In this episode of the Thinking through Design podcast, host Adam Fromme sits down with Dedié Adissem.
“It’s your job. It’s your duty to care.”
Dedié Adissem
This is included in a three-part series with students in the Mayo Peer-to-peer Mentorship Program. The program is named after Dr. Noel Mayo, a retired Professor in the Department of Design, Ohio Eminent Scholar, and owner of Noel Mayo Associates, the first African American industrial design firm in the United States.
This episode is a conversation on mentorship, memory, and the deeper meaning behind a life in design. Rather than centering on accolades or outcomes, this episode offers a quiet meditation with Dedié Adissem, a graduating senior from the Industrial Design program at The Ohio State University, on care—what it means to care about the people we work with, the ideas we pursue, and the world we design for. Through personal stories and poetic fragments, the conversation reflects on how mentorship often unfolds in small, often unnoticed moments.
Design isn’t just about making things. It’s about remembering, relating, and paying attention. Rather than offering a definitive statement about what a designer is, they offer this: It’s your duty to care. A simple but profound ethic that continues to shape how they move through the world. This episode captures a pause before transition, offering a look at the values that endure even as projects end and paths shift.
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