CAPTN OffScript

CAPTN OffScript

There's a version of the creative career conversation that almost never gets recorded. Not the award acceptance. Not the process breakdown. Not the polished origin story where every setback was secretly a setup. That version exists everywhere. This isn't that. CAPTN OffScript is where designers, founders, illustrators, and makers sit down and talk about what's actually going on — the fear before the pivot, the year where the work dried up, the identity crisis that came with success, the moment they almost stopped, and what kept them moving. The messy, honest, deeply human side of building a creative life. I'm Alen. I run a one-person type foundry called SilverStag Type, and I've been working in and around the design industry long enough to know what gets edited out of most interviews. I started this show because I was tired of highlight reels dressed up as conversations. I wanted to hear what creative people actually think — about money and meaning, about burnout and reinvention, about imposter syndrome and identity and the thousand invisible decisions that quietly add up to a career. So that's what we do here. We go long. We go deep. We don't rush to the takeaway. And because I'm not just a host — I'm a working designer who's navigated a lot of the same terrain — the conversations tend to go places most interviews don't reach. Guests have included Jessica Hische, Elliot Jay Stocks, Sophia Yeshi, Kieron Anthony Lewis, Philipp Louven, and Sergio del Puerto. What they share isn't a follower count or a famous client list. It's that they showed up willing to say something real — something I hadn't heard them say before, in any interview, anywhere. That's the bar. The show runs in two formats. The long-form Conversations are the main event — unscripted, one-on-one, unhurried. The kind of interview where we're still discovering things an hour in. Then there are the Monday Break(Through) episodes: shorter solo pieces from me, working through ideas and observations as a creative founder. Less polished. More honest. No five-step frameworks. No sponsor reads dressed up as advice. No artificial urgency. Just two people taking creativity seriously, and seeing where that leads. CAPTN OffScript started as The Type Convo — a typography-focused show — and evolved into something bigger when I realised the conversations I most needed to hear weren't about fonts. They were about what it actually costs to build something on your own terms, and what it means to keep going when the path stops being clear. If the "official" version of a creative career has never quite matched the one you're actually living — the doubt, the detours, the days when you're not sure what you're building or why — this show was made for you. New episodes drop regularly. Come in anywhere. Stay for the honesty.

  1. S02/E32 - CJ Cawley: Getting Cloned, Getting Married & Showing Up Anyway

    8 hr ago ·  Video

    S02/E32 - CJ Cawley: Getting Cloned, Getting Married & Showing Up Anyway

    CJ Cawley is having the strangest year of his career. Someone built a pixel-for-pixel clone of his website and replaced his face with theirs. A parody video of him triggered a wave of hate inside the design community. He's getting married this weekend. And through all of it, he keeps showing up on camera. This is one of the episodes I've been most looking forward to publishing all season. We recorded for over an hour and twenty minutes, and the conversation went so deep that the most personal part is going out as a separate bonus episode. The main one is here. The bonus drops Friday as the first-ever exclusive bonus episode of Captn OffScript, available only to newsletter subscribers for the first 7 days. Subscribe at https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter. In this episode we talked about: The website clone called Delwox and his perfect retaliationThe parody video and the pile-on inside the design communityGetting married this weekend with a surf simulator and an aerial hoopPsoriasis, the camera, and why no one cares what you look likeSticky Notes and four years of private calls with Jack before pressing recordThe McDonald's theory of AIKnob head tax and interviewing clients before saying yesThe loneliness of going freelance, and the friend who pulled him through itWhat he's most grateful for in the year before his wedding 🎙️ The bonus episode on Friday: CJ and I share the most personal part of our conversation, about childhood, family, and rewriting the script you were given as a kid. Newsletter subscribers only for the first 7 days. Subscribe at https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter. Timestamps: [Awaiting confirmation] Find CJ here: Website: https://www.cjcawley.com/Studio (Seeside Studio): https://www.seesidestudio.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cjcawleydesignSticky Notes podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@WeAreStickyNotesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cj.cawley.design/ Find me here: https://captnoffscript.com/https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript If you liked this episode, listen to... Andy J. Pizza (S02/E30) — another deeply personal conversation about showing up on camera, working with what you've got, and cultivating yourself instead of trying to fix yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, leaving a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify takes less than a minute and helps more people find the show. I'd be incredibly grateful. 🙏

