ArtsDesignExplicit

Creative Slash

Brad Woodard and Dustin Lee

Have you ever wondered what secrets drive the most profound, successful, famous, and unique creatives?

Then the Creative Slash podcast is for you. We dig deep to discover the high-leverage concepts, philosophies, tools, weird obsessions, and quiet daily routines that fuel their success—the stuff that rarely gets talked about publicly.

You'll get an inside look at what really drives the world's greatest graphic designers, illustrators, and artists through in-depth interviews with creatives who've achieved both creative and financial success.

Hosted by Brad Woodard (bravethewoods.com) and Dustin Lee (retrosupply.co), each episode feels like you're hanging out with us after hours, having the kind of conversations that happen when the work day is done.

You'll walk away with fresh inspiration, new ideas, and practical advice you can actually use in both your creative work and personal life.

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28 episodes
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Avg 1 hr 32 min
English

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S1 · E55
Yesterday · 1 hr 45 min
Ep. 055 – Chris DeLorenzo – Johnny Cupcakes, a 500-Foot Airport Mural, and Learning Everything Once
Most people see a slackline, a motorcycle, or a recurve bow and think, “That’s not me.” Chris DeLorenzo sees the same things and signs up for lessons. He taught himself to slackline one summer. He has a motorcycle license he has never used. For a while, he wondered if he was quietly training for the apocalypse. In this episode, we talk with Chris about his years as lead designer and art director at Johnny Cupcakes, his move into illustration for places like The New York Times, and the 500-foot mural that now greets people flying into Boston. But the real conversation is about curiosity, what happens to it when life gets busier and more settled, and knowing when your work is already good enough to stand behind. It is part career history, part client-wrangling masterclass, and part three guys talking about French chore jackets for longer than anyone planned. In this episode, we talk about: Why you should ask a designer for all their working files and how digging through Clark Orr’s messy Illustrator files taught Chris more than any class. How Johnny Cupcakes kept everything limited and still made payroll, including the tiered system that split the collectors from people who just wanted a good shirt. Why the same drawing is worth more on a wall than on a T-shirt and how mocking up the work you want to do got Chris an email from The New York Times. The time Chris told Dustin the RetroSupply logo was better the first time and why a little confidence in the pitch can save everyone a round of revisions. Whether drawing flowers is a cop-out, especially when the thing people already find beautiful is the thing you keep coming back to. Whether you are a designer drifting toward illustration, an illustrator with too many hobbies, or someone who keeps saying “that’s not me,” this one is a good nudge. Curiosity is a practice. You are allowed to try the thing before you decide who you are. ABOUT THE CREATIVE Chris DeLorenzo is an illustrator based in Massachusetts, known for simple, bold work built on line, flowers, and hands. He spent about six years as lead designer and art director at Johnny Cupcakes before going out on his own, and this year marks ten years of working for himself. His work has appeared in The New York Times and The Atlantic, and it shows up all over Boston, including a 500-foot mural at Logan Airport. He also designed RetroSupply’s original logo, which is still in use today. Website https://www.chrisdelorenzo.com Shop https://www.chrisdelorenzo.com/shop Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chrisdelorenzo Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E54
September 17 · 1 hr 59 min
Ep. 054 – Van Berkemeyer – Design, Music, and the Empty Chase for the Next High
Van Berkemeyer has built two separate creative careers: one as an illustrator and designer, one as a musician who's had real viral hits and industry attention. He says neither one ever actually felt like arriving. In this episode, Brad and Dustin talk with Van about growing up on a small farm in rural Texas, working as a cowboy on an Oklahoma ranch as a teenager, and building BerkMade, his illustration and design studio, alongside a music career as Van Andrew. The surface topic is juggling two creative disciplines. The real conversation is about something every working artist runs into eventually: chasing a peak, hitting it, and finding out it doesn't fix anything. It's part career retrospective, part cigar-lounge philosophy session, and part reminder that the goalpost never stops moving, no matter which craft you're chasing it in. In this episode, we talk about: Why success in one creative discipline doesn't transfer the lesson to the next, and how Van's found the same empty feeling chasing wins in both illustration and music. The shoe-shopping analogy for chasing achievement, and why finally getting the thing you wanted for years lasts about as long as a new pair of shoes. What's actually real about a creative's social media persona, and why the people who look most confident online are often the most different in person. Why "jack of all trades" doesn't have to mean master of none, and how Van thinks about splitting real creative capacity across two disciplines without feeling like he's failing at both. Aliens, ice walls, and why Van isn't (technically) a flat earther — a tangent Brad and Dustin promise is "a safe space." Whatever discipline you work in, this episode keeps circling back to the same question every working creative