Making Conversation
An podcast of interviews featuring artists and designers.
Ep.1 – “What’s the name of this podcast?” with Studio Faculty
We learn about how Vince and Alvin met in “jail” and struggle to define ‘work’ as graphic designers. Alvin’s grandmother doesn’t understand his occupation. They tell us how they name their typefaces and how some of their fonts are unfortunately used. We learn about the conception of Commute App; Alvin doesn’t know the name of our podcast and Studio Faculty ranks #1 on Google for.
Contact Studio Faculty:
Ep.2 – “Hastag Respect” with Trim Projects
Kriza is a designer, art director, ad-person, publication designer, and founder of Trim Projects. She doesn’t know where she’s from and neither does Shawn. Shawn just applied for Canadian citizenship, so he has to tone down his jokes.
Contact Trim Projects:
Ep.3 – “You don’t do yoga. You are yoga” with Karston Smith from LuLuLemon
Karston Smith is a graphic designer and more at LuLuLemon. We talk about getting building permits at City Hall and how wack their yellow highlighters are. We come to the conclusion that when you’re learning something you’re interested in, learning isn’t painful. Justin realizes Sketch.app is great for UI design but not architectural drawings. We talk about acronyms, doing redneck things, design process at LuLuLemon, kombucha, crazy things yogis say, the art and design scene in Calgary, Karston’s art practice, and his upcoming exhibition.
Contact Karston:
Ep.4 – “Jeff Wall! Don’t listen to this podcast!” with Albert Law
Albert Law is an independant photographer and graphic designer from Vancouver, Canada. During this episode, we celebrate the explicit tag, learn that Shawn and Justin were chubby in high school, where questions for the podcast are written, how Albert got into art, photography, and design, how to fake being a designer or developer by sending your work to India, Albert’s process for taking pictures and working with clients, Albert’s fascination with LA and hot places, not hanging out with Charlie Sheen, taking photographs of Jeff Wall, life in the military, and his interest to do an exhibition about the armed forces.
Contact Albert:
Ep.5 – “Nobody would ever sleep with the 2 in Univers” with Peter Cocking of PeterCo Design
We sat down with Peter Cocking in the beautiful studio of Greystone Books. We talked about Peter’s childhood passion for drawing comics and making mistakes as a junior designer. He told us tales of designing on the 1st generation Mac and being one of the first registered users of PageMaker. He revealed his inspiration for teaching, the experience teaching his first class, and how he classifies a good student. He let us know what it felt like to receive the Ian Wallace Award for Teaching Excellence. After he educated us on education, we talked shop and found out where exactly Peter is working, how he deals with clients, the pleasures and pains of design process, sexless typography, whether or not ebooks are capable of magic, his favourite screen fonts, discontent, and how he would like to be remembered.
Contact Peter:
Ep.6 – “I had to kill my salami!” with Jane Koo
We sat down with Jane Koo at the Making Conversation Studio. We talked about Jane’s childhood growing up in Seoul – surrounded by barf and protests. We talked about her first memories of design, how she submitted her portfolio to get into design school, and how she set out for a career. She told us how she worked as an in-house designer at Lush Cosmetics and came to the conclusion that she needed to move on. We talked about travelling back-and-forth between Vancouver and South Korea and solutions for dealing with jet-lag. Jane shared about her new found freedom in freelance, the joy of working on the road, the importance of style, her passion for food, and the one project she feels most proud of in her portfolio. Jane designs for some of Vancouver’s most iconic publications and community events.
Contact Jane:
Ep.7 – “I am a tool” with Jace Kim
Jace shares with us about about his passion for comics, his search for originality as an artist, failing to get into art school and then getting into art school to realize his conception of art was wrong. We chatted about his work at The Sequence Group and what it means to be a digital artist. We wrap by discussing his teaching practice, participating in community art events, his discontent, and how he would like to be remembered.
Contact Jace:
Ep. 8 – “We have to do this.” with Tom Chung of Umbra Shift
For Episode 8, we chat with Tom Chung, a designer working for Umbra, a Toronto-based homeware design company. He is the creative lead of their product line Umbra Shift that will be launching in Vancouver August 5th, 2014, at Vancouver Special. We talked about Tom’s childhood growing up in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Kitsilano; his adolescent interest in architecture and working for Campos Leckie; when he realized industrial design was actually a ‘thing’ and his industrial design education at Emily Carr University. Tom shared with us about how he hyped himself on the Internet while battling the flu, leaving Vancouver to work in Toronto, and the difference between the Toronto and Vancouver art and design scenes. We spent the second half of our chat talking about Umbra. We talked Umbra Shift and got the low down on Tom’s two week sourcing adventure through Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. He dished details on how they selected designers to work on the collaboration. We also talked about the trials and tribulations of getting the booth setup at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair(ICFF) and how it felt to win the Editor’s Award for Accessories.
Contact Tom:
Ep. 9 – “What? You did that?” with Post Projects
For Episode 9, we chat with Alex Nelson and Beau House of Post Projects. We chat about how they met, started a design company, and decided to call it Post Projects. We talk about their design values, the Post Projects studio space, and ‘good guy’ rates. We discussed their work for Brassneck Brewery, Revolver Coffee, and Umbra Shift. We ended our conversation chatting about the most memorable project they’ve worked on, the three words they want people to use when describing their work, their current level of satisfaction, and the kind of projects they’d like to work on in the future.
Contact Post Projects:
Ep. 10 – “Our practice is like MasterChef Junior” with Clou Studio Inc.
For Episode 10, we chat with Ryan Romero and Travis Collier of Clou Studio Inc.. We cracked beers and discussed how they met, started a design company, and realized their practice is like MasterChef Junior. We talk about their design values, where they find inspiration, and their process when working with clients. We discussed their work for Anita Sikma, Radicle Juice Shop, and The Lab Magazine. We ended our conversation chatting about the most memorable project they’ve worked on and their level of satisfaction.
Contact Post Projects:
Ep.11 – “The most important developments in humanity” with Ross Milne
For Episode 11, we chatted with Ross Milne. We discussed Mr. Milne’s experience studying type design in the Type and Media Masters program at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. We talked about the founding of Working Format, how they named the company, and their design mentality of, “let’s just do this”. We discussed the work Ross has done on the fonts Charlie, Publico, and Stag. We talked about the practice of font naming, font marketing, how people use fonts, Australia’s love for Ross’ work, and how fonts live in the software ecosystem. We talked about Working Format’s community oriented initiative The Platform Gallery and their ambition to get art and design into the everyday lives of Vancouverites.