Stay ConnectedThe Creative Boom Podcast is a weekly interview show for designers, illustrators, animators, and creative professionals. Host Katy Cowan talks to artists, entrepreneurs and creative thinkers about the realities of building a creative career – confidence, burnout, money, failure, reinvention, and imposter syndrome – in honest, warm conversations that don’t dress anything up.
Part of Creative Boom, the independent magazine for the creative community established in 2009.
Copyright: © 2023 Creative Boom
If you think graphic design or illustration are challenging industries, try filmmaking. Although technology has made the craft more accessible and affordable, opening up many opportunities for anyone passionate about storytelling, the increased competition and ongoing cultural shifts mean that writing scripts and shooting scenes is more difficult than ever.
The entire sector continues to adapt as the way we consume movies seems to change yearly, if not weekly – not to mention the recent Hollywood strikes that, although deemed necessary, certainly didn’t make life easier for those independents fighting for recognition and income.
This week’s guest is no stranger to these things. Miles Watts is a British independent director and screenwriter for Hollywood, as well as a producer. He’s made four of his own movies so far and is a co-host on a Hammer horror podcast called Hammer Heads. And whenever he can, he tours the UK to teach screenwriting and film production at schools and universities.
Miles says that he’s been making movies since he was a kid, so with everything that’s changed since the late 1970s in the film industry, we wanted to know what it takes to survive this often-brutal sector. Miles gives us a fascinating insight into his world, from the glory days of 1980s cinema to some of the best films and TV shows today.
He shares how you must overcome rejection many times over, why you must stop focusing so much on that ultimate goal, perhaps holding that Oscar, thanking all you love and work with, and instead finding joy in the struggle. I guess that’s something we can all relate to.
Before we bid another year farewell, we thought a nice festive special might be in order where we bring back some former guests from the show and see how they're all doing.
We're talking motion designer Dan Silverstone, illustrative designer Lisa Maltby, cultural champion Boma Krijsman, graphic designer Kieron Lewis, illustrator Katie Chappell, design director and podcaster Harrison Wheeler, and artist and illustrator Barney Ibbotson. We even say hello to our old Creative Boom friend and our resident designer, Andy Mallalieu, of Nine Sixty.
Of course, Christmas means different things to different people. For those who aren't religious or don't formally mark the occasion, it's still a special time of year with family and friends, where we might be a little kinder to one another and find a moment to take stock. And also eat far too many Quality Streets.
It's been an especially tough 12 months for many of us. So, as we wind down for the festive break, we wanted to ask our guests a series of festive questions – you know, the important stuff like favourite Christmas movies and what pet peeve from the creative industry they might ask Santa to get rid of, that sort of thing. We even get a visit from the big man himself: good old Saint Nicholas.
Alongside plenty of laughs, we get some real heartwarming stuff, too, and discover the best advice everyone has and their message to the creative community for the year to come.
A word of warning. There is a little colourful language in this episode. It's why we've marked it as explicit. We hope you don't mind. After the year we've had personally, we just wanted to let loose and have some fun. On behalf of everyone at Creative Boom, have a wonderful Christmas and here's to a peaceful and prosperous 2024!
Have you ever looked at your career and thought, 'What's next?' You're not alone. It's a common myth that by our forties, we'll have it all figured out. Instead, we might find ourselves grappling with more questions than ever before, and the prospect of change feels as daunting as it is necessary.
It's something this week's guest, Graeme McGowan, knows only too well. As the creative force behind Jamhot, a Glasgow-based design studio, and the networking event Gab, Graeme has weathered economic storms and global upheavals, always emerging with new insights.
He may have started his business with the boundless energy of youth and nothing to lose, but today's responsibilities weigh heavier, adding pressure to an already high-stakes game. Through it all, Graeme champions a positive outlook, advocating that the best way to face challenging periods is with optimism and a readiness to embrace change. It's about finding the courage to do things differently and discovering that success sometimes lies in the unexpected and the uncharted.
So, how has he continued to evolve and keep his business vibrant and competitive in these turbulent times? What does success mean for a studio that has chosen to stay small on purpose? How does he manage to keep pace with a rapidly evolving industry? And why does he believe that not knowing your next step can be an advantage, especially when approached with a positive mindset?
