The Creative Boom Podcast

This week's guest is Lyndsay McLaren – account director atAll Conditions Mediaand founder ofNeighbourhood Skate Club.

Lyndsay has spent the past decade in marketing and creative communications for action sports, outdoors, fashion and lifestyle brands worldwide. We're talking Patagonia, Go Pro, Adidas, Arc’teryx, Yeti and many more.Originally from Scotland, she graduated in Corporate Communication from Robert Gordon University in 2008. But then went to the States to study Performing Arts at the University of Florida, where she discovered a passion for skateboarding.

That's where she stayed for a while, securing her first step on the career ladder at Bern Helmets in Boston before returning to the UK in 2014 to further her career in the outdoor and action sports world. It's been a whirlwind adventure ever since. She spent five or six years in London, where she continued her love of skating and also launched Neighbourhood Skate Club, which aims to create more opportunities for women in the UK to skate, connect and community-build. It's also designed to address issues such as consent, street harassment, domestic violence, sexual harassment, catcalling and male violence against women - while offering support to survivors and victims.

Today, Lyndsay is based in Leeds after the pandemic forced her to take stock and realise she needed to leave the capital. It's where she continues to run the Club and work for All Conditions Media, immersing herself in the production and marketing world of extreme and outdoor sports.

Her new project and short film, A Land For Everyone, is something she's also recently been involved with – it aims to show skateboarding in a new light while breaking down some of the barriers that exist within the sport - and in fact, action sports and the outdoor industry in general. We sat down with Lyndsay to discuss all of this and discover why – despite everything she's been through – she's hopeful for the future.

This week's guest on isDyneisha Gross, an American graphic designer based in Washington DC, currently working atOgilvy, one of the most respected creative agencies in the world.

Dyneisha describes herself as someone who loves to tell stories, spark conversations and solve problems, starting with paper and a good writing utensil. Her punchy and colourful work reflects her bubbly and outgoing personality. And it was also one of the things that got her noticed after university, leading to awards and recognition that put her work in front of Ogilvy and landed her that dream job.

A graduate of Graphic Design from the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Dyneisha spent her final year in the depths of the global pandemic, trying to navigate the "new normal" and finish her degree. She began a side venture to keep herself sane during that time, creating and sellinggreeting cardsin her distinct lettering style. These cards feature many positive messages that she admits act as affirmations for living a good life.

In this episode, we talk about the struggles she's overcome, the lessons of lockdown, and what she's found has helped her get noticed and succeed in her current career. We talk about social media and how it can be a blessing and a curse. We delve into the content she creates, which shows how she loves to spread some love and positivity, helping others in a similar position to succeed.

We also talk about diversity in the industry and how she feels about the future of design. It's always great to hear from those at the beginning of their creative careers, and Dyneisha doesn't hold back.

This week, our guest is Michael Freimuth – the co-founder and creative director of Franklyn, a respected design studio in New York City.

If you find yourself on Michael's personal website, you immediately get a sense of his character. There's a whole heap of humour and a dose of humility. He doesn't take himself too seriously but is passionate about the people and causes he gets behind. Whether he's focused on branding, design or illustration – collaboration and play are at the heart of everything he does.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Michael's already enjoyed much recognition during a varied and rewarding career. He received the ADC Young Guns and New Visual Artists awards early on, recognising the world's top creatives under 30. A decade later, he's happily still at the helm of Franklyn, but much has changed since the pandemic and, more recently, since becoming a father.

In this episode, we get quite nostalgic, talking about Michael's childhood in Chicago and how his time spent with friends and growing up watching John Hughes movies inspired how he is today. With collaboration being so important to him, it almost feels as though that '80s innocence of bike rides, tree climbing and scratched knees, and occasional shenanigans with friends has never really left him.

It's this optimism that shines through his personality and his work. We've mentioned how he feels about "play", which comes across in his illustration practice – but whilst he mostly pokes fun at the world around him, he simultaneously highlights important issues.

Here, he gives us a wonderful insight into studio life beyond New York City, the difficult balance of career and fatherhood, and the legacy he wants to leave for his son. And we discover why he might just make a short film with childhood friends, inspired by those seemingly simpler times.

Our next guest is Tom Geismar, the acclaimed American graphic designer famous for creating some of the world's most recognisable and enduring brands.

Tom is a founding member of Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv (formerly Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar and Chermayeff & Geismar), the highly respected design firm in New York, which he began with friends Ivan Chermayeff and Robert Brownjohn in 1957. Together, they became renowned for their fresh and creative approach to companies such as Pan Am, Chase Bank, and PBS – which paved the way for the design industry we know today.

During his incredible career, Tom has created outstanding designs across print, packaging and environmental. There are many highlights, including his impactful work for Xerox, which created a new standard for design in corporate communications. There was also his special relationship with Mobil over 35 years and his unique take on exhibitions, bringing together many creative disciplines to create stand-out designs for The Statue of Liberty Museum, Ellis Island Museum, and many more. It's no wonder he's considered a pioneer in the field.

