DesignThinkers Podcast

Martina Flor is an award winning lettering designer, author, TEDx speaker and educator who helps designers develop expertise and creative voice so their work is impossible to ignore. Originally from Argentina, she moved to Berlin in 2010 where she founded her independent studio specializing in lettering, typography and custom letterforms. Over the past fifteen years she's collaborated with gl...

Nikki Gonnissen is co-founder and Creative Director of Thonik, the Amsterdam design studio she started with her partner Thomas Widdershoven in 1993. That’s the same year they met in Vondelpark, when Thomas spotted her eating ice cream with friends and followed her until she stopped to talk. What began as two solo practices under the clunky name "Gonnissen and Widdershoven" eventually bec...

Erika Barbieri is the co-founder and creative director of OlssønBarbieri, a design studio in Oslo. The studio's ethos is built almost entirely around one idea: that packaging can be a portal into much bigger conversations about food. She and her partner Henrik met in design school in Florence, moved to Oslo in 2005, and spent years finding their footing before officially committing to the stu...

Goldie Chan is the author of Personal Branding for Introverts , the founder of the social strategy agency Warm Robots, and the Huffington Post once called her the "Oprah of LinkedIn." She built that reputation kind of by accident. She started posting a daily video on LinkedIn as a way to push her introverted self to speak on camera. She then went on to post 800 consecutive daily videos b...

Five years ago, Gabby Lord and Lauren Wong started a design studio because a friend joked that they should—and because Gabby was, by her own admission, extremely burnt out and looking for a way out of her work situation. Those aren't good reasons to start a company, and yet SUPER KEEN is succeeding by most metrics. They complete 20 to 35 projects a year, have found a work-life balance that wo...

Valentina D'Efilippo is equally comfortable immersed in science as she is in storytelling and graphic design. That tension has shaped nearly two decades of work translating dense, unwieldy datasets into visual stories: flowers standing in for a century of wars, a dandelion holding the shape of the #MeToo movement on Twitter. A cold email from HarperCollins turned an early instinct for this ki...

Edel Rodriguez refuses to be small or quiet. He’s the illustrator behind some of the most recognizable political images of the last decade. That 2016 cover for TIME Magazine, the one of Donald Trump melting down: that was Edel. The Der Spiegel cover of Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty. Also Edel. At this point, he's produced more than 300 images of a single, very orange, subject. As a ki...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Temi Coker. A Dallas based designer, photographer and the multidisciplinary artist behind Coker Studio . Temi’s client list includes Adobe, Apple, Google, HBO, Peloton and The Oscars. But almost none of it started with a client brief, it started with a self assigned poster a day challenge in 2016 made for no one but himself. And it led Temi to...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Dalit Shalom. Dalit is the Director of Product Design at The New York Times where she oversees the creation of new formats, spaces and tools that advance the future of storytelling. She also leads Design and Strategy for various work streams for the company's AI initiates, having previously focused on trust and credibility by developing f...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Kenjiro Kirton. Ken is the co-founder and creative director of HATO , the London- and Hong Kong-based publishing house, design studio and concept store known for its playful, research-driven approach to culture, branding and digital experiences. His work moves fluidly between publishing, interaction, retail, and storytelling, often blurring th...

This week on the DesignThinkers Podcast, I’m joined by Ariane Spanier, a Berlin-based designer whose work sits at the intersection of typography, culture, and editorial design. Ariane has built a practice working closely with cultural institutions—museums, publications, and artists—where design isn’t just about communication, but about interpretation. She’s also the creative director and co-editor...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Dee Miller. Director of Product Strategy and Insights for Product Equity at Adobe . Dee is a researcher and innovation leader, working at the intersection of technology, design, and equity. She's focused on turning real world insights, into products that are more accessible, usable, and culturally relevant.  In this conversation, we u...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Peter Smart. Chief Experience Officer and Managing Partner at Fantasy . Based in the Bay Area, Fantasy is a creative partner behind some of the world’s most widely used digital products. Working with companies like Disney, Nike, Spotify, Netflix, Meta, and Google. In this conversation, Peter shares how he’s thinking about the next shift in dig...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Nu Goteh, founder of  Room for Magic and co-founder of Deem Journal . Nu’s path into design isn’t a straight line. He started out making graphics on early internet platforms, spent over a decade working in marketing for brands like Puma, Red Bull, and Sonos, and eventually returned to design through a deeper set of questions—about power, parti...