    1hr 3min
  2. S02/E31 - Kristof Devos on Designing Watches That Tell You to Slow Down & the Art of Doing Nothing

    6 days ago ·  Video

    S02/E31 - Kristof Devos on Designing Watches That Tell You to Slow Down & the Art of Doing Nothing

    Kristof Devos answered the call from his studio in a small town in rural Belgium, with a cat wandering in and out and his daughter's eighth birthday party happening that same afternoon. It felt like the right way to start a conversation about slowing down. Kristof Devos is an illustrator, a children's book author, a watch designer for the cult London brand Mr Jones Watches, and an art teacher in Bruges. For tax purposes he has two jobs. For himself, it's all one job. This one stays gentle the whole way through and still lands somewhere deep. We talked about a watch that tells you to slow down, a car crash that reshaped his entire idea of a life worth living, and why he'd rather write a long newsletter that takes fifteen minutes to read than chase likes on a platform he's come to distrust. In this episode we talked about: "A Perfectly Useless Afternoon" and the watch about doing nothingHow a ten-minute window of confidence led to Mr Jones WatchesLeaving art direction for a slower life in rural BelgiumThe car crash that changed everything, and the book that came from itWhy he takes two years on twelve spreadsHis new book, Big Brother and Little SisterQuitting Instagram and building through newslettersWhy AI might be a gift to human-made artWhat he hopes survives him in a hundred years Find Kristof here: Website: https://kristofdevos.com/Newsletter (Brief uit het Atelier): https://kristofdevos.com/brief-uit-het-atelier/Podcast (Podlood, in Dutch): https://kristofdevos.com/podlood/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristoftekent/ Find me here: https://captnoffscript.com/https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript/ If you liked this episode, listen to... Luis Mendo (S02/E29) — Luis appeared on Kristof's podcast, and they share the same instinct: leaving social media behind, building through direct connection, and choosing a slower, more deliberate creative life. If you enjoyed this episode, leaving a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify takes less than a minute and helps more people find the show. I'd be incredibly grateful. 🙏

    1 hr
  3. S02/E30 - Andy J. Pizza on ADHD, Self-Worth & Cultivating Yourself Instead of Fixing Yourself

    21 May ·  Video

    S02/E30 - Andy J. Pizza on ADHD, Self-Worth & Cultivating Yourself Instead of Fixing Yourself

    Episode 30 of Season 2. The 80th episode I've recorded since starting this show. And honestly, I couldn't have picked a better guest to mark a milestone like that. Andy J. Pizza is the host of Creative Pep Talk, an illustrator, a children's book author, and one of the people who has quietly shaped how thousands of designers think about their own creativity. He's also the guy who chose to call himself "Pizza" because his real name made for an ugly URL. We started this conversation talking about goat cheese pizza in the UK. We ended it somewhere very different — talking about the cave you fear to enter inside yourself, about why his ADHD diagnosis at 25 first devastated him before it freed him, and about a line from his second podcast Right Side Out that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since. At the end of the recording, Andy told me this was the most personal interview he had ever done. In this episode we talked about: Choosing his own name and disobeying YodaADHD as a lens, not a deficitCultivating yourself instead of overcoming yourselfRight Side Out and the line that stops youThe cave you fear to enter, Joseph Campbell, and self-acceptanceTaste as the palette of your soulWhy AI is ending the era of perfect — and why that's a giftWorking with his wife Sophie, the Beatles, and why fighting makes the work betterHis dad's lesson: hard and bad are not the same thingThe most personal closing of the season Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction & Three Illustrators in a Row03:12 How Andy J. Miller Became Andy J. Pizza05:53 Pizza Toppings, Goat Cheese & the Best Fries in the World08:36 ADHD, Mental Health & Creative Work09:44 Moving Around as a Kid & the Identity Crisis It Caused15:30 The Seventh Grade Friend Who Loved Boy Bands22:00 On Popularity, Connection & Being Less Cool27:45 Taste as the Palette of Your Soul32:29 Why Follower Count Doesn't Equal Success33:33 Why Instagram Doesn't Taste Good Anymore36:36 How Taste Changes Over Time39:25 Collaborating with His Wife Sophie & the Beatles47:20 Perfectionism, ADHD & the Case for Doing Things Imperfectly58:51 AI, Human Creativity & Why Perfect Is Dead01:01:49 Cultivating Yourself Instead of Fixing Yourself Find Andy here: Website: https://www.andyjpizza.com/Creative Pep Talk: https://www.creativepeptalk.com/Right Side Out: https://www.andyjpizza.com/rsoInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/andyjpizza/Substack: https://andyjpizza.substack.com/ Find me here: captnoffscript.com@captnoffscript If you liked this episode, listen to... Sophia Yeshi (S02/E22) — another deeply honest conversation about self-acceptance, rejection therapy, and unlearning the fear of not being good enough. If you enjoyed this episode, leaving a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify takes less than a minute and helps more people find the show. I'd be incredibly grateful. 🙏

