The Creative Condition podcast

Andy Cotterill has spent many years with larger than life characters of all kinds, photographing them for the likes of Sony Music, Dazed and Confused, Mojo Magazine, and Q. It's mental health awareness week and ahead of the launch of our illustration/photography collaboration, 'Lend Me Your Ear,' we sit down to discuss why we wanted to celebrate identity, creativity and self-expression through our...

Collins strategy and brand experience design company Creative Director Ben Crick joins me to share his story, from Australia to San Francisco, via New York City. Working on projects with clients including Spotify, Vitamin Water and Mail Chimp, he discusses why we must avoid designing for the approval of other designers, but instead listen to the client's needs in order to create the strongest poss...

Glasgow based design studio O-Street join me to discuss their superb portfolio of work, detailing the balance of play, research, hard work and leading with personal passions. Tessa Simpson and Jonny Mowatt explain the process of making the new Scottish banknote and why a love of beer has lead them to some of their favourite clients. It's a great insight into why pleasure in work is crucial, no mat...

We spend close on 12 hours a day consuming content and we do not yet know the long term impact on our mental and physical health. As creative professionals, we are often reliant upon the internet to operate...Ex Ebay chief curator and Moodrise founder Michael Phillips Moskowitz joins me to talk about the neuroscience of happiness and his hopes for the new Moodrise app. It's a fascinating insight i...

Pricing creative work is like a dagger made of ice for many professionals, sending chills down our spine, keeping us awake at night. Much industry talk of late has made it hard to ignore that independent professional visual communicators are underselling their talents and earning too little as a result. Who could blame them? There are many variables to consider, not to mention individual circumsta...

Jane Bowyer, designer and illustrator returns to the show to catch up on the progress of her wonderful and inspiring 'Women In Print' celebration of creative ladies. Back on episode 35, Jane was in the early days of her freelance career and we have much to catch up on. How has she adapted to the brutal world of flying solo in the arts? We get into the difficulties of titling yourself, the idea of...

It's International Women's Day 2019 on 7/3 and i'm joined by two women on the frontline of creativity, UK country music duo Ward Thomas. The twin sisters, Lizzie and Catherine are passionate, hard working and lovely people who open up about their art, from songwriting in sixth form to a UK number one album. How about the art direction of their three albums to date and why self-obsession is so unhe...

Shaun Ryder is a bonafide rock star with stories to tell. The Happy Mondays and Black Grape frontman joins me to share his creativity, his back story and why he feels as energised as ever before with Black Grape due to start a fresh UK tour off the back of returning album Pop Voodoo. Not one to hold back with the truth, Shaun touches upon why trends are the worst thing to follow, how he learned on...

Episode 130 of the pod is out Monday. Copy below, images attached - I've included 3 separate images for Instagram stories - please share them on there if you use it!!We all see it, all of the time and we love it. FOIL shimmers and shines on so many surfaces, adored by designers but shrouded in mystery. I'm joined by Matt Hornby from Foilco, who takes us inside the work of foil, details the sheer r...

Shutterstock is a gigantic stock image platform with over a billion images available. But the creative side of stock runs deep. The 2019 creative trends report has just dropped and Shutterstock curator Robyn Lange joins me to break it all down along with her inspiring journey. Robyn set out from an American farm community, working out of a car and ended up in the Empire State Building curating one...

Supposed is a dangerous word. Too many of us see what has gone before, what already exists and aspire to emulate it, believing success is achieving that goal. Rob Watson, one half of Raw design studio shares his story of beginning and growing his agency before realising he was far away from the creativity he cherished. So he downsized and lead with quality work, wellbeing and focusing on what felt...

Jim Sutherland of Studio Sutherl& is creating some of the best design in the world right now. Since going out alone, he has worked with Royal Mail, Agatha Christie, D&AD and Star Rite among many others to create work that has its roots in the importance of the idea, fun and curiosity. He joins me to talk about the importance of creating work that matters to you and using it to attract the...

Tash Willcocks is many things. Illustrator, Hyper Island creative business school programme leader, thinker, do-er, but most importantly, she's an energetic, highly-creative human. We discuss a range of topics including optimal anxiety - the 'just outside the comfort zone' space when we are at our best, doom loops, delight loops and turtles on broomsticks. It's an inspiring chat not to be missed a...

