Justin Ahrens is no stranger to the Reflex Blue Show, as he makes his 32nd appearance (for non-hosts, only Steve Gordon has been on the show more often).

We cover the many changes and evolutions of Rule29 over the past six years – ending with being part of the O’Neil Printing Platform, his Design Of podcast, the Running Ahrens podcast he is co-host of, the other podcast he was on, the Homy Inn, Runza, designing for good and using color to heal, and more.

Enjoy.

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Marian Bantjes stops by the Reflex Blue Show to discuss her new venture – Design Art Gallery (DAG). Located in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, DAG is the gallery showcasing the fine art from designers we all wish was in our town.

We talk about Marian beginning as a typesetter, her work in lettering, and her current work in fine art. We end with a discussion on what makes a good pattern.

Enjoy.

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Charles Nix, Senior Executive Creative Director at Monotype, stops by to kick off Season 19 of The Reflex Blue Show!

We talk about working with type at scale (Monotype has a font library of 250,000+ from 4,500+ foundries, which is crazy). We also talk about the Fonts, Feels, & Reels: Generational Attitudes to Type – 2025 Report, 1 of the 6 type trends reports monotype released at the end of 2025.

We also discuss the need for a new (well, 2018?) version of Helvetica in Helvetica Now, the Creative Characters podcast, how Charles got started in type design, and more.

November 7th, 2025 marked the 20th anniversary of the podcast launch for “Be A Design Cast” (the show that we did before “The Reflex Blue Show”, which launched March 4th, 2008) … I guess I have been doing this for a while now. At the 10 year date, I wrote a longer post, this milestone gets a paragraph, and one that is 3 months late.

Enjoy.

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Lyn Wineman opened up the 2025 OnBrand Conference in Omaha last month with her talk, “The Invisible Problem: What’s Really Holding You Back – and How to Fix It.” Her talk, covering the importance of branding, was a great way to start a conference on, well, branding.

We talk about signs of a bad brand, a few red flags in a potential new project, and branding.

We also discuss her “Agency for Change” podcast, and her book, “Untangling Spaghetti: A Branding Fable.”

A big thanks goes out once again to the groups behind the OnBrand Conference – AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska.

Enjoy.

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Mark Mohammadpour was the lunch keynote speaker at the 2025 OnBrand Conference in Omaha last month.

Mark, through his company Chasing the Sun®, is a keynote speaker on employee culture and well-being, so, well, we speak about what that actually means (not the keynote speaker part, but what IS employee culture?). We also talk about working in Public Relations and how it is one of the top jobs when it comes to burning out employees. And the things to look for in job postings (both good and bad).

We also discuss Mark’s significant weight-loss from over fifteen years ago, keeping off the weight, and the effects of it.

A big thanks goes out the groups behind the OnBrand Conference for having me out again – AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska.

Enjoy.

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Jessie McGuire of ThoughtMatter was last on The Reflex Blue Show during the 2023 HOW Design Live conference in Nashville, TN. This time, we speak via Zoom about, well, first that Nashville venue, and then move onto ThoughtMatter’s Censor This! event that was held at their office during the New York City Design week back in May and created to discuss what a designers role is in civic engagement.

We also cover their work for the NBA 2K League (the official Esports league of the NBA), ThoughtMatter’s Where Democracy Begins mural (and what it takes to get a mural made in NYC), and more.

Enjoy.

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Rachel Elnar & Erik Cargill of the Cheers & Tiers podcast stop by to talk about their show that is based partly around the heydays of the AIGA Leadership retreats. I was fortunate enough to get to be at six of these conferences, ending with the one in Omaha, Nebraska. I still miss this event and the immediate connections you had with the other 250~ people there. We also talk about design leadership, the need for design community, and human pyramids.

Enjoy.

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Katie Johnson & Ilana Griffo of GoodType stop by The Reflex Blue Show to discuss the many things GoodType has been up to over the past few years.

We talk about The Typecast podcast, their 30 day rotating social media challenges, the GoodType Instagram account still being crazy popular, The Kernference, and more.

Enjoy.

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Stefan Bucher and his monsters return to The Reflex Blue Show. Last being on the show when he was in Omaha back in 2018, well, it’s been a while. But we start by going way back to The Reflex Blue Show episode 2, when his 100 Days of Monsters book had just been released. All these years later? Well, the monsters have never really left, and are now celebrating 20 years with a completed A Revelation of Monsters book that launched on Kickstarter.

We talk about over 1,200 monsters and counting of course, his Skillshare on book design (which leads to how it also covers pricing, which could be a 12 hour Skillshare on its own), how having some savings allows you to say no (and how much of a difference that makes in your career), what 344 is up to now, and more.

Enjoy.

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Prescott Perez-Fox returns to The Reflex Blue Show!

We talk about changing from a career in design to a career in teaching, as well as a career in teaching back to a career in design. We also talk about Creative Mornings, other ways to stay connected today, and more.

Enjoy.

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Paul Lukes stopped by the studio back in November to record the kick-off to Season 18 of The Reflex Blue Show.

We talk about graffiti-inspired art, making time to do fine-art in addition to graphic design, working in collage, the CoLab group Slack channel and quarterly-skills showcase as well as the NoCo Marketing Mixers he helps with in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Enjoy.

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Brayan Montes-Terrazas was part of the inspiration track at the 2024 HOW Design Live Conference in Denver, Colorado. Going under his art name of YAMZ World of Color, his work truly is an inspiration. We talk about how choosing yourself in your creative work can only be good, the path to becoming a full-time illustrator, merch, and more.

Enjoy.

Once again, thanks to the team at HOW on a great conference. This is the last of our recordings from the 2024 event, and for those that missed any, we had three daily recaps:

• HOW Design Live 2024, Conference Recap 1 of 3 : Debbie Millman
• HOW Design Live 2024, Conference Recap 2 of 3 : Amy Conover, Darcy Hinrichs, Anne Hughes, Erin Pille, Keith Smith, Jason Wedekind
• HOW Design Live 2024, Conference Recap 3 of 3 : Aaron Draplin, Bill Gardner, Stephen Gates, Rick Griffith

As well as eight interviews (which includes this one):

• Alex Center: The Reflex Blue Show #262
• Rachel Mae Zeolla: The Reflex Blue Show #263
• Brandi Parker: The Reflex Blue Show #264
• Pum Lefebure: The Reflex Blue Show #265
• The Bill & Von Show (Bill Gardner and Von Glitschka): The Reflex Blue Show #266
• Carissa Carter & Scott Doorley: The Reflex Blue Show #267
• Tegan Harcourt: The Reflex Blue Show #268
• Brayan Montes-Terrazas: The Reflex Blue Show #269

This was my thirteenth HOW Conference (the first being the 2009 event in Austin, Texas), and I cannot say how much of an impact it has had on me – the friends and memories I have made over the years at this wonderful event, the numerous speakers I have had the opportunity to podcast with, the events that surround the conference, and so much more. This month, they posted on their website, “We have made the difficult decision to postpone HOW Design LIVE, including the 2025 event. While we recognize this may cause inconvenience, this decision enables us to better align with the evolving industry landscape and focus on creating an even more impactful and valuable experience for our community in the future. Thank you for supporting HOW Design Live and its community over the past 35 years.” I do hope to see this event again, but I also know that the community that it created will remain for a long time.

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Tegan Harcourt, Director at maslansky+partners, was at the 2024 HOW Design Live Conference in Denver, Colorado to give her talk, “Stop Vacuum Strategies: How to Ask The Right Questions and Give Your Audience A Seat At The Table”.

We sit down to chat about Coke 2, keeping your audience at the top of mind, working at a language strategy firm (and what a language strategy firm is), using language and message in different languages and locations, and more.

Enjoy.

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Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley of the Stanford d.school were at the 2024 HOW Design Live Conference in Denver, Colorado to talk about their new book – Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future. As the most recent book from the d.school, this one (which I finished reading last weekend), is what I would expect from two people from Stanford – it’s smart, thought-provoking, and takes a unique approach I have not seen in a design book before. Besides being a beautiful design, it mixes a lot of non-fiction with what they call ’20 speculative non-fiction stories’ in-between (you know, stories from up to 90 years in the future presented as real). I will say I have already found myself talking to multiple people about some of the topics I read in the book – I highly recommend it.

We talk about the book; The Shop at Matter bookstore; the Stanford d.school; the nature of design work as well as the unintended consequences; and more.