    1hr 11min
  4. S02/E29 - Luis Mendo on Finding Your Value, Mundo Mendo & Why Social Media Is Dry Disgusting Bread

    28 Apr ·  Video

    S02/E29 - Luis Mendo on Finding Your Value, Mundo Mendo & Why Social Media Is Dry Disgusting Bread

    He grew up in Salamanca. Spent 20 years as an art director in Amsterdam. His father died. He boarded a plane to Japan for a sabbatical — and 14 years later, he's still there. Luis Mendo is a Spanish illustrator and the founder of Mundo Mendo — a personal membership project built on illustrated stories, shipped directly to readers with no algorithm in between. This is a conversation about finding your value, choosing happiness, and refusing to make salami for Zuckerberg. What we cover: His father's death and why it led him to Japan20 years in Amsterdam — and why he finally chose to leaveAlmost Perfect — six years of welcoming artists into his Tokyo homeWhy social media is dry disgusting bread — and the salami analogyBuilding Mundo Mendo on Ghost, the anti-Substack platformBiking numbered, signed books to the post office himselfWhy he's building something that survives himFinding the value in your work — advice for young illustratorsJapan's exploding independent print and zine sceneAI is for laundry — and what he actually uses it forWhat he wrote in a letter to his daughter growing up in Japan Connect with Luis Mendo: Website: https://www.luismendo.com/ Mundo Mendo: https://www.mundomendo.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luismendo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luismendo/ Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/captn-offscript/id1837469433 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nJ5dKTP2dQN5OwICKjTY5 More from Captn OffScript: Website: https://captnoffscript.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CAPTNOffScript Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript Newsletter: https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter If you liked this episode, listen to: Elliot Jay Stocks (S02/E25) — on building a direct relationship with your audience through newsletters, why human connection matters more than algorithms, and creating work that lasts. If you enjoyed this episode, leaving a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify takes less than a minute and helps more people find the show. I'd be incredibly grateful. 🙏

    1hr 11min
  5. S02/E28 - Temi Coker: Put the Work You Want to Be Hired For & Everything Else Follows

    21 Apr

    S02/E28 - Temi Coker: Put the Work You Want to Be Hired For & Everything Else Follows

    He wakes up at 4:30am. Two kids under two. Three hours of work before the house comes alive. This is how one of the most sought-after artists in America currently operates. Temi Coker is a Nigerian-American artist and creative director based in Dallas, Texas. His work has appeared in campaigns for Adobe, Apple, ESPN, AT&T, and the Oscars. He launched a home collection with Walmart in 2025. And he will tell you, clearly and without drama, that none of it happened by accident — it happened because he kept making the work he wanted to be hired for, long before anyone asked him to. What we cover: Growing up in Lagos — limitations, bottle-cap football, and a love of colourMoving to Canada and then Texas at 12, navigating two Black identities at onceLeaving biomedical engineering to pursue design — and why he doesn't regret eitherSeven years of head-down work before the Adobe Creative Residency changed everythingHow a pillow he made for fun led to the Walmart home collectionApple said no four or five times — he now has 20+ collaborations with themFinancial literacy for creatives — the conversation nobody is havingRunning a photography studio, a clothing brand, and raising two kids under twoLearning to actually accept a compliment Connect with Temi Coker: Website: https://temicoker.co Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/temi.coker Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/captn-offscript/id1837469433 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nJ5dKTP2dQN5OwICKjTY5 More from Captn OffScript: Website: https://captnoffscript.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CAPTNOffScript Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript Newsletter: https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter

