On Design with Justyna Green

Stephen Mai is the founder of Woo – a new media brand and a marketplace with a mission to champion wellness for Gen Z. Before Stephen created Woo, he drove award-winning content and marketing campaigns at LADBible, Vice and Boiler Room, and before that, he actually started his career at MTV Australia.

In our chat, we discuss his career and the award-winning campaigns he created along the way. We learn about his approach to content marketing, and how to design successful campaigns that break the mould. We also touch on his upbringing in an immigrant family in Australia, burnout, hypnotherapy, and manifesting.

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Woo website: https://woo.itv.com/

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This season of the On Design podcast is brought to you by The Conran Shop. Visitconranshop.comtoday to immerse yourself in the world of design.

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Sign up to the On Design podcast newsletter atondesignpodcast.com/newsletter.

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Podcast music and production:James Greenfield

Production:Green Podcast Productions

Veronica Fuerte is a designer and founder and creative directress of Barcelona-based Hey Studio. The studio works on design and illustration projects with clients across the globe. What makes Hey’s work stand out is its disciplined creativity, bold, geometric forms, and harmonious designs. The studio also runs a popular Hey Shop, in which it sells the results of its personal projects – from posters to fashion. And the studio is also the driving force behind the Women at Work podcast, championing women in the creative industries.

In our conversation we discuss Hey’s work, its approach to projects and we dive deep into branding, and how brand’s attitudes are the first key ingredient, way before any visual elements get defined.

Hey Studio’s website: https://heystudio.es/

Women at Work podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/315ORl8ozeMPSBupYukehY

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This season of the On Design podcast is brought to you by The Conran Shop. Visitconranshop.comtoday to immerse yourself in the world of design.

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Sign up to the On Design podcast newsletter atondesignpodcast.com/newsletter.

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Podcast music and production:James Greenfield

Production:Green Podcast Productions

Stefan Sagmeister is a designer whose work over the years delighted and surprised people across the world. He started his studio in 1993 and worked predominantly in the music industry, creating album covers for the likes of The Rolling Stones, David Byrne and Brian Eno. For his work with the latter two, he received two Grammies. He’s worked across commercial and cultural projects with partner Jessica Walsh and only in the past few years has withdrawn himself from the agency to focus on non-commercial projects and explore his interests in long-term thinking, beauty and happiness.

And these are some of the key topics of our conversation – long-term thinking, beauty and happiness, but Stefan also offers insights as varied as believing that a team of three creatives would be enough to rebrand a whole country and that Twitter’s lack of beauty in its design, affects the nature of the conversations people are having on the platform. A brilliant conversation to kick off a new season of the podcast.

Stefan’s website: https://sagmeister.com/

His fashion brand: https://www.sagmeister123.com/

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This season of the On Design podcast is brought to you by The Conran Shop. Visitconranshop.comtoday to immerse yourself in the world of design.

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Sign up for the On Design podcast newsletter at ondesignpodcast.com/newsletter.

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Podcast music and production:James Greenfield

Production:Green Podcast Productions

Bethan Laura Wood is a multidisciplinary designer, easily recognised for her design aesthetic, as well as her playful and eye-catching dress sense. Bethan’s works range from furniture to decorative objects, lighting to installations and they all share Bethan’s love of materials, colours and cultures.

In our conversation, we dive deep into materials, and Bethan’s design process when creating one of her latest collections called Meisen. We also discover the properties of colours – how they translate into materials, why certain objects are associated with particular colours, and how the colour palettes of particular places, affect the local design language.

Bethan also reflects on her education, especially her time at the Royal College of Art and she tries to imagine what her life could be like if she didn’t work as a creative…

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Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production:Green Podcast Productions

Alex Valdman is the head of creative at AllBirds, a company that makes planet-friendly shoes made with premium natural materials. Prior to joining AllBirds Alex was also a chief creative officer at Rapha and we discuss both of those roles, as well as one of his first breaks in the creative industry, which came when he worked with Kanye West.