Enjoy.

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When you see Bill Gardner and Von Glitschka, you know it’s a HOW Design Live to remember! Recorded during the second day of the 2024 event in Denver, we sat down to talk about the pressing matters of the day in the design world…

…I mean, we talked about how great Macromedia Freehand was (I mean, is, as Bill still has a working copy of this program somehow) for basically the entire first segment of the show. I cannot overstate how happy this made me.

We also talk about Vons workshop showcasing his vector skills in Adobe Illustrator; Bill’s upcoming book; Bill’s talk on the yearly LogoLounge trend report; both of their LinkedIn Learning courses; and more.

Enjoy.

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Pum Lefebure meets up with The Reflex Blue Show while at the 2024 HOW Design Live conference in Denver, Colorado. We talk about her talk on designing for impact and action, knowing your super power, learning AI prompts, and more.

Enjoy.

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Brandi Parker, Founder and Brand-Level Sustainability Consultant of Parker Brands, meets up with The Reflex Blue Show while at the 2024 HOW Design Live conference in Denver, Colorado.

We talk about Brandi and Fe Amarante‘s conference opening talk on the sustainability of ourselves – as well as spending the night before hand painting (and mis-spelling) all new slides. We also speak about how every budget can also be seen as an ask for resources – through the Earth or ourselves, and the importance of work/life balance.

We also talk about the Zero Waste Creatives podcast hosted by Brandi and Fe, working in sustainability, getting a .eco domain, and more.

Enjoy.

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Rachel Mae Zeolla, Creative Director at NBCUniversal, meets up with The Reflex Blue Show while at the 2024 HOW Design Live conference in Denver, Colorado.

We talk about her being eaten by a shark on The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time (I have been fortunate to have a LOT of great guests on the show over the years, but still get amazed by the things people get to do in this profession, and this one is just cool), Chucky, Suits, Wynonna Earp, Hacks, her talk at HOW about fandom and how to use marketing to tap into it, how a musical theatre background helps in marketing, and more.

Enjoy.

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Alex Center meets up with The Reflex Blue Show while at the 2024 HOW Design Live conference in Denver, Colorado (I should mention that his company Center did the branding for this year’s event as well). We talk about his decade of doing design for Coca-Cola, starting his design career as an intern for The New York Knicks, and even getting to meet 50 Cent while working on an ad for VitaminWater. We also talk about his own podcast, Front and Center.

Enjoy.

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Aaron Draplin stops by, I mean, more like I crashed his merch booth in the lobby to talk to him about closing down the 2024 HOW Design Live in Denver. And wow, that merch table has grown over the years to truly be a sight to behold.

After that, I speak with Stephen Gates about his talk, which was followed by an immediate, and basically unplanned, open Q&A chat – maybe next year he’ll finally bring that band he works with to HOW as well.

And on the other side of the lobby, I find Rick Griffith near the pop-up bookstore run by, well, his bookstore. I will say, I was very happy to see a bookstore return to the conference, and such a well curated one at that. It was also worth the walk to the actual store the day before.

And that wraps up – wait, one more, very brief cameo to close down the daily recaps from Bill Gardner, who celebrated his birthday in Denver by giving his yearly LogoLounge Trend Report.

Recorded on September 25, 2024 in the lobby of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House during the final day of 2024’s HOW Design Live. I recorded eight podcasts while there, and they will be released over the next few months.

Enjoy.

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Amy Conover, HOW Design’s Brand and Content Director; show attendees, and fellow Omaha area designers Anne Hughes and Erin Pille; HOW Ambassadors Keith Smith and Darcy Hinrichs; and Jason Wedekind of Genghis Kern discuss the first two days of another incredible conference.

Big thanks to the Letterpress Depot for letting me record from their booth in the exhibit hall, where they were printing posters for attendees, as well as promoting “The Letterpress Depot: a living museum of letterpress printing, typography, design, poetry and art.” And a huge thanks to HOW for once again having me out to record podcasts during the event.

Recorded on September 24, 2024 in the Seawell Ballroom during the closing reception of HOW Design Live –  which is just over 2/3 of the way through the program itself, so there is still a lot of HOW to cover, and we will be back later this week with our final recap.

Enjoy.

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Debbie Millman joined me backstage just as the 2024 HOW Design Live was starting up. We talk about The Shop at Matter, her upcoming book, “Love Letter to a Garden“, breaking the elevator at the San Francisco Sterling Brands office within minutes of when we first met, podcasting for almost 20 years, and more.

Recorded on September 23, 2024 in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Moving HOW Design Live to a creative venue was one that was a a big hit – seeing the main stage speakers in an Opera House really added to the creativity and inspiration of the event – one I would love to see continued.

As usual, the speakers were great (Debbie helps with selection of a number of them, which we also discuss), being in Denver is always a week to remember, and I can’t wait to see what next year brings. Until then, I will be back this week with two more daily recaps, and will finish off Season 17 with eight podcasts recorded during the event.

Still can’t believe that Design Matters is going to be 20 in February, as it also reminds me of my own podcasting beginnings later that year…

Enjoy.

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Liz Hunt, CEO of DayCloud Studios, sits down with me in the DayCloud penthouse suite located in The Blackstone District of Omaha, Nebraska to talk about the advice she gives to those starting up their own creative business.

We also talk about how to lead a client through the creative process, how to get that first big client, and the importance of following through – which includes a tip from a hostage negotiator.

And or course, we talk about her own podcast, the Agency Rocket Show.

Enjoy.

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Tessa Porter, a candy scientist and founder of Sprinkk, was the closing keynote speaker at the 2024 OnBrand Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Recorded from the event on July 25, we spoke just before her closing the event and handing out treats from the Norma’s line of handcrafted fruity snacks.

We speak about how candy brings joy, why I buy the donuts with sprinkles on them, being a candy scientist, getting into candy as a career, building a candy factory in Nebraska, and more.

Thanks again to the AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska on a wonderful conference.

Enjoy.

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Kathleen Riessen, the business manager at Applied Art & Technology in Des Moines, was the opening keynote speaker at the 2024 OnBrand Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Recorded from the event on July 25, we spoke just after her opening the event with her talk – “Grow Your Creativity: It’s Not Just for Designers.”

We also speak about her afternoon breakout topic of “What do you want me to do?!?! Using Emotional Intelligence to get clear direction from your client or your boss”; her former podcast, The Kathleen Riessen Show; her books; the three ways of listening; and more.

Thanks again to the AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska on a wonderful conference.

Enjoy.

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Todd Coats & Elliot Strunk, the hosts of Two Designers Walk Into a Bar (a podcast about iconic design and popular culture), well, walk into The Reflex Blue Show.

We talk about their influences in the design field, pop culture, listening to vinyl, and more.

It’s funny, I started podcasting back in 2005 because Nate, Tom and I would end up hanging out at a bar talking about graphic design and things we loved. So, hanging out in this virtual bar with Todd and Elliot took me back to where it felt like I started. Of course, we recorded this one well before the bars around here would even be open…

Enjoy.

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Katrina Torrijos, an Adobe Express Evangelist, was in Omaha a couple of weeks ago for Adobe Create Now. We recorded this episode in a green room / nuclear bunker / hidden lounge below The Durham Museum just hours before Katrina took the stage to show off the capabilities of Adobe Express and how Adobe Firefly (Adobe’s generative AI tool) incorporates itself into Illustrator and Photoshop, as well as Express. For the record, I still have yet to test out Adobe Express, but if I was running an instagram account, the tools built in to schedule posts and allow a client to make some text changes, as well as the simplicity of basic animation – well, I’d definitely test it out.

We also talk about the value in attending events such as this (and this one was completely free by the way), Katrina’s path to becoming an Adobe Evangelist, the power of owning that you are a creative, and more.

Enjoy.

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I met up with Tad Carpenter in the green room at The Funny Bone Omaha of all places. That’s right, AAF Nebraska’s annual Meet the Pros upped their game on the location and went full-on comedy club! Tad was just hours away from being the main keynote speaker at the area’s best design / advertising / marketing student event, and we crammed into the coat closet / janitorial supplies storage / green room to talk about his brand-centric design company, Carpenter Collective.

We talk a bit about doing cup designs for Sonic, and knowing how many people have thrown your work away, designing a book cover for Wonder (which then went on to be a huge deal), and more.

