This week's guest is Christoper Doyle. With over 22 years of experience, Christopher has established himself as one of Australia’s leading brand and design talents. Based in Sydney, his independent studio, Christopher Doyle & Co., is celebrated for its sharp approach to visual identity, creative direction, campaigns, and digital design. Known for blending curiosity and beauty in his work, Christopher collaborates across disciplines to deliver award-winning designs for clients in music, ar...

Every year, RGD asks a different Canadian design studio or agency to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ve been speaking with some of our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. My guest this week is Howard Poon, VP of Design at DDB Edmonton. In 2022, Howard and the team at DDB Edmonton tackled the conference identity for our triumphant return to in-person conferences. The execution was a restrained approach packed with iconography. In this episode, Howard and I go back...

My guest this week is Partner, Executive Creative Director & Managing Director at BaseNYC. Min Lew was born in Germany, raised in Seoul, and now lives in Brooklyn. Min brings 20 years of experience across culture, technology, luxury, fashion, and more. Her impressive portfolio includes collaborations with clients like Apple, The New York Times, JFK T4 Terminal and MoMA. In this episode we talk about Min's path into design, how to move up the ladder within agency environments and what Min ...

Our guest this week is a global brand leader. Greg Hoffman is the former Chief Marketing Officer at Nike. For 28 years, Greg held marketing, design, and innovation leadership positions at Nike. His role in the rise of marketing and design through that period was recognized when Fast Company named him one of the Most Creative People in Business. Today his primary role is as founder and principal of the brand leadership platform, Modern Arena. In that position Greg advises Fortune 500 brands, s...

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ve been speaking with some of our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. My guest this week is Partner and Chief Creative Officer at BMD, Laura Stein. In this episode, I’m asking Laura to go back in time to 2020. Bruce Mau Design was our Design Partner in 2021, which meant they were working through the conference branding in the depths of a global pandemic—and the myr...

Getting to chat with Gail Anderson is a dream. Gail is a designer, writer, and educator. And today, Gail Anderson is Chair of BFA Design and BFA Advertising at the School of Visual Arts. She spent the first part of her career working in publishing: books and then stints at The Boston Globe Sunday and Rolling Stone. She went on to make poster art for Broadway and off-Broadway productions at SpotCo before starting her own small design firm, Anderson Newton Design. She’s also one of the most inf...

My guest this week is graphic designer and writer Chip Kidd. At Alfred A. Knopf—where he has worked for over 38 years—Chip has designed thousands of book covers. A writer as well, Chip has authored two novels—‘The Cheese Monkeys’ and ‘The Learners’, both national bestsellers. His bio also includes lines like: He was an extra in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ and an answer on Jeopardy in 2002. In this episode, we talk at length about designing book covers. We get into why Chip got into boo...

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ve been speaking with some of our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. My guest this week is Mo Bofill. Mo is currently a Partner and Executive Creative Director of Design at 123w. In this episode, I’m asking Mo to reflect back on her experience as Executive Design Director at john st where she helped lead the DesignThinkers branding in the chaotic year that was 202...

My guest this week is Grace Hwang. Up until very recently, Grace was working at Microsoft as Partner Director of Device Research + Design. That role encompassed Device Design, Mixed Reality hardware and software, Accessibility, and Sustainability. She believes in the power of human-centered design to cultivate positive change in people, systems, and society—and she brought that belief to that role. In this conversation, we talk about our responsibility as designers, the future of computing, a...

Brian Collins has presented memorable DesignThinkers talks dating back as far as 2006. Brian is a designer and co-founder of COLLINS, the business transformation company based in San Francisco and New York City. Brian co-founded COLLINS with Leland Maschmeyer in 2008 with a focus not on what they would make, but what they would make possible through design. In this episode, we talk about some of his past presentations, the importance of language in our work and we riff on the idea of risk tak...

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ve been speaking with some of our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I catch up with Jonathon Yule and Thomas van Ryzewyk. Both Jonathon and Tom work at Concrete here in Toronto. Jonathon functions as their Director of Design and Tom as Creative Director. Together, they lead branding for DesignThinkers in 2019. We revisit that process—and yes, I a...

This week's guest is Robert Wong. Robert was born Chinese, grew up Dutch, was Canadian, and is now American. While studying to become an accountant in Toronto, Robert woke up one day, flew to New York, and became a graphic designer instead. Robert is best known for his time leading design at Starbucks and as one of the co-founders of Google Creative Lab, where he still works. In this episode, we retrace his steps to becoming a designer, we discuss how the Google Creative Lab operates, and we ...