As someone who thrives in the background, shying away from the spotlight, Graeme's journey in navigating the business world and attracting new clients is as unconventional as it is inspiring. His advice, grounded in honest experience and a positive embrace of the unknown, might just offer the fresh perspective you need.
Our conversation explores the unexpected joys of embracing life's uncertainties with a smile and reveals how staying positive in the face of the unknown can be the secret to ongoing creativity and innovation.
Change is inevitable. We all understand nothing stays the same for long. But right now, change can feel like it's happening at a terrifying rate as the world continues to surprise and shock on what feels like an hourly basis. The only thing we can be sure of is that we can't be sure of anything.
Change feels like it's been a running theme since the global pandemic, and now many of us are feeling pretty damn exhausted, fed up with everything shifting under our feet. To offer a positive slant, though, this week's guest is Metz ti Bryan, co-founder and production partner at The Or, a creative agency she launched in 2021. Part of the Mother Family, its core values are celebrating curiosity, rewarding empathy and encouraging independent thinking. And it is built on this premise – that change is something to embrace and behold.
Metz, herself, is someone familiar with change. She grew up in Latin America, later Canada and then moved to the UK in 2012, working at leading agencies such as adam&eveDDB, McCann London, and BBC Creative.
Her career has been about learning to pivot and adapt to the times. Change has been healthy for her, making her believe we should all be open to change. That adaptability is one of the most significant traits we can have to cope with the ups and downs of modern life, thrive in our careers, and even help make the world a better place.
When you leave school or university, you'll likely find yourself working at any place that will have you. And later, if you're lucky and have worked hard enough, you might enjoy the luxury of steering your own ship and finding purpose and meaning in your creative field.
That was certainly the case for this week's guest, Kirsty Minns, partner and executive creative director at Mother Design (part of the Mother family), who has shaped her entire career by choosing to only work for companies with values in line with her own.
Today, Kirsty has almost two decades of design experience in the brand-building space with the likes of The Future Laboratory, Google Creative Lab and DesignStudio, and has worked with an impressive range of clients. Her work stretches from developing award-winning experiences for Google Pixel and Selfridges, rebranding large complex components of the BBC and Facebook, to working on creative briefs for names such as Belstaff, Hunter, Baileys, Hennessy, Jamesons and Nike.
Right now, she's based at Mother, an agency with a strong purpose that she was drawn to – one that aims to create work that would "make their mothers proud". But Kirsty says it's more than that: it's about making the next generation proud, too. "It's as much about making our industry a rewarding, exciting place to work, trying to challenge what it looks like, surprising and delighting and entertaining our consumers as it is about changing the world," she explains.
But as Kirsty admits, not every brief should or can do that. Grand gestures are nice, but small steps and a little kindness can also make a huge difference to our industry and the wider world. We all have the power to speak up, suggest something better, or even adapt our own way of thinking. It all helps.
What else can Kirsty teach us about finding purpose and meaning in our creative work today? How can we ensure we're doing something worthwhile? We dive right in to get some insight.
Did you know that 900,000 women left jobs because of menopausal symptoms in 2019? That's according to research by Bloomberg that is probably only scratching the surface. And it's something this week's guest wants to make more people aware of.
Melissa Robertson is the CEO of Dark Horses in London. And she has launched an open-source menopause policy inspired by her own experience with the condition. She hopes it will open up the conversation within the workplace, not just in the creative industry, and stop so many talented women from leaving behind their careers when they're at the top of their game. The policy looks at the science behind menopause, explains the symptoms and considers how women struggle in everyday life when going through it.
Melissa has also recently become a director of Menopause Mandate, working on an all-important campaign with influential people such as Davina McCall and Mariella Frostrup to make sure women's voices are heard across the country. So, what does it feel like to go through menopause, and what can be done to normalise it so everyone understands? Melissa offers some insight.
As creative freelancers, we love what we do and enjoy being our own boss, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Burnout is sadly familiar to many of us, including this week's guest, Radim Malinic, who wants to offer other creatives some valuable help.
Taking all that he's learned from running his studio, Brand Nu, the creative director, graphic designer, and author has just released two new books, Creativity For Sale and Mindful Creative. These new titles are based on his own experiences over two decades and offer solid advice and wisdom to help you triumph as a small business and hopefully avoid making the same mistakes.