In this episode, we talk about those early days in New York City when a tremendous cultural shift was afoot, and the design industry was a completely different landscape back then. We hear of their first office: a tiny bedroom which featured a desk – an old door propped up on makeshift legs – of which Tom sat across from his then partner and mentor Brownjohn.

There's some insight into some of his favourite projects, and we learn of some of his regrets. How his practice has changed over the decades, and why they have kept their design firm deliberately small. We hear what he thinks of new technology like DALL-E and how he feels about graphic design today.

For someone described as a "sweetheart" by New York's design community, Tom is a brilliant mind that has won many awards and continues to enjoy being part of his practice today, even after 65 years in the business.

Our next guest is Rebecca Harrison, a brand designer and creative director at global agency Loveblood Creative.

Today, Rebecca is based in The Lakes, where she grew up. It's a small village with close family and a tight-knit community. But quite typically, when someone has enjoyed a quieter life as a child, she wanted to experience a different adventure in a big city. And so she packed her bags in 2004 and moved to London, where she studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins.

During university, Rebecca admits it was the first time she became aware of her accent and how different she felt compared to others. And deep down, there was this knawing feeling she couldn't shake, which she would later realise was homesickness. In fact, she spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to feel more at home in London, but it wasn't quite cutting it. Her career, meanwhile, had taken a slight detour as creative jobs were hard to come by, and Rebecca instead found a job and "home" working as a funeral director in North London. It was an experience she believes was the most foundational and inspirational of her career.

During that time, she began freelancing on the side, working in graphic design and illustration. On the surface, all was well. But home was calling. She was about to return to the North when she met her now-partner James and moved to Brighton in 2010. That's where they stayed for the next eleven years, and it was where Rebecca cut her teeth at Brandwatch, moving from junior designer to Design Director.

Then the pandemic hit – a time that forced many of us to reassess our lives. And so Rebecca and James decided to move back to the Lakes, where she grew up. And that's where she's now happily based, working remotely as part of the team at Loveblood Creative. It's where I travelled north to meet Rebecca in a thriving art and community centre on the outskirts of Penrith.

In this episode, we talk about leaving home as a working-class woman and moving to London – how it impacts; the positives and downsides. We talk about the journey many of us embark on to find ourselves and what "home" really means. We discuss how we might become lost, forget our identity and try and be something else to "fit in" and get ahead in our careers. But Rebecca rejoices in the recent epiphany that she no longer needs to comply. She explains, "The creative industry, in many ways, told me that I needed to change to succeed. To be in a certain city or live a particular way of life. I realised how ridiculous these predefinitions are and what we are missing out on as an industry due to our own biases."

We discover why she's now choosing to challenge the status quo, shake up what it means to be a successful creative director and why she's instead embracing what's right for her, leaning into her culture and being proud of who she is and what she has to offer.

Our next guest is Muiz, an art director, artist and designer from Manchester who specialises in Arabic and Latin branding, editorial and type design.

Many of you will know why it's impossible to define precisely what you do. Job titles, after all, can be so limiting. It's why Muiz points out that he's a natural-born illustrator with an academic background in product design and fine art and also a qualified graphic designer working with clients as big as Arts Council England, Audi, and Bloomsbury. It's important for him to get this across, as so much of what we do influences our output.

Just as Muiz doesn't want to be defined by labels, he doesn't want to be put in any box because of his background or ethnicity. It's why he keeps a low profile online and has never shown his face on social media or the web.

Despite all this, Muiz has enjoyed a successful career, finding ways to network and get ahead via more traditional means. Straight after graduation, he spent 18 months working with two of the world's leading typographers – Bruno Maag and Erik Spiekermann, via Fontshop International. He tells us how that came about in this episode (and it's quite surprising).

He also reveals how he worked for the Palestine Festival of Literature for eight years. And we learn more about Rice & Gold, the creative studio he founded five years ago with his friend and illustrator Jonny Wan.

We also delve into the importance of identity and why you can be a success no matter where you're based. We cover the secrets of self-promotion without sharing your entire personal life on social media. Muiz also shares why real connections matter, as they're not "transactional", perhaps like a 'like' or retweet.

But mainly, we hear of Muiz finding himself, leaning into his strengths, and discovering that he – just like anyone else – has a real and valid voice that deserves to be heard.

Our next guest is the acclaimed American graphic designer, author and scholar Louise Sandhaus. A professor at the California Institute of the Arts, she is also the principal of Louise Sandhaus Design, a studio she founded in 1998.

Born in Massachusetts, Louise began her career in the 1970s and has since seen new technology disrupt and change the creative industries in ways many of us can't imagine – from the birth of the Apple computer to the software tools we still use today.

Thanks to the Internet, Louise has recently launched the permanent home for The People's Graphic Design Archive to preserve graphic design history for future generations and act as a source of inspiration for creative professionals everywhere. She's one of its four co-founders – an online platform rooted in a passion for celebrating our industry's output and learning from our previous creations.