This week's guest is Jennifer Kinon. Jennifer founded Champions Design with Bobby C. Martin, Jr in 2010. Today, Jennifer leads business, design and strategy at Champions. For more than a decade, the firm has crafted meaningful brand strategy and visual identity systems for some of the world’s best brands. At every point in her career, Jennifer has tackled big systems. She served as Design Director of Hillary for America in 2016, Design Director of New York City’s 2012 Olympic Bid and worked i...

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I catch up with Michael Romaniuk. Today, Michael is an Associate Creative Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo. After leaving pre-med in 2018, he executed a surprising direct mail stunt disguised as a FedEx delivery man. He was hired on the spot by Zulu Alpha Kilo and briefed wi...

This week's guest is Liza Enebeis, Partner and Creative Director at Studio Dumbar/DEPT®. Studio Dumbar is an award winning international agency with Dutch heritage. They specialize in visual branding and motion and Liza is directly involved in all their main projects. Liza also co-founded and co-hosts Typeradio.org, a podcast on type and design, and co-initiator of the Design in Motion Festival, also known as DEMO. In this episode we talk about her early career and the value of a little disco...

This week's guest is Michael Johnson. Michael set up Johnson Banks in 1992, after a decade learning design, branding and art direction across the globe. His company is known for how they define, then design, brands that make a difference. ‘Do great work for good people’ is their mantra. He’s produced an enviable portfolio of work and received countless awards, including D&AD’s highest honour, the President’s Award in 2017. In this episode, we talk about starting and sustaining a design bu...

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I catch up with Hans Thiessen RGD. Hans leads the design team at Rethink—an agency that’s been named AdAge’s Creative Agency of the Year, one of Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Creative Agencies, and Strategy's Creative & Design Agency of the Year five years i...

This week's guest is Oakland-based designer, lettering artist and NYT best-selling author, Jessica Hische. If you're a child of the internet, you're probably already familiar with Jessica's work. She kicked off her career working at Headcase Design and later as a senior designer working under the great Louise Fili. In 2009, Jessica stepped out on her own as a freelancer. You might remember her Daily Drop Cap project—or more recently, you've likely seen her tidying up some of your favourite wo...

Khoi Vinh is a Senior Director of Design at Adobe. He’s been a leading figure in the design community for more than two decades. He has led design teams at large companies and startups across the industry. I first sat down with Khoi during our pandemic-era, Virtual DesignThinkers conference. We had a pretty in-depth conversation about the intersection of design and technology. (If you're an RGD Member, you can access that conversation at rgd.ca.) But in this episode, we’re diving right in art...

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I catch up with Tina Mackenzie RGD Emeritus. Tina is a very accomplished graphic design manager. In 2012, the award winning in-house graphic design team at the City of Mississauga—which Tina was leading—was invited to be the first ever, in-house group to design DesignTh...

This week’s guest has been named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, “one of the most influential designers working today” by GDUSA, and a “Woman of Influence” by Success magazine. It’s author, educator, curator and podcast pioneer, Debbie Millman. I first interviewed Debbie in 2020 as part of our pandemic-era, Virtual DesignThinkers, where we talked at length about Debbie's professional history. (If you're an RGD Member, you can access that conversation at rgd.ca.)...

Karin Fong is an Emmy award-winning director and designer. She’s a founding member of Imaginary Forces, where she works at the intersection of live-action, design, and animation. If you’ve watched shows like Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Little Fires Everywhere, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, or feature films like Spider-Man: No Way Home or Slumberland—you’ve encountered Karin’s work. She’s also helmed spots for major brands, including LEGO, Lexus, Target, Google, PlayStation, and Herman Miller. ...

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I sit down with Dominic Ayre RGD. Dominic is the Creative Director at Hambly & Woolley, who worked on the conference identity in 2009. Dominic also plays a big role in helping RGD identify DesignThinkers speakers each year, so you’ll hear a little bit about that pro...

This week’s guest is Steven Heller. Steven is the co-chair and co-founder of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design program. He was a senior art director at the New York Times for 33 years. He is the author or co-author of 200 books, mostly on design and pop culture, and has been contributing editor to PRINT, BASELINE, EYE and other design magazines. You'd know his writing best under the slug The Daily Heller at printmag.com. In this episode, we talk about how he got started, how he’s seen the ...