Colby Nichols – Becoming a Professional Dork, Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons & Dragons – Ep49

Colby Nichols – Becoming a Professional Dork, Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons & Dragons – Ep49

Colby is a designer, illustrator, dungeon master for hire, and Art Director of Print Innovation for Magic: The Gathering at Wizards of the Coast. So, besides my partner Meg, Colby is the closest thing to a Wizard I've ever met. lol. Anyway, before joining Wizards, he was a Creative Director and Co-Founder of Jolby, a design and illustration studio he started with his best friend Josh Kenyon. After 12 long years at Jolby, he decided to step away to rediscover his "why" and realized he was spending most of his time writing and playing tabletop games, which convinced him to pursue a role at Wizards. However, long before becoming a professional dork, Colby drew characters from Nintendo Power Magazine like Link from The Legend of Zelda, popped his first pack of Magic cards in 1995, and wanted to be a Sunday morning comic strip artist when he was a kid. Fast-forward through hundreds of D&D sessions, therapeutic Post-It notes, and video games, and Colby has partnered with Nike, Pixar, Nickelodeon, Google, and many other impressive clients throughout his career. He lives by the "Rule of Cool," knows how to "Ride the Weird," and self-published his own light-hearted gothic "Karma Crawl" called Chadwick and the Southern Scourge. Tune in for a talk about following his passion for storytelling and tabletop games, why he stepped away from a design studio he co-founded, and how playing D&D can help you become a better creative professional. Worst case, you get to hear us be reasonably cool-sounding dorks! Follow Colby on Instagram @colbynichols [https://www.instagram.com/colbynichols], and check out more of his work on his website: colbyhichols.com [https://colbynichols.com/]. “You’re gonna need good people way more than you’re gonna need good talent.” Questions for this interview. * What are your Top 3 The Legend of Zelda games? * Can you tell us the story behind the Post-It note that became your lighthouse, and what you wrote on it? * After leaving Jolby, how were you feeling about the industry when you started looking for a new job? Did you have trouble re-entering the job market? * How are you handling the transition from working with so many different clients at Jolby to working in-house at Wizards, where a single brand identity is your focus? * How do you balance emphasizing Secret Lair cards with special finishes and the complexity of the artwork itself? * Can you give us the background on Mood Swings and tell us about your involvement? Why was working on that game a dream come true for you? * Where can you improve as a creative leader? Are there any weaknesses you’ve been working on? * Which creative hill do you hope designers are still dying on a hundred years from today? * How does playing or writing about D&D fuel your creativity, and how do you think D&D can help someone become a better creative professional? --- If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast.  If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi [https://ko-fi.com/studentsofdesign]. Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com [studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com]. Follow @studentsofdesignpod [https://www.instagram.com/studentsofdesignpod/] on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content. The music you hear on the podcast is Accident [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/ezhOxNhwQI/] by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/6KKnMezsM4/] by Nbhd Nick. studentsofdesign.simplecast.com [https://studentsofdesign.simplecast.com/]

Tyler Pate – The Creative Pain, Nickelodeon, and Corporate Design Misconceptions – Ep48