In this episode, we talk about new technology, how it transformed her career and why it's a force for good today. We discuss the rising tide of AI and its potential impact with tools like DALL-E. And we delve into Louise's path to success, the challenges she's faced, and the rewards she's enjoyed along the way.

We really understand why preserving graphic design is a real labour of love for Louise and why it's so important that we somewhat remove the "gatekeepers" to celebrate all kinds of work and champion the unsung creators whose voices are often not heard. As she so beautifully puts it, "everything and everyone is valued" when you have something that anyone can contribute to.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Arthur Foliard, a creative director originally from Paris who is currently based in New York City.

Arthur has travelled the world since he accepted an internship at Landor Associates in San Francisco over a decade ago. He later moved to London and worked for Pentagram before joining Moving Brands for a couple of years, rising from junior to senior designer. In 2016, Arthur tried his hand at freelancing for under a year but then was snapped up by the London design agency Koto – becoming its Design Director in 2017. He's still there today but has recently moved to the States to head up its new studio in New York.

Although Arthur predominantly works in graphic design, he is also renowned for his illustration work – often merging the two disciplines to deliver stunning identities for the likes of Backmarket, Meatable, and Yubo. His illustration work, meanwhile, is instantly recognisable – often spotted on walls and billboards across London.

In this episode, we talk about his adventures around the world. And what "home" means to him when he's not in Paris – how all these other places where he's lived differ from one another; their various cultures and ways of doing business. He also shares how he found himself in San Francisco straight after college. And how he coped with not being able to speak a word of English.

We delve into his time at Koto and what it's like to be head of its new office in New York, which isn't even a year old. There's a bit of juicy insight into the studio's culture, how they might follow London's example and how it looks after its people. And Arthur shares why he believes everyone should be together, collaborating and supporting one another in the same room.

It's a fun chat with someone who clearly isn't afraid of the future and doesn't dwell too much on the past – something many of us will find comforting during these rocky and uncertain times.

This week's guest is Katie Jones, a graphic designer from Manchester. We met Katie at the Manchester School of Art, where she is currently an associate lecturer. It's a role she adores, as she spends a lot of time doing something she loves while helping the next generation of designers. She enjoys it so much that in 2019, she scooped an MMU Teaching Award for 'Outstanding Feedback', the first teaching award the Art School has ever won.

The School is where Katie studied her own art foundation and a degree in Graphic Design. During her course, she looked around at the other students and teachers and found a calling to create a magazine called Fresh – one that would shine a spotlight on diverse creatives. It's a side project that has since opened many doors, built skills and confidence, and introduced Katie to the wider creative industry.

In fact, Fresh made Katie realise just how important it is to build her own community. And so, she's since become part of SLAN Collective, a global network of artists and designers who all support one another. She's also become one of the people behind Ladies, Wine & Design in Manchester – the networking group for women. Aside from these valuable hustles, Katie also runs a vegan food truck with her family.

In this episode, we talk about the values and life lessons Katie inherited from her parents and two brothers. It's the way she holds herself, not conforming to any gender roles and why she has the strength and courage to pave her way – despite having that conversation with her mother, the one some of you know only too well.

We also hear about side projects and why they can be so fruitful. About rebellion and artistic freedom. Of listening to your gut and not being afraid to change or quit something if it isn't working.Katie also shares why she will not accept the status quo and doesn't want to be pigeonholed into one field or merely picked out for the colour of her skin. It's a warm and honest conversation with someone who reminds us to count our blessings and counter these difficult times through the currency of kindness.

We kick off season five of The Creative Boom Podcast with a topic that is, thankfully, getting louder in the creative industries. And that's mental health. We've invited Manchester-based graphic designer Graham Jones as our first guest to guide us through.

Now, if you're one of those creatives who doesn't do any marketing or seek fame in this industry, then Graham's approach will appeal. He's stayed deliberately quiet, not seeking out interviews or press coverage. Instead, he's been focusing on navigating his way through a successful career spanning over two decades. And he's had the publicity without even trying, as his work speaks for itself. He's been published in dozens of respected books by Victionary and Counter-Print and celebrated in magazines such as Computer Arts and Grafik.

Graham runs the independent design studio Loose Collective and is a part-time senior lecturer at the Manchester School of Art. If there's one thing he's especially famous for in the North West, it's for being one of the nicest people in the industry. Graham knows everyone and is well-loved. He's a positive force for good in the design community and someone who, we discover, has fought many battles to overcome his own mental struggles.

In this episode, we chat about the obsession with fame and fortune in the design industry, why it's bad for mental health and why being famous shouldn't be the goal. Graham also gives us a reality check about the field overall – it's not glamorous, for the most part. It can be hard work, a real slog. You have to love the profession to do it.

We also discuss overcoming imposter syndrome and the little mind tricks we can play to be happier creatives. And Graham gives us lots more reassuring advice to navigate what can sometimes feel like a demanding career.