Creative Capes

In our second interview in our Leadership Series, we were joined by Fura Johannesdottir, Chief Design Officer of Huge Inc. Fura has over 20 years of experience in the industry, working for brilliant companies like R/GA, Publicis Sapient and loads more. We discussed her approach to design leadership and the best way of talking to business leaders about the power of design. We'll be talking with more industry leaders from the worlds of technology, design, psychology and product – view the line up here

Our first guest in our new Leadership Series is Bidisha Sinha, Senior Associate at the legendary Zaha Hadid Architects. We chatted about the need for a new Bauhaus, what it was like to work with Architecture pioneer, Zaha Hadid, and the challenges and rewards of being a design leader. We'll be talking with more industry leaders from the worlds of technology, design, psychology and product – view the line up here 

We had a great chat with Sébastien Van Laere, Founder of Superframe – an agency using insight and foresight to develop brand-, innovation- and business strategy for some of the biggest global brands. We discussed why thinking about the future is important in our lives, some of his favourite trends of 2021 and whether Clubhouse is a trend or just a fad. Sébastien also curated our Trendspotting and Strategic Foresight Course – Learn how to Use Trends and Foresight in your Brand and Innovation Strategy

In a Design Hotline edition of the Creative Capes Podcast, we sat down with Mike Reed and Sam Russell of Reed Words – chatting about all things brand language, played some quick-fire, brand writing games and answered our special guests' burning questions on brand writing and language.   Mike and Sam are also curated our Building A Brand Language course –  learn how to write for brands consistently and with impact

On episode 16 of the Creative Capes Podcast, we had a great time speaking with Christopher Bahry, Co-founder and Creative Director of Tendril - a design-driven animation, VFX, and digital innovation studio with offices in Canada and Brazil. Christopher shares how important creative partnerships are in growing as a designer, human and a business. We also discuss his learnings from co-founding Tendril 10 years ago to now, as well as what's the next big thing in motion design. If you want to see Ekaterina's and Christopher's faces, head over to our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy  Christopher is also one of our industry experts on our Running An Agency ✹ Live ✹ - Learn how to run and scale your design business

On episode 15 of the Creative Capes Podcast, we had so much fun speaking to Thierry Brunfaut, Founding Partner and Creative Director of Base Design  - an international network of studios based in Brussels, New York, Geneva and Melbourne. Thierry shares how he set up Base Design 30 years ago - as well as the risks he took, and everything he learnt along the way. If you want to see Ekaterina's and Thierry's faces, head over to our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy. 

On episode 14 of the Creative Capes Podcast, we sat down with Sean Thomas, Executive Creative Director of JKR - a global creative agency that has been reigniting some of the world’s most well-known brands for over 30 years, from Budweiser, Burger King, Dunkin to Heinz, Snickers, The National Lottery and many others. In this conversation, Sean will share his thoughts on how to create an effective brand strategy as well as his learnings on winning and losing clients. If you want to see our faces, head over to our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy. 

On episode 13 of the Creative Capes Podcast, we had a blast speaking to Elizabeth Gilmore, Creative Director of the brand studio at Dropbox. We are certain you've all heard of Dropbox! Dropbox originally started as a files storage service and now is more of a smart workspace with products like Dropbox Paper that allow teams to collaborate on creative projects wherever they are. In today’s conversation, Liz will share her thoughts on how to build strong brands, increase conversions and why authentic leadership is important for any creative team. We hope you enjoy our chat and if you want to see Ekaterina's and Liz's faces and matching lipsticks, head over to our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy. 

We've got a special episode of Creative Capes Podcast

We sat down with Joanna Brassett, Founding Director of intO – an innovation consultancy that works across the world developing strategies for companies like Uber, Skyscanner and Nike. In this episode, Joanna explains what cultural context in research is and how it can help us understand socio-cultural trends that are relevant, that influence business in the future and improve user experiences. We hope you enjoy our chat and if you want to see our faces, watch on our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy. 

We had a chat with Emma Barratt, Creative Director and Head of Design at Wolff Olins London. In this conversation, Emma spoke about design leadership and her journey of becoming a Creative Director in the most admired agency in the world. We also discussed the challenges of being in high positions and her personal battle with dyslexia. We hope you enjoy it and if you want to see Wolff Olins’s work and our faces – check out this interview on our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy. 

We sat down with Claire Campion, Senior Creative at Anyways Creative. In this conversation, Claire shares some amusing stories from her career, including how she messed up an interview at Anyways and still got hired. We also dive into how Anyways created an immersive experience for Sonos in New York while being in London, what creative process they have in the studio and why collaboration is a big part of everything they do. We hope you enjoy it and if you want to see Anyway’s work and our faces – check out this interview on our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy 

We sat down with Ben Langsfeld, Group Creative Director at BUCK. We chatted about how Buck created a very special culture that makes people leave their egos at the door, how to work on a project for 8 months and not to get bored, and how to learn anything you want. We hope you enjoy it and if you want to see Buck’s work and our faces – check out this interview on our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy 

From how he got his first clients, the importance of branding, founding Wolff Olins and stories about his time in the army – British graphic design legend Michael Wolff reveals details about his past never heard before in this first episode of 'Michael Wolff Telling Stories'.

We visited the founder of Progression Jonny Burch to all talk about career progression and design. We spoke about how to find a founder with the same values as you, what skills you need to be a design manager and what Jonny wishes he knew about career progression before working at Deliveroo! 

We sat down with Dem Gerolemou at DeepMind - an AI research company that joined Google in 2014. In 2016 Deepmind Health was launched to explore how advanced technologies can support clinicians in providing patients the care they need quickly and efficiently. We discussed ethics and empathy in relation to AI technology in healthcare, how Dem approaches his role as a User Interface Designer, and how much he benefitted from being a mentor.

We sat down with Ilaria Squicciarini from Depop – a social marketplace where over 13M people go to buy, sell and discover unique items. Their mission is to empower fashion creatives, offering them with a platform that celebrates their individuality. We talked about changes in customers’ behaviour in the past years, how Gen Z use technology and how they create campaigns that go viral.

We sit down with Hilary Lovie, Commercial Innovation Manager at John Lewis & Partners. We talked about how to drive innovation within a big organisation, what role innovation catalysts play in this transformation and how to get your brain into the alpha state!

 We sit down with Liz LeBlanc, Associate Head of Design at Livework, the oldest service design in the world. We talked about the service design process, how to manage a studio and how to future proof yourself. 

We sat down with Dharmesh Raithatha, Product Partner at Forward Partners and talked about how to acquire your first customers, hire people, go from Pre-Seed to Series A and how to test your MVP.