Just a Chat With

In this episode, we sat down with Adam Morgan who is the Executive Creative Director at Adobe.

With over 25 years of experience in marketing, with a focus on creativity, strategy and storytelling, Adam has produced several award-winning campaigns. He was also named the 40 under 40 up-and-coming professionals by Utah Business Magazine and in 2020 and AdWeek named him one of the top 100 creative minds in the world, influencing advertising, media, and culture. 

If that wasn’t enough, he has also written a book called “Sorry Spock, Emotion Drives Business” and hosts his own podcast, “Real Creative Leadership” which talks about the issues, challenges and benefits of creative leadership. 

Follow Adam here:

In this episode, we sat down with Alex Dickens who is the Head of Brand at Grenade. 

Alex has been working for Grenade for the past eight years, starting out as their Junior Graphic Designer. Throughout this time, he has managed to build the Grenade brand into the award-winning, worldwide, explosive brand it is today. 

Listen on to find out how he managed to get the best out of his creative team and what the Grenade brand stands for beyond the product. 

Follow Alex here:

In this episode, we sat down with Craig Black who is an amazing visual artist from Scotland. Craig is extremely passionate about what he does and has recently shifted away from his original technique of typography to create a whole new technique in visual art called Acrylic Fusion. This new technique involves mixing acrylic paints to create interesting and mesmerising patterns on different surfaces and products such as shoes, footballs and skateboards. All this began after he was inspired by his Wife’s leggings!

His unique and versatile style has since led him to work with brands such as UEFA, Wisdom Audio, Pepsi and Ribble Cycles and his work has been displayed from New York to Dubai and Sydney.

Listen on to find out how he has managed to grow such a successful studio, how he has evolved his artistic talent and his top tips for bringing in new opportunities.

Follow Craig here:

In this episode, we sat down with James Cross who is the Creative Director at BBC Creative. James joined the BBC in 2017, shortly after its inception. Since then, James has produced award-winning campaigns such as the Tokyo 2020, FIFA 2018 world cup and the ‘We know our place’ campaign celebrating women in sport.

James got his start as a Copywriter, working with brands such as WKD, Domino’s and Harley-Davidson. Today, we discuss his transition from Copywriter to Creative Director, and how he manages to create such talented and distinctive creative work. 

Follow James here: 

In this episode, we sat down with Rob Mayhew, a stand-up comic, TikTok star and Head of Influence and Retail at FleishmanHillard.   

In his 20 years of agency experience, Rob has worked with brands such as McVities, GSK, Lacoste, Bacardi, Molson Coors, and General Mills, building both content and global shopper strategies.   

Rob now uses this experience, along with his comedic timing, to create viral sketches about agency life that resonate throughout the entire industry.   

Listen on to discover how he comes up with ideas for TikTok, how he manages to post consistently while working full-time, what impact his TikTok success has had on his life and some of his top tips to get started!

Follow Rob here: 

In this episode we sat down with Ndukwe Onuoha, an advertising copywriter, spoken word poet, and Creative Director at Oliver MEA which is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Over the course of his career, Ndukwe has created memorable communications in Nigeria and West Africa for brands like AB InBev, Uber, British Council, and Diageo's International Premium Spirits, amongst others. 

Ndukwe describes himself as a “copywriter by day but a poet by design”, and you can listen to his second Spoken Word album, ‘Nwa Chukwu’, on all popular streaming platforms. 

In 2020, Ndukwe was endorsed by Arts Council England for his work in poetry and moved to the UK with his family in 2021. He now lives in Derby with his wife and two children and continues to work on getting African stories told on the world stage.    

In this episode we sat down with the amazing Ash Jones, the Founder at personal branding agency, Great Influence.  

Ash has helped to build personal brands for some of the UK’s biggest CEOs & Founders and transform them into industry-leading influential figures on Linkedin.  

His journey started with Steven Bartlett, CEO of Social Chain, where he was one of the founding employees in the team. Ash helped set the strategy for Steven’s personal brand. Steven is now widely considered to be one of the UK’s most influential entrepreneurs, with his #1 business podcast 'Diary Of A CEO' and Sunday Times bestselling book 'Happy Sexy Millionaire'.  

Since then, Ash has worked with a number of CEOs & Founders, most notably the CEO of PrettyLittleThing - Umar Kamani, Myprotein Founder - Oliver Cookson, Huel Founder - Julian Hearn, and Parklife & Warehouse Project Founder - Sacha Lord.

