Single Serves Podcast

My guest for this episode is Emma Landis. She is the founder and principal of Richan Art , an art advisory focused on collections management for corporate and private collectors, as well as public art commissioning for some of Canada’s largest developers. Emma holds an MA and a PhD in art history from Western University and University of Victoria Respectively. In this episode, we are discussing he...

Oana Bogdan is the founder of Brussels-based practice &bogdan (founded 2007). In 2016, she was Secretary of State for cultural heritage in the Romanian Government (her country of origin) and has also been involved in many industry organisations and businesses in addition to her own practice, too numerous to list them all here.   In her practice she promotes cooperation and operates from the “f...

Rachel Cohen-Murison stands at the forefront as an architect and entrepreneur, embodying the fresh wave of innovative designers who are shattering the norms of the conventional practice. They're adopting a more entrepreneurial approach to architecture, strategically creating value by eliminating market pain points. Rachel and her contemporaries undeniably signify the brilliant future of archit...

Kyle Brill is an interdisciplinary designer and systems thinker born and raised in Toronto. He studied architecture at the University of Waterloo, graduating with his masters in 2016 with honours. Kyle began his career working at architecture and product design firms in Toronto, London, and New York City and became passionate about housing issues and urban development. He has a keen interest in un...

Mark Wainwright is the founder and Principal Consultant at Wainwright Insight, a sales consultancy for professional services firms. After over 20 years working with various professional services firms, Mark created Wainwright Insight to address the lack of sales expertise in said firms, and to help experts sell better. Mark bills himself as a "Part-time Sales Manager for Part-time Salespeople&...

Kimberley Seldon is the founder of  Kimberley Seldon Design Group , an interior design firm with offices in Toronto and Los Angeles.    In addition to her design practice, she runs  Business of Design , an online learning platform she started to help other professionals in the design field to become financially successful, with the stated goals that designers running their own practices should aim...

Jaime Derringer is a serial entrepreneur, artist and Founder of the popular design platform Design Milk and Clever podcast. She is also an artist living in San Diego, CA.   Jaime and I recorded another podcast a few years back that appeared on Truth is Golden in 2018 (ep.106 - " The Milk That Never Spoils "). We talked then about her and life up to that point. Go check it out if you'd...

Jake Rudin is a co-founder of the design career consulting company Out of Architecture, a career consulting firm helping architects exploring the value of their skills both in and out of the architectural profession. He also works as a member of the Adidas Advanced Creation Technologies team - fabricating, designing, digitizing, model making, and exploring all aspects of footwear.    I invited Jak...

In this episode, we're going to dive into the topic of housing, this time of the "socially fit" kind. I know, I know, we've been talking about it a lot on this podcast, but it's a critical issue that still doesn't get the attention it truly deserves, while its root causes - by now broadly acknowledged and agreed upon by most - are still not being addressed aggressively enou...

Tyler Suomala is a serial-learner obsessed with helping architects optimize all things business development, sales, marketing, and operations. Before transitioning into Business Development at Monograph , Tyler worked in large and small architecture offices and also ran his own architectural design studio for 2.5 years. He holds a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Michigan and a M. Arch...

Do you ever wonder what the hell the metaverse and web3 are? If so, you're not alone. We partnered with Canadian Interiors' Bevel podcast to produce this interview with Tessa Bain and Andrew Lane, co-founders of Digby, a consultancy that helps companies navigate the complexities of these new technologies and why people in the design industry should become early adopters. Our goal was to de...

James Melia is a British designer working in the fields of industrial design, branding, packaging visualization a UX/UI. A keen observer of human behaviours, he has been interested in unusual solutions to common problems for as long as he can remember. Since founding the studio Blond in 2015, he's worked with a variety of clients looking to disrupt their respective industries.   In this episod...

This episode touches on two topics that have been of particular interest to me in recent times: modular housing and accelerated construction schedules. Daniel Ling of Montgomery Sisam is my guest in this episode where we talked about his involvement in a supportive modular housing project that was designed and built in about 6 months and what lessons can be learned from this to be applied to the w...

Walker McKinley is the founder of McKinley Studios, a firm operating in the fields of strategy, architecture, interiors, branding, art and furniture, based in Western Canada. The firm operates on a unique studio model, the "Black Chamber", that aims at giving designers more agency over their work, through collaboration between creative disciplines, which is what is discussed in this episod...

Jaegap founded Studio JCI with his partner Sue Jean Chung in 2007, with the shared goal of creating timeless buildings that contribute to the social, economic, and cultural fabric of cities. A commitment to finding creative, practical and affordable solutions to Toronto’s urban planning problem led to the development of the Multi-Tach: a long-term, sustainable, multi-generational solution to the p...

The architecture industry currently has a massive talent gap. There are way more vacancies than there are candidates, which is a massive problem for many firms who cannot staff properly and deliver projects, leading to employees quitting, staff burnout and a whole host of attendant issues. I interview Stuart Lewis, CEO of marketing agency Clever Samurai to discuss talent attraction, best hiring pr...

There has been a lot of talk on this podcast about housing, missing middle and the current challenges that much of the western world, and particularly Canada is experiencing when it comes to housing, its affordability and availability. Enter Tura Cousins-Wilson, co-founder of SOCA , with partner Shane Laptiste, who have caught the public’s attention over the last couple of years with daring and in...

The last few years have been a rollercoaster for retail. In this is episode, Supreet Barhay and Stanley Sun attempt answering the question: What's the future like for retail? Barhay is a principal at WZMH architects in Toronto, where she leads the retail team. As a result of the shifting retail landscape brought about by long-term trends and accelerated by the pandemic, she and her team have b...

  What make a good public speaker? Susie Ashfield joins us on episode 310 to share some secrets with us...   Ashfield comes from a strong creative background. As a communications specialist, she makes the most of her unique combination of acting skills, and her director-level business experience. She focuses on coaching to control and optimize body language and non-verbal communication techniques,...

Richelle Sibolboro is a brand strategist and content creator with in-depth expertise and passion for arts and culture especially design, architecture, and travel.   With over 15 years of experience in communications, design, brand, and strategy, she currently works with brands to achieve insight and alignment through participatory and collaborative sessions.   Today, we're going to talk about...

What is service design and how can it help designers conceive of better environments that better serve their users? This is the question that John Stoddard and I attempted to answer in this conversation. John is a Service Design consultant and teacher, based in the Bay Area, helping organizations create high value customer experiences. He's worked with many organizations and firms in the past,...

What are some of the simple, easy and immediate solutions to the housing challenges that many growing cities are experiencing? Conrad Speckert came up with one and has joined us on the podcast to talk about it in detail.   Conrad is a recent graduate from architecture school, and previously an architectural designer at Superkul and KPMB in Toronto, as well as offices in Japan and Germany. He's...

How can architects, and other professionals, project a positive, effective image that gets them hired? This is the question that Ian Chodikoff attempted to answer in this interview. Ian is an architect, editor, curator and design strategist experienced in research, programming, marketing, business development and strategy. He has led communications teams and projects that include learning platform...

What makes a good “place”? This a notoriously difficult to answer, but Udo Schliemann, past guest, renowned graphic designer and accomplished artist attempts to answer that question through the lens of his own expertise and experience, with a focus on the olympics as a way to build community. Udo is a designer and principal creative director at Entro. He was born and raised in Germany and spent ha...

Naama Blonder has a bold vision to change what good development can and should look like. With that in mind, she co founded Smart density in 2017. Her professional work spans across planning and architecture. And by marrying the two disciplines, she brings a deeper and more realistic understanding of how municipal policies take physical. She's also the subject matter expert for the city of Tor...