eventually asks: once you get the thing you thought you wanted, then what? Van's answer, four and a half years sober and building two careers instead of chasing one high, might be the most useful part of the whole conversation. ABOUT THE CREATIVE Van Berkemeyer is an illustrator and designer based in Nashville, Tennessee, working under the name BerkMade. He grew up on a small farm in rural Texas and spent his teenage years working as a cowboy on an Oklahoma ranch before building two separate creative careers: illustration and design as BerkMade, and music as Van Andrew. Alongside his design work, Van has had real success in music, including a song that went viral and hit number two on iTunes, and a stint as a contestant on The Voice. He's four and a half years sober and spends most of his downtime on his Harley, at the cigar lounge, or playing volleyball. BerkMade (Illustration & Design) Instagram https://www.instagram.com/berkmade/ Van Andrew (Music) Website https://www.vanandrewmusic.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/vanandrewofficial/ Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E53
September 10 · 1 hr 34 min
Ep. 053 – Christian Helms – The 99-Pack, a McDonald's Broom, and Taking the Joke Seriously
A 99-pack of beer sounds like a joke. It's about as tall as Shaq and weighs eighty pounds. When Christian Helms described it to his mom, she said she didn't get it. A few months later, she called to ask if he'd seen what Austin Beerworks did. In this episode, we talk with Christian Helms, founder and creative director of Helms Workshop in Austin, about the 99-pack, Howler Brothers, a week living with Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, and a career built mostly on naive optimism. Underneath the stories is a bigger conversation. Why is the funniest idea in the room so often the most human one? Why do you have to understand something better than anyone before you can make it surprising? And why would he rather hire a great person than a great portfolio? It is part design history, part Southern storytelling, and part confession from a man with two giant wind chimes and a painted bunting at his feeder. In this episode, we talk about: Getting chased out of a McDonald's with a broom as a Pentagram intern, and why just being in the room while Michael Bierut presents is a master class. How the 99-pack actually happened including the rule he still works by: take the joke you make at the bar with the client and make it real the next day. Why creativity is a skill, not a gift and the Edward de Bono exercise that can turn a hospital logo into a vehicle. Why AI and focus groups pull you toward the same place especially when the whole point of a brand is to not look like everything else in the category. How years of Lyme disease finally broke his micromanaging habit and why he's hired the third-best portfolio in the stack more times than he can count. Whether you run a studio, work in one, or just want your ideas to stop looking like everyone else's, this one's worth your time. The weird idea is usually the right one. Someone just has to be brave enough to make it real. ABOUT THE CREATIVE Christian Helms is the founder and creative director of Helms Workshop, a branding agency in Austin, Texas, focused on consumer goods and hospitality. The studio has built brands for Austin Beerworks, Howler Brothers, Tecovas, and plenty of the places that make Austin feel like Austin. He grew up in small-town North Carolina, studied journalism and creative writing at UNC, went on to Portfolio Center in Atlanta, and interned at Pentagram under Michael Bierut. In Austin he fell in with the Decoder Ring crew, making music posters for the bands he was already seeing four or five nights a week. These days he reads a lot of Southern noir, keeps boiled peanuts in the freezer, and is writing a book on branding. Website https://helmsworkshop.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tchristianhelms Studio Instagram https://www.instagram.com/helms_workshop Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E52
September 3 · 1 hr 6 min
Ep. 052 – Bill Gardner – Stolen Magic Secrets, a $20 Rock, and Branding for Machines
There are thousands of magicians who can handle a deck of cards better than David Copperfield. There is one David Copperfield. Bill Gardner has a one-word answer for why, and it turns out to be the same word that explains why one designer’s work gets remembered and another’s gets filed. In this episode, we talk with Bill Gardner — founder of LogoLounge, owner of Gardner Design, and a man who put himself through college as a working magician — about story as the actual engine underneath branding. It opens with how he got into magic in the first place, and ends on whether we are about to start designing brands for AI agents instead of for people. It is part magic-shop origin story, part masterclass in selling design to a CFO, and part quiet argument that the thing you are selling has never really been the picture. In this episode, we talk about: How Bill actually got into magic and why he could only tell the story once the magician whose props he broke into had died. The $20 rock that named an investment firm and why he set it on the table in front of the client before saying anything about design. How to answer a CFO who wants you to prove ROI including why “no, I can’t guarantee that” is the right way to open. Meeting Saul Bass at twenty years old including the thing he discovered walking down that hallway that nobody had ever written down. What happens when AI agents become the audience for branding and whether we will have to design for human consumption and machine consumption at the same time. Whether you are trying to justify your rates, name a company, or