Emmi Salonen is a Finnish graphic designer and art director whose work spans editorial design, visual identity, publishing, and exhibition graphics. She often works with cultural and institutional clients, bringing a thoughtful, systems-driven approach to typography and structure—with just enough play to keep things interesting. Beyond the systems and the structure, Emmi has long been thinking abo...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Elizabeth Goodspeed . Elizabeth is an independent designer, art director, writer, and educator oscillating between Providence, Rhode Island and New York City. Her work riffs on history and visual culture in ways that feel both smart and weirdly intimate. She’s a devoted generalist: branding, packaging, book & editorial design. She’s also k...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Pali Palavathanan , co-founder and creative director of Templo . Based in London, Templo is a purpose-led design studio known for bringing creativity and activism together—working with clients like the UN, Amnesty International, and GF Smith, alongside grassroots organizations fighting for justice around the world. In this conversation, Pali s...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Pablo Martin , Creative Director at MUBI . A legend in editorial design, Pablo has spent four decades shaping the visual language of publications and brands across Spain, the UK, and beyond. His journey has taken him from a work placement with Massimo Vignelli to co-founding the Barcelona-based studio Grafica and then Atlas, to leading major c...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Debra Bishop—an award-winning creative director and one of editorial design’s most influential voices. Over the past four decades, Debra has shaped the look and feel of some of publishing’s most iconic titles—from her early days at Rolling Stone , to launching magazines at Martha Stewart, to serving as a design director at The New York Times ....

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Nadia Tzuo —an Emmy Award–winning motion designer and director whose title sequences have become cultural touchstones. Nadia’s work spans television, film, and streaming, with credits on The Last of Us , Shogun , American Horror Story , Pachinko , Star Trek Beyond , and Captain Marvel . Her sequences don’t just introduce a story—they set its m...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Stephen Gates —global design leader, keynote speaker, and host of The Crazy One podcast. Stephen’s career has spanned more than 20 years leading creative teams at companies like Apple, Citi, InVision, and McCann, where he’s built award-winning work across branding, product design, and customer experience. Known for his candid, no-nonsense appr...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Verònica Fuerte . Verònica is the founder and creative director of Hey Studio in Barcelona. Since launching the studio in 2007, Verònica has built one of the most recognizable and beloved visual identities in contemporary design: known for bold color, geometric forms, and a relentlessly optimistic aesthetic. Hey’s work has spanned everything f...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Rachel Gogel . Rachel is an independent creative executive shaping the future of design at the intersection of brand, culture, and technology. After building multidisciplinary teams at places like GQ , The New York Times , Meta, and Godfrey Dadich, Rachel launched her own consultancy in 2020. Since then, she’s worked with everyone from tech gi...

This week on the DesignThinkers podcast, I’m joined by Kemp Attwood , partner at AREA 17 . With a background in creative writing and new media design, Kemp has spent nearly two decades working at the intersection of design, strategy, and technology. He has helped shape AREA 17’s global vision—leading interdisciplinary teams across Paris and New York to deliver transformative work for clients like...

We’re back with a third season of the DesignThinkers Podcast.  DesignThinkers is Canada's largest graphic design conference. For twenty-five years, the Association of Registered Graphic Designers has been bringing together visionaries from a range of disciplines to explore creativity and the design process. This podcast is an extension of that mission. We’re here to talk about process, creati...