In our final episode of the TDC 2023 series, we hear from three heads behind digital product company, Nightjar. Listen in as Co-Founders Ahmed Meer, Christine Sultana & Bonnie MacTavish, discuss their studio processes, working towards effective collaboration across disciplines, detail their work on THE ICONIC, and more. Don't forget to let us know …

Listen in as Robyn & Campbell Butler discuss starting a studio, branding process, remote collaboration and much more. Robyn & Campbell are the founders of Lovework Studio, a branding and digital design studio based in Redcliffe Australia. They’re two incredibly talented creatives and it’s fascinating to hear them share their journey with Lovework. …

Today we’re hearing from Evi-O & Yah-Leng Yu at The Design Conference in 2023. Evi-O is a multidisciplinary designer and artist at Evi-O.Studio and Yah-Leng Yu is the creative director of Foreign Policy. Listen in as they discuss connection and how we can foster a healthy, safe, and flourishing design industry. They cover a lot, from perceptions an…

In this episode we hear from Alistair McCready, founder of Monolith, a typographic design practice based out of Auckland, New Zealand. Alistair speaks with co-hosts Frankie Young and Matt Leach about about what type designers are like and the momentum you need when designing type. It’s a fascinating and wide ranging chat, covering everything from a…

In this episode we’re dropped into a conversation between two friends, Annette Harcus and Andrew Ashton. Annette is the founder, CEO and Creative Director of Harcus Design and Andrew is the CD of Ashton Design, previously with Edison Agency, Work-Art-Life and Studio Pip and Co. Their chat took us places you wouldn’t usually get in a design podcast.…

We’re back and beyond excited to share this fascinating conversation between Jasmin, CEO of Innocean Australia and Founder of Fck the Cupcakes, and Kevin from TheSumOf — friend of the podcast and branding expert. Listen in as they talk the culture of conferences, commercialising creativity and the silent war between design and advertising departmen…

Our last episode on positivity (as part of Adobe MAX 2021) has Sumita and Matt talking with Ve Dewey in London about how she’s remained positive in her squiggly-line career. Ve has worked for Adobe, Mattel, ReDesign Business and most recently as co-creator for Never Not Creative. In this discussion we look at how she ended up in London, being a ‘se…

Our Adobe MAX21 mini-series rolls on with co-host, Sumita Maharaj interviewing Kris Andrew Small on his backstory, how his process is changing and what it means to be a role model for younger creatives. Having worked for many large clients like Nike, Apple, Adidas, Channel 4, WeTransfer, Reebok and more, he’s also exhibited internationally at insti…

1st episode in a new mini-series based on Adobe MAX and their 2021 theme of positivity. Co-host Sumita Maharaj interviews Josie Young about her work, living with chronic illness and stepping away from Christopher Doyle & Co. to start her own thing. Go here to listen. Make sure you tune into her presentation at Adobe MAX, aptly titled, ‘Notes on Inv…

I really love doing ReIssue episodes. Pulling old soundbites and getting original guests to comment on them — it’s like digging up a time capsule. This episode we have Jo Roca and Jason Little from For The People looking at our 5th episode. Jo was just ‘the girlfriend’ and Jason had just opened a studio with two mates. In the time between, FTP has …

This is our final episode in the mini series on ‘how design can help combat stigma’ with co-host, Myla Yeomans. This time we have the pleasure of talking with Olivia Chen and Sam Wearne about the work they do with Studio ChenChen. We spend a bit of time talking about Chattii, a dating app that prioritises humanity and safety in rejecting the stigma…

This is our 2nd episode in a mini-series that looks at how design can help combat stigma. For this episode we are again at the Design Conference in Brisbane, sitting on the turbine hall stage chatting with Peter Brennan, Founder & Creative Director of Electric & Analog and co-founder and head of brand for non-alcoholic beer Heaps Normal. Pete has h…

The start of a new mini-series, where co-host, Myla Yeomans, asks the question, ‘how can design help combat stigma?’ In this first episode, we speak to Keisha Leon, Founder and Director at Leon Design. Keisha cut her teeth in magazine design before taking up a senior position at Lorna Jane. In 2018 she moved to Carbon Creative before deciding it wa…

This time we’re doing something a little different, with our first ReIssue. This means rewinding to an old episode, pulling out a few soundbites, and getting the original guest to comment on them. The original guest in question is Christopher Doyle who joined us way back at the start, on our 2nd show. Chris has been an ADR guest a few times so it w…

In our last episode with Co-host, Stephanie Foti, and her mini-series on ‘what makes a great designer teacher,’ Steph and Matt talk to Nicki Wragg, the Chair of Communication Design at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. If you work in design education in Australia, there is a good chance you’ve come across Nicki. She is a leader in th…

Part two in ‘what makes a great design teacher’ and this time, Matt and co-host, Stephanie Foti, are talking to Felix Oppen from Tiliqua Press and Tiliqua Studio, makers of the award-winning Ligature Journal. Felix has taught in Universities for over 10 years and has a passion for teaching traditional techniques, specifically where type is involved…

