The Design Podcast The Design Podcast

Geetika Agrawal is a former Creative Director, and avid traveller turned tech Founder and CEO of VAWAA. An award-winning travel company with a unique offering – switching a week on the beach for an immersive mini-apprenticeship with a master artist.

Our conversation explores the twists and turns of starting your own business – done in a fashion that challenges convention and has us reflecting on the art of the possible.

We found ourselves inspired throughout as Geetika revealed her journey, from moving halfway across the world to study in Los Angeles to her choice to leave a successful career at R/GA and New York to spend a year travelling the globe and building VAWAA.

Geetika imparts almost a decade's worth of start-up stories and experiences with us – made even more intriguing as she kindly shares advice relevant for any designer looking to move from creating products to building their own company.

Tune in now and hear directly from the inspiring Geetika Agrawal.


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We're over the moon to launch the podcast's third season with the renowned Martin Lotti, Chief Design Officer for the Jordan brand at Nike!

Martin is a 25+ year veteran at Nike, with his work having made history on countless global stages – from the iconic Volt footwear showcased at the 2012 Olympics to his collection of national kits for the 2014 World Cup.

Today Martin oversees the creative direction at Jordan, where he and his team continue to develop outstanding garments and footwear that permeate court and street culture - with that distinct and iconic identity that resonates deeply with millions worldwide.

If that wasn't enough of a sales pitch, Martin has appeared in countless interviews with publishers, including The Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Dezeen and Fast Company.

In this exclusive interview, we look at this iconic designer's backstory, unpacking his earliest memories and influences, his incredibly charming and heartwarming relationship with Nike and Jordan's unique cultural relationship with athletes and customers.

As one of the century's most successful designers, of course, we had to ask Martin to share his insights, and personal design values, alongside some of the unique cultural aspects that drive one of the world's most iconic brands.

You don't want to miss this episode!



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We're thrilled to be joined by the wonderfully insightful Richard Jones, VP of Product Design at Typeform.

Over the last two decades, Rich has worked with some incredible brands and held senior roles leading Creative, UX and Product Management teams for the BBC, ASOS, OVO and MindGym.

With such an incredible and unique resume, we couldn't help ourselves from asking Rich some arguably challenging questions on Product and Design. Kindly and with a good deal of laughter, we discuss some of his personal stories and insights that we know you'll love!

We hop into our time machine once again to explore the twists and turns of Rich's career. From his childhood interest in art to his uni days studying sculpture, his experimentation with running an art gallery masquerading as a high street store and how its economics prompted his venture in digital design. We dig into his experience as Creative Director for BBC iPlayer and how his curiosity about the bigger picture led him to work in multiple senior Product roles before returning to his love of design with Typeform.

This is an episode that no Product Designer should miss! Literally decades of insights from someone who has worked their way to the highest level in both Product and Product Design.



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We're delighted to be joined by Daina Lightfoot, a Lead Designer at Shopify, Creative Director and Offline Creator.

Daina has led and crafted brand identities and experiences for some of the tech industry's most adored brands, including Disney, Slack, Hootsuite, Dropbox and Abstract.

Today Daina works with Shopify as a Lead Designer, shaping brand and product marketing experiences for their global portfolio of financial products.

In our conversation, we explore Daina's origin story to the present day, revealing insights about work ethic, graft and passion, and the choice between pursuing a path of management or a track focused on craft.

If that wasn't enough, we explore the realities of the creative process and the nuisances of building successful brands and campaigns. We also discuss Daina's current role at Shopify and how the business retains a creative and productive culture as a globally distributed team.

Let's get into it!



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We're joined by David Schwarz, a multi-award-winning Creative Leader, Entrepreneur and Founding Partner of HUSH.

David has spent his career designing brand experiences that integrate content, interactivity, architecture, and technology.

After graduating from Art Center College of Design, he worked for notable creative studios, interactive agencies, and design firms in Los Angeles and New York.

Since founding HUSH, David has developed numerous projects across technology, corporate, sport, luxury, beauty, and entertainment categories, most notably for Google, Equinox, Meta, Nike, Barclays, Sonos, and Uber, among others. He also serves as a mentor at New, Inc., the New Museum's incubator program for art, technology, and design.

Thinking about starting your own business? Or simply curious about what it takes to run a design studio? We have you covered. This is an epic episode focusing on creative entrepreneurship with insights from one of the industry's most exciting studios.

Let's get those headphones on (or speaker ready, listeners choice) and get you tuned into this convo with the fantastic David Schwarz!



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In this episode, we’re joined by WMP’s multi-award-winning Director of Product Design, Hugo Martin.

Hugo leads a multidisciplinary creative team taking a holistic approach to design, addressing industrial, brand, film, packaging, and digital experiences. A strategy that's seen the studio's work shape successful outcomes for Wahl, Bolin Webb, Salomon, OCLU and Doro, receiving multiple awards at Red Dot, CES, iF Design Awards.

This wonderful conversation explores a diverse range of topics from Hugo’s personal journey to WMP’s success story and an in-depth look at his work with OCLU, a GoPro competitor that takes a fresh angle to the user experience, from form factor, mounting and film production.

Naturally, we couldn’t resist diving into the studio’s culture and Hugo’s approach to developing client relationships.

Kindly, Hugo, helps us answer some of the big questions for consultants “how do we price our work?” and “can we diversify our revenue streams?”. Hugo talks us through how his transparent approach to pricing and talent sourcing has led to multiple long-term relationships and how that has diversified the studio’s revenue streams.

All this and so much more! Let’s get into it!



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Instagram: @design_podcast

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LinkedIn: @design_podcast

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All episodes are available on:

www.designpodcast.co