Tangent
Designed a speaker series to bring in outside perspectives and spark new ways of thinking across a multidisciplinary design organization.
Role: Experience Design & Strategy Lead
Scope: Gensler NYC · 750+ designers · monthly series
Overview
Tangent is a speaker series designed to inspire new ways of thinking by introducing perspectives from fields outside of design.
At Gensler NYC, a multidisciplinary team of 750+ designers worked across architecture, interiors, strategy, and digital experience. Despite this diversity, teams often operated in silos and had limited exposure to perspectives beyond their immediate disciplines.
In response, I designed Tangent as a recurring experience that brings in voices from tangential fields, creating space for curiosity, cross-disciplinary dialogue, and creative inspiration.
Impact
Tangent demonstrated how consistent exposure to outside perspectives can shift
how people think, work, and engage with their creative process.
750+ designers reached across disciplines
Monthly recurring series embedded into studio culture
95% of attendees reported it changed how they approach their work
85% reported sustained interest and relevance
Increased cross-disciplinary dialogue and engagement
Designing the Experience
The experience was designed to make unfamiliar perspectives accessible, engaging, and directly relevant to designers’ everyday work, while building a repeatable system that could scale across the organization.
Each session invited speakers from outside design to respond to a central question:
“How might your field inspire us as designers?”
This framing created a clear bridge between disciplines, helping attendees connect new ideas back to their own work.
The series was designed as an ongoing program rather than a one-off event, with a consistent rhythm, format, and environment that made it easy to sustain over time. Hosting the experience in the Work Café transformed an existing social space into an open, informal setting that encouraged interaction and spontaneous discovery.
Principles
Outside perspectives → spark new ways of thinking
Framing for relevance → connects ideas back to design practice
Informal environment → lowers barriers to participation
Ongoing cadence → builds culture over time
Curated speakers → maintain quality and inspiration
Featured Speakers
Inviting speakers in tangential fields from film producers, set designers, chefs, psychologists, to toy designers and beyond.
Ryan Cunningham, Comedy Producer & Emmy, Peabody Award-winning Producer of Broad City
Cas Holman, Toy Designer
AccidentallyWesAnderson, Urbanist
Lakshmi Rengarajan, Human Connection Designer
Michael Offerman, Brand Sustainability at Redscout
Bradford Shellhammer, VP of Buyer Experience at eBay
Alex Blau, Behavioral Scientist at Ideas42
Peter Himmelman, Singer/Songwriter
Derek Gruen, Musician from Scissor Sisters
Designing for Creative Expansion
Innovation often comes from connecting ideas across disciplines.
By introducing outside perspectives and framing them in a way that feels relevant, Tangent created a space for designers to rethink their assumptions and approach their work differently.
This project reinforced that designing for innovation is not just about generating ideas, but about creating the conditions where new ways of thinking can emerge.
“It’s inspiring to learn from other creative processes and the types of challenges they solve”
95% of people agree that something they heard in Tangent made them approach something differently
“Just listening to someone that is a high performer in any creative, scientific or athletic endeavor is inspiring”
85% agree that Tangent…
Aligns with Gensler culture
Good use of their time
Interest was sustained
