Bill Kurland Loves Punk Rock

Dye your hair blue and rip your jeans, because Bill Kurland is joining us to talk about his love for punk rock. He talks about getting exposed to punk at a young age and embracing the do-it-yourself ethos. Bill criticizes the policing of authenticity within punk communities, and describes having a "meta-punk" approach where he sometimes deliberately went against punk norms. He rejects the nihilistic "destroy everything" attitude associated with some in punk, and instead talks about his appreciation for the sense of community punk represents for him, before recommending albums for newcomers to the genre.

Guest Bio

Bill Kurland (he/they) is a misfit. A former musician, he's spent the last 15 years working at the intersection of brand strategy and experience design. He's built, grown and led high-performing teams through transformation at organizations of all sizes—from unicorn startups to Fortune 15 corporations. Currently, he's a Global Experience Design Director at McDonald's, leading the cross-disciplinary Design Foundations group, consisting of Accessibility, Design Systems, Design Technology, and UX Writing teams.

Links

Bill’s website: billkurland.com

Design Downtime Punk playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1sBLGREySZYXfrCHdccCWs?si=JeCfE0V_S1OnrH2Im7xquw&pi=jHy53RCdRlS0h

Bill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-kurland

Credits

Cover design by Raquel Rubio Breternitz.