Superfried is the design studio of Mark Richardson. His succinct, visually seductive brand, identity, design and illustration work covers many disciplines. We get into his background including childhood logo obsession and wall drawing, the smoke and mirrors that can lead creative professionals into dissatisfaction when it needn't be so and his work with the Leonardo DiCaprio foundation. It's a fas...

Laura Greenan's bright, fun, psychedelic 1960s inspired illustration hits you straight in the mouth and leaves you feeling slightly intimidated. But don't be fooled. There's a deeper layer at work here. Laura is new to the world of freelance illustrator after spending years working as a designer in full time employment. We talk about the fears, the early steps, why this time is critical for establ...

The Walking Dead has become a pop culture phenomenon. Maybe we're all sensing the end and need to find an exciting spin to put on it, or maybe the storytelling is just THAT addictive. Charlie Adlard, the man behind the artwork for 15 years of the comic's existence joins me at the Lake District Comic Art Festival 2018 to share his story from mesmerised childhood comic fan, to turning the words of R...

Dave Haslam was the last DJ to man the decks at the Hacienda, following an incredible run at the famous Manchester nightclub that was responsible for so much creativity, innovation and fresh ideas in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Following the release of his memoir and 5th book, Sonic Youth Slept on My Floor, he joins me to talk about creativity at large, his 35 years of self-employment and the...

It's World Mental Health Day on 10th October and Manchester based arts and music collective We Are Willow have collaborated with Manchester Mind to create 'A different Light,' a multi-media event and album release to address the male mental health problem. Chris Butler and Daren Newman join me to talk about their decision to come at the topic through film, music and art and why it is so crucial to...

They said print was dying. Remember when vinyl was all but condemned to the memories of another generation and minidisc was the one? Well...Print is arguably more loved than ever before, but instead of mass and cheap, we're all using it to wow. I'm joined by G.F Smith's Jane Crowther who lets us inside the UK's largest specialist paper manufacturer and we're talking tactile, print, graphic design,...

Burnout, taking control of the direction of your creativity, indie book publishing and challenging clients is just a flash of this chat with Radim Malinic, known to many as Brand Nu. Graphic Design, illustration, ideas and writing - Radim's great energy and passion for creativity takes him many places and he shares the story, along with what we can expect from the wonderful Book of Ideas Volume 2....

OVERTHINKING. The double edged sword of a an introspective mind. The kind of mind that enables us to use creativity to forge a career in the arts, but also leaves us wide open to worry, procrastination and vulnerability where others just walk on by. I'm joined by CK Goldiing, content creator and filmmaker who was challenged to walk from his home in Sheffield, to the city centre and hug 61 stranger...

Behaviour design is a fascinating concept with many facets. What is it and how can it become an asset individually, or at a bigger creative agency level? I'm joined by design psychologist and founder of BehaviourStudio Lauren Kelly who breaks it down and discusses practical steps to recognising and actioning negative patterns in our behaviour and allowing the positive habits to flourish. It's a gr...

What if the advertising space in our cities was used in response to what we really need, focusing on happiness, not wants? Designer Micah Purnell has been working to do that and is developing Selling Virtues, a project looking to work with global advertising agencies and thinkers to consider a more ethical approach. He shares some scary stories about the impact of much advertising on well being an...

CHANGE. It scares and throws us out, but is it such a bad thing? Anomaly London's head of art and design Clara Mulligan joins me to share a wonderful journey full of it, setting out from Rhode Island School of Design for Seattle, via Microsoft, Creature, Sid Lee in Amsterdam and arriving at respected advertising agency Anomaly. Why is change a healthy thing and how best to manage the fear? Clara a...

Last year, D&AD New Blood's SHIFT night school program was featured on the podcast. On the night before the 2017 application deadline, Nate Agbetu was alerted to this by a friend, a listener of the show who felt Nate's enterprising and creativity may suit such an initiative. He applied, made the program and has since gone onto exciting new beginnings with Wieden & Kennedy and Nike in vario...