Clever with Amy Devers

Amy Devers

Clever is an award-winning, independent podcast that offers a window into the humanity behind the design of the world around us. In each episode, designer Amy Devers has candid and revealing conversations with the visionaries, culture-makers, and creative forces who shape our world and inform our society. Through a disarming mix of raw candor and honest shop-talk, Clever peels back the layers to unearth the gritty, authentic and sometimes surprising details of their creative paths. Clever Confidential is Clever’s offshoot series where we dig into the lesser told stories of the darker side of design; the shadowy, sometimes sordid, tales hiding under a glossy top coat of respectable legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Ep. 122: Design Advocate Jessie McGuire [rebroadcast]

    1D AGO

    Ep. 122: Design Advocate Jessie McGuire [rebroadcast]

    Branding & design strategist Jessie McGuire was born in El Salvador and adopted by a “wholehearted feminist” single mother. She grew up exploring her creativity and getting encouragement to go to art school. After a few degrees and a slew of work experience she’s now the managing director of ThoughtMatter, where she’s fostering a culture of work worth doing, building a justifiable case for creativity and spreading the gospel of curiosity, thoughtfulness and generosity. And redesigning the constitution, nbd. Images, links and more from Jessie McGuire! Check out For the People. Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio: Web designers, Wix Studio lets you deliver your vision with less friction. Built for agencies and enterprises, you get total creative control over every last pixel, with no-code animations, tons of AI tools, reusable design assets, and advanced layout tools.  Check out Wix Studio for your next project: https://www.wix.com/studio. Please help us out by completing a short LISTENER SURVEY Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts. Please say Hi on social! Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you! Clever is hosted and produced by Amy Devers with editing by Rich Stroffolino, and music from El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 10m
  2. Ep. 215: Kinfolk’s Idris Brewster Uses AR to Empower Collective Memory Building [rebroadcast]

    APR 15

    Ep. 215: Kinfolk’s Idris Brewster Uses AR to Empower Collective Memory Building [rebroadcast]

    Artist, creative technologist, and educator, Idris Brewster grew up in Brooklyn, being filmed for a documentary about his education as a black student at a prestigious, primarily white, school. His coming-of-age, only partially caught on camera, included a lot of basketball and hands-on artistic development. A grant awarded in college gave him early access to VR technology which opened a path to combining all of his talents and interests and expressing them through new media. Now, as co-founder and Executive Director of Kinfolk Foundation, he’s harnessing augmented reality, location-based technology, and community to engage in placing digital monuments in public spaces, memory building, and foregrounding the Black, Brown and Queer histories that have been intentionally silenced.  Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio: Web designers, Wix Studio lets you deliver your vision with less friction. Built for agencies and enterprises, you get total creative control over every last pixel, with no-code animations, tons of AI tools, reusable design assets, and advanced layout tools.  Check out Wix Studio for your next project: https://www.wix.com/studio. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes!  Please help us out by completing a short LISTENER SURVEY Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts. Please say Hi on social! Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you! Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    57 min
  3. Ep. 222: Stop Disrupting, Start Caring with ustwo’s CEO Nicki Sprinz

    APR 1

    Ep. 222: Stop Disrupting, Start Caring with ustwo’s CEO Nicki Sprinz

    CEO of digital experience studio, ustwo, Nicki Sprinz, was born in London and attended a convent primary school with strict rules that tended to squash curiosity - something she has had to consciously unlearn in the years since. A couple of harrowing chapters with significant health challenges presented Nicki with opportunities to learn to overcome and practice optimism. A resulting deep sense of carpe diem, has her leaning into hopefulness and making a positive impact for others. Since joining ustwo a decade ago, Nicki has risen through the ranks to become CEO, all while closing the gender pay gap, supporting a caring and collaborative workplace culture, and developing breakthrough digital experiences that solve real world problems and demonstrate genuine care for our fellow humans. Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio: Web designers, Wix Studio lets you deliver your vision with less friction. Built for agencies and enterprises, you get total creative control over every last pixel, with no-code animations, tons of AI tools, reusable design assets, and advanced layout tools.  Check out Wix Studio for your next project: https://www.wix.com/studio. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes!  Please help us out by completing a short LISTENER SURVEY Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts. Please say Hi on social! Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you! Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr
  4. Ep. 221: Blu Dot’s John Christakos on Combining Artistic Vision and Business Acumen

    MAR 18

    Ep. 221: Blu Dot’s John Christakos on Combining Artistic Vision and Business Acumen

    John Christakos, co-founder and CEO of Blu Dot, grew up taking road trips with his father to textile mills, skipping school in favor of real-world experiences. He went on to double major in economics and studio art, a combination of creativity and business which proved itself invaluable later in life. After a life-changing year traveling the world with his closest friends, John eventually co-founded Blu Dot alongside them in 1997. In the decades since, under John’s leadership, Blu Dot has grown into an overwhelming success with a dynamic retail presence (online and IRL), prestigious design awards, a devoted following, and a reputation for responding to their customers and world events, with empathy, curiosity, and humanity. Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio: Web designers, Wix Studio lets you deliver your vision with less friction. Built for agencies and enterprises, you get total creative control over every last pixel, with no-code animations, tons of AI tools, reusable design assets, and advanced layout tools.  Check out Wix Studio for your next project: https://www.wix.com/studio. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes!  Please help us out by completing a short LISTENER SURVEY Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts. Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you! Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    57 min
  5. Ep 45: Fashion Designer Mary Ping [rebroadcast]

    MAR 11

    Ep 45: Fashion Designer Mary Ping [rebroadcast]

