We pick our personal favorite shows from each season here. If you are new to The Reflex Blue Show, these are the episodes we recommend starting with – or the latest one, it’s never bad to just jump in and start where we are now.

This page will be updated after each season is completed.

 

Season 16

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 10 (#246)

If anything has kept this show running, it’s the topic (and taste tests) of Mountain Dew. So, getting a guest that just so happened to have spent time working on that brand was a true bucket-list item for the show. It helps that Carl also worked on the excellent re-brand of Pepsi as well…
 
Guest:   Carl Gerhards
Host:   Donovan Beery
Main Topics:   Pepsi Rebrand; Mountain Dew
Release Date:   August 11, 2023
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Season 15

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 9 (#231)

This one just happened by chance. I ran into Nate at the Harry Potter store in Boston, and asked if he wanted to guest host a show I was doing in an hour. There was a scheduling / plane delay issue, and then Nate and I ran into Stefan Mumaw, who was getting ready to set up his talk down the hallway. So, we just set up a microphone and recorded this one.
 
Guests:   Stefan Mumaw, Nate Voss
Host:   Donovan Beery
Main Topics:   How to Manage Chaos; Rapid Ideation; Creating a Presentation
Release Date:   July 1, 2022
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Season 14

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 10 (#221)

Speaking to designers with as much talent and experience as Archie Boston has is a true pleasure.
 
Guest:   Archie Boston
Host:   Donovan Beery
Main Topics:   Archie Boston Graphic Design; Fly in the Buttermilk
Release Date:   August 15, 2021
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Season 13

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 7 (#211)

Sometimes I just want to talk to Nate about Star Wars and such. This was one of those times.
 
Guest:   Nate Voss
Host:   Donovan Beery
Main Topics:   App Design; Best Work; The Mandalorian
Release Date:   December 14, 2020
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Season 12

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 5 (#201)

It may have taken asking Greg to be on the show for thirteen years before we actually set up a date and time to do it – but it was worth it.
 
Guest:   Greg Paprocki
Hosts:   Donovan Beery and Paul Meyer
Main Topics:   Illustration; Books; Curious George; Work Process
Release Date:   May 6, 2019
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Season 11

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 2 (#179)

Ben and Erin had been lined up to record, but we had no set topic or agenda to discuss. That means, I guess, we’re taste testing Mountain Dew once again on the show.
 
Guests:
  Ben Lueders, Erin Pille
Host:   Donovan Beery
Main Topics:   MTN Dew; Artist Hangout
Release Date:   January 21, 2018
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Season 10

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 8 (#172)

I have known Nikita so long online, I had assumed we had met before – when I finally did meet him this year, I knew we had to record the next day.
 
Guest:
  Nikita Prokhorov
Host:   Donovan Beery
Main Topics:   Ambigrams; Russia
Release Date:   May 23, 2017
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Season 9

Donovan’s Pick: 2016 HOW Design Live Special Three

I really enjoy doing some of the daily event podcasts, and this was one of my favorites to date.
 
Guests:
  Aaron Draplin, Von Glitschka, Damien Golden, Karen Larson, Debbie Millman, Crystal Reynolds, Jamie Saunders
Main Topic:   2016 How Design Live in Atlanta: Recap 3 of 4
Release Date:   June 1, 2016
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Season 8

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 7 (#145)

I had met Jessica before, but never had the opportunity to really talk with her. Design is better with her in the profession.
 
Guest:
  Jessica Helfand
Main Topics:   Design Observer; The Observatory; Winterhouse; Magazine Design
Release Date:   July 13, 2015
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Season 7

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 5 (#128)

You don’t get a lot of opportunities to sit and chat with the people you really look up to. This one went on for another hour or so after we quit recording.
 
Guest:   Bob Gill
Main Topics:   Process; Pentagram; Graphic Design Made Difficult; Forget All the Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design: Including the Ones in This Book; Bob Gill, So Far.
Release Date:   May 19, 2014
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Season 6

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 10 (#110)

Just a typical show of us sitting around the table at my office and talking about design. This one was just a lot of fun.
 
Guests:   Nicholas Burroughs, Aaron Draplin, Nick Evans, Steve Gordon, Craig Hughes
Main Topics:   Don Rickles; State of Signage in America; Field Notes; Merch; The DDC
Release Date:   April 22, 2013
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Season 5

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 13 (#95)

Going through the list of the shows we did last year brought back some great memories, but anytime we spend almost the entire show talking about toys and The Simpsons – it’s hard to beat that.
 
Guest:   riCardo Crespo of 20th Century Fox
Main Topics:   Mattel; 20th Century Fox; The Simpsons
Release Date:   July 30, 2012
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Ben’s Pick: Episode 16 (#98)

I’m not sure if everyone that works at Disney has an intensely childlike imagination and an innate storytelling ability – but this guy sure does. Our conversation with Disney creative director Chris Chapman is just as memorable as it is inspiring.
 
Guest:   Christopher Chapman of Disney
Main Topics:   Disney; Theme Parks; Telling Stories; Designing for Family Entertainment
Release Date:   August 21, 2012
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Season 4

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 6 (#76)

One of my favorite things with The Reflex Blue Show is seeing where the conversation leads us. I went in wanting to talk about Joey’s Corner – we ended up talking about postage stamps – and I had a blast.
 
Guests:
  Michael Osborne and Dennis Whalen of Michael Osborne Design
Main Topics:
  United States Postage Stamp Design, Acadamy of Art University Packaging 4 Class
Release Date:
  July 25, 2011
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Nate’s Pick: Episode 7 (#77)

We got up to some bid’ness with this throbbing firecracker of a man, who blurs, bends and twists the line between art and design so much and so well you’ll forget it existed in the first place. Bonus: Lots of swearing!
 
Guest:
  James Victore
Main Topics:
  Victore or, Who Died and Made You Boss?; 25 Year Journey in Career; Movies
Release Date:
  August 1, 2011
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Season 3

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 6 (#56)

Quite possibly the most useful episode we’ve ever done when it comes to actual content you can use in your own design business. All the credit on that part goes to Shel Perkins.
 
Guest:
  Shel Perkins
Main Topics:
 

AIGA Center for Practice Management, Talent Is Not Enough: Business Secrets For Designers

Release Date:
  June 24, 2010
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Nate’s Pick (1 of 2): Episode 17 (#67)

Sentimental favorite here. I don’t think we talk about Batman even once. We bring in some longtime friends to breakdown the art of presenting work to clients and got so deep into it we needed two shows to properly suss it all out.
 
Guest:
  Aaron Stubbe of Clark Creative Group
Main Topic:
  Presenting Work to Clients (Part 1)
Release Date:
  December 7, 2010
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Nate’s Pick (2 of 2): Episode 18 (#68)

 
Guests:
  Aaron Stubbe of Clark Creative Group, Steve Gordon of RDQLUS
Main Topics:
  Presenting Work to Clients (Part 2), Big Ten Logo
Release Date:
  December 23, 2010
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Season 2

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 1 (#29)

I can’t remove the events surrounding this show – us designing a poster with the guests the day of the recording, celebrating one year of 36 Point, Mig Reyes flying in to meet us and some other friends at The Homy – from the show itself.
 
Guests:
  Justin Ahrens of Rule 29, Steve Hartman of Creativille, and Christine Taylor of Hallmark
Main Topic:
  Designing for the greater good – the business-side of doing pro-bono work
Student Tip:
  Guest appearance by Mig Reyes 
Release Date:
  March 19, 2009
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Nate’s Pick: Episode 16 (#44)