In this episode we sat down with the amazing Betty NFT, who is the co-founder and director of Deadfellaz - an NFT collection & community and you could say metaverse web 3.0 brand.

The Deadfellaz collection of 10,000 NFTs sold out within 20 minutes of launch on the 13th September 2021, and has since traded over 46 million USD through NFTs.

With a DeadFellaz token comes art, culture & community. And they are here for the love of art and the evolution of gamification, IP & NFT tech. They have big plans and focus on innovating within the NFT space & empowering their holders in creative ways.

Betty’s role within Deadfellaz as one of the two co-founders (along with her husband and Deadfellaz illustrator Psych) who have handled everything from concept development, community engagement, and brand outreach to marketing, innovation, and experience design. 

Betty is also co-Director of a creative production agency servicing AAA brands and corporations globally and has been in the industry for the last 11 years.

In this episode we sat down with the amazing Chris Do, an award-winning designer, director, CEO and Chief Strategist of Blind which is a Brand Strategy Design Consultancy.  

Chris, based out of California, is also the founder of The Futur which is an online education platform with the mission of teaching 1 billion people how to make a living doing what they love through various online courses, and tools to help you people build better design skills and better creative businesses! His Youtube channel for the Futur now has over 1.8m Subscribers.  

His company Blind was founded in 1995, and is a pioneer of Motion Design. Today, Blind continues in the tradition of excellence by bringing a world-class team of strategists, designers, filmmakers, writers and animators to create truly memorable video content for clients such as Snapchat, Nike, EA Sports and Microsoft to name a few!   

Chris currently serves as the chairman of the board for the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) and as an advisor to Saleshood, which is a sales enablement platform. He has also served as an advisory board member for AIGA/LA, Emmys Motion & Title Design Peer Group, Otis Board of Governors, Santa Monica College and Woodbury University.

In this episode we sat down with the amazing Claude Silver who is the Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia which was founded by Gary Vaynerchuk and has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Singapore.

With over 20 years of experience in positive psychology and leadership positions in brand strategy, Claude is nearly seven years into her current role at VaynerMedia where she oversees talent management, retention, L&D, coaching, people operations, recruitment, and especially culture for over 1000 people.

Claude has a passion for creating spaces where people can thrive, and says her life purpose is “to be of joyful service and unlock emotional optimism in all”

Claude is also the host of ‘Emotional Optimism: Living in the Silver Lining Podcast’, where she talks to guests about tapping into emotional optimism, and heart leadership.

In this episode we sat down with the amazing Ica Headlam who is a creative and podcast host based here in the north-east of Scotland.

In late 2017 Ica started to independently produce and host the 'Creative Me Podcast', a weekly show that explores creativity and arts in the North East of Scotland, with the aim of drawing a wider focus on Aberdeen's creative community. To date, it has been commissioned for the Look Again Festival, Northlands Creative, and City Moves festival dance live. The podcast has also been downloaded over 26,000 times, and is about to hit 100 episodes.

Ica is also the founder of We Are Here Scotland a platform that aims to amplify the voices of Black and People of Colour artists and creatives across Scotland's creative industries.

Ica is also a qualified Social Worker who works with vulnerable young adults across the city and is a strong advocate for representation across the arts and values the importance of open and honest dialogue.

Hailing from South-East London - Ica moved to Scotland in 2004 and now lives in Aberdeen with his wife and two and a half-year-old daughter.

Season 3 has arrived!

In this episode we sat down with Ashwin Chacko, aka, Whacko Chacko who is a multi-disciplinary illustrator, designer, hand-letterer, and motivational speaker living and working in Dublin.

Working 12 years now as a solopreneur, Ashwin has worked with clients such as Facebook, Adobe, Nike, Puma, United Nations, and many more. Ashwin specialises in positive visual storytelling, helping businesses to connect with their audiences through illustration and design for advertising campaigns, products, packaging, editorials, children’s books and one-off commissions from around the world.

With a passion for uncovering the social interactions that drive culture, Ashwin captures these moments in bold lines and shapes, focusing on a strong use of characters intermingled with typography and patterns. Ashwin describes his work as ‘positively playful’ influenced by contemporary culture rooted in his love for music, comics, tattoos and street art.

Ashwin has also published several illustrative books, many of them for children. One called “Keep at It”  which  is full of inspiring quotes and insights Ashwin wishes he had at the start of his journey—so if you’re just starting out or even if you’ve been going for a long time, go check that out. Also if you have kids, the other books are brilliant!