In our conversation, Alex also shares with us the story of his upbringing, as he was born in Ukraine and his family emigrated to the United States when he was young. He reflects on the values and lessons learned from his parents and his early upbringing, the culture shock, and the values he lives by these days.

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Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production:Green Podcast Productions

Refik Anadol is a Turkish-American new media artist and designer. His works are just incredible – at first sight, they’re abstract and dream-like video works, constantly shapeshifting. What’s the most fascinating about these works, is how they come to be – through data-driven machine learning AI algorithms.

In our conversation, Refik explains the ins and outs of his work, through beautiful and often poetic language, talking about machines dreaming and hallucinating, and Refik himself painting with the data reimagined by the AI. And whilst we discuss the technology behind his work, we also dive into the real philosophy behind Refik’s art, connecting people regardless of languages, cultures and backgrounds, and how in truth, all he wants to do is heal people.

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To get new weekly On Design podcast episodes directly in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter athttps://ondesignpodcast.com/newsletter.

Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production:Green Podcast Productions

Nadja Lossgott is the chief creative officer at AMV BBDO. In our conversation, Nadja shares how her upbringing shaped her early interests in creativity and how she fell in love with graphic design and art direction. She also sheds light on her early career in her native South Africa and her move to London to join the AMV BBDO team.

We also dive into her amazing campaigns including Guinness Clear, Womb Stories and Trash Isles, and find out what makes her tick and what’s the recipe for her success, as recently the Womb Stories campaign has scooped all major advertising awards and AMV BBDO was voted as the best advertising agency in the world.

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You can now buy RAW, my new comic at justynagreen.com/shop

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To get new weekly On Design podcast episodes directly in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter athttps://ondesignpodcast.com/newsletter.

Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production:Green Podcast Productions

Marina Willer is a graphic designer, filmmaker, and partner at Pentagram. Marina is renowned for her design work, which includes branding work for Tate, the Southbank Centre, Rolls Royce as well as the Battersea animal rescue centre. Over time, her work has centred on reimagining identities of brands that contribute good to the world – whether that’s charities or not-for-profit organisations.

In our conversation, Marina discusses her early childhood influences, the beginnings of her career in Brazil and her move to London, which kickstarted new design practices and fresh perspectives. We also talk about the importance of curiosity and Marina offers practical tips on how to keep it alive. And we explore Marina’s film Red Trees and draw parallels to the current political situation in Europe.

To get new weekly On Design podcast episodes directly in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter athttps://ondesignpodcast.com/newsletter.

Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production: Green Podcast Productions

It’s episode 100 of the podcast! To celebrate our episode 100, we have a very special guest – Alex Bec, who’s the co-founder of It’s Nice That, which celebrates its 15^th birthday this week.

In our conversation, Alex discusses the beginnings of It’s Nice That, how the media brand grew over the years, and how it enabled a whole group of creative businesses to flourish.

Our chat is a great lesson in growing a business organically, and Alex shares great thoughts on how to grow a company together with its people and how to coach teams to champion personal growth.

To get new weekly On Design podcast episodes directly in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter athttps://ondesignpodcast.com/newsletter.

Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production: Green Podcast Productions

Ella Ritchie, is the co-founder of Intoart – an art and design studio in South London working inclusively with people with learning disabilities. In our conversation, Ella shares how Intoart started over 20 years ago now and she explains its mission - Intoart truly is an alternative art school, as the current education system doesn’t provide creative opportunities for people with learning disabilities.

We also learn about Intoart’s artists and how they are shaping the future of the organisation, and Ella shares with us an exciting announcement about the evolution of Intoart’s design studio.

Mentioned in the episode:

Intoart website: https://intoart.org.uk/

Trifle Studio website: https://www.triflestudio.com/

Intoart artists: https://intoart.org.uk/artist/

To get new weekly On Design podcast episodes directly in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter athttps://ondesignpodcast.com/newsletter.

Podcast music:James Greenfield

Production: Green Podcast Productions