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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