Elizabeth Edwards: The Reflex Blue Show #193

September 17th, 2018 | by Donovan Beery
Posted In: The Reflex Blue Show

Elizabeth Edwards: The Reflex Blue Show #193

Elizabeth Edwards (Volume PR and 11th Octave) joins The Reflex Blue Show to talk PR and psychology.

Once again, recorded in the hallway (and still very obviously between sessions at the event) at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, and PRSA chapters.

Elizabeth was the luncheon keynote speaker, and gave a great presentation about the intersections between human behavior, science, and communication. How can we use behavioral science and psychology to make communication more effective? And also, how can we test the results of these things? Elizabeth is working to make public relations and psychology work together as a form of communication science.

This is the last of the podcasts recorded at OnBrand 2018. What a great event – and I look forward to seeing how it evolves in the years to come. In the world of design, we don’t all do public relations, marketing, and advertising as well, but there is an overlap. And at one point or another, we seem to all work on something that involves parts of the other, or with someone who specializes in one of these fields. It was a lot of fun spending the day in Omaha at an event focusing on all of these professions, and how they work together in branding. Thanks again to the four organizations that put this event on.

Enjoy.

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Nicole Frantz: The Reflex Blue Show #192

August 27th, 2018 | by Donovan Beery
Posted In: The Reflex Blue Show

Nicole Frantz: The Reflex Blue Show #192

Nicole Frantz (Senior Vice President, Creative Services at Capital Music Group) joins The Reflex Blue Show to talk about working in the music business.

We talk about working in a super-creative (in this case, music) field, working with Annie Lennox, and how to stay current while dealing with the magic of music.

Once again, recorded in the hallway (and obviously between sessions at the event, as you can hear the many people walking by us) at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, and PRSA chapters. Nicole was the closing keynote speaker, talking about “What freaks you out?” In this case – public speaking – and what you can do about your own fears.

Enjoy.

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John Henry Müller: The Reflex Blue Show #191

August 20th, 2018 | by Donovan Beery
Posted In: The Reflex Blue Show

John Henry Müller: The Reflex Blue Show #191

John Henry Müller (Design Director at Hudl) returns to the show after last having his work go to the dogs over five years ago.

We meet up in the hallway (I love recording at conferences (the energy, the people, the fun), but the drawback is less than ideal background noises also coming through on the recording from said activities (or, maybe that just adds to it? Yeah, let’s just go with that.)) at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha. What a great event – a collaboration of the local AAF, AIGA, AMA, and PRSA chapters to create what can only be described as a pretty amazing success – really looking forward to where this conference goes from here.

John Henry and I discuss a bit of the OnBrand conference (he was on a creative panel that afternoon), and his work at Hudl (and what it’s like working with a 30-person in-house product design team).

We also discuss the 10th (and final, about to be rebranded) Big Omaha, as well as the 10th MAHA Music Festival (both events occurred over this past weekend). We then rehash a bit of his past life running Pack and, before that, What Cheer, and some of the work What Cheer did around Big Omaha (like the Selective Perspective Detective Objective, HOT or COLD, and the coloring contest).

Finally, what’s next? How do you stay current? and what is even staying current in the web? We’ll be back in a week or two with the 2nd (of 3) shows recorded at OnBrand.

Enjoy.

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Dan Rhatigan: The Reflex Blue Show #190

July 23rd, 2018 | by Donovan Beery
Posted In: The Reflex Blue Show

Dan Rhatigan: The Reflex Blue Show #190

Dan Rhatigan (Senior Manager of Adobe‘s type team) was at the HOW Design Live design conference in Boston to talk about what’s next in the type world.

Software does have a lifespan, and with Open Type being over two decades old, well, it makes sense that there may be newer technology being created to deliver all of those wonderful letters and glyphs onto our screens – but I never would have guessed that the emoji was a big reason we needed new file formats (but of course that would be the reason). We speak about all of this, as well as what else is coming, and how browsers and desktops are involved.

We also talk about Typekit, and Adobe constantly working on new fonts, as well as updating old one – hello to Minion 3.

The biggest pro to moving to Adobe’s Creative Cloud (that I found anyway), was having access to Typekit. I use it way more often that I thought I would. Most of the other positive cloud changes I had already assumed to be the case, this is just the one that I didn’t see coming I guess. I do look forward to seeing the things Dan speaks of making there way into regular usage – and in another twenty years, well, who knows what will happen…

This was the last of the six interview podcasts I recorded at HOW Live in Boston, but no worry, The Reflex Blue Show will be back in just a week or two with interviews I plan to record this Thursday at the OnBrand Conference in Omaha, Nebraska.

Enjoy.

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Grace Dawson & Tosh Hall: The Reflex Blue Show #189

July 9th, 2018 | by Donovan Beery
Posted In: The Reflex Blue Show

Grace Dawson & Tosh Hall: The Reflex Blue Show #189

Grace Dawson and Tosh Hall of Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR / JKR Global / some random law firm) were at the HOW Design Live design conference in Boston to give a presentation about how we haven’t changed – the world has. And to eat chowder. A lot of chowder. At minimum, a bowl of chowder a day.

We speak about their presentation, chowder, how to pronounce chowder, giving out cans of Budweiser at last year’s HOW Design live, giving out Dunkin’ Donuts at this year’s HOW, the work of JKR Global, The Dieline, and more.

Somewhere along the way, Tosh mentioned that Budweiser went through a global rebrand in 2014 – and I recall that being around the first time, that as a designer, I looked at a Bud Light can and thought it was maybe, well, nice. Very nice – like, people who are really good at packaging worked on this. For a history of the previous cans, here it is. You’re free to your own opinions, but 2014 did an amazing job of paying homage to the brand, still looking and feeling like Bud Light, and also being something waaaaaaaaaay better. Then for the summer of 2016, Bud heavy was rebranded as America. Once again, the work stood for itself. I had no idea who was behind any of this until I met Tosh Hall at a Dieline party at one of the past HOW events. Thankfully our schedules aligned this year. So, we also talk about America, Bud Heavy, Bud Light, clients bringing more beverages to your office than you can consume, the work of the JKR Foundation, and The Gut Stuff.

Enjoy.

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