    1hr 6min
  6. S02/E27 — Ingrid Picanyol: I'm a Designer, But Other Things Too — Poetry, Punk & Philosophy

    14 Apr ·  Video

    S02/E27 — Ingrid Picanyol: I'm a Designer, But Other Things Too — Poetry, Punk & Philosophy

    She chose graphic design over photography because she couldn't afford a camera. She chose it over philosophy because her teacher said get work first, study ideas later. Now she runs a studio of exactly three people, plays guitar in an all-women punk band with no expectations, writes articles on the bus, and has just started her philosophy degree. Ingrid Picanyol is a Catalan graphic designer based in Barcelona — and one of the most quietly profound conversations of the season. What we cover: Growing up in the "Catalan Liverpool" — small town, punk band, leaving home at 16$12 a day in New York, sleeping on couches, investing in a careerWhy she keeps her studio to exactly three people — and why that mattersHow a developer noticed her design process is basically poetryWriting articles on the bus — and the Set Margins book coming from itWhy design can't satisfy every creative need — and what to do about itSending voice messages to ChatGPT asking what Plato thinks about difficult clientsStudying philosophy in her forties — and why now is finally the right momentWhat she'd say to her 8-year-old self, who always felt like a stranger Connect with Ingrid Picanyol: Website: https://ingridpicanyol.com/ Instagram (personal): https://www.instagram.com/ingridpicanyol Instagram (studio): https://www.instagram.com/ingridpicanyolstudio/ Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/captn-offscript/id1837469433 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nJ5dKTP2dQN5OwICKjTY5 More from Captn OffScript: Website: https://captnoffscript.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CAPTNOffScript Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript Newsletter: https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter If you liked this episode, listen to: Marta Cerdà Alimbau (S02/E26) — another deeply personal conversation with a Catalan designer about creative identity, surviving the hard years, and why the work is worth fighting for.

    1 hr
  7. S02/E26 - Marta Cerdà Alimbau: Vogue, Nike, Bats in the House & Why Design Is Worth Fighting For

    7 Apr

    S02/E26 - Marta Cerdà Alimbau: Vogue, Nike, Bats in the House & Why Design Is Worth Fighting For

    She designed a Vogue cover during COVID while riding her motorcycle through Barcelona without a helmet. She made over 300 logos before landing on the one for a Nike Haaland campaign. She survived a pandemic across two countries paying two rents simultaneously — and ended up in a farmhouse with bats, eagles, and rats for four months. Marta Cerdà Alimbau is a Catalan graphic designer, AGI member, and author of Surviving Design. This is one of the most honest, funny, and deeply personal conversations of the season. What we cover: Studying psychology before design — and what it gave herThe Vogue Spain cover created from chaos and a deep need for resilienceDesigning Barcelona's Christmas street lights from the iconic panot tileOver 300 logos for a Nike Haaland campaign — and the hidden arrowCOVID across two countries, two rents, and four months in a farmhouse with batsSurviving Design — what the book is really about and why it's actually optimisticComic Sans, context, and what Vincent Connare taught her in 2004The tobacco brief, karma, and the projects she wishes she hadn't takenWhat she'd say to her 10-year-old self Connect with Marta Cerdà Alimbau: Website: https://martacerda.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martacerda/ Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/captn-offscript/id1837469433 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nJ5dKTP2dQN5OwICKjTY5 More from Captn OffScript: Website: https://captnoffscript.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CAPTNOffScript Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript Newsletter: https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter If you liked this episode, listen to: Sophia Yeshi (S02/E22) — another deeply personal conversation about identity, building a creative career against the odds, and staying true to yourself through everything.