work out what is left for human designers once the machines are the ones doing the looking, this is the same question coming at you from five directions. What are people actually buying when they buy design — and what makes any of it worth remembering? ABOUT THE CREATIVE Bill Gardner is the owner and creative director of Gardner Design in Wichita, Kansas, which he has been running since 1983. The studio does nothing but branding — roughly 80% of it rebranding — for clients including Cessna, Thermos, Pizza Hut, Coleman, Hallmark, and Wichita State University. He is also the founder of LogoLounge.com, the largest searchable logo archive in the world, now approaching half a million logos submitted by more than 20,000 designers. He has authored fifteen LogoLounge books and has written the annual Logo Trend Report for more than twenty years, which has carried him around the world as a speaker. His newest book is The LogoLounge Guide to Iconic Branding: Trendcasting for Logos that Last. He holds degrees in both business and fine art, collects antique bagatelles, and paid his way through college performing magic. Website https://gardnerdesign.com LogoLounge https://www.logolounge.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/logolounge The LogoLounge Guide to Iconic Branding https://www.quarto.com/books/9780760398104/the-logolounge-guide-to-iconic-branding Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E51
August 28 · 1 hr 30 min
Ep. 051 – Paul Lukes – Graffiti, Getting Clean, and Why Ugly Design Converts
Designers spend their careers trying to make things beautiful. So what do you do when your boss tears up the polished sign you made for the tip jar, tells you to redo it in crayon, and the ugly one makes more money? In this episode, we talk with designer, artist, and reformed graffiti writer Paul Lukes about the road from painting the streets of San Francisco to a career built on craft, community, and a published ethics page. It is a conversation about addiction and recovery, about what graffiti and client work actually have in common, and about why the job is not to make something pretty but to make something that moves people. It is part recovery story, part street history, and part very practical argument for designing things that work. In this episode, we talk about: The frozen yogurt tip jar and why the ugliest sign in the shop was the one that made the most money. Getting clean after years of trying and relapsing including the ordinary moment in a meeting that finally stuck when nothing else had. How he pulled off his biggest street piece with a little help from the crack dealers working the same corner. Why he put an ethics page on his website and what it did to the kind of clients who reach out. The design influencer pile-ons and why he thinks recreational outrage has become America's new favorite pastime. Whether you came up in a scene you had to leave, or you are just tired of making pretty things that do not work, this one goes somewhere. It is about what you keep from the person you used to be, and what a creative career looks like once you stop trying to impress other designers. ABOUT THE CREATIVE Paul Lukes is a designer, artist, and retired graffiti writer based in Fort Collins, Colorado. He is a senior designer at Bonfire Effect and runs smART minds, the studio he shares with his wife, music journalist Kyle Eustice. His fine art pulls from found materials and street ephemera the way hip hop pulls from records, layering pieces of the past into something new. He also started CoLab, a free Colorado design community with close to two hundred members, a Slack channel, and periodic in-person events, built on the idea that everyone grows faster when nobody is gatekeeping. Website https://smartmindsthinkalike.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/culture_conservationist LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-lukes-906608134 Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E50
August 21 · 1 hr 6 min
Ep. 050 – 50 Episodes, Over 40 Creatives, and the Equation We Never Meant to Find
Fifty episodes and over forty interviews in, Brad and Dustin have heard just about every piece of advice a working creative can give. About half of it directly contradicts the other half. So they went back through a year of their own transcripts to find out what was actually true underneath all of it. In this episode, Brad and Dustin mark Creative Slash’s 50th episode by digging through their own interview archive for the patterns that kept repeating: the formula almost every guest fits without meaning to, the uncomfortable realization that most of the people they admire most are not secretly geniuses, and why sitting across from forty different creatives finally talked them down from their AI anxiety. It’s part victory lap, part debrief, and part two hosts realizing they’ve accidentally been running a longitudinal study on what actually makes a creative career work. In this episode, we talk about: The “unique value + consistency + adaptability” equation they didn’t set out to find, and why every guest fits it whether they know it or not. Why the show’s best advice always contradicts itself and why hearing two very successful people say the opposite thing is the most reassuring part of the whole show. The design influencer debate that split their own comment section and what it taught them about growth requiring you to give up the thing that made you successful. Why nobody they’ve interviewed is secretly a genius, and the “surface area” theory of staying in the game long enough for opportunity to find you. How their AI anxiety quietly changed over 50 episodes, and the “provenance” idea, with an assist from a stop-motion movie studio, that explains why. Whether you’ve listened since episode one or you’re just now hitting play, this one is less a highlight reel than an audit: the patterns that held up after a year of asking the same questions, and the ones neither of them expected to admit out loud. Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E49