We also talk about the importance of play, and finding joy in the design we do – something that Tad has found over the past (almost) 9 years by creating a sun every Sunday in his Sunday Suns.

Thanks again to AAF Nebraska for hosting an amazing event. I still have great memories of attending when I was a student, and always encourage others in the area to find a way to make this one. Once again, I also served as one of the many portfolio reviewers (the ‘Pros’ in the Meet the Pros I suppose), which I am happy to see the local market once again stepping up to support the event with their presence.

Enjoy.

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Kit Hinrichs! Any time I see design I consider good, and then see Kit’s work…well he’s just at a different level than everyone else. And in case you think he’s not, check out his new book, NARRATIVE DESIGN: A Fifty Year Perspective, showcasing some of the things he’s designed over the past 50 years. On this episode, we welcome back Kit Hinrichs to The Reflex Blue Show to talk about the new book published by Graphis, how he was able to narrow it down to just 248 pages, and (this probably also relates to how he got this book down to a mere five pounds) the importance to refine and make things better.

We also discuss collecting things, what he’s collecting now, and designing a number of flag stamps for the United States Postal Service.  And if you want to get a hand on what he’s done recently, he’s still making your favorite paper sample booklet, The Standard. Issue Number 7, Forming Perceptions through Packaging, was recently released and we talk about what goes into a piece that the press check alone would be daunting for even the most senior of designers.

We end the show with Kit talking about the importance of our profession, and what we should take as our responsibility.

Enjoy.

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Clement Mok, who was just awarded a Cooper Hewitt 2023 National Design Award for Digital Design, stops by The Reflex Blue Show to talk about his path into the design field, and finding his way to Apple to work on the original Macintosh team.

We also talk about his restaurants, including sugarFISH, and what’s next in technology.

Enjoy.

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Mike Schnaidt stops by The Reflex Blue Show to talk about his new book – Creative Endurance: 56 Rules for Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Your Goals. A practical sort of self-help guide for graphic designers.

We also talk about his role in being the Creative Director of the Fast Company empire, and working in the magazine world for over two decades.

Enjoy.

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Katie Risch McAdams, the Chief Marketing Officer at Basis Technologies, was the lunchtime keynote speaker at this year’s OnBrand Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Recorded from the event on July 13, just after the taco bar had been put away and all of the churros had been consumed.

Her talk, ‘Advertising Through Uncertainty’, is one that is especially timely, as we discuss the last three years (checks calendar, it still says three, although it feels like ten) of changes in the world, and how it affects how companies feel about advertising, and what they should really be thinking about it. We also talk about Basis Technologies, and using technology to reach the intended audience. As Katie’s major was in English, I ask about how this helped in getting into this advertising world, and her path to Basis technologies.

Thanks again to the AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska on a wonderful conference.

And huge thanks to all of the listeners – this is the end of our planned Season 16 of The Reflex Blue Show. I’ll be back sometime in 2024 with Season 17.

Enjoy.

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Ross Asdourian was the closing keynote speaker at this year’s OnBrand Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Recorded from the event on July 13, right next to where the taco bar was now being taken down, Ross and I discuss the importance of craft services, and what amazing churros they had at the event.

We talk a bit about his Udemy courses, figuring out what your story is (why do you do what you do?), understanding your values and how this can help determine your path, and more.

We also discuss, as Ross is a Senior Global Producer for the Ford Motor Company, well, what is a Producer? I thought the term Designer was broad, I had no idea.

And of course, we chat about Ross’ talk at the event on The Business of Who, which is also the title of his upcoming book.

Thanks again to the AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska on a wonderful conference.

Enjoy.

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Whitney Warne was the opening keynote of this year’s OnBrand Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Recorded from the event on July 13, right next to where the taco bar was being set-up, Whitney and I discuss her coaching and consulting business, Evoke EQ, and the nine enneagram types. What is an enneagram? I was also curious as well, and Whitney gives an amazing breakdown of all nine types on the spot (without notes!). We then speak of using someone’s enneagram type to help understand why people do what they do, and now they are motivated. We also discusses her new Evoke EQ Podcast that just launched.

Thanks again to the AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska for once again making the OnBrand Conference happen. This annual one-day event has continued to be a great way to remind us how our different professions (design, advertising, marketing, public relations) overlap as well as work together – and seeing the organizations . And big thanks to all three of this years’ keynote speakers for sitting down with me to record episodes of The Reflex Blue Show during the event.

As this is also the 250th episode of The Reflex Blue Show, I guess I need to write a note of some sort – like, how crazy is this? When Nate, Tom and I started the Be A Design Cast (BADCast) in 2005, who knew that podcasting would even still be a thing this many years later. Between the BADCast episodes, BADCast half episodes, The Reflex Blue Show (RBS) episodes, RBS conference specials, RBS conference recaps, and other RBS specials, I think we’re at around 385(!) total podcast episodes since this adventure began. Crazy indeed.

Enjoy.

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Justin Dauer, who is no stranger to The Reflex Blue Show, and author of Cultivating a Creative Culture and it’s second edition, Creative Culture: Human-Centered Interaction, Design, & Inspiration, joins me to discuss his new book, in fulfillment:
the designer’s journey. We talk about what it means to be fulfilled at work, and what you can do to reach this goal as a designer. And how to maintain fulfillment once you achieve part of it.

We then discuss a bit about his previous two books and how the ideas in them about creating an office culture turned out to hold up even in the realm of working remote.

We also talk about Justin’s new venture, anomali by design, and making the move to starting his own company after all of these years as a design leader.

Of course, as this episode was recorded a couple of months ago, we end up speaking of Michael Keat0n’s return as Batman in The Flash. Turns out we both had memories of seeing the 1989 Batman in our local mall – still weird to me how important malls felt a few decades ago, and how much that industry has changed / disappered. Strangely enough, I have seen more movies in the past two years (still only ten total so far) at the theater than I have in decades (even without a Star Wars in that timeframe). Not sure why, most of them were unplanned. But I will say, that way to watch a movie has yet to be replicated at a home for myself anyway.

Enjoy.

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As the last of this year’s HOW Design Live podcast interviews, Jada Britto joins me to discuss her talk on, ‘Reigniting Hope: Breaking Out of the Checkbox Mentality.’ I had met Jada the day before at the conference, and immediately knew I would love to have a longer chat, and thankfully, we found a time to record the next day with just hours of the conference left. We discuss what a checkbox mentality is and how to get out of it, diversity of thought, when to bring up designing for accessibility with your client, her teaching Design Management at Georgetown, her designing more sustainable packaging at Colgate-Palmolive, and more.

Once again, big thanks goes out to the team at HOW Design Live for bringing in such a great group of speakers, and giving me the opportunity to talk to a number of them. For those who missed any, at the 2023 event, I recorded three recap shows:

• HOW Design Live 2023, Conference Recap 1 of 3 : Justin Ahrens, David C. Baker, Michael Bierut, Bill Gardner, Darcy Hinrichs, Gary Kopervas, Emily Mills, Stefan Mumaw, Calvin Ng
• HOW Design Live 2023, Conference Recap 2 of 3 : Bill Gardner, Stephen Gates, Emily Mills, Jessica Neblett, Jenny Reed, Stefan Sagmeister
• HOW Design Live 2023, Conference Recap 3 of 3 : Steve Gibbs, Shayna Kulik, Karen Larson, Jamie Saunders, Keith Smith

I also recorded eight interview podcasts (including this one):

• Jenn Lederer: The Reflex Blue Show #241
• Bill Gardner: The Reflex Blue Show #242
• Alice Waterman & Rebecca Williams: The Reflex Blue Show #243
• Ben Greengrass & Jessie McGuire: The Reflex Blue Show #244
• Shayna Kulik: The Reflex Blue Show #245
• Carl Gerhards: The Reflex Blue Show #246
• Emily Mills: The Reflex Blue Show #247
• Jada Britto: The Reflex Blue Show #248

I have four more episodes recorded (three from the 2023 OnBrand Conference in Omaha) that will be launching in the next month(ish) to wrap up Season 16 of The Reflex Blue Show.

Enjoy.

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Emily Mills was at the HOW Design Live conference in Nashville to talk about transition as a creative professional. And as the founder of Sketch Academy, she was also spending quite a bit of time sketch noting the event itself from the exhibit hall – for those who want more about the live sketch note mural she did with Gary Kopervas, I spoke with Emily about it while she was working on it from the exhibit hall on both our Day 1 Recap (where Gary also joins in), as well as our Day 2 Recap where the mural was well under way.

