The Creative Boom Podcast

In this charming conversation, Emily Penny, brand strategist and founder of Be Colourful, shares her creative insights and whimsical thoughts. She playfully insists that Kate Winslet should portray her in a movie and recounts her hill to die on: the essential collaboration between copy and design. Emily reflects on the joys of solo travel, her love for condiments, and her childhood magazine venture. With a lighthearted belief in fairies, she envisions a hopeful future for design, emphasizing the importance of human intuition amid change.

Emily Penny, a brand strategist with over 25 years of experience and founder of Be Colourful, dives into the issue of design studios blending into the crowd. She discusses her findings from the Fully Saturated report, highlighting how fear and sameness hinder creativity. Emily introduces her Brand Strand framework, offering 18 strategies for studios to embrace their uniqueness. She emphasizes the importance of authenticity, the value of community, and positioning as key to success in a competitive industry.

We're back with another instalment of The Spark, Creative Boom's bonus episode that gets under the skin of each week's guest. This time, host Katy Cowan is joined by Claire Blyth, founder of Red Setter and a passionate advocate for design PR. In this light-hearted after-show, Claire shares the rituals that keep her grounded, the superstition she secretly (or not so secretly) follows, and the teenage scents that instantly take her back. She reminisces about nights out at the legendary Hacienda, admits the last time she felt out of her depth, and reveals the music icon she'll always worship. It's fun, personal and full of surprises – the perfect companion to her full conversation with Katy, released earlier this week.

Claire Blyth, founder of the PR agency Red Setter, shares her insights on the evolving landscape of public relations in an AI-driven world. She highlights the necessity of human connection amid declining traditional media and the rise of generative AI. Claire discusses the challenges of maintaining authenticity and trust in PR, as well as the importance of quality journalism over clickbait. Additionally, she reflects on her personal journey with public speaking and the need for agencies to engage meaningfully with their audiences.

In a playful and candid conversation, legendary designer Brian Collins shares insights from his creative journey. He reveals why he ignores conventional presentation advice, his secret wish to master postmodern dance, and his unwavering defense of team ideas. Brian describes Oreos as the ultimate cookie, akin to a perfect design, and explains why orange is his defining color. He reflects on the importance of helpfulness over happiness and names Pablo Neruda as his dream dinner guest, all while showcasing his trademark humor and creativity.

In this episode of The Creative Boom Podcast, Katy Cowan sits down with Brian Collins – the legendary co-founder of COLLINS, the design company behind work for Spotify, Dropbox and Mailchimp – for a conversation that's part masterclass, part storytelling, and entirely unforgettable. Brian reveals how a childhood moment involving a bright orange tie taught him the importance of standing out, persistence and courage. He explains his idea of the "second dragon" — why every creative challenge hides a deeper problem beneath the obvious one – and how this philosophy has shaped COLLINS' approach to some of the world's biggest brands. He also shares a health scare that forced him to confront what really mattered, his unflinching take on AI as an "alien intelligence" that creatives must learn to work with, and why he gave up chasing happiness in favour of something far more powerful. It's a big, generous episode with lessons on resilience, imagination and the future of design... all told with Brian's trademark humour, wit and energy.

We're back with another instalment of The Spark, Creative Boom's bonus episode that gets under the skin of each week's guest. Host Katy Cowan is joined this time by Haraldur 'Halli' Thorleifsson – designer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of Ramp Up Reykjavik. In this playful after-show, Halli reflects on the first book that changed him, the moments he's felt out of his depth, and the creative hill he'd happily die on. He opens up about the small rituals that keep him going, the impulsive adventures that shaped him, and even lets slip who he'd invite to his dream dinner party. It's thoughtful, funny and full of surprises – the perfect companion to his full conversation with Katy, released earlier this week.

Haraldur 'Halli' Thorleifsson, a designer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, shares his journey from co-founding the Ueno agency to founding Ramp Up Reykjavik, which builds wheelchair ramps for accessibility. He discusses how personal loss and living with muscular dystrophy have fueled his compassion and creativity. Halli emphasizes the importance of leading with kindness, confronting addiction, and finding purpose in his work. Their chat touches on resilience, the impact of small accessibility fixes, and the value of lifelong friendships.

We're back with a brand-new season of The Spark, Creative Boom's bonus episode that gets under the skin of each week's guest. Host Katy Cowan is joined once again by Paul Benney – co-founder of Jockey Slut, Bugged Out! and the biannual magazine Disco Pogo. In this episode, Paul reveals the discipline he secretly wishes he was good at, admits who has sparked a little creative envy, and shares the small rituals that make his days brighter. He talks about the scents that instantly take him back to childhood, the historical figure he'd love to swap lives with, and the one thing he wishes he could believe in. From emojis to dream dinner guests, it's a playful and candid conversation that lets us see another side to one of electronic music's most enduring publishers.

Kicking off the new season of The Creative Boom Podcast, host Katy Cowan sits down with Paul Benney – co-founder of the cult dance magazine Jockey Slut, the legendary club night Bugged Out! and, today, the beautifully crafted biannual Disco Pogo. Paul looks back at the golden days of music magazines and club culture in the '90s, sharing stories of launching a fanzine on a shoestring, running sell-out nights that booked Daft Punk, and building a magazine that captured the spirit of electronic music. He also talks candidly about burnout, the collapse of Jockey Slut, and what it took to start again. With Disco Pogo, Paul has found a way to honour the past while creating something fresh for today – a print magazine rooted in authenticity, community, and the stories behind the music. This is a conversation about resilience, reinvention and keeping the magic alive in a changing industry.