August 14 · 1 hr 22 min
Ep. 049 – John Hendrix – Sandcastles, Doubt, and Why Your Calling Doesn't Have to Be Your Career
Somewhere along the way we started assuming that the thing you were made to do and the thing that pays your bills are supposed to be the same thing. John Hendrix does not think that is true, and he has spent a twenty-year career and a whole graduate program arguing otherwise. In this episode, we talk with illustrator, author, and Washington University art professor John Hendrix about making work that is too weird for the church and too churchy for everyone else, why perseverance beats talent every single time, and what changes when you stop treating your art like a monument and start treating it like a sandcastle. John gets into his path from Marvel how-to books to Eisner-nominated graphic novels, the ten years that passed before his first book existed, why he thinks school is about community rather than skill, and the emails he still gets about drawing the Holy Ghost as a small blue cartoon. In this episode, we talk about: Why your calling might not be your career and why John thinks that is fine, freeing, and a great deal healthier than the alternative. Treating your work like sandcastles instead of monuments and what changes when you stop asking whether a drawing will outlive you. The ten years between art school and his first book and why perseverance, not talent, is what actually separates the people who make it. Being too weird for the church and too churchy for everyone else including the publisher who passed on his sketchbooks for seeming suspiciously sincere. Why “I have no idea” is a complete sentence and how doubt turned out to be a feature of his faith rather than a bug in it. Whether you are deep into a creative career, quietly wondering whether you picked the wrong one, or just trying to work out why twelve productive hours still ends with the feeling that you are behind, this conversation goes somewhere worth following. It is also the only episode where you will hear about losing a national fencing bout to a sixty-five-year-old Frenchman. ABOUT THE CREATIVE John Hendrix is an illustrator, author, and educator based in St. Louis. He is the Founding Chair of the MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also teaches. His books include The Faithful Spy, an NPR Best Book of 2018 about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the plot to kill Hitler, and The Mythmakers, an Eisner-nominated graphic novel about the friendship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. His new book, One Hundred Things You Love to Draw, a follow-up to Drawing Is Magic, arrives this fall, and he is currently at work on a graphic novel about the Salem witch trials. Website https://www.johnhendrix.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/johnhendrix Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E48
August 7 · 45 min
Ep. 048 – Allan Peters, A$AP Rocky & the Design Influencer Dilemma
In this episode, Brad and Dustin dig into the recent Allan Peters and A$AP Rocky situation, but the real conversation goes much deeper. It turns into a bigger discussion about design influencers, public criticism, jealousy, visibility, client work, AI, and why there may not be one morally pure way to build a creative career anymore. It is part industry therapy session, part internet anthropology, and part two designers trying to figure out why everyone is suddenly so mad. In this episode, we talk about: The Allan Peters and A$AP Rocky situation and why sharing a private DM might be more complicated than it looked at first. Why “fixing” famous logos makes designers so angry even when the content is educational, entertaining, and clearly working. The tension between craft and visibility and why being great at design does not automatically make people pay attention to your work. What design influencers actually do for the industry including the uncomfortable possibility that they make human design more visible in an AI-heavy world. How jealousy sneaks into creative criticism especially when someone else’s version of success looks easier, louder, or less “earned” than yours. Whether you love design influencers, hate them, or quietly watch every logo breakdown while pretending you don’t care, this episode is about the bigger question underneath it all. What do we actually value in creative work now, and how do we decide what success is supposed to look like? Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
July 31 · 1 hr 33 min
Ep. 047 - Emily Balsley - Murals, Community Art, and Making the World Weirder in Public