For this show, I met up with Emily after the mural work was complete, and spend most of the episode talking about transitioning from a designer to an illustrator, sketch noting, her Sketch Academy, and more.

As this was recorded after most of the conference was over, we also talk about this year’s closing party, which involved a LOT of neon (the theme was ‘Nashville Neon Lights’ after all). A lot of the memories of an event like this come from the location, and as The Gaylord Opryland® Resort & Convention Center was just enough distance from downtown Nashville to make leaving an actual decision, well, I really only left the area once (not counting the to and from the airport). Of course, the upside was I did not seem to be alone in this thinking, and because of the convenience of staying at the event site (which contained plenty to do as I found out), that closing party seemed to have been attended by a larger group than I have seen in a while, and by a lot of the people that usually skip it, and it was a great one.

Enjoy.

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Carl Gerhards was at the HOW Design Live conference in Nashville to talk about the rebrand, I mean, ‘the next generation of the Pepsi logo‘. It’s rare to have such a large company make a shift in their identity in today’s age and get a lot of positive feedback from the design community, which this one deserves. To my surprise, this was mostly handled in-house. It was fun to talk with someone about what is involved in a rebrand of this scale – the Pepsi brand alone has around 300 SKUs for packaging in the the US, and around 2,000 worldwide.

We also talk about their t-shirt operation in the exhibit hall at HOW Design Live, as well as if you hang around after the show, the news that the new Pepsi blue is none other than, you guessed it, Reflex Blue! And we talk about growing an in house team, like the PepsiCo Design + Innovation one Carl is at.

Since I have been podcasting, starting with the Be A Design Cast in 2005 to the Reflex Blue Show of today, we always had a little thing of who we’d love to talk with about design, and honestly, I’ve spoken with more people on that list than I ever imagined I would, but one of the few missing ones was someone who worked on the brand we seem to discuss as much as any other over the years, Mountain Dew. We have spent many episodes talking about new flavors, have had multiple taste tests, and probably have a slide or two about it in most of the presentations we have given, but have never actually spoken to someone about what it’s like to work as a designer for the brand itself. When I saw Carl was speaking at HOW Design Live this year, he was the first person on my list because of this. So yes, we talk about designing for Mountain Dew.

Enjoy.

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Shayna Kulik was at the HOW Design Live conference in Nashville this year to talk about how art and culture affect pattern and color. Just a look around any room immediately makes me realize how many patterns I see during a day, and how many I have probably not even noticed, so it was great to be able to talk to a pattern visionary like Shayna to help me understand this aspect of design that I often neglect, but shouldn’t.

We also talk about Shayna being on the board of The Color Association, a group that I didn’t really know existed, but if I give it any thought, a group that I should have known about, and how they use trends and forecasting to figure out how to design color pallets for products that won’t be in existence for another two years. I mean, have noticed that when I buy a shirt, the shoes from a different company somehow coordinate with it, and that only happens by chance every now and then, so of course there is a place to go to make sure the red you use in two years will be the red someone else is using.

We also talk a bit about the difference between the patterns we see, and patterns as in repetition of something happening more than once, as well as where patterns may end up next.

We may be around two months since HOW, but we still have three more podcasts yet to release from the event, so stay tuned. After that, I have already recorded another show remotely, as well as three shows with the keynote speakers at the 2023 OnBrand Conference in Omaha before wrapping up Season 16.

Enjoy.

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Ben Greengrass and Jessie McGuire of ThoughtMatter seemed to be everywhere at this year’s HOW Design Live conference in Nashville. They gave a talk titled, “Creative Bravery: The Importance of Friendship, Humanity and Embracing Vulnerability to Break Creative Boundaries”; ran a booth at the exhibit hall; and ThoughtMatter even sponsored the lunch for the HOW Women Lead conference the day before HOW Design Live officially kicked off.

We talk about all of this, as well as doing socially impactful work like they did for Misfits Market; diversity in the field of Design, and how to promote it; and more.

We also spend a bit of time talking about how to network as a student or recent graduate. Ideally, everyone in the profession would all get that perfect internship that would introduce them to everyone in the industry, and then have it turn into a full-time job. Fortunately, this is not the only way to get experience in graphic design, and it’s not the only way to meet others in the field. Networking sometimes simply means you talk with another creative person, share ideas, and hopefully learn something, even if you never meet again – and even if what you talk about has nothing to do with graphic design at all. I love hearing of companies who find a way to give back, and find a way to get creatives to start talking to each other, and ThoughtMatter has started an event, AfterTHOUGHT, that does just that. If only I lived new New York City… but these things happen elsewhere, you just have to find them, or start them yourself.

Enjoy.

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One of the Highlights of last years’ (2022) HOW Design Live event in Boston, for me anyway, was the chance to sit in the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, and to speak with one of the Hotdoggers. But, as part of what makes a Wienermobile sighting so exciting is the rarity, it was not meant to happen again in 2023 (I do speak in this episode about also seeing it again in the fall of 2022 while at a Scouting Event with my daughter though).

One of the many great aspects of HOW Design Live is that they constantly bring in new speakers who do surprise, and the 2023 Conference in Nashville did just that. BrandOpus (the agency that showcased their work for Oscar Meyer, and the reason for the Wienermobile) did return, but this time with Alice Waterman and Rebecca Williams to discuss their work in rebranding all things Jell-O. And in the exhibit hall were boxes upon boxes of the brand new Sparkling Jell-O, a collaboration with AHA Sparkling Water. I do plan to make a batch still, but this requires a second ingredient I need to purchase first, so it may be another month or two…

I speak with Alice Waterman and Rebecca Williams about BrandOpus, rebranding Jell-O, Oscar Meyer and the Wienermobile, the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center that was the home of this year’s HOW Design Live, and more.

Probably should have also asked about the Wienermobile’s new name as the Frankmobile, but all of the old Jell-O recipes we discussed was a lot of fun.

Enjoy.

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Bill Gardner once again gave his Logo Trend Report live at HOW Design Live in Nashville (his 21st! logo trend report). The energy he brings on stage is unmatched. Because of my recording schedule this year, I walked into his talk with a full ten seconds left, but even still, the room was packed – once you get Bill talking about logos, his love and expertise become contagiou, and it becomes near impossible to leave early. Just like when he perfoms magic, you want to watch and listen to Bill Gardner for hours.

We talk about the reasons for a rebrand, what a rebrand really is (or can, I mean, should be), and as usual, LogoLounge. We also talk about the upcoming LogoLounge 14 book, running a design competition, and more. Somewhere along the way, I realized when it comes to designers, we want to hear about LogoLounge, as it’s what we are most familiar with, but Bill spends most of his time running his own company, Gardner Design, so I wanted to be sure discuss this as well.

Enjoy.

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Jenn Lederer (Comedian/Keynote Speaker), was at HOW Design Live in Nashville giving a talk/workshop titled “Perfect Pitch – HOW To Talk About What You Do”. We talk about her path into comedy, being a keynote speaker, how to talk about yourself while sounding human, and more.

Enjoy.

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Steve Gibbs, Shayna Kulik, Karen Larson, Jamie Saunders, and Keith Smith discuss the final day of 2023’s HOW Design Live in Nashville, Tennessee.

There is always that weird time about a week out from HOW Design Live where you feel that it was just yesterday with all of the motivation, learning, and adventure you are still processing, and yet I also feel like it happened months ago. Until next yea

Enjoy.

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Bill Gardner, Stephen Gates, Emily Mills, Jessica Neblett, Jenny Reed, and Stefan Sagmeister discuss the second day of 2023’s HOW Design Live in Nashville, Tennessee.

I last spoke to Stefan Sagmeister in Boston about Environment Design, so I had to ask how the carpet at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center was seen. As always, he is insightful and honest, something that has always shown in his work.

Enjoy.

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Justin Ahrens, David C. Baker, Michael Bierut, Bill Gardner, Darcy Hinrichs, Gary Kopervas, Emily Mills, Stefan Mumaw, and Calvin Ng discuss the first day of 2023’s HOW Design Live in Nashville, Tennessee.

This HOW had an energy I missed. It was great to see such a large gathering of designers in one place, and to also have the opportunity to explore a new town. Truthfully, I did not really make it off of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, but the place felt like its own town, so I’ll count it. After my three daily recaps from HOW Design Live, I will be releasing a total of eight other podcasts I recorded while there over the next few months. Thanks again to HOW Design Live for a great event, and once again bringing in a great host of speakers to inspire until next year.

