Design is a phrase that's often used as a catchall for a lot of different disciplines. This podcast is focused on the world of brand design- meaning crafting and creating the identity and look of a brand new brand or updating an old one.To help me navigate through this complex world, the podcast features two guests- Christina Falzano - Managing Director of Conran Design US, and Ben Solomon- VP Creative Director.We discuss how this work is done, what is required to make it successful, and importantly how you sell something that it's subjective in the extreme. 

Lesley Bielby was part of the second wave of account planners who landed on US shores.  She is currently the CSO of Hill Holliday- her second time in this role and has spent time at Digitas, Di Massimo Goldstein. MMB and a number of London shops. She has just written a book - Super Strategist- The Art and Science of Modern Account Planning. It is designed to be a guide to Account Planning today, taking the core principles and craft from the origins back in the late 1960s and merging them with the new demands of data, science that come from the worlds of digital and social. In our conversation, we talk about the evolution of the discipline and the challenges and new demands of it today. Lesley offers a ton of practical and pragmatic observations and insight about what a Strategy Department looks like and how it functions in 2021. She takes a long-term view of talent development asking the individuals in her time to declare a major and two minors, a reflection of the evolution of the Planning discipline, and to ensure that everyone has the comprehensive set of skills required today.

Mo Said heads up the creative shop Mojo Supermarket which includes the likes of Adidas, Fenty, and Netflix as its clients..Mo's story is an inspiring one- he literally clawed his way to the top of the creative tree in advertising after arriving in the US from Lahore, Pakistan as a 17-year-old. He has worked on some of the biggest brands and created a number of award-winning campaigns during his stints at BBDO and Droga5 in New York.His mission now is to develop a company with a truly creative culture- one that nurtures, protects, and inspires its creative talent and at the same time does brilliant, breakthrough, culturally relevant work that puts brands on the map. 

Dan was one of the original team who helped established Innocent Drinks. A brand born in 1998 on the whim of four friends who maxed out their credit cards and found a couple of investors to back them making fruit smoothies. The company sold a majority stake to Coca-Cola in 2010. Dan headed up all things brand at Innocent from its inception to 2018 when he left for Apple. In the podcast, we talk about the genesis and genius of Innocent- what and who it took to build the brand, creating vs. managing, and the importance of teams and collaboration. 

The episode features an interview with Tracey Follows who is a professional futurist. Since the future is what the podcast is supposed to cover, it was fantastic to have Tracey on the show. Tracey started her career in advertising and then moved client-side before taking on senior strategy roles at VCCP and JWT. Most recently she has been working as a futurist and running her own consultancy. Tracey has just authored a new book that explores the future of the individual in the technological age. The book explores the themes of identity, the relationship between man and machine. It's basically a guide to help people understand how to protect their autonomy when the world around them is transforming. From her perspective, we need to be armed with the knowledge to understand the personal and societal implications of bio-hacking, mind-clones, and even more contemporary, health passports.

Aaron Duffy is a director and the co-founder of the agency Special Guest. In the podcast, we talk about his journey from art school into the world of commercials and film direction.  Getting his first break with BBH London who let him loose on an Audi ad that happened to win a Lion in Cannes. He is also one of the creative forces by the iconic Parisian Love spot for Google as well as the highly awarded Chrome Project work. 

Alex Benett-Grant founded Amsterdam shop "We are Pi" when he was 28 and now 10 years later the agency is firmly part of the establishment of indy creative shops- especially after winning the Ad Age International Small Agency of the Year in 2019.Mark Lester is the agency's head of strategy- having joined the shop from R/GA-NY - also in 2019.Our conversation covered many topics from agency culture, working in Amsterdam, the changing ad agency landscape, managing through COVID, and more. 

Bree Groff is a partner at SYPartners and an expert in change.We first talked on this podcast in August 2019 where Bree talked extensively about her background in the world of change management and what it takes to get people to do the difficult thing and change. Fast forward to February 2021 and it seemed like an opportune moment to reconnect with Bree to understand what she was both seeing and doing. This seemed to make sense given that many business analysts are talking about the pandemic moment as a period that has seen change accelerate; with developments that used to take years, now happening in a matter of months. Given that Bree is on the frontline of helping organizations change- we talk about what she's seeing, hearing, and learning. What she thinks are some of the fundamentals of how our working lives have changed and are going to change and her hope for the upcoming "Roaring Twenties"

Alexander Rae and I had the opportunity to interview Carolyn who is the executive creative director at Young & Laramore in Indianapolis.We talked about Indianapolis, the new rules and definitions of creativity, why she loves strategy, and more.Sadly, she never told us she was also a podcaster. I guess we aren't getting invited onto any of her shows. 

Craig Mawdsley and Bridget Angear are two of the biggest names globally in the world of Account Planning.They have not only won every significant strategy award going- including multiple IPA Effectiveness Awards, but their day job was to co-managing the Planning Department at AMV-BBDO in London.Interestingly, I learned that Craig majored in business and Bridget in economics- which is an interesting combo for a planning team at a creative shop, but clearly a nice advantage being able to speak the same language as their clients. Just over a week ago, they left their full-time positions at AMV to start the Craig&Bridget Consultancy.Our conversation was a little all over the place, but it the randomness allowed us to cover a wide range of topics including- the changing demands on strategy, the core skills that strategists need, the challenges brands face, data, and storytelling through to the future of business and life Post-Covid.