Emily Balsley makes art feel like something that should spill out of your sketchbook and into the neighborhood. In this episode, we talk with illustrator, muralist, and community art instigator Emily Balsley about building a creative life around color, curiosity, local projects, and the kind of ideas that make people stop on a walk and think, “Wait, who made this?” Emily gets into her path from graphic design to illustration, why she stopped calling herself a designer, how neighborhood art projects became a natural part of her work, and what it feels like to keep making physical, human art in a world increasingly full of AI-generated everything. In this episode, we cover: How Emily went from designing Schwinn bikes to freelancing, rediscovering illustration, and finally feeling like she could call herself an illustrator Why self-initiated projects, fake briefs, and portfolio experiments can help you build the work you want to be hired for How Emily turns neighborhood block parties, fences, manhole covers, Halloween displays, and murals into real community art What it feels like when a client uses AI to generate an “Emily Balsley style” mural mockup before hiring the actual Emily Balsley Why baseball scorebooks, horror movies, local traditions, and tiny creative obsessions all feed the same bigger creative life ABOUT THE CREATIVE Emily Balsley is an illustrator and muralist based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her work is colorful, playful, bold, and full of personality, showing up across murals, editorial work, products, community projects, and the occasional neighborhood Halloween spectacle. She is also deeply involved in local creative projects, from collaborative fence murals to block party art activities to the now infamous Haunting of Commonwealth. Website https://emilybalsley.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emilybluestar Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E46
July 24 · 1 hr 44 min
Ep. 046 – Jason Craig – Cash Flow, Chicken Bones & Making Creative Work Actually Work
Jason Craig is the type of guy you talk to about freelance work, and suddenly it feels like you’re seeing the whole thing in technicolor for the first time. This episode gets into the parts of freelancing people usually skip over. Cash flow. Repeat clients. Fast little projects that keep the lights on while the big projects take forever to approve. Jason also talks about why being easy to work with might be one of the most underrated skills in design. Talent matters, obviously, but so does trust, clarity, momentum, and not making every project feel like a hostage negotiation. And yes, this conversation also somehow includes the shopping cart etiquette conspiracy, stolen grapes, closeout mustard, murals, chicken bones, and the moral weight of paying someone else to fix your toilet. IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER: • Why steady cash flow matters more than waiting around for perfect projects. • How to turn small jobs into steady income that comes in year after year. • Why being easy to work with is a prerequisite to building a stable, low-stress business. • How personality, weird ideas, murals, merch, and community all become part of the work. If you freelance, run a studio, or feel stuck between taking every job and waiting for the dream one, this episode will feel painfully useful. ABOUT THE CREATIVE Jason Craig is a designer, illustrator, mural artist, and speaker based in Augusta, Georgia. His work spans branding, murals, merchandise, sports, restaurants, events, and plenty of strange creative side quests that somehow make perfect sense once Jason explains them. His big, kind, and authentic personality has made him a staple of conferences and talks across the country (and an essential merch stand stop). Visit Jason’s website Follow Jason on Instagram Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
July 16 · 1 hr 41 min
Ep. 045 — Dan Lee — Leaving the “Right” Career and Building a Creative Life
In this week's episode, we talk with graphic designer, illustrator, lettering artist, and all-around creative entrepreneur Dan Lee. We've admired Dan's work for years. At Creative South 2026, we finally got to sit down with him, and we walked away struck by his optimism about the creative industry, his genuine love for other creatives, and his impeccable style (he was sporting a Westersen hat from Don Clark's western wear venture — see episode 28). Here's some of what we get into: How to leave a "safe" career without feeling like you wasted everything that came before it. Dan has a degree in chemical engineering, and his escape route is a masterclass in transitioning to work you love. The simple journaling practice Dan uses to turn vague creative ambitions into real projects and clear decisions. The tested secret to steady creative work. It depends less on constantly finding new clients and more on building relationships that make you the easy choice to come back to. The one habit that makes clients want to keep working with you. And no, it's not being cheaper, faster, or flashier. The Shopping Cart Problem. The strangely addictive debate we've been having with everyone about putting your cart back. We think it goes way deeper than shopping carts. You be the judge. It's a conversation about changing direction, finding your people, serving customers well, and building a creative career without waiting for permission — or following the supposedly correct sequence of steps. ABOUT DAN LEE Dan Lee is an artist, writer, illustrator, and designer specializing in hand lettering. A Philly kid now based in Sheridan, Wyoming, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering, then taught himself to draw words instead. He's the lead artist behind moto lifestyle brand Go Fast Don't Die, and he brings an engineer's eye for structure to compositions that run from four words to a hundred. Website Instagram Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E44
July 9 · 1 hr 38 min
Ep. 044 – Kate Smith – How Being Unmistakably Yourself Becomes a Creative Business