Radim talks of his struggles, of working too hard and sometimes for the wrong people. He covers the kind of juicy stuff any of us could learn from. But, more often than not, these are the moments that we have to experience for ourselves before the lesson truly sinks in. Nevertheless, Radim wants to offer some reassurance that we all suffer the same stuff, so it's better to be aware of what might go wrong to prepare us for those difficult times.
He shares the good stuff, too. And there's plenty of that. So, if you've just gone freelance or been running a business for some time, we're sure our conversation will have you nodding in agreement and give you some extra comfort that you're not alone, and these are things we all go through.
If you've been trying to keep up with social media lately, you're not alone. Twitter becomes X, and no one likes or sees our updates anymore. Instagram's engagement plummets. And then comes Threads – is that even worth the effort these days, as the excitement seems to have died down? Not to mention BlueSky, Discord, Mastodon, and what else? It's all proving to be a little overwhelming.
Here to help us make sense of it all is Brian Hollingsworth, a brand consultant and graphic designer based in London who has become passionate about social media ever since he worked for The Conservative Party in 2018 and, later, a leading urban streetwear brand. Alongside running his own design studio, DAM, he's also behind The BKH – where he helps other creatives make the most of their online brand and reputation.
We wanted to know whether social media is still worthwhile – whether we're tweeting, X'ing or threading – how we can stand out amongst the noise without burning ourselves out, and where we are best focusing our time and attention to get the best possible return.
With everything that's been happening lately, you'd think things are getting worse, not better. But here's the thing. Despite these challenging times, life has improved for the vast majority of people – from lower levels of crime to higher life expectancy around the world. It's encouraging stats like these that form the basis of Stefan Sagmeister's new book, Now is Better, and the focus of this week's episode.
One of the world's most celebrated living designers, Sagmeister's exploration of human progress through the ages was inspired by a pessimistic conversation with a friend. Like many of us, his pal believed life was better in the "good old days" and that everything's got gloomier since then. But actually, that's simply not true. If you look at the facts, the world is more prosperous, people are living longer, and generally, things are better than they used to be.
Sagmeister took it upon himself to prove his friend wrong in his latest creative project and used historical art and data visualisation to paint a rosier picture of how far we've come. "I found the phenomenon of a highly educated person, so influenced by the daily news cycle that he carries a completely wrong view of the world, fascinating," says Stefan. "From a communication-design point of view, it seemed an interesting direction to tackle."
In showing us a more optimistic angle, he urges us to choose gratitude and positivity over pessimism and despair. And that's important, not just for our happiness and mental well-being but our drive and energy to create, too.
Sagmeister formed the New York-based Sagmeister Inc. in 1993 and has since designed for clients as diverse as the Guggenheim Museum, the Rolling Stones, and HBO. His work is in museum collections worldwide, and he teaches in the graduate department of the School of Visual Arts in New York. We hope today's conversation with Sagmeister inspires you to think about the future with much-needed hope.
What does the future of graphic design look like? And how can today's emerging designers stay relevant in a fast-paced world? These are just some of the questions we posed to Paula Scher, one of the world's most influential graphic designers, as we kick off season six of The Creative Boom Podcast.
Described as the "master conjurer of the instantly familiar", Scher straddles the line between pop culture and fine art in her iconic work, which can be seen just about everywhere you look. From the New York Public Theatre and MoMa to Tiffany & Co, Coca-Cola and Microsoft Windows, as well as iconic album covers for The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, and Bob Dylan – Paula has had a phenomenal career thus far and continues to push boundaries as a partner at Pentagram.
In a typical project in 2012, Scher created a new logo for Windows 8 that took it back to its roots as a window. We touch on this during our chat and discover how she helped the global brand re-imagine its older four-colour symbol as a more modern geometric shape. It's typical of her no-nonsense approach to graphic design, which continues to be in huge demand today. And it's something any of us can learn from.
In fact, Paula has just released a new course for BBC Maestro, simply titled Graphic Design. It promises to explore the techniques central to successful visual communication, drawing on her own experiences in the field and offering exclusive insight into both her singular vision and innovative practices that have shaped today's industry.
But we also wanted to know her thoughts on self-promotion, why she has never liked social media, and – most importantly – where she thinks AI is heading and how it might shape the future of graphic design.
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