Enjoy.

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Desmond LaVelle and Jennifer Martindale were the keynote speaker of AAF Nebraska‘s Meet the pros this year. Well, unlike most years where each keynote speaks over one of the two lunches, they simply did a back-to-back, or as they called it, a double header. As always, the event was great, and I always highly recommend it to all students within a few hours of Omaha.

Since we were at a student event, of course we discuss student advice, as well as getting that first job. As the SVP of Marketing for the Chicago Cubs, Jennifer talks about working in the sports industry, and as the biggest khaki expert I have ever met through his work with Dockers, Desmond introduces me to the term ‘pocket bags’, and my life is already better for it.

We also talk about Desmonds new book, The French Word for Murder, seeing Rowdy Roddy Piper in Omaha, and more.

Enjoy.

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I first met Petre Spassov at the 2011 AIGA Conference in Phoenix, and since then have been fortunate enough to receive a few of his promotional pieces for PS Design. As he has created some of the best self-promotional design pieces I have seen, I thought it would be fun to have him visit The Reflex Blue Show and discuss what goes into a good self promo for a designer, and what the goal of one should be.

We also talk about his studio (PS Design), his collaborative studio (Reform Design), student portfolios, AI (I mean, I feel like it has to be discussed some, it’s 2023, right?), and more.

Enjoy.

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Christopher Cox stopped by (well, virtually anyway) The Reflex Blue Show to talk about the weather and snow accumulation in Fort Collins and Omaha (this makes us officially old?).

We then speak about his previous work under Change the Thought, for Barack Obama, and his past blogging. We also discuss Alternative Movie Posters, the wonderful environmental graphics he’s been working on with DLR Group, and more.

Enjoy.

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We last spoke with Jen Landis back in 2019, at the OnBrand Conference, where she was speaking, along with other things, about her Pin Curl Girls. Since then, she has continued to promote creativity and positivity to girls age 8-13 with her Art Gang (my daughter is at the desk next to mine working on an Art Gang project while I am editing this podcast, she loves it). We speak about Art Gang, her upcoming book ‘Skip the Bad Songs!‘, teaching full-time, and more.

Enjoy.

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George Garrastegui, Jr. was in Omaha to drop the mic at the end of the 2022 On Brand Conference. Once again, big thanks goes out to AAF Nebraska, AIGA Nebraska, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska for once again hosting the SOLD OUT event.

We speak of his Works in Process podcast, finding your niche by focusing on what we do for us, his part in the AIGA Design + Business Conference, and more.

Enjoy.

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Keni Thacker was in Omaha to kick off the On Brand Conference just blocks from my office a couple of weeks ago. First off, big thanks goes out to AAF Nebraska, AIGA Nebraska, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska for once again hosting (and selling out!) this great event in its fourth appearance.

Keni kicked off the event speaking about 100 Roses from Concrete, a company he created to promote people of color in the creative fields. We speak about 100 Roses from Concrete; bringing more diversity into the creative fields; becoming an active participant in the change you want to see; and more.

Enjoy.

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My final podcast from HOW Design Live in Boston this year was with Danielle Hughes. She discusses her talk on “Personality Brand” (instead of what people usually use, which is their personal brand). We also discuss differentiating yourself through how you go about your hobbies; how every no leads to a better yes; companies now wanting to celebrate individuality; writing a better bio; and more.

Once again, huge thanks to the great team at HOW Design Live for putting on a great event.

Enjoy.

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Fonz Morris, a ‘deadass SMART effing product designer,’ stopped by to chat during the HOW Design Live in Boston this year.

We talk about his journey to becoming a Lead Product Designer at Netflix; giving back through launching a mentorship program that creates a ux/ui pathway for those enrolled at historically black Colleges and Universities; building an inclusive product; and more.

Enjoy.

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Zipeng Zhu stopped by to chat during the HOW Design Live in Boston this year. He was spending the previous days changing a lot of the talk he would give, still called “Rainbow”, which he describes as using as a metaphor about the beauty after hardship. We also talk about his project of creating fun and playful representations of the anatomical features of male super heroes.

Zipeng also discusses his work on Stop Asian Hate that was displayed all over Times Square, as well as the work and process he uses at Dazzle.

Enjoy.

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So much happened during HOW Design Live in Boston this year, that I barely left the convention center at all. On the middle day though, I did make my way the three blocks to Johnny Cupcakes, and then across the street to a Harry Potter store. It was there that I ran into The Reflex Blue Show co-founder Nate Voss, and we decided to take the time to record a show together (First time in-person, since…checking…2013? Surely that can’t be…). As circumstances would dictate, when we were figuring out the logistics, Stefan Mumaw was setting up his talk in room 210, and we just put the microphone next to where he was and started recording.

We talk about Stephanie Voss’ presentation the next day, Star Wars, Street Fighter II, Mumaw’s talks on how to manage chaos and rapid ideation, what goes into a presentation, how many props Mumaw kept setting up, bail money, and more.

Enjoy.

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Robyn Kanner met with me at HOW Design Live in Boston to talk about her talk on the last ‘6 Novembers’. We also talk about her love of New Wave film, her work as the Senior Creative Advisor at Biden for President, her current work at Studio Gradients, and more.

Enjoy.

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Gary Kopervas (Syndicated Cartoonist, and SVP Creative Strategy at Finch Brands), met with me at HOW Design Live in Boston. We discuss his ‘Doodle or Die’ workshop focusing on getting the ideas out of the the back of your brain, and onto paper where people can understand them. We also discuss how doodling can be used to bring a team together, and get others excited about the idea.

Then things turn to Zorro, Mag Magazine, being a syndicated cartoonist, and more.

Enjoy.

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Rania Svoronou (Executive Design Director at IBM), was at HOW Design Live in Boston, and sat down to talk about how to be a resilient leader. We also discuss why and how designers are, by nature, very resilient – and how we are constantly dealing with failure – so much failure. We also talk about AI design, and the present and future work involved to create the visual aspects associated with artificial intelligence.

Enjoy.

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Justin Ahrens, Jeff Bloom, Michele Pistone, and Kelly Wang discuss the last day of 2022’s HOW Design Live in Boston.

What a great event, and one that feels way too short. That being said, HOW once again packed in more sessions than anyone could possibly ever see, and the amount of speakers is crazy. I can only hope Nashville in 2023 can live up to this one.

Enjoy.

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Justin Ahrens, Ti Chang, Stephen Gates, Jamie Saunders, Ahbleza Sellars, and Nicole Slaw discuss the second day of 2022’s HOW Design Live in Boston.

Every conference has many things you remember, but always that one thing that you remember first. Sometimes it’s a speaker (for me, HOW 2014, Bob Gill). Sometimes it’s an outside event (for me, the Red Sox game before HOW 2012 with a couple dozen HOWies). Sometimes it’s something completely unexpected. HOW 2022’s exhibit hall looked pretty standard at first glance, but then, in the back, The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! As I recap Day 2 of the conference I work my way through the exhibit hall until I get to talk to one of the Hotdoggers about how they got this thing onto the second floor of a convention center…

Enjoy.

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Bill Gardner, Andrew Gibbs, Patty Lennon, Michael Roderick, and Terri Trespicio discuss the first day of 2022’s HOW Design Live in Boston.

It was great to be back among so many creatives at the HOW Conference. The event, as usual, went by fast, and the countdown to 2023’s event in Nashville, TN has already begun.

In addition to the 3 recaps, over the next few months I’ll also be releasing seven podcasts recorded while at HOW.

Enjoy.

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Justin Kemerling stops by The Reflex Blue Show to talk about his new book, In the Middle of Everything. Written 10 years after opening Justin Kemerling Design Co., the book does a great job of capturing a design career in, well, the middle. We also talk design for politics and activism, making your night job into your day job, and more. Thanks goes out to Adam Behm for co-hosting,

Enjoy.

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Karen Torok gave the closing day keynote at AAF Nebraska’s Meet the Pros—a student event that I wish all markets had something similar to. AAF Nebraska does an amazing job on this event (disclosure: I served on the committee this year, but have been promoting this event ever since I went while in college, and so would be telling you how great it was regardless).