Growing up in an international boarding school at the foothills of the Himalayas in India, Ashwin says this has had a huge influence on his work over the years. He now lives with his wife, who is Irish, which prompted him to move to Ireland where they live with their three children.

In this episode we sat down with Andy Nairn who is a Founding Partner at Lucky Generals.

With nearly 30 years’ experience in the creative industry, Andy is now one of the world’s most respected brand strategists. As one of the UK’s most successful creative agencies, Lucky Generals have done and are famed for their amazing work for the likes of Amazon, Yorkshire Tea, Paddy Power, the Co-op, and many more. They’ve also been shortlisted for Campaign magazine’s Agency of the Year for the last five years in a row.

Andy has been named the country’s top strategist for the last two in a row and one of the top five creative people in world of advertising by Business Insider.

Now Andy wants to share his luck with others, so he’s donating his royalties from his first book ‘Go Luck Yourself’ to Commercial Break: an organisation that helps working-class talent break into the creative industries.

Andy grew up in the Scottish Borders but has worked in London since 1993 (apart from a short period in San Francisco). He now lives out in the sticks in Berkshire! He’s been married for 21 years and has 3 kids, 19, 15,12. Andy also play all sorts of musical instruments badly and supports a variety of frustrating sports teams.

In this episode we sat down with Andy Morahan who is a world-renowned commercial, film, and music video director. 

With nearly 40 years of experience in the industry, Andy has produced music videos and films for artists such as George Michael, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Tears for Fears, AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Wham! Tina turner, Brian Adams... and my all time favorites - Guns N' Roses!  and the list doesn’t stop here.

Andy won an MTV Award For Best Director for George Michael's Father Figure and Best Video for Guns N' Roses' November Rain’ - which has now been streamed over a billion times on YouTube. Andy was also twice Grammy-nominated for Long Form videos - 'Cyndi Lauper - Live in Paris' and 'Michael Jackson - Live in Bucharest'.

Andy also directed the groundbreaking Guess Jeans 'Cheat' commercial. Featuring performances from Juliette Lewis and Harry Dean Stanton, the stylish and innovative piece won over 80 advertising awards worldwide, including five D&ADs, six Clios and a couple of Silver Lions at the Cannes Advertising Festival.

Andy’s client list now includes Ford, Carling, Lynx, Bacardi, Barclays, Vodafone, VW, Canon and many others. More recently Andy was recruited by Toyota for their 'Prius' campaign, featuring Leonardo Di Caprio. Andy was also the first director to use Eva Mendez, Catherine Zeta Jones and Sienna Miller in commercials before their illustrious film careers.

In this episode we sat down with Kevin Swanepoel who is the CEO at The One Club for Creativity, which is the world's foremost non-profit organisation recognising creative excellence in advertising and design.

As CEO, Kevin leads ‘The One Show’ which is one of the most prestigious awards shows in the communications industry. He has also shaped the global brand of The One Club, providing leadership for its expansion into China and beyond.

With 35 years’ experience in media and marketing in the creative industries, Kevin is a frequent speaker on current advertising trends, he has appeared on FOX, NBC and CBS and has also been published in Adweek, Advertising Age, Creativity and AdHoc.

Kevin established ‘Creative Week’, the pre-eminent festival in New York which I attended two years ago for their Executive Creative Summit (which was amazing) - The festival celebrates the intersection of advertising, design, digital media and the arts.

Kevin also travels and lectures frequently and is enthusiastically involved in advertising education and design throughout the world.

In this episode we sat down with Philippe Meunier who is Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder of Sid Lee, one of the world’s premier creative agencies with offices in Montreal, Toronto, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

With over 28 years of experience in the industry, Philippe has overseen all the creative output for a host of major international clients including Absolut, Adidas, Starbucks, Red Bull, and many more.

As an active member of the creative community, Philippe has been invited to chair and serve on the jury panel at various national and international competitions, such as the Cannes Lions International Festival, the D&AD Awards, the Canadian Marketing Awards and Communication Arts.

Collaboration is an essential part of Philippe’s approach to creativity and is especially evident in the culture and ideology of Sid Lee. The agency’s core values are based on collectivism and the belief that the group is far stronger than the individual, so every idea and opinion is given equal value. The result is an agency where everyone works (and plays!) hard as a team, sharing both the workload and the rewards.

