Everything Is Experience Design: Bruce Mau Opens SEGD’s Voices of Experience Series

May 21, 2025

Cybelle Jones

The first time I heard Bruce Mau speak about experience design, I remember feeling a deep sense of alignment—not just with his words, but with his values. He wasn’t talking about design as output but as responsibility. He framed design as the act of shaping systems, behaviors, and futures. It was humbling. And it was galvanizing.

That’s why I’m so honored to kick off SEGD’s new film series, Voices of Experience, with none other than Bruce Mau as our inaugural featured SEGD Fellow.

This project has been over a year in the making—lovingly filmed and produced by Lorem Ipsum Corp. with direction by Abigail Honor, who, coincidentally, is premiering her latest project The Chronology of Water this week in Cannes to a six-minute standing ovation. Abigail’s work behind the camera for Voices of Experience is just as remarkable—her lens captures not just people, but purpose.

And Bruce Mau embodies purpose in abundance.

A Visionary Career, A Life-Centered Philosophy

It’s been nearly 30 years since Bruce co-authored the groundbreaking 6-pound, 1,300-page tome S,M,L,XL with Rem Koolhaas. That book redefined the boundaries of architecture and design and launched Bruce onto the global stage. Since then, he’s taken on projects that range from rebranding Guatemala to redesigning Mecca.

But what’s most powerful about Bruce is not the scope of his projects—it’s the depth of his belief in design as a force for good.

As Anne Quito writes in her SEGD essay, Virgil for Wayward Times, designers are called not just to make things—but to make meaning. To guide. To serve. And Bruce does that through what he calls life-centered design—a philosophy that places all living systems at the heart of the design process.

That’s not just theory. Right now, Bruce is mentoring a cohort of students at Arizona State University, helping them tackle homelessness through community-designed solutions. He’s launching a course at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, as the inaugural Phillip A. Levy Fellow, that asks students to consider how their design choices impact all life—not just human life. He’s working with Indigenous communities, government agencies, and the private sector to confront what he calls “the seven wicked problems:” Cities, Climate, Health, Energy, Empowerment, Demographics, and Learning.

And he’s doing it all with a boundless sense of optimism.

We were thrilled to welcome seven of Bruce’s ASU students into the SEGD community as members this month as part of our Membership May initiatives. They carry his torch, asking better questions, designing for dignity, and helping all of us imagine what’s possible.

This is why we launched Voices of Experience. These films aren’t just profiles. They’re invitations. To listen. To learn. To connect. And to be reminded that, in Bruce’s words:

“How we live is the great question of the millennium.”

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Film Premiere: SEGD’s Voices of Experience with Bruce Mau

Watch the premiere episode of Voices of Experience featuring Bruce Mau. Bookmark the Vimeo Showcase to follow all the episodes in Voices of Experience.

Join us every two weeks as we release new short films honoring the SEGD Fellows—designers who have made the invisible visible and changed the way we experience the world.

Because in wayward times, we need guides. We need mentors. We need voices of experience.