Karen talks about leaving design to the world of illustration; working for clients like Barbie; and, most important, the world of doing illustrations of bears in yoga poses for Real Cookies.

Enjoy.

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Nikki Villagomez stopped through Omaha, Nebraska to give the opening day keynote at AAF Nebraska’s Meet the Pros—a fantastic student event that’s been going on for quite a while (like, well over 60 years now). She does a great talk about how culture affects the typography of a city—a talk that is adjusted to each market she’s given it in. We also talk about Manhole Cover Designs, and more.

Enjoy.

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Great design books are still being made, it just feels like you have to look a bit harder to find them. Snails & Monkey Tails : A Visual Guide to Punctuation & Symbols, by Michael Arndt is one of them. Michael stops by The Reflex Blue Show to discuss his book, and, well a lot of punctuation and symbol stuff … pretty sure 1/2 the marks I use may be inaccurate—but that’s why books like this are needed. Both a visually beautiful items, as well as an educational one.

Enjoy.

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Omaha designer and illustrator Amanda Walla stopped by The Reflex Blue Show to talk about what got her into lettering, and the 100 day challenge she did. Well, we do talk about this at first, but the real reason she stopped by was to talk about Star Wars. Amanda is part of the Duel of the Ranks podcast that, well, ranks all of the Star Wars media against itself. With The Book of Boba Fett halfway through airing, it’s obviously the right time to discuss all things Fett. Sure, waiting until the series is over makes more sense, but why would we want to let that get in the way of talking first and thinking second?

This does make me feel a bit old though…I have seen every live-action Star Wars movie in the theater, and in its original run. On the first though, I was too young to remember that viewing, but I do remember my Grandma taking me again when it was re-released before Empire, which is the best of them all, or at least in my rankings. Out of all of the original Star Wars toys I had (and by that, I mean 1977-1984ish), Boba Fett and Yoda are the only ones I never parted with. Not sure why Yoda made the cut, maybe he was too small and slipped through a purge? Boba Fett I kept, well, because he was cooler than all of the other figures combined.

Also, thanks goes out to Connor Strange, a soon to be graduating graphic designer from Lincoln, Nebraska for co-hosting this episode.

Enjoy.

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Tim Lapetino, stops by The Reflex Blue Show to discuss his upcoming book, Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon. And also, what a huge cultural phenomenon Pac-Man was / is.

We also discuss how his interest in journalism and design has led to his current career in working in pop-culture, his previous book, Art of Atari, and some of his current work doing some amazing packaging for Super7.

Enjoy.

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Archie Boston stopped by The Reflex Blue Show to discuss what it was that brought him into a career in Graphic Design and Advertising in the 1960s. We also discuss his book, Fly In The Buttermilk: Memoirs of an African American in Advertising, Design & Design Education, and how and why to self-publish a memoir about design.

Archie is one of the 2021 AIGA Medalists, and will be recognized with the professions most distinguished honor at the 2021 AIGA Design Conference next month.

We also talk about his more recent projects and more.

Enjoy.

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Susan Augenbraun (Events Manager at the national office of AIGA) and Paul Mendoza (who leads a digital design team at UCLA) stop by to talk about the 2nd (does this make it annual?) AIGA Portfolio Festival.

Of course, no portfolio talk is complete without discussing what is expected in a portfolio.

And, as this event was created during the all-virtual world of conferences that was 2020, we also discuss how virtual events may evolve in the near future, and what parts may stick around for the long-term.

Enjoy.

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Christina Falzano, Managing Director of Conran Design Group stops by The Reflex Blue Show to talk about getting into branding, changes over the years in phone bills, how people interact with brands now, working in branding for the pharmaceutical and health spaces, and more.

Enjoy.

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I feel like I’ve known Prescott Perez-Fox for close to 20 years, but I think it’s all been online with the exception of a lunch we had like a decade ago at a conference. Even this podcast was remote, but it felt like he was in the same room. We catch up on Prescott moving from freelancing to teaching, and the changes that can take.

We also talk about [currently on hiatus] The Busy Creator podcast he hosted, and more.

Enjoy.

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Michael Schwab! This week we welcome illustrator/designer / artist Michael Schwab to The Reflex Blue Show to talk about his process, the tools he uses, his influences, and more.

Ben Lueders, who co-hosted for most of seasons 5 and 6 returns to co-host this episode as well.

Enjoy.

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Ken Barber, of House Industries, joins The Reflex Blue Show to talk about his journey into lettering. We also talk about what it’s like working with JJ Abrams and Jimmy Kimmel. Oh yeah, and that time in Omaha where I saw him present in a bowling ally back in 2000. Good times.

Huge thanks again to Hanna Zimmermann, who co-hosts from Lincoln, Nebraska.

Enjoy.

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Valerie Aurilio, General Manager of Landor & Fitch, has been working on a project with a soon-to-be 250 year history – America. We discuss working with the America 250 Foundation to brand the country’s semiquin. I can only imagine what goes on in a project this large, and that’s a lot of what we talk about. A few glimpses of what we’ll all be seeing in 2026 have already been released, and it’ll be fun to see how this shows up on the back of my coins during the next few years,

Hanna Zimmermann co-hosts from Lincoln, Nebraska.

Enjoy.

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Owen Davey visits The Reflex Blue Show (remotely, via the UK) and we discuss starting a career as an illustrator, the changes in the field over the years, and doing illustrations for social media. We also spend a bit of time talking about The Mandalorian, and some of the other shows we enjoy.

Enjoy.

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Lauren Hom visits The Reflex Blue Show (remotely, via Detroit, Michigan) to discuss how she got into lettering. This has led to murals, starting her own online classes, and working for some rather well-known brands.

We also discuss her current plans to go to culinary school in a couple of years, and making changes in your career in general.

Thanks again to soon-to-be-graduating designer Hanna Zimmermann for co-hosting from Lincoln, Nebraska. We end the show, well, we sort-of recorded an entire show after the show, with Lauren giving Hanna advice for any graduating design student.

Enjoy.

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Brooke Robinson stops by The Reflex Blue Show (well, remotely, via Austin, Texas) to talk about her journey from graphic designer, to fine artist, to bicycling the West coast, to founding Goodtype. We also talk about the wildly popular @goodtype Instagram page; her latest book, Goodtype : The Art of Lettering; and her own fine art studio, Sunsurfer.

Wow, Season 14 already? Season 13 certainly lived up to it’s unlucky number of a reputation by having an eight-month delay between episodes 4 and 5 (due to a global pandemic). But, since our regular in-person show is going to be remote for a while, we’re back for Season 14 with a much shorter delay than usual.

A big thanks goes out to so-to-be-graduating designer Hanna Zimmermann. While interning for us the past three weeks, she made the suggestions for 4 of our first 5 guests; co-hosted on 4 of the next 5 shows (remote via Lincoln, Nebraska); and also created the Reflex Blue Show logo and episode graphics we will be using for seasons 14 & 15.

Enjoy.

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Nate Voss! Just over 15(?!) years ago, Nate watched Steve Jobs talk about bringing podcasts into iTunes and immediately went to thoughts that he should be podcasting about design and invited Tom Nemitz to help (my typed recap from 5 years ago is here). I somehow also got invited to record, and the Be A Design Cast was born. After a couple-ish years, we went off to start The Reflex Blue Show. Nate left co-hosting after season 4 (when he moved to Kansas City), but did make a number of appearances in the next two years.

After watching ‘The Mandalorian‘ season 2, episode 6, I texted that all I really wanted to do was podcast about Boba Fett and such. So, that’s what we do. Well, we spend the first half talking about design and the best projects Nate’s done in the 9 years since he left Omaha – as well as moving from being a print designer to now spending years designing apps.

Then we just talk Star Wars for a while. We wrap up the show by speaking about 2020, Covid, and how it’s changed, well, everything. Thanks for listening as we wrap up Season 13. We’ll be back in 2021.

Enjoy.

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Justin Dauer – who I last spoke to and interviewed in 2017 while promoting his book “Cultivating a Creative Culture”, returns to discuss the book’s 2nd Edition: “Creative Culture: Human-Centered Interaction, Design, & Inspiration“. Well, more than just a second edition, as the content has doubled in size, and added a hardcover.

But yeah, what a difference 3 years has brought. The book, and our discussion, features a lot about setting a culture for your company that design and creativity can flourish in. A lot of this is physical environment, but as most of us have been remote working, it turns out that a lot of the lessons translate to the virtual world as well.

