Meet Nneka McGuire IIDA's Director of Content

Aug 13, 2024 By Laura Botham

From newsrooms to television writers’ rooms, IIDA HQ's newest addition is excited to build a more inclusive, equitable design industry and world

By Laura Botham Aug 13, 2024

Published in Articles

The compelling power of words and language captured Nneka McGuire since childhood, and has followed her throughout her life. With a career spanning journalism, content marketing, and anime, McGuire brings her power to harness the magic and potential of language and storytelling to the IIDA team as our new director of content. In this role, she hopes to evolve the way that we foster community, share knowledge, and grow this industry together.

You’re IIDA’s new Director of Content—what will this role entail?

Nneka McGuire: This role involves planning and editing content for IIDA’s digital magazine, Perspective, our newsletters, and our website, along with helping conceive of and produce in-person and virtual IIDA programming. The goal is to create content that informs, intrigues, inspires, and empowers IIDA members across the globe.

Tell us a little about yourself, and how your background and experiences will contribute to your new role at IIDA?

NM: I love words, always have. Growing up, Scrabble was a popular game in my household. I’m deeply drawn to language—the way it can persuade, inspirit, enlighten, and move people. It’s no surprise I pursued a career that revolves around writing. Previously, I was a writer and editor at the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post, and later spent a few years as a freelance writer, working on everything from content marketing to book reviews to a Singaporean anime series. In this new role, I’m eager to help shape and amplify the story of IIDA and highlight our members’ incredible work. Design, like writing, is everywhere, and I am thrilled to use the latter to promote the former.

What’s your vision for how we investigate design, and invest in the design community over the next few years?

NM: I think the best way to investigate design, or any field, is through its practitioners. IIDA already spotlights design professionals in our digital magazine, Perspective, and through in-depth panel discussions via our webinar series, Collective Design. I see us deepening that coverage in the future, creating more opportunities for a vast spectrum of design professionals to share their projects, insights, perspectives, and innovations, offering the wider IIDA community a sense of how the profession is shifting and evolving. One way I hope to invest in the design community is by increasing the visibility of our amazing members, and fostering more collaboration, networking, and knowledge sharing.

McGuire and husband Jeffrey Samuels at their nuptuals in Italy. Image courtesy of Nneka McGuire

McGuire and friends. Image courtesy of Nneka McGuire

What are you most looking forward to in this new role?

NM: I believe we all play a role in shaping the future we’d like to see. IIDA is incredibly future-focused, evidenced by our programming—from a new certification course built in partnership with respected quantitative futurist Amy Webb to our education pathway program, Design Your World, built to expose more diverse students to design careers. I’m looking forward to contributing to IIDA’s efforts to build a more inclusive, equitable design industry and world.

What are you inspired by, and what motivates you in and out of the workplace?

NM: I am inspired by well-crafted stories, and that’s not just limited to the written word. Whether it’s a TV series, painting, or beautifully curated space, I’m energized by storytelling that’s thoughtful, specific, and unexpected. I particularly love being surprised. You know that feeling when you reach the conclusion of a story, and the ending feels both surprising and—on second thought—totally inevitable? I live for that.

What do you do like to do to unwind?

NM: I enjoy taking long walks while listening to a podcast or audiobook. My favorite pods are "The Daily" and "Smartless, and I’ve logged many miles listening to audiobooks like Christoffer Carlsson’s Blaze Me a Sun and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Lately, I’ve also gotten into strength training—a surprise to everyone who knows me (myself included) because I am by no means athletic. Strangely, when I’m lifting something heavy, it’s easier to set aside whatever’s weighing on my mind.