Ted Audio Collective.

Audio Collective.

This is Design Matters with Debbie Millman from design observer.com.

On this program, Debbie Millman talks with Sophie Blackall

about learning to draw, about the difference between painting and illustration and how she got into illustrating

and also writing children's books.

There is something slightly subversive, I think, that does thread through even the children's books and that's definitely left

over from my painting days.

Here's in children's books and now on the New York City subway.

Her subway poster displays a motley strip of characters.

What else?

Writing the subway.

They're varied and eccentric and so lovingly drawn that it makes you see the real

strangers right next to you on the train just a little bit differently. That same

delight in strangers informs one of Blackall's most public projects,

Miss Connections, where she illustrates her favorite Craigslist postings from that famous online board.

She chooses them carefully, of course. Here is a favorite. We shared

a bear suit. Sophie Blackall, welcome to Design Matters. Thank you.

It's lovely to be here.

So the first question I want to ask you is this.

Is it true that you love drawing animals

but are ashamed to say that you almost always want to put clothes on them?

...