And even though I have not travelled to any conferences this year (and I am not sure there were any to travel to), when we spoke 3 years ago, I was at the HOW Conference in Chicago, Justin stopped by with his bags packed and on the way to the airport for a different conference in Florida. Seems like a decade ago! But even conferences go on (although heavily adapted this year). Turns out we both participated in the same conference this summer without realizing it – AIGA’s 2020 Portfolio Festival. I hope they make this into an annual thing, as it was well run, and great for graduation students. I was involved in reviewing portfolios, and Justin gave one of the keynotes on “Humility: The Designer’s Most Essential Trait“.

We also talk about onboarding a new team member virtually, job hunting in the unique environment that is 2020, changes in office working, and more.

Enjoy.

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Fredrik Öst – of Snask, visits the show (remotely from Sweden) to talk about starting a record label for VÄG, starting up a studio with basically zero experience, playing Badminton against a chicken, new merchandise, and more.

Oh yeah, we also have to talk a bit about changes in business and remote working that I assume has dominated almost everyone’s day to day in 2020. And why would we speak to anyone at Snask without also discussing their mantra – Make Enemies & Gain Fans.

This was likely the longest break in podcasting I’ve had since I started (this month makes over 15 years of podcasting about design – which in itself seems crazy). And, even though I quit recording anything not in person a few years ago (and even before that it was usually just a couple shows a year), I guess we adapt, and I’m back on the remote recording path, so why not start by going completely remote – Omaha to Stockholm. Hopefully I’ll be back in-person in 2021. But I plan to record a few more of these first.

After the show, stick around, we talk more about that epic party at the 2016 HOW Conference in Atlanta. The VÄG song at the very end is called “The Oracel”.

See you in a week or two.

Enjoy.

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Ashleigh Axios – of &Partners, incoming President of AIGA, and former Creative Director of the Obama White House – stopped by my office the first week of March, 2020 to record an episode of The Reflex Blue Show.

We spoke about AIGA, what it’s like working as a Creative Director at the White House for over four years, and a bit about how she found her path into the world of design. AIGA Nebraska President John Gawley ends the show by asking a question from a listener.

The Design Gigs for Good job board gets mentioned, and well, I actually spent the minute needed to find the link!

Anyway, the weeks after this was recorded sure took a turn, eh? I have been recorded all shows in person for a while now (and have never really recorded more than a couple a year remote before that), so I’m not sure when the podcast will return … either when things start to go back to a new normal, or I decide, hey, maybe I’d rather record remotely than to not record at all … only time will tell which comes first. You are always free to visit any of our past episodes until then – we even list them by guest name, by our favorite of each year, and by season (dropdown menu under “podcast”). Thanks for listening.

Enjoy.

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Omaha designer Jill Rizzo, and website developer Brian Wetjen, were looking for studio space when they stumbled upon a gallery instead. We talk about their new Split Gallery, hosting events (including one last night for AIGA Nebraska), getting into design before it was all digital, getting into website development before the existence of Google, and more.

Enjoy.

The post Jill Rizzo & Brian Wetjen: The Reflex Blue Show #207 appeared first on 36 Point.

John Gawley, the current President of AIGA Nebraska, talks about something that we don’t get a lot of here in Nebraska – being a full-time designer for a professional sports organization. John’s first job consisted of being part of the design team for the Phoenix Suns. We talk about Shaq making people late getting back from lunch, designing tickets, working with global brands, and more.

We also talk about some of John’s current work at SGH Concepts, being an Eagle Scout, pinewood derby, and getting involved.

Enjoy.

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Geoff Silverstein of Friendly Design Co. stopped by the studio to kick off season 13 of The Reflex Blue Show. We speak about how the logical location for any businesses second location is in Omaha, Nebraska (the other Friendly Design Co. office is in Washington D.C.); working remotely; working with non-profits; annual report design changes over the past twenty years; and more.

Enjoy.

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Jen Landis (VP and Executive Creative Director at KidGlov; and Founder of Pincurl Girls) met with me after her breakout session at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, IABC, and PRSA chapters.

We speak about KidGlov, Pincurl Girls, what pincurls are, positive messages (sign up here), ways to do good, networking, and more. And we discussed all of this while wearing some super stylish cat ears…

Enjoy.

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Stefan Mumaw is always good with a story. He’s also an amazing presenter – so it’s no shock that he was brought in to do the luncheon keynote at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, IABC, and PRSA chapters.

After his talk, we sat down (right inside the main doors, in what is usually reserved for the coat check area, but when it’s crazy hot out, that room is not needed…) to discuss, well, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema next door, watching movies, the Halo 3 ad campaign from over a decade ago, his Chasing the Monster Idea book, how to sell a monster idea, creating curiosity and more.

And then we got interrupted by an actual fire in the parking lot…

Enjoy.

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Daryl Anderson, Creative Director at Clark Creative Group, sits down to talk about working with local clients, Visit Omaha, and his own path into the design field. We end the show on some student advice.

This is the first (of three) podcasts I recorded at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, IABC, and PRSA chapters. The event was held on July 18th, and even though it’s only in its second year, it already has the feel and direction of an event that’s been held for a decade. Big props to all five organizations, their volunteers, and the sponsors, for making this event an already established tradition for the Omaha design / advertising / marketing / pr / business communication fields.

Enjoy.

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Illustrator Greg Paprocki joins The Reflex Blue Show to discuss how he got into illustration, working on Curious George, his ABC books (starting with V is for Vittles), and so many more books. We also talk about a an article Greg wrote for HOW Magazine about adapting your style.

We end with Greg’s advice for students looking to get into illustration as a career.

Thanks again to Paul Meyer for co-hosting. Enjoy.

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Mary Allen returns to The Reflex Blue Show to talk about mental health awareness, and her greeting cards for those who want a way to explain their mental health issue. We also speak about living walls, environmental design, and more.

Big thanks to Mary Allen for being the guest on show #200 – crazy to think we’re still going strong. I have to give big props to Nate Voss and Tom Nemitz for starting up the Be A Design Cast (BADCast) podcast with me back in November of 2005. I also want to thank all of our great guests over the years (and there have been a lot of them), and our listeners (those who’ve been with us for a while, as well as those who may just be joining now. Feel free to give us a good review by the way if you’re still listening ;)

This may be show #200, but with our conference (and other) specials, it’s more like #268. For those counting the 53 BADCast shows, and the 9 specials we did there, I guess it may be closer to #329…

When we started interviewing guests just a few months in on the BADCast, we thought it’d be fun to ask like 5 stupid / crazy / weird questions to the guest, and Tom Nemitz named it “The Reflex Blue Round”. I liked it because it was a quick question / answer thing, as well as Reflex Blue being the color of my alma mater (I am not sure if it still is, they have re-branded a few times since). Anyway, The Reflex Blue Show got it’s name from there for anyone who wondered… here’s to another 200 (329?)!

Enjoy.

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Andrea Trew stops by The Reflex Blue Show to talk about her new company, Trew Creative. Andrea spent the past three years as the sole designer at Flywheel (36 Point has been hosted at Flywheel since 2017), and before that worked at a few ad agencies in Omaha.

Paul Meyer co-hosts, as we talk about Andrea’s speaking tour on “Building a Startup into a Brand” and “Behind the Scenes”, as well as her motion-capture workshops with Kimberly Bailey.

We also cover pugs, and meeting partly through volunteering with Pug Partners of Nebraska.

Enjoy.

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Emily Cohen returns to the show to discuss her book Brutally Honest (she was last on the show a year ago, before the book shipped, and after an amazing Kickstarter promotion). The book has really taken off, and is now heading into a second-printing – I highly recommend it after reading my copy last month. It really is Emily in book format like she mentions in this episode.

Emily is also on a “Moving Beyond Referrals” speaking tour, and it was great to catch her talk (hosted by the great AIGA Nebraska chapter) at Blatt Beer & Table in Omaha, Nebraska.

We speak about the dirty word that is “specialization”, how and why to specialize, why to limit referrals, and how KISS is playing just across the street from where we recorded next week. Wait, that’s from when we recorded last week. KISS plays in like 3 hours! See you at the show!

Enjoy.

The post Emily Cohen: The Reflex Blue Show #198 appeared first on 36 Point.

Omaha-based designer Dani Donovan stopped by the Eleven19 office to discuss a design project that went huge – and fast.