This episode features artist, illustrator, greeting card designer, and licensing powerhouse Kate Smith on what happens when you stop trying to make work that looks “marketable” and start making work that sounds, feels, and thinks like you. Kate talks about building a creative business from her own weird little ideas, emotional instincts, funny phrases, and need to put more joy into the world. That deeply personal approach has turned into a massive licensing career, with her work selling millions of units at retail across cards, gifts, products, and major collections, including Target. But this conversation is not just about selling a lot of stuff. It’s about how personal work can slowly become financial stability, how licensing can create more freedom, and how building a business around your actual point of view can help you live more of the life you want instead of constantly chasing someone else’s version of success. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why making work that is unmistakably yours is not just a creative luxury. Kate shares how her voice, humor, emotional honesty, and specific way of seeing the world became the foundation of a licensing career that could not have been built by copying what everyone else was doing. How licensing can turn personal work into long-term stability. Kate talks about landing dream retail opportunities, creating collections for major stores, and learning how repeated licensing wins can slowly build the kind of financial foundation that gives artists more room to live, travel, experiment, and choose. Why success still comes with a “what’s next?” problem. Even after major retail wins, Kate explains how easy it is to move the goalpost, judge yourself by today’s results, or forget to enjoy the thing you once desperately wanted. Why joyful art does not always come from a joyful place. Kate’s work often says the thing she needs to hear too, whether that’s “even the sun has its ups and downs” or some tiny phrase that makes life feel a little more survivable. ABOUT KATE SMITH Kate Smith is an artist, illustrator, greeting card designer, and creative entrepreneur known for her funny, bright, emotionally honest work that has been licensed across dozens of product categories and sold millions of units at retail. Her work blends humor, vulnerability, color, and sharply specific phrasing in a way that feels unmistakably her. What started as a small greeting card idea inspired by talking for her dog grew into a creative business spanning stationery, gifts, retail collections, licensing, and art that helps people feel a little more seen. Visit Kate Smith online Follow Kate on Instagram Shop Kate’s work Explore Kate’s greeting cards Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E43
June 28 · 1 hr 26 min
Ep. 043 – Chris Piascik – The Accidental Illustrator and the Power of Making Work Every Day
This episode features illustrator, author, YouTuber, and accidental Adobe Fresco evangelist Chris Piascik on building a creative career by staying weird, making a lot of work, and refusing to turn art into a fake polished performance. Chris gets into his 14-year daily drawing project, why YouTube changed his business more than Instagram ever did, how his new book The Accidental Illustrator came together, and why being honest about your process is more valuable than pretending everything is effortless. It’s funny, loose, and full of the kind of creative advice that only comes from someone who has spent decades making art, shipping projects, reading terrible comments, rollerblading aggressively, and somehow turning all of it into a real career. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why consistency doesn’t have to mean becoming a content robot. Chris talks about how his daily drawing project started as a simple structure to help him draw more, then slowly changed the entire direction of his career. How YouTube creates deeper relationships than faster, scroll-based platforms. Chris shares how his channel helped grow his shop, sell more work, and create a community that actually feels connected to him. Why leaning into your weirdness is not a branding gimmick. From punk flyers and old cartoons to strange characters, rollerblading, toy design, and Fresco tutorials, Chris shows how your odd little obsessions can become the most valuable part of your work. ABOUT CHRIS PIASCIK Chris Piascik is an illustrator, author, designer, and YouTuber known for his bold, funny, weird, character-driven work and his long-running daily drawing project. After drawing every day for 14 years, Chris built a career that spans illustration, lettering, products, online education, YouTube, and his new book The Accidental Illustrator. He’s also one of the clearest voices online for artists trying to make digital illustration feel more natural, honest, and fun, especially through his work with Adobe Fresco. Visit Chris Piascik online Follow Chris on Instagram Subscribe to Chris on YouTube Check out The Accidental Illustrator Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
June 18 · 1 hr 19 min
Ep. 042 - Brad Stoneking - Design, Deadtooth, and Why Real Creative Work Still Matters
This episode features designer, artist, and Piedmont Brand Company founder Brad Stoneking on building a creative life that doesn't run on chasing algorithms, copying trends, or pretending every designer has to be an influencer. Brad gets into his work under the name Deadtooth, how personal art differs from professional design, why production work deserves more respect, and how years inside agencies set him up to run a small studio doing serious work for big brands. It's funny, blunt, occasionally unhinged, and packed with hard-won advice for designers trying to build something real. In this episode, you'll learn: Why visibility isn't the same as momentum (and why posting constantly doesn't build a career). Why print fundamentals and production skills still matter, especially when so many young designers learn software before craft. How Brad thinks about long-term clients and why the real work often starts after the logo, once you become the person they trust with everything else. About Brad Stoneking Brad is a designer, artist, and founder of Piedmont Brand Company, a small studio that helps brands move fast and make useful, well-built work. He also makes art as Deadtooth, where he gives himself room to go weirder, louder, and more personal than client work allows. With nearly three decades in design Brad brings a mix of craft, experience, humor, and a healthy distrust of anything that turns creative work into performance instead of practice. Visit Piedmont Brand Follow Piedmont Brand on Instagram Follow Deadtooth on Instagram Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E41