Tyler is a creative leader, art director, and illustrator born "in the sticks" of South Carolina and now based in Los Angeles. You might be familiar with his personal brand, The Creative Pain, an outlet that he uses to process the hurdles, burnout, and doubt that come with the creative journey. Luckily, Tyler grew up with his cousin, Darby, and they competitively pushed each other's creativity. Obsessed with skateboarding culture, Tyler collected graphics and stickers, and even made his own skateboarding wax without burning the house down. Lol.   Like most creative professionals, he studied design in college, Francis Marion University in his case, and he's taken risks throughout his career, like leaving a full-time agency job to move across the country and become a full-time freelancer. His work is full of illustrations of donuts, 90s cartoon characters, and his dog, Iggy, and he's partnered with Adobe, Wacom, POSCA, and StickerApp. Tyler has also created artwork for The Black Keys, Jack White, and Paul McCartney, and he's no stranger to the corporate design world, having worked as an art director on Nickelodeon's consumer products team. At Nickelodeon, he created product guides for some of the network's biggest IPs, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Tune in for a talk about growing up in a town of 750 people, learning to look at design through a consumer-product lens, corporate design misconceptions, and the difference between isometric, dimetric, and trimetric perspectives. Follow Tyler on Instagram @thecreativepain [https://www.instagram.com/thecreativepain], and check out more of his work on his website: thecreativepain.com [https://www.thecreativepain.com/]. “There is no design without discipline. There is no discipline without intelligence.” Questions for this interview. * How do you think your workshop at Crop Conference went? How did the reaction make you feel? * As someone with over 160 thousand Instagram followers and who has worked with some of Nickelodeon’s most recognizable IPs, how does a conference like Crop inspire you, and what kind of value do you get from it? * What’s your favorite thing to teach people that isn’t related to illustration and design? * Do you ever think about how much different your career would be if you had grown up in a city instead of a small town with fewer opportunities? * What steps did you take before leaving your full-time agency job, and how much money did you save beforehand? * How did you feel when you found out Nickelodeon wanted YOU? Did you notice a change in your confidence? * Can you break down how Chris Groll taught you to look at design through a consumer-product lens, and explain why that’s still helpful today? * Can you think of any misconceptions or opinions you had about working in corporate design that turned out to be false? * How long did it take you to learn when to stop adding texture to your illustrations, and how do you know when an illustration is complete? * Can you explain the difference between isometric, dimetric, and trimetric, and then talk about how you create perspective with a custom grid? * If you could only keep one, would you keep the ability to create mood boards or the free transform tool in Adobe Illustrator? * What are you seeing enough of in the creative industry, and what would you like to see more of? --- If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast.  If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi [https://ko-fi.com/studentsofdesign]. Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com [studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com]. Follow @studentsofdesignpod [https://www.instagram.com/studentsofdesignpod/] on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content. The music you hear on the podcast is Accident [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/ezhOxNhwQI/] by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/6KKnMezsM4/] by Nbhd Nick. studentsofdesign.simplecast.com [https://studentsofdesign.simplecast.com/]

Blake Spiegel – Crop Conference, Tattoos, and Visual Rhyming – Ep47

Blake is a designer and art director in Minneapolis with over 10 years of experience working at the intersection of brand strategy and identity. He's the most heavily tattooed person I've interviewed, and he literally traveled across the world to Australia to get tattooed by one of his tattoo heroes—RESPECT. After growing up with computer games, doing kickflips, and helping his grandfather tap trees for maple syrup, he studied graphic design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. After college, he found himself working in corporate packaging design, and a year later, he took a calculated risk by leaving his full-time job for a design internship at Sussner, a branding firm in Minneapolis. Like us, Blake's been through burnout, low-paying gigs, and he's sacrificed more of himself along the way than he realized. Thankfully, he has a portfolio of strategic design work that helps offset those sacrifices. Blake's stepfather is a tattoo artist, so tattoos have always been a part of his life, and they are quite literally THE reason he pursued graphic design—more on that in the interview. Tune in for a talk about Crop Conference, the benefits of using Framer vs. Squarespace to build your portfolio, takeaways from designing brand identities for private clubs and golf courses, and the story behind a logo he designed for a former mobster. Follow Blake on Instagram @blakespiegel [https://www.instagram.com/blakespiegel/] and check out his Framer website spiegeldesign.co [https://www.spiegeldesign.co/]. "Deep down, we're all just a bunch of bones. What really makes us different is what we do with them." Questions for this interview. * Have you ever been to a design conference? * What're you hoping Crop Conference will be like, and what do you want to get out of the experience? * Which National Park was the highlight of the 4,000-mile road trip a few years ago? * During your junior year of high school, your dad said something that changed your career path. Can you tell us what your dad said that day, why you trusted his advice, and why you haven't regretted it since? * Why do you look up to Sam Clark? Then, can you share the story of meeting him, and tell us what you made for him? * You made the jump from Squarespace to Framer. Can you talk about the learning curve, why you made the switch, and the advantages of using Framer over Squarespace? * What is visual rhyming? Can you explain what you mean by that? * Looking back, how did you grow beyond low-paying gigs, and what advice would you give someone experiencing that right now? * Can you give us an overview of your role at Sussner and talk about what you enjoyed most about working in the private club industry?\ * I read that the strategy and design for Thunderbird Country Club took 3 months. What did you do during those three months, and how did you balance honoring the club's past while creating its future? * In general, what are some of your biggest takeaways from working at Sussner? Did you learn anything from Derek that you'll remember throughout the rest of your career? * What do you wish you had learned in college that was missing, and what would you add to the program if you had that ability? * You designed a logo for a former mobster, George "Cowboy" Martorano. What's the origin of that relationship? How did you get involved, and what can you tell us about George's story? --- If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast.  If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi [https://ko-fi.com/studentsofdesign]. Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com [studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com]. Follow @studentsofdesignpod [https://www.instagram.com/studentsofdesignpod/] on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content. The music you hear on the podcast is Accident [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/ezhOxNhwQI/] by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/6KKnMezsM4/] by Nbhd Nick. studentsofdesign.simplecast.com [https://studentsofdesign.simplecast.com/]