    1hr 2min
  8. S02/E25 - Elliot Jay Stocks on Books, Newsletters & Why Human Connection Is Everything

    31 Mar

    S02/E25 - Elliot Jay Stocks on Books, Newsletters & Why Human Connection Is Everything

    He's back. And this time we accidentally planned a Madrid book event live on air. Elliot Jay Stocks is a designer, writer, editor, and the person behind Fine Specimens — a brand new book showcasing contemporary type design from 69 foundries, including three of mine. We talked about the book, the five-stop tour, joining Adobe after 18.5 years of freelancing, the love-hate relationship with Instagram every creative recognises, and why newsletters and human connection might be the most important things a creative can invest in right now. What we cover: Fine Specimens — from failed Kickstarter to published book with 69 foundriesHow typefaces were curated and the challenge of classifying typeThe love-hate relationship with Instagram and why the algorithm is broken for creatorsWhy he prefers newsletters — and the pop-up newsletter concept you need to know aboutJoining Adobe full-time after 18.5 years of freelancingThe 5-stop book tour — and the accidental Madrid plan that happened live on airMusic on hold, guitar is back, and a new book idea on the horizonWhy human connection in creative industries matters more now than ever Connect with Elliot Jay Stocks: Website: https://elliotjaystocks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elliotjaystocks/ Newsletter: https://elliotjaystocks.com/newsletter Fine Specimens: https://elliotjaystocks.com/books#fine-specimens Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/captn-offscript/id1837469433 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nJ5dKTP2dQN5OwICKjTY5 More from Captn OffScript: Website: https://captnoffscript.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CAPTNOffScript Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript Newsletter: https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter If you liked this episode, listen to: Jessica Hische (S02/E21) — on serial entrepreneurship, creative reinvention, and building a life entirely on your own terms. Cover photo by Norman Posselt: https://normanposselt.com/

    58 min

About

There's a version of the creative career conversation that almost never gets recorded. Not the award acceptance. Not the process breakdown. Not the polished origin story where every setback was secretly a setup. That version exists everywhere. This isn't that. CAPTN OffScript is where designers, founders, illustrators, and makers sit down and talk about what's actually going on — the fear before the pivot, the year where the work dried up, the identity crisis that came with success, the moment they almost stopped, and what kept them moving. The messy, honest, deeply human side of building a creative life. I'm Alen. I run a one-person type foundry called SilverStag Type, and I've been working in and around the design industry long enough to know what gets edited out of most interviews. I started this show because I was tired of highlight reels dressed up as conversations. I wanted to hear what creative people actually think — about money and meaning, about burnout and reinvention, about imposter syndrome and identity and the thousand invisible decisions that quietly add up to a career. So that's what we do here. We go long. We go deep. We don't rush to the takeaway. And because I'm not just a host — I'm a working designer who's navigated a lot of the same terrain — the conversations tend to go places most interviews don't reach. Guests have included Jessica Hische, Elliot Jay Stocks, Sophia Yeshi, Kieron Anthony Lewis, Philipp Louven, and Sergio del Puerto. What they share isn't a follower count or a famous client list. It's that they showed up willing to say something real — something I hadn't heard them say before, in any interview, anywhere. That's the bar. The show runs in two formats. The long-form Conversations are the main event — unscripted, one-on-one, unhurried. The kind of interview where we're still discovering things an hour in. Then there are the Monday Break(Through) episodes: shorter solo pieces from me, working through ideas and observations as a creative founder. Less polished. More honest. No five-step frameworks. No sponsor reads dressed up as advice. No artificial urgency. Just two people taking creativity seriously, and seeing where that leads. CAPTN OffScript started as The Type Convo — a typography-focused show — and evolved into something bigger when I realised the conversations I most needed to hear weren't about fonts. They were about what it actually costs to build something on your own terms, and what it means to keep going when the path stops being clear. If the "official" version of a creative career has never quite matched the one you're actually living — the doubt, the detours, the days when you're not sure what you're building or why — this show was made for you. New episodes drop regularly. Come in anywhere. Stay for the honesty.

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