classrooms, from first grade through college level, working with teachers, presenting internationally a new approach to geometry and mathematics, a new way to do and think about what we do. During that time, he has written seven books and has published papers on folding circles.

He calls this approach Wholemovement, folding the circle for information. It is comprehensive through the hand-on experience of folding the circle as unity and observing what is revealed. This is about the transforming changes of order and organization all in one place; nothing is added or taken away. Information is not constructed or put into the circle. Through a principled sequence of folding, observing, and reforming, the directives for the process are inherent to unity in the circle, it is whole. Folding the circle demonstrates spherical unity beyond all other shapes and forms. It is about learning to see what is not seen, attending to what we do, and to use what is revealed to discover what we do not know. This provides any folder with experience to know circles are not what we are told they are, they are so much more: as it is with most information we are given.
 
His work can be found at; 
https://www.wholemovement.com/
https:// http://www.facebook.com/wholemovementSupport the show

Follow us on twitter at @newartschool
Visits us on https://linktr.ee/thenewartschool
Read our latest articles at https://heretakis.wordpress.com/
and https://heretakis.medium.com/

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Published by Lefteris Heretakis

Navigating you through the disruption in #art, #design and #designeducation.

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