DesignThinkers Podcast

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.

This week's guest is Forest Young. Forest just announced his new position at Fundamentalco, where he leads the design discipline for new economy clients as part of a senior business acceleration team, with singular focus on value creation. Prior to that, Forest has been the Global Head of Brand at Rivian and the Chief Creative Officer at Wolff Ollins. In this episode, we talk about the past, present and future of design. We cover his comfort level as a speaker, the responsibility of designers working in innovative tech spaces, and what transitioning between agency and in-house environments has taught him about making work. 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 Ellen Lupton. Ellen is a designer, writer, and educator. She’s written and contributed to at least thirty books including Thinking With Type and Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers. She teaches in the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (MICA), where she serves as the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair. She is Curator Emerita at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, where her exhibitions included Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master and The Senses: Design Beyond Vision. Ellen’s practice is really varied, and we talk about what it’s like to wear all the hats she wears and the joy she experiences saying yes to all of the things. She also talks about her role as a design educator, and the challenges and opportunities of teaching an international student body.  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, we hear from John Furneaux RGD. John is Managing Director, Toronto at PS&Co Brand Studio. He’s led his own firm, B3 Strategy and held executive positions at a handful of leading brand consultancies. I’m talking to John about his time at Karacters, who were our DesignThinkers Brand Partner in 2006. That means John helped lead the team who developed the conference identity that year—it turns out he was also RGD President in 2006. We revisit what he remembers about the conference, the identity and his experience being a part of both.  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 the one and only Sagi Haviv. Sagi is a partner and designer at Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv—a firm responsible for some of the most famous logos of all time. Their clients include Chase Bank, NBC, State Farm, OBS, NYU, Animal Planet and the US Open to name a few. Sagi also teaches Visual Identity Design at the School of Visual Arts in New York and has penned a couple of books on the topic of identity design. It’s his dedication to crafting beautiful symbols and his deep knowledge of brands that have made Sagi a compelling DesignThinkers speaker. In this episode, we talk about his early career working under legends Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar, what it means to design a logo today and why presentations are so valuable for our clients.  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 episode features Annie Atkins, a leading voice in the world of graphic props and design for film. Based in Dublin, Ireland, Annie has designed graphic pieces for multiple Oscar-nominated films: including the animated feature The Boxtrolls, Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies and West Side Story, and Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, French Dispatch, and the Grand Budapest Hotel – the latter which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Production Design. We talk about her early career which was full of fits and starts as she found her niche. You can hear her love of history and research throughout the conversation, especially when she talks about designing in character—and the way imperfect assets feel more real.  Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

Welcome to our first bonus episode of the DesignThinkers podcast! Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Brand Partners.  In this episode, I have pleasure of chatting with Vanessa Eckstein, founder of blok design. Vanessa and the team at blok design were our Design Partner in 2002, but Vanessa was involved with the conference since it's very beginning. Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

This week, I sit down with designer, lettering artist, and muralist Lauren Hom. Lauren is best known for turning her passion projects into thriving design businesses. Over the past decade, Lauren has created work for clients like Vans, Target, Google, and Adobe. I’m catching Lauren at the tail end of her most recent side quest: a year-long adventure into the culinary arts. Lauren talks about balancing culinary school with her freelance practice and shares some tactics for committing to personal projects and building creative confidence.  Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.