Famous for his Zen-like approach to the craziness of running a large creative group (consequences of his love for surfing and yoga), Philippe firmly believes that great work comes from happy people, and he lives by this motto 24/7.

In this episode we sat down with Kevin Pike who is an award-winning American film special effects supervisor, below the line talent agent, and screenwriting consultant, best-known for supervising the special effects on Back to the Future. He and his company FilmTrix Inc. were primarily responsible for construction of the film's iconic DeLorean time machine.

Kevin got his start in film doing set construction for the movie Jaws, working with the Special Effects crew. Kevin then went on to work with several major studios for film, television, and commercials, working with directors such as Tim Burton, Wes Craven, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Zemeckis. 

Kevin’s worked on several other iconic films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Last Starfighter, Fight Club, and Jurassic Park III.

Kevin has earned nominations and awards including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects for the Amblin Television Production Earth 2 in 1995, a Clio Award for Best Special Effects on a Levi’s commercial directed by Michael Bay in 2000. He also received a BAFTA nomination, and was considered for Oscar nomination on Back to the Future. 

Kevin has lectured at USC, UCLA, and Columbia College Hollywood as well as teaching Special Effects classes at the Academy of Art University. Additionally, Kevin has served as a Governor for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and on the Executive Committee for the Visual Effects Branch for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Kevin lives north of Los Angeles, California, where he manages his company,  Filmtrix, Inc.  He is a writer’s consultant and a story developer for studios and production entities, helping writers complete their scripts and advising them on how to pitch their written work to producers.

In this episode we sat down with Alexandra Watkins who is an author and leading authority on brand naming.

Alexandra is the Chief Executive Boss Lady at Eat My Words, a brand naming firm based in San Diego, California. Alexandra’s book, “Hello, My Name is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick” was named as one of the Top 10 Marketing Books by Inc magazine and sits proudly on my shelf as one my all time favourites. 

Since 2005, Alexandra and her firm have created brand names for hundreds of clients including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Disney, Gap, Twitter, and Xerox. Alexandra is also a popular speaker, delighting audiences at Startup Grind, Endeavor, Collision, and LA Tech Week. She’s also had the pleasure of speaking to MBA students, lecturing at institutions such as Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and many more. 

Prior to running her own agency, Alexandra was an advertising copywriter, working at leading West Coast ad agencies, including Ogilvy and Mather, where she helped launch Microsoft Windows. 

In her free time, Alexandra creates imaginative succulent arrangements in bird cages, teapots, and other interesting containers she finds by scouring the local flea market in San Diego. She works out of her San Diego pool house where she has been chained to her desk for the last 6 months creating a fun new online course on how to create super sticky brand names.

In this episode we sat down with Darlene Vogel who is an actress well-known for her very first role as Spike, a member of Griff’s hoverboard gang in the movie Back to the Future 2. 

Darlene got her start in New York City and has landed over 100 national commercials, including the ‘Milk does a body good’ campaign. 

Darlene has been acting for over 35 years and has done numerous guest stars and Pilot work. She landed the series Pacific Blue in 1995, working on 88 episodes playing Officer Chris Kelly. She also played Melanie McIver in the “One Life to Live” soap opera.

 Darlene has three recently-released thriller films including “The Spearhead Effect”, “Extracurricular Activities” and “Day 13”. She’s also had a few starring roles in movies made for Lifetime television including “Smuggling in Suburbia", “Dirty Teacher” and “Walking the Halls”. She’s also made guest appearances on Full House, Northern Exposure, Boy Meets World and CSI.

Currently living just a mile from the beach in sunny Santa Monica California with her two children, Owen and Audrey, Darlene is an avid dog rescuer with 3 dogs, 1 cat, and 3 bearded dragons! 

In this episode we sat down with David Martin who is the President and Founder of Fantasy Interactive. With offices in New York, San Francisco, Miami and London, Fantasy is a human-centred product innovation team that ships premium products and ecosystems for the world’s biggest brands. Since launching the company in 1999, David has worked with a suite of amazing brands including Netflix, Xbox, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, MTV, Ford, Porsche, Huawei, Samsung, Tinder and Masterclass (a personal favourite of mine!). 

David now also works in a Chief Creative Officer capacity, directly with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, and Richard Yu CEO at Huawei.

In this episode we sat down to chat with Ben Radcliffe who is a digital artist and Media & Entertainment Technical Specialist currently working for Unity. With over 20 years’ experience in CG Feature Animation, Television Animation, and VFX, Ben has worked across the globe with a variety of high-end studios, including Dreamworks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Walt Disney Feature Animation, MPC, and Industrial Light and Magic.

