The Quickie - Conversations with Designers

Today's guest is Jooahn. He is a graphic designer and lettering artist in New York City. He is currently working at an independent publisher in their children's book division. Jooahn recently had the first book that he designed published and printed. He tells us what the feeling was like getting that book in his hands. On that same project, the first time he designed it he actually did not set it up properly for print and had to go through it again. He shares the lessons he learned with that. Jooahn also recently did a project called the 365 days of hand lettering. Every day for 365 days he created a new hand lettering piece and shared it. He tells us his favourite ones, and the ones he liked the least. He is fairly new to the full-time design game but he does great work and has stories to share! 

Today's guest is Emily Cheung. She is a freelance graphic designer and lettering artist in Vancouver BC. Her first job out of design school was with the marketing team at Whole Foods Market where she was a graphic artist. Emily tells us about the knee injury that gave her the moment of clarity she needed to start focusing on and pursuing the creative career path she had always wanted to. She also doesn't hold anything back when talking about a project she was a part of that did not go well. I'll just say detergent jugs, tube top... We also talk about the project Emily is the most proud of and it was a personal project for her family. Emily is super fun and I had a great time talking with her! 

Today's guest is Jonny Vignola, a Visual Designer freelancing as JV•Creative and a Digital Designer at Crocs. During this episode, we talk about packaging and specifically, action figure packaging! We also talk about the strength of a brand and some of the instantly recognizable brands but just a logo or a color. Jonny shares a story with us about when his constructive criticism was not well received which caused him to have to search for a new job. He also tells us about the Arts and Entertainment district logo for West Palm Beach Florida he was a part of and why it is the project he is the most proud of. 

Today's guests are Paul and Andrea Tetrault, Owners and Creative Directors at Tétro in Winnipeg MB. Tétro has been creating amazing work and serving the Winnipeg area and beyond for over 21 years now. Part 2 of this interview starts with talking about diversity and equality in the workplace as studio owners. Paul and Andrea then tell us about the most challenging time in their career so far, marriage, first home, first child, new studio, all in a very small window. We also talk about making clients cry...in a good way. Making them tear up because they love what you have created for them so much. 

Today's guests are Paul and Andrea Tetrault, Owners and Creative Directors at Tétro in Winnipeg MB. Tétro has been creating amazing work and serving the Winnipeg area and beyond for over 21 years now. Part 1 of this interview is all about their stories and individual journeys to coming together as a couple and then starting the studio. Andrea was more of the "childhood art director", and Paul was more into the fundamentals of design and really understanding the nuts and bolts of it. He tells us about the first logo where design and the "why" really connected for him. We talk about inspirational designers to them and about design in Canada. 

Today's guest is Carly Fairbank, a freelance graphic designer in Vancouver BC, and owner at CarlyFries Co. Carly tells us all about leaving her day job and making the leap to go full-time freelance. We talk about the things she really enjoys about that, but also her least favorite parts of freelancing. She tells us who some of the designers that were an early influence on her creative journey and why. 

Part 2: Today's guest is Anna Belousova, the creative brains and hands at Byallmeans Studio in Prague CR. Anna has customers all over the world and took some time out of her business trip in California to be on the show. During this part of the interview, we talk about the commoditization of design and the importance of design. We also talk about the emotional value of design. Anna shares a detailed story of the project she is the most proud of. What the customer originally asked for, and what the studio presented after applying design thinking to their problem, and the customers response to something they weren't even expecting. 

Part 1: Today's guest is Anna Belousova, the creative brains and hands at Byallmeans Studio in Prague CR. Anna has customers all over the world and took some time out of her business trip in California to be on the show. She tells us that she was always drawing in her childhood and originally wanted to be a fashion designer or maybe involved with architecture. We talk about the events leading up to her falling in love with the graphic side of things and a book about graphic design and Pentagrams work that really fueled her passion. She also shares some of the details on the early days with her studio and what it's like now, 8 months in. 

Today's guest is Jason Craig, an Independant Designer & Illustrator in Augusta GA. Golf Town! Jason shares with us that he is from the "blue-collar" midwest so design and creative was a bit of a right turn initially. He tells us about his first real design project being a 3 on 3 basketball tournament tshirt design, how he took it super seriously, but it was also the same project where he started seeing design and type not working together. He tells us about a job where he was doing poster designs for Kevin Hart and Perez Hall, and a wild story about how he was asked by Pastor Troy to design his album cover art! I huge lesson in his design career came from that too. We also talk about a board room kick in the gut he received after pouring months into a project... So much in this episode!

Today's guest is Joanna Papaleo, a Senior Designer at Instrument in Portland OR. Joanna tells us about her very arts focused childhood. She grew up involved with music, figure skating, musicals, and performing. She always wanted to be a commercial artist. Joanna really fell in love with design and typography through art classes in school. She tells us a story about how she got to meet Jessica Walsh from &Walsh through an AIGA event and what that was like. We also talk about imposter syndrome, how it is a struggle no matter your skill level, and how it might be ok to have...a little bit.