In mid-December (of 2018), just two short months before we recorded this podcast, she posted a flowchart/comic showing ADHD storytelling. It started to get shared. It started to get re-posted. It got well over 25 million views, and is still circulating, being edited by others, and shared anew. I saw her post about it on Twitter the day after, mentioning that it went viral much quicker than you can plan, and within hours, I saw it show up in my social media feed from two other people, not even knowing who created it.

We speak of what happens when something you create goes viral, building off of it (Dani has been creating many more wonderful comics on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and can be supported on Patreon), and keeping it all going while you still have a full-time job, as well as freelance work.

I love seeing a designer’s side-project take off, and look forward to seeing Dani Donovan’s success on this.

This officially marks the beginning of Season 12 of The Reflex Blue Show, and thanks goes out to Paul Meyer for creating the new logo and images on this post – we will be using for the rest of the season (and likely through season thirteen). Thanks again for listening. We will be back in a week or two with anther episode. Until then…

Enjoy.

The post Dani Donovan: The Reflex Blue Show #197 appeared first on 36 Point.

Grain & Mortar has been an award-winning branding and web development studio in Omaha, Nebraska since 2011, but 2018 brought them into the business of selling pants as well. Kristin DeKay, Eric Downs, and Jesse Harding stop by The Reflex Blue Show to discuss a little bit of the Grain & Mortar backstory, and then jumping to right around a year ago in buying a 135 year old building.

The new office location, as well as a legit storefront, got them to start one of their other goals – a retail shop selling men’s goods at 1414 South 13th Street. We talk about some of the things involved in opening and running Vincent Outfitting Company, the safari swords that come through the door, and more.

By the way, the Vincent Outfitters Company store really does look great. Getting a tour of the entire building a month before we recorded really showed the amount of effort and care the folks at Grain & Mortar put into their new space. Be sure to visit them this holiday season if you are in the area.

As for The Reflex Blue Show, as we record around half of our episodes at Eleven19, it’s fun to actually record season 11, episode 19 (and fittingly release this episode on November 19). Between this podcast and the Be A Design Cast that proceeded it, this month marks my 13th year of podcasting, which sounds a bit crazy to even type out. I really do appreciate the people I’ve been able to meet either in-person or online because of it, and give huge thanks to all of our great listeners who make it worthwhile.

We’ll be back in 2019 with season twelve, but until then…

Enjoy.

The Reflex Blue Show

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John Sayles (of J. Sayles Design in Des Moines, Iowa) stopped by the Eleven19 studio to talk about being in the design industry for over three decades.

But first things first – pork chops and vodka! For those who have never been, the Iowa State Fair is huge – HUUUUGE – and one of the top attractions is the Pork Tent J. Sayles Design worked on. That, and Jalapeno Pete’s just down the fair grounds (which is also a Sayles design). So, how big is the fair? Pete’s will go through 130 kegs in one night, and 5-6,000 pork chops are served up per day. Like I said, it is HUGE. Speaking of which, I missed it again this year, and really should not have. Next year. Let’s go with that. I need to visit the butter cow before 2019 ends (I remember seeing the Butter Superman, as well as Butter Harry Potter, so 2006 and 2007 must have been the years I attended, oh 2019 Fair, you cannot come soon enough).

Now, for the vodka, and it is SWELL. After years of doing design work for others in the beverage industry (which he still does for places like Peace Tree Brewing), John decided to take the advice he gives out to clients, and put it into his own vodka company – and thus, SWELL Vodka was born. We talk about the first three years of running a second business, and what is involved, and regulations, so many regulations.

We also talk about how design can lead to changes in housing for the homeless, doing work for hundreds of clients over the years (including a 5-times platinum Lynyrd Skynyrd album), some student advice, and more.

Enjoy.

The Reflex Blue Show

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Steve Gordon and Paul Meyer stop by The Reflex Blue Show to talk about the current things going on in the design world.

We recorded this a day or two after Apple’s announcements of a new phone line – and a big advancement in their watch technology. I know I’ll eventually end up with a new iPhone at sometime…but who knows when that’ll be, as I’m pretty set on just riding my phone out until it decides it’s time. I do look forward to Steve sending me hourly memos from his watch – just to let me know he got the new one though…

We also cover trends (note: you NEED a ‪#‎HVYCRWN‬ fanny pack – make this happen).

And a large chunk of time is of us trying to remember if the Apple IIE had an optional color monitor. I WAS RIGHT! Steve check this – someone playing Oregon Trail on a color monitor. And the IIE was nothing, if not a way to play Oregon Trail. I can feel the dysentery coming on now, and it’s not good.

Enjoy.

The Reflex Blue Show

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Elizabeth Edwards (Volume PR and 11th Octave) joins The Reflex Blue Show to talk PR and psychology.

Once again, recorded in the hallway (and still very obviously between sessions at the event) at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, and PRSA chapters.

Elizabeth was the luncheon keynote speaker, and gave a great presentation about the intersections between human behavior, science, and communication. How can we use behavioral science and psychology to make communication more effective? And also, how can we test the results of these things? Elizabeth is working to make public relations and psychology work together as a form of communication science.

This is the last of the podcasts recorded at OnBrand 2018. What a great event – and I look forward to seeing how it evolves in the years to come. In the world of design, we don’t all do public relations, marketing, and advertising as well, but there is an overlap. And at one point or another, we seem to all work on something that involves parts of the other, or with someone who specializes in one of these fields. It was a lot of fun spending the day in Omaha at an event focusing on all of these professions, and how they work together in branding. Thanks again to the four organizations that put this event on.

Enjoy.

The Reflex Blue Show

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Nicole Frantz (Senior Vice President, Creative Services at Capital Music Group) joins The Reflex Blue Show to talk about working in the music business.

We talk about working in a super-creative (in this case, music) field, working with Annie Lennox, and how to stay current while dealing with the magic of music.

Once again, recorded in the hallway (and obviously between sessions at the event, as you can hear the many people walking by us) at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, and PRSA chapters. Nicole was the closing keynote speaker, talking about “What freaks you out?” In this case – public speaking – and what you can do about your own fears.

Enjoy.

The Reflex Blue Show

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John Henry Müller (Design Director at Hudl) returns to the show after last having his work go to the dogs over five years ago.

We meet up in the hallway (I love recording at conferences (the energy, the people, the fun), but the drawback is less than ideal background noises also coming through on the recording from said activities (or, maybe that just adds to it? Yeah, let’s just go with that.)) at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha. What a great event – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, and PRSA chapters to create what can only be described as a pretty amazing success – really looking forward to where this conference goes from here.

John Henry and I discuss a bit of the OnBrand conference (he was on a creative panel that afternoon), and his work at Hudl (and what it’s like working with a 30-person in-house product design team).

We also discuss the 10th (and final, about to be rebranded) Big Omaha, as well as the 10th MAHA Music Festival (both events occurred over this past weekend). We then rehash a bit of his past life running Pack and, before that, What Cheer, and some of the work What Cheer did around Big Omaha (like the Selective Perspective Detective Objective, HOT or COLD, and the coloring contest).

Finally, what’s next? How do you stay current? and what is even staying current in the web? We’ll be back in a week or two with the 2nd (of 3) shows recorded at OnBrand.

Enjoy.

The Reflex Blue Show

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Dan Rhatigan (Senior Manager of Adobe‘s type team) was at the HOW Design Live design conference in Boston to talk about what’s next in the type world.

Software does have a lifespan, and with Open Type being over two decades old, well, it makes sense that there may be newer technology being created to deliver all of those wonderful letters and glyphs onto our screens – but I never would have guessed that the emoji was a big reason we needed new file formats (but of course that would be the reason). We speak about all of this, as well as what else is coming, and how browsers and desktops are involved.

We also talk about Typekit, and Adobe constantly working on new fonts, as well as updating old one – hello to Minion 3.

The biggest pro to moving to Adobe’s Creative Cloud (that I found anyway), was having access to Typekit. I use it way more often that I thought I would. Most of the other positive cloud changes I had already assumed to be the case, this is just the one that I didn’t see coming I guess. I do look forward to seeing the things Dan speaks of making there way into regular usage – and in another twenty years, well, who knows what will happen…

This was the last of the six interview podcasts I recorded at HOW Live in Boston, but no worry, The Reflex Blue Show will be back in just a week or two with interviews I plan to record this Thursday at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha, Nebraska.

Enjoy.

The Reflex Blue Show

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