June 11 · 1 hr 41 min
Ep. 041 – Goodtype – Magic, Momentum & Building a Creative Business on Your Terms
When we sat down with Ilana Griffo and Katie Johnson of Goodtype, we expected to talk about typography, online education, and what it’s like to run one of the most recognizable brands in the creative space. And we did. But there is so much good stuff underneath that. Funny, inspiring stories and philosophies that will change how you think about your creative business. In this episode, we talk about: How Goodtype grew from an inspiration account into a thriving creative business. Prioritizing what felt like it would bring joy, simple experiments, and the first hires that leveled up their work. Why chasing every platform, trend, and opportunity isn't good for anyone. Sometimes it feels like Goodtype is everywhere, but the secret is actually how Ilana and Katie learned to simplify. How to define success on your own terms. The phrase has become a little empty but these ladies are doing it by balancing ambition, fulfillment, and work that still feels magical after it becomes your job. Whether you’re just starting to build your creative business or in the messy middle, trying to figure out what to do, you'll love this episode. Get ready for a conversation full of laughs and a reminder that there isn't a right way to do it. ABOUT GOODTYPE Goodtype is a creative education platform, design studio, and global community for lettering artists, designers, and type enthusiasts. Led by Ilana Griffo and Katie Johnson, Goodtype provides courses, events, resources, and inspiration designed to help creatives build meaningful careers doing work they love. Follow Goodtype on Instagram Visit Goodtype online Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
June 4 · 1 hr 42 min
Ep. 040 – Jeremy Slagle – Family, Creativity & Turning Interests Into Opportunities
In this episode, we sit down with designer, illustrator, and longtime Creative South community member Jeremy Slagle to talk about building a creative career by following curiosity wherever it leads. From raising two graphic designers under the same roof to turning a pickleball obsession into real client work, Jeremy shares how some of the biggest opportunities in his career came from personal projects, side interests, and ideas that initially seemed too small to matter. We talk about the value of creative communities, why portfolios should be filled with real work instead of just class assignments, and how pursuing the things you're genuinely excited about can open doors that strategic career planning never could. Jeremy also shares his perspective on parenting creative kids, the lessons he's learned from more than three decades in design, and why showing people what you want to be hired for is still one of the most powerful career strategies available. Along the way, we discuss Creative South, remote work, building expertise through passion projects, and the surprising connection between pickleball and creative entrepreneurship. About Jeremy Slagle Jeremy Slagle is a designer, illustrator, and creative director with more than 30 years of experience helping brands tell their stories through thoughtful design and illustration. Based in Columbus, Ohio, he's also an avid pickleball player, longtime Creative South attendee, and passionate advocate for creative community, mentorship, and lifelong learning. Follow Jeremy on Instagram Check out Jeremy's website Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E39
May 28 · 1 hr 46 min
Ep. 039 – Lenny Terenzi – The War I Didn’t Know I Was Fighting
For years, Lenny Terenzi built the kind of creative life designers dream about. He ran a beloved studio and screen printing shop, taught workshops to hundreds of creatives, spoke at conferences around the country, helped build creative communities, and created work that genuinely impacted people’s careers and lives. And yet underneath all of it, he secretly felt like he was failing. In this episode, Lenny opens up about discovering later in life that he had been living with ADHD his entire adult life and didn't know it. Plus, how that realization completely reframed the way he viewed his career, relationships, burnout, creativity, and self-worth. “I was fighting a war that I never knew was declared on myself.” This sentence hit Brad and I hard (and I suspect it does a lot of our listeners as well). We talk about the hidden ways ADHD can show up in creative lives: unfinished ideas, difficulty crossing the finish line, tying your identity to your work, burnout disguised as laziness, and the exhausting cycle of feeling capable of more while never understanding why certain things feel so impossibly hard. But this conversation is also about an important reframe of how we define success. Lenny reflects on shutting down Hey Monkey (the studio and workshop space he spent years building) and why he no longer sees it as a failure simply because it didn’t become a forever business. Over the years, the studio taught hundreds of people how to screen print, launched careers, created friendships, inspired other studios, and gave people a place to belong creatively. And maybe that counts for something too. This episode is for anyone who has: Struggled with burnout or creative exhaustion Wondered if they’re “lazy” or broken Tied