And we’re back! We’ve had a bit of a break while we started new full-time work, parented, and thought about what the future of ADR might look like. One of the big changes we’ve made is a new format that explores one topic over three episodes with three different guests. On this episode, Matt is joined by Stephanie Foti to interview our favourite cr…

This episode we chatted with Joyce N Ho, Associate Creative Director at BUCK in New York. If you had to describe what Joyce does, which is incredibly diverse, you’d probably settle on creative direction and motion design, but we’d suggest going and checking out her personal website, joycenho.com — just to see the range of stuff she’s been involved …

This episode we got to speak to James (Gilmore) Duru, Creative Director at DesignStudio — a branding and digital agency, originally from London, now all over the world, with James running the Sydney studio. You’ll know their work when you think about some of their clients like AirBNB, deliveroo, English Premier League and British Airways, just to n…

In this episode we spoke to Dr Sam Bucolo, design strategist and executive chair of The Australian Design Council.Sam is based in Brisbane and it was during a lockdown so apologies in advance for the bad audio quality. What we spoke about was amazing though, everything from what Sam’s PhD was all about, to his book about design leading the way and …

In this episode, we spoke with Dan Agostino, Head of Design at The Brand Agency. Hailing from Perth, Dan joined The Brand Agency in 2007 and over the years his role has grown to Head of Design. The 150+ people agency has offices in Perth, Melbourne and Auckland and covers project management, creative and design, content and production, brand activa…

This episode we had the pleasure of chatting with Ros Moriarty from Balarinji, an Aboriginal-owned strategy and design agency, based in Sydney. Ros started the business with her husband, John, over 37 years ago and during that time has seen a lot of changes in the industry and how Aboriginal design is perceived.Their work includes everything from b…

It’s been a while but this is our first remote episode, where we were in three different states. On this one, we spoke to Monique Kneepkens, Creative Director at Carbon Creative. A Brisbane studio devoted to making an impact in social change.We speak all about what it means to ‘do good’ and how they work with their clients. We look at shining a spo…

Michael Wong (aka Mizko) joins us in the studio to talk about entrepreneurism, start-up culture and growing up a hustler. Professionally he’s a UI/IX expert, internationally known and awarded. He’s recently formed Raw Studio, with his good friend Philippe Hong, so we get into that and go deep on their process, looking at how they build relationship…

In this episode, we spoke with Andrew Hochradel.Andrew is a brand identity designer from Los Angeles, CA, who creates visual systems that are sustainable, innovative, and engaging. He's often found speaking, teaching and entertaining at physical and online events like Adobe Live, CreativeMornings, Creative South and Circles. Andrew's ability to ent…

This episode we are teaming up with Andrew Johnstone from TAKE Magazine to interview the Chief Photographer of The Sydney Morning Herald, Nick Moir. Known as the ‘fire guy’, Nick has built a reputation on capturing award-winning imagery and being in the right place, at the right time. He passes it off as being lucky, but the passion of his descript…

In this episode, we spoke with Alex Skougarevskaya, Design Manager for Atlassian Design System. Alex has had just about every job title designer can have, from her start as a 'graphics monkey' to a 'speck' in the big world of Advertising before the Global Financial Crisis. She's been a web, visual, graphic and interactive designer before moving her…

In this episode, we spoke with Tegan Wotton, Design Director at Space Between in Melbourne. Tegan has an interesting career path which we get stuck into straight away, growing up in the bush has given her a strong connection to her home and what the idea of home can be. Unsurprisingly she has found herself working with a band of likeminded designer…

EP117 WITH Johanna, Matt and FlynIt’s that time of the year when everyone is winding down for Christmas… who are we kidding, everyone is frantically trying to get things finished before the enforced shut down. Either way, the ADR crew decided to sit down and chew the fat (as a vegetarian, Matt finds that somewhat offensive), review the year, pinpoi…

EP116 with Craig BlackIn this episode, we spoke with Craig Black a graphic designer, lettering artist and typographer.Craig is Scottish born and after spending some time in London, he currently runs his own design studio in Gourock, Scotland. He has a diverse style and doesn’t seem to be tied down to any single medium or aesthetic. This has led to …

EP115 with Andrew AshtonWhen it comes to the Australian design industry, there are few as supportive and as accomplished as Andrew Ashton. Across his 30+ professional years, he has consistently advocated on behalf of Aussie creatives and built an international reputation that has seen him awarded many times over. At 34, Andrew was made one of the y…

In this episode, we spoke with Nick Gower and Saakshi Muralidhar of Mentally Friendly.Mentally friendly is a group in Sydney that works with health, education, finance, and government to deliver wellbeing at scale. Nick is one of the founders of the business and an advisor to senior product leaders and clients, Saakshi is a senior organisational de…

This episode, Flyn is in conversation with Head of Endineering, Joe Macleod.With a 20+ year career in product design, both digital and tangible, Joe has a wealth of experience in UX and HCD. During his time at Nokia and as Head of Design at UsTwo, Joe became concerned about the end of the customer journey and started a campaign to make off-boarding…