Dora Drimalas – Curiosity in All Things, Object Quality, and Working for Nike – Ep46

Dora is the Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director of Hybrid Design in San Francisco, and the Co-Founder of Super7. Over the past 25 years, her studio has worked with some of the most recognizable brands on the planet, including Nike, Apple, Google, YouTube, LEGO, Amazon, TED Conference, The North Face, and many more. Interesting, it all almost didn't happen because she originally chose to study film instead of design at The University of North Texas. Luckily, she met her husband Brian, was exposed to the world of graphic design, and switched her major. I'm glad she did, or else I wouldn't be holding a copy of her studio's monograph, Hybrid: Curiosity in All Things. It's an absolutely beautiful book, filled with amazing work, insights, behind-the-scenes content, and the purpose and inspiration behind everything they do. It's so packed with thoughtful material that it made the interview prep MORE difficult, not easier, because there's SO much amazing work to discuss. Dora has many influences, like Charles and Ray Eames, punk rock, Swiss design, Star Wars, and so much more. Hell, she even listens to Slayer while driving her kids to school, lol. However, one of my favorite things about Dora is that her approach to creativity and her work sits at the intersection of design, content, and culture, guided by the belief that curiosity and play are essential tools for solving real business problems. Tune in for a talk about collecting junk mail, why curiosity is an organizing principle for Hybrid, grid "mathemagic", and why working for Nike in the mid-90s was such a special time in her career. Follow Hybrid Design on IG @hybriddesignsf [https://www.instagram.com/hybriddesignsf/], and check out more of their work on their website hybrid-design.com [https://www.hybrid-design.com/], and buy a copy of Hybrid: Curiosity in All Things [https://victionary.com/products/hybrid-curiosity-in-all-things?srsltid=AfmBOoqgT0UH1pyq9eTrLMW-0RP0cBgC7X0SwrVLrMxp_Zvl1txCVG29] from victionary or your local bookstore. "All projects change. All projects are fluid. All problems are different. Asking questions is the only way forward."  Questions for this interview. * Can you tell us the story about saving all your junk mail before meeting with the CEO of The North Face for the first time? * Can you shed some light on the planning process for The North Face printed catalogs and discuss some of the considerations your team had to make before stepping onto a photoshoot set? * Why is curiosity an organizing principle for Hybrid Design, and how does curiosity show up in your studio and the work you do? * What were Hybrid's internal conversations like about the destructive nature of the perforated pull-tab on the front cover of the Mohawk Maker Quarterly #13? * Do you struggle with feeling like every new thing you make has to be better than the last thing you made? If so, how do you manage those feelings and keep them from becoming a distraction? * Can you explain "Grid Mathemagic" and give us your best PSA for grid systems? * Can you tell us what Object Quality means, and explain why we would do better to think of our print work as object design? * Why was your time at Nike so special, and how did working there during that specific time shape the creative person you've become? * What's the difference between a campaign that simply solves a problem and one that stops us in our tracks? * How can we connect inspiration to our work, and how do we leverage it to strengthen it? * What happens if we loosen our grip and share creativity instead of trying to own it? * Which aspect of the business of design were you awful at 24 years ago, but great at today? --- If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast.  If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi [https://ko-fi.com/studentsofdesign]. Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com [studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com]. Follow @studentsofdesignpod [https://www.instagram.com/studentsofdesignpod/] on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content. The music you hear on the podcast is Accident [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/ezhOxNhwQI/] by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/6KKnMezsM4/] by Nbhd Nick. studentsofdesign.simplecast.com [https://studentsofdesign.simplecast.com/]