too much of their identity to their work Felt ashamed of a business, project, or career pivot Almost without knowing it, gauge success purely by revenue and profit It’s an honest conversation about creativity, ego, reinvention, mental health, and learning that the value of the things we build can’t always be measured on a spreadsheet. Sometimes a project changes your life even if it is not an indestructible empire. About Lenny Terenzi Lenny Terenzi is a designer, illustrator, creative director, educator, musician, and longtime creative community builder based in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. Known for his bold visual style and irreverent approach to creativity, Lenny has spent decades helping brands and creatives embrace personality, craft, and experimentation. Follow Lenny on Instagram Check out Lenny’s website Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E38
May 14 · 1 hr 45 min
Ep. 038 – Orlando Arocena (Mexifunk) – The Man Who Changed the Look of Vector
In this episode, we sit down with legendary illustrator Orlando Arocena (Mexifunk) to talk about building a creative career by leaning into the things other people run away from. While most designers saw Adobe Illustrator as limiting for hyper-realistic illustration work or something to outsource, Orlando saw an opportunity. He spent decades pushing the software far beyond what people thought it could do. Eventually, he became known for his coveted work with major films, entertainment brands, and some of the most recognizable vector illustrations in the industry (lots of movie posters look Photoshopped, but they're actually vector, insane, I know). Along the way, we also dig into highly actionable insights like: Why specialization can become your biggest advantage The hidden opportunities inside unpopular tools What decades of creative work taught Orlando about standing out How to build a career around curiosity instead of trends And why “breaking the rules” sometimes just means paying closer attention than everyone else If you've ever wondered whether your weird interests, niche skills, or unconventional path could actually become your advantage, then buckle up because this episode is for you. (And yes… somehow we also start with colonoscopy stories.) ABOUT ORLANDO AROCENA (MEXIFUNK) Orlando Arocena is a Mexican-Cuban-American artist and creative strategist known for his bold, highly detailed vector artwork. A 13-time CLIO recipient and 2025 Emmy Award nominee, Orlando has worked across film, pop culture, gaming, and brand storytelling, bringing more than 30 years of creative experience to his distinctive style. Follow Orlando Arocena on Behance and on Instagram Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E37
May 8 · 1 hr 30 min
Ep. 037 – Creative South — Community, Creativity & Why Conferences Matter
We spent the week talking with designers, illustrators, educators, and other creative professionals from across the country about why they keep coming back year after year, what makes Creative South different, and whether creative conferences are actually worth the investment. The conversations drift from creative burnout and imposter syndrome to bizarre conspiracy theories, typography pet peeves, client stories, and the weirdly specific things only designers care about. But underneath it all is a bigger conversation about community. Why creative work can feel isolating, and how getting in a room with other creative people can completely reset your perspective. Whether you attended Creative South this year, have always wanted to go, or have never been to a creative conference at all, this episode is a candid look at what these events really offer beyond the workshops and keynote talks. Because often, the most valuable part of a conference isn’t the speakers. It’s the conversations in the halls and late-night hangs. Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
S1 · E36
April 30 · 1 hr 47 min
Ep. 036 – Trust Design – Punching Above Your Weight as a Two-Person Studio
In this episode, we sit down with Trust Design, a two-person studio run by Hannah Smith and Jesse MacKenzie, to talk about how they’ve built a reputation for delivering big-agency-level work—without becoming a big agency. They share how they stumbled into starting a studio (with no clear roadmap), why they rejected the idea that design has to be cutthroat, and how discovering the creative community completely changed their trajectory. We also dig into their philosophy of “punching above your weight.” What it actually looks like in practice, and why it has less to do with talent and more to do with care. Along the way, we talk about: Why most creatives underestimate how much presentation matters The hidden advantage of not acting like a traditional agency How to build trust with clients before you even start the project Why being “in-house in spirit” changes everything If you’ve ever felt like you’re too small to compete (or unsure how to stand out without a massive following) this episode is proof that you don’t need scale to do meaningful, high-level work. Join the Creative Slash Newsletter and Get the 5-Part “Off the Record” email series FREE Click here to get the five-part “Off the Record” email series Note: If you're looking for hard-earned advice, resources from top creatives, and the products they can't live without, you're going to love this. Brad Woodard Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books. View Brave the Woods Dustin Lee Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional. View RetroSupply Credits Audio/video editing: Clara Wright Cover art: Brad Woodard Intro animation: Seth Austin Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström

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