In this episode, we spoke with Chi Ryan National Experience Strategy Lead at PwC.Chi Ryan makes meaningful products, services and experiences for humans, and humanity — and she’s passionate about empowering others to do the same. She has worked with many of the big names in service design including Fjord, Isobar and Idean and she is now the experie…

This episode sees us sitting with Steve Baty, co-founder and principal of Meld Studios.Let’s just get this out of the way, Steve is a mad cyclist, so we begin there before he expertly links it back to service design, user experience and how to solve ‘dumb shit’ quickly. Steve has an uncanny ability to see the core of the problem and we talk through…

In this episode, we spoke with Benni Weller and Mikey Hart of Hulsbosch.Benni and Mikey are both Creative Directors at Hulsbosch based in Sydney. Hulsboch is known for creating iconic brands and working with big-name clients throughout Australia and Mikey and Benni find themselves today as creative leaders. We spoke about their different paths to w…

In this episode, we spoke with Kenjiro Kirton, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Hato. It’s Saturday afternoon on the last day of The Design Conference in Brisbane. The beers are flowing, the heads are sore and the minds overloaded. Still, we found time to sit down with Kenjiro Kirton, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Hato.Hato is a unique stu…

In this episode, we spoke with Ben Johnston and Alex Naghavi of Joseph Mark. We began by talking about working and living in LA and projects with famous people, we spent some time at Adam Sandler’s Christmas Party and the gushed about the Hemsworth's. We later got deep into the future of sex, getting old, sexual compatibility scores and our cogniti…

We’re at the Design Conference in Brisbane and we had the opportunity to sit down with Amanda Munilla, Managing Director, at Wolff Olins. Amanda, not a designer by trade has had a non-linear path into managing at one of the biggest creative firms in the World. Deciding not to be a lawyer was only the beginning and she has since gone on to build a s…

In this episode, we spoke with Tea Uglow, experimental person in charge at google's creative lab, Sydney. Tea Uglow is one of those very few people who genuinely make you rethink everything you thought you knew. This episode is full of interesting insights into how we can think about technology, inclusiveness, design, and accommodation. We talk ver…

EP105 with Mills and SinxFounders and owners of UsTwo, Matt 'Mills' Miller and John ‘Sinx’ Sinclair suddenly find themselves in a very enviable position — leaders of a successful ‘independent’ company, and… not really needed. This is of course ‘designed’ and not without a lot of hard work. But, since bringing in a CEO and senior management the best…

As Director and co-founder of Small Multiples, Andrea Lau is a data-visualisation specialist. In their words, they are a multidisciplinary team of data specialists, designers and developers, helping people make the best use of their data. Flyn and Matt unashamedly use this as an opportunity to dig into what data is, and how the visualisation of it …

Matt is still in London and he managed to find an empty spot in Pip Jamieson’s — (understandably) very busy — diary (8am after a public holiday). Pip is the founder and CEO of The Dots, a professional network for people in the creative industry. She has been named in numerous ‘ones to watch’ lists and has thrown herself into the world of raising ca…

This episode Matt is in London and took the time to catch with two old friends, Mark Stott, ECD at Felix® — and, wait for it — Denise Chippindale, Marketing Manager at General Assembly (UK & Europe). Denise very kindly jumped in as co-host and gave great insights into the London design scene and how she’s been keeping busy since she moved over.Mark…

This episode we’re with Ben Miles, Executive Creative Director at Interbrand Australia.Ben has been with Interbrand for over a decade and during that time has seen it evolve and change — this is what Ben terms the ‘three horizons of Interbrand Australia’. We spend some time unpacking these periods, why people made the culture and how the studio has…

In this episode, we spoke with Katja Forbes Managing Director of Designit. Katja is the Managing Director of Designit ANZ, Director, she’s on the IxDA global board, one of 100 women of influence and in the top 10 female entrepreneurs in Australia. She's a specialist in research & experience design with the qualifications that go with it, she's an e…

In this episode, we spoke with Zoë Pollitt and Natasha Hasemer from independent creative agency eskimo. ⁣⁣⁣Specialising in fashion, retail, luxury property and consumer goods eskimo design has been a colourful part of the Australian design tapestry for twenty years. Recently, Zoë and Tash have both taken a sabbatical, we unpack what that means, wha…

ADR EP98 with Rob Self-Pierson on Words and VerbsRob Self-Peirson is a writer and brand consultant based in London, UK. He is the founder and head of The Table, an agency devoted to tone of voice and copywriting. He’s worked with the likes of GumTree, British Gas, IKEA, V&A and has a fierce love of design and a desire to see designers and writers w…

Episode 97 with Carlo Giannasca on Limelight and Curtains.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣Carlo Giannasca is a multi-award-winning graphic and three-dimensional environmental designer. He is the Head of Urbanite, Design Director and one of the founder/owners of Frost*collective. On top of that, he is the joint chair of Sydney's SEGD chapter (The Society for Experiential Grap…

Mike Rigby is Vice President and Executive Creative Director at R/GA. We know Mike from his time in Australia working as Creative Director at Interbrand and although he’s always been on our list of people to talk to on the show, the timing never worked out. So when we found out Mike would be at Adobe Max when we were, we jumped at the chance to mak…