Ben has worked on several amazing projects over the years, including Shrek 2, Veggie Tales, The Polar Express, Chicken Little, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Martian, The Jungle Book, Avengers, Transformers, Dr. Strange, and many more

In his current role, Ben is a Media & Entertainment Technical Specialist for Unity Technologies, working with key Game Studios, VFX facilities, and Animation Studios throughout the UK to advance the art and science of film making, visual effects, and animation through the use of Unity, which is the world’s leading real-time 3D development platform, and opens up incredible possibilities for filmmakers and creators across industries and applications in 2D, 3D, VR, and AR.

In this episode we sat down to chat with Franki Goodwin who is Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi. Franki is also the CBO of Western Edge Pictures and Gennaker Group. A graduate of Glasgow School of Art, Franki spent the first part of her career running boutique film marketing agency 'Franki&Jonny', making ground-breaking campaigns for the film industry. Since then, she’s worked across numerous award-winning film, entertainment and brand campaigns—including winning over 80 international advertising awards, including 9 Cannes Lions.

Season 2 of Just a Chat With is finally here! To kick things off, we sat down with the amazing Debbie Millman who is a writer, designer, educator, artist, and curator who is also well-known as the host of the podcast ‘Design Matters’. Debbie has over 20 years of experience in the industry, working with 200 of the world’s largest brands including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Kraft, Liberty Mutual, Starbucks, Pepsi-Cola, Haagen-Dazs, Gillette, and Burger King—which she designed the logo for.

Debbie has contributed to several media outlets including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer and Fast Company, and she is also the author of six books, covering a wide range of subjects including branding, design, art, and philosophy.

Debbie is also President Emeritus of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), one of five women to hold the position in the organisation’s 100-year history and chair and co-founder of the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She was previously the editorial and creative director of Print magazine.

Debbie’s podcast, ‘Design Matters’ is one of the world’s first and longest-running podcasts, and garners over 5 million downloads, annually. Debbie has interviewed over 500 design luminaries and cultural commentators, including Milton Glaser, Malcolm Gladwell, Barbara Kruger, Seth Godin, Amanda Palmer, and many many more. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t had a listen already!

In this episode we sat down to chat with James Greenfield who is the Creative Director and Co-Founder of branding agency, Koto, which is in its fifth year and has offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, and in London. James has 18 years of experience in the industry, working with brands such as Skyscanner, Fanta, Venmo, Airbnb, and many more. James is also a global speaker and frequent writer on branding for Creative Review magazine.

In this episode we sat down to chat with James White in the brand new MadeBrave studio here in Glasgow in Scotland (which is now complete with a new Just a Chat With neon sign!). James is an absolutely amazing and very well-known digital artist, designer, and speaker. He is also the founder of Signalnoise Studio which is based in Newcastle.  James has gained loads of recognition in the industry for his various neon-infused art projects. James has also worked with some amazing brands such as Toyota, Universal Music, Nike, Metallica, Warner Brothers, Twitch and many, many more.

In this episode we sit down to chat with Gavin Strange who is a Director & Designer at Aardman Animations who are the creators of Wallace and Gromit. Gavin also goes under the alias of JamFactory, working on side-projects from filmmaking to toy design and illustration to photography. Gavin's a keynote speaker, the 'annoying best mate' on CBBC's Art Ninja, and author of a book called 'Do-Fly' which we’ve just finished—it’s very good! Gavin has been working in design for 20 years and recently worked on “Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon” which came out in theatres in October.

In this episode we sit down to chat with Claudine O’Sullivan who is a world-class artist and freelance illustrator. Recently moved from London to Glasgow, Claudine has gained the industry spotlight for her distinctive hand drawn illustrations, notably featured in the Apple Pencil launch campaign, which won a World Illustration Award in 2017. Claudine has also worked with established brands such as Twitter, MTV, Island Records, WeTransfer, Tiger Beer, Derwent Pencils, and many more.

In the first ever ‘Just a chat with …’ episode we talk to Noah Klocek. Noah is an artist and writer who works as a film designer by day at Pixar, and picture book author and illustrator by night. We talk about his childhood with hippy parents, his entry-level role into matte painting at ILM, through to how he changed careers to become an artist at Pixar, why your own work is the secret to your happiness and why you should always do the hard thing.