Martina Flor – The Lettering Design Roadmap, Building Your Email List, and Typostammtisch – Ep45

Martina Flor is an award-winning lettering artist, author, and educator living in Berlin. She also hosts the Open Studio podcast with over 200 episodes, and she's spoken at over 70 conferences across the globe, including TEDx, Adobe MAX, TypeCon, and many others. She's a lettering POWERHOUSE and has helped thousands of creative entrepreneurs become lettering artists and take their creative businesses to the next level. However, she wasn't always the super-confident person she is today, and it's taken her over a decade to fine-tune her creative business. Way before specializing in lettering, she was a creative director, but eventually hit a breaking point and needed a change in her life. So, she moved to the Netherlands to study type design at the Royal Academy of Art, and moved to Berlin after graduating. There, she started calling herself a lettering artist, joined a group of typographic aficionados, opened her lettering studio, and hasn't looked back since. Martina's an avid reader; in fact, she's written many of her own books, like The Golden Secrets of Lettering [https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Secrets-Lettering-Letter-Artwork/dp/161689573X], The Big Leap [https://www.amazon.com/Big-Leap-Guide-Freelancing-Creatives/dp/1616899565], and Make It [https://www.amazon.com/Make-Creative-Skill-Business-Thrive/dp/B0DB638H28/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36FWNAXXQZVVX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.79mMgeogSv0eqd5U8XbTgA.9SpiVTubp7mHkfJzQk1J18yRAQKhnXqSJKC8-au3a4M&dib_tag=se&keywords=make+it+martina+flor&qid=1773687455&s=books&sprefix=make+it+martina+flo%2Cstripbooks%2C173&sr=1-1]! Her favorite letter to draw is "M," and she can tell you all about the 3 main groups of letters: rectangular, rounded, and triangular. Like so many of us, she thrives within constraints and believes that no brief is the worst brief. Tune in for a talk about why an email list is the most powerful asset for a creative business, how trying to become Ken Barber helped her discover herself, and why printing a set of new business cards changed her life. Follow Martina on Instagram @martinaflor, [https://www.instagram.com/martinaflor] download free lettering resources on her website: martinaflor.com [https://www.martinaflor.com/], and sign up for her FREE annual workshop series, The Lettering Design Roadmap, at martinaflor.com/masterclass [https://www.martinaflor.com/masterclass]. "If not now, then when?" Questions for this interview. * Can you tell us about your Free Live Workshop Series, The Lettering Design Roadmap, and talk about how that series is different from your signature course, The Lettering Seminar? * How can someone who considers themselves a graphic design generalist benefit from learning how to draw letterforms? * Can you give us a better understanding of your revenue streams and, if possible, a rough percentage breakdown of the overall income they each contribute? * Will you explain the importance of an email list and talk about how you use your list to support your business? * So, considering lettering didn’t have the following and support it has today, how much pressure did you feel to create lettering that met the typographic community's standards in Berlin? * Why did Ken Barber's workshop make such an impact on you, and what can you remember about his visit? * Where does your confidence and positivity come from? * You saw your mom become a successful teacher and school principal. How does it feel knowing your kids have a similar opportunity because they can see you’ve built a successful lettering business? * How can someone use the four cardinal directions to improve the balance of their lettering compositions? * Where does readability fall on your priority list when you’re lettering or drawing letterforms? * How did something as simple as printing a new set of business cards change the way you felt about yourself? --- If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast.  If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi [https://ko-fi.com/studentsofdesign]. Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com [studentsofdesignpod@gmail.com]. Follow @studentsofdesignpod [https://www.instagram.com/studentsofdesignpod/] on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content. The music you hear on the podcast is Accident [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/ezhOxNhwQI/] by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T [https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/6KKnMezsM4/] by Nbhd Nick. studentsofdesign.simplecast.com [https://studentsofdesign.simplecast.com/]