    Fashion designer Mary Ping was influenced at a young age by a stylish grandmother who taught her to sew. Always knowing she’d one day run her own label, she studied art at Vassar and worked in east London’s scene before founding her conceptual line, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, a living archive of wardrobe classics, reexamined. Not one to participate on the hamster wheel of trends, she prefers injecting social commentary and sartorial wit into her work. Plus, her photographic memory weirds people out. Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio: Web designers, Wix Studio lets you deliver your vision with less friction. Built for agencies and enterprises, you get total creative control over every last pixel, with no-code animations, tons of AI tools, reusable design assets, and advanced layout tools.  Check out Wix Studio for your next project: https://www.wix.com/studio. Transcript, Images and more from Mary Ping! Please help us out by completing a short LISTENER SURVEY Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts. Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you! Clever is created, hosted and produced by Amy Devers and Jaime Derringer, with music from El Ten Eleven and editing by Alex Perez. This episode was originally released on November 28, 2017. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    46 min
  6. Ep. 220: Designing Belonging: Alma Jimenez Lopez on Art, Heritage, and Home

    FEB 25

    Ep. 220: Designing Belonging: Alma Jimenez Lopez on Art, Heritage, and Home

    Alma Jimenez Lopez is a creative force — a designer, artist, and curator who builds bridges between cultures and communities. In this episode, she shares how growing up as a first-generation Mexican American shaped her superpower: empathy. From honing her skills as an interior designer and building bridges across sectors of the design industry, to curation and community-building with the co-founding Of Threads, which celebrates the richness of Mexican American stories through art, design, and fashion, Alma’s journey is one of vision, healing, and unstoppable drive. This conversation is bold, heartfelt, and full of light.  Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio: Web designers, Wix Studio lets you deliver your vision with less friction. Built for agencies and enterprises, you get total creative control over every last pixel, with no-code animations, tons of AI tools, reusable design assets, and advanced layout tools.  Check out Wix Studio for your next project: https://www.wix.com/studio. Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes!  Please help us out by completing a short LISTENER SURVEY Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts. Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you! Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 1m
  7. Clever Confidential Ep. 6: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Florence Broadhurst

    FEB 11

    Clever Confidential Ep. 6: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Florence Broadhurst

    Clever Confidential is Clever’s offshoot series where we dig into the lesser told stories of the darker side of design; the shadowy, sometimes sordid, tales hiding under a glossy top coat of respectable legacy. In this episode we peel back the glittering façade of one of Australia's greatest design icons, Florence Broadhurst—a woman whose legendary creative genius was rivaled only by the mystery surrounding her violent demise. This journey takes us from the sunlit streets of Sydney’s Paddington neighborhood to the dark corners of a crime scene that defies easy explanation. Whether you’re a design enthusiast or a true crime aficionado, prepare to be captivated by a story of ambition, reinvention, and an unsolved mystery that challenges everything we think we know about a true creative legend. See images and read the transcript! Please help us out by completing a short LISTENER SURVEY Head to cleverpodcast.com for over 200+ more episodes of Clever, and the 5 previous episodes of Clever Confidential. Subscribe to our substack newsletter for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts. Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers If you enjoy Clever Confidential we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you! Clever Confidential credits:  Hosts: Amy Devers & Andrew Wagner Writing and research: Amy Devers & Andrew Wagner Production: Devers Endeavors Production Assistance: Ilana Nevins Editing and Sound Design: Mark Zurawinski Theme Music: “Astronomy” by Thin White Rope courtesy of Frontier Records Logo design: Laura Jaramillo remixed by Graham Hauser Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    25 min
  8. Clever Confidential Ep. 2: The Supernatural Beginnings of The Bradbury Building [rebroadcast]

    FEB 4

    Clever Confidential Ep. 2: The Supernatural Beginnings of The Bradbury Building [rebroadcast]

    In the heart of downtown Los Angeles sits Hollywood’s undisputed architectural superstar — the Bradbury Building. The imposing structure’s character is definitive. Its origin story, however, is much murkier…  How did a young draftsman design one of the most remarkable buildings in the world? Why did he never again do anything of note? Or did he? Was all his creativity spent on this one masterpiece? Was this a case of stolen intellectual property? Or could this have even been a brush with the supernatural? Clever Confidential is Clever’s offshoot series, where we dig into the darker side of design - the shadowy, sometimes sordid tales hiding under a glossy topcoat of respectable legacy. Many thanks to this episode’s guest experts Kim Cooper and Richard Schave of Esotouric! Images and more about the Bradbury Building at cleverpodcast.com Please help us out by completing a short LISTENER SURVEY Head to cleverpodcast.com for over 200+ more episodes of Clever, and more episodes of Clever Confidential. Subscribe to our substack newsletter for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts. Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers If you enjoy Clever Confidential we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you! Credits:  Hosts: Amy Devers & Andrew Wagner Writing and research: Amy Devers & Andrew Wagner Guests: Kim Cooper & Richard Schave of Esotouric Production: Devers Endeavors Editing and Sound Design: Camille Stennis  Theme Music: “Astronomy” by Thin White Rope courtesy of Frontier Records Logo design: Laura Jaramillo remixed by Graham Hauser Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr

    Hosts & Guests

    4.6
    out of 5
    465 Ratings

    About

    Clever is an award-winning, independent podcast that offers a window into the humanity behind the design of the world around us. In each episode, designer Amy Devers has candid and revealing conversations with the visionaries, culture-makers, and creative forces who shape our world and inform our society. Through a disarming mix of raw candor and honest shop-talk, Clever peels back the layers to unearth the gritty, authentic and sometimes surprising details of their creative paths. Clever Confidential is Clever’s offshoot series where we dig into the lesser told stories of the darker side of design; the shadowy, sometimes sordid, tales hiding under a glossy top coat of respectable legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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