Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I catch up with Tina Mackenzie RGD Emeritus. Tina is a very accomplished graphic design manager. In 2012, the award winning in-house graphic design team at the City of Mississauga—which Tina was leading—was invited to be the first ever, in-house group to design DesignThinkers. Listen in as we talk a bit about the importance of that moment both internally and within the industry at large.If you're curious to see and read more about the 2012 DesignThinkers branding, you can do that here. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

This week’s guest has been named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, “one of the most influential designers working today” by GDUSA, and a “Woman of Influence” by Success magazine. It’s author, educator, curator and podcast pioneer, Debbie Millman. I first interviewed Debbie in 2020 as part of our pandemic-era, Virtual DesignThinkers, where we talked at length about Debbie's professional history. (If you're an RGD Member, you can access that conversation at rgd.ca.) But in this episode, we’re talking about how Debbies splits her time between hosting Design Matters, one of the first and longest running podcasts in the world; Being the chair of the first-ever Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts; Supporting PrintMag.com, where she’s a co-owner and Editorial Director; and working on her own design, art and writing projects. We discuss turning down big, shiny, professional roles, the value of growth and risk in your work, and why she believes personal branding is a misguided concept. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

Karin Fong is an Emmy award-winning director and designer. She’s a founding member of Imaginary Forces, where she works at the intersection of live-action, design, and animation. If you’ve watched shows like Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Little Fires Everywhere, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, or feature films like Spider-Man: No Way Home or Slumberland—you’ve encountered Karin’s work. She’s also helmed spots for major brands, including LEGO, Lexus, Target, Google, PlayStation, and Herman Miller. At the root of it all, Karin is a visual storyteller and in this episode, we talk about all the ways the film industry has changed and all the ways it’s stayed the same. Plus, Karin takes us behind-the-scenes and really breaks down the process of designing film titles. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I sit down with Dominic Ayre RGD. Dominic is the Creative Director at Hambly & Woolley, who worked on the conference identity in 2009. Dominic also plays a big role in helping RGD identify DesignThinkers speakers each year, so you’ll hear a little bit about that process too. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

This week’s guest is Steven Heller. Steven is the co-chair and co-founder of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design program. He was a senior art director at the New York Times for 33 years. He is the author or co-author of 200 books, mostly on design and pop culture, and has been contributing editor to PRINT, BASELINE, EYE and other design magazines. You'd know his writing best under the slug The Daily Heller at printmag.com. In this episode, we talk about how he got started, how he’s seen the industry change, and the value of chronicling things to better understand our experiences. It’s a meandering conversation—the best kind of conversation in my opinion. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

This week’s guest is Erin Sarofsky. Erin is an internationally heralded creative, regularly chosen by brand and entertainment titans to lead their most artful storytelling projects. Erin launched Sarofsky Corp in 2009, in Chicago’s West Loop. The firm has forged long standing relationships in the advertising and entertainment industries, but they’re best known for their main title sequences for movies like: “Peacemaker,” “The Staircase”,  “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “We Were the Lucky Ones,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and, of course,  “Community.” In this episode, Erin and I talk about the challenges of bouncing between our creative and business brains. We spend a lot of time talk about what it takes to build a sustainable creative business, (i.e. cash flow). And we wrap up by talking about The Skrimps, Erin’s adorable and hilarious AI-generated characters.  Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I chat with Mike Kelar and Mikey Richardson. Their titles are both Co-Founder and Co-ECD at Jacknife. In 2008, the year they were our Design Partner, Mike and Mikey were working as AmoebaCorp. They took a very hands-on approach to the work but I’ll let them tell you more. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

This week’s guest is a DesignThinkers favourite. Aaron Draplin lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He makes work, under the moniker Draplin Design Co., for rock bands, comedians, restaurants, festivals and leftie politicians. He also makes typefaces, for the recently launched DDC Fonts, and has a DDC merch line that’s produced over 350 products. In 2016, he published his first book, titled “Pretty Much Everything”. It’s now in its twelfth printing! In this week’s episode, we talk about the immense privilege of living a creative life, the value of making work for the big bucks and not so big bucks, and what Aaron is thinking about now as he enters his next decade. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

This week's guest is Pentagram partner, Michael Bierut. Michael has been at Pentagram for more than 30 years. He's led projects for clients like The New York Times, MIT Media Lab, Mastercard, Princeton University, and the New York Jets. He's also the cofounder of the Design Observer and has authored countless books on graphic design. In this episode, we talk about his early career landing in New York City in 1980. We discuss his first job, working at Vignelli Associates, and what it was like to unravel that influence later in his career. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

In this Bonus Episode of the DesignThinkers podcast, I sit down with Glenda Rissman and Darrell Corriveau of q30 design. Glenda co-founded q30 design with Peter Scott in 1991, Darrell joined as Creative Director Interactive, in 1993. Today Glenda is a regular civilian, having retired from the industry, while Darrell is still at q30 as their VP of Digital. We caught up about the DesignThinkers identity they worked on in 2007, one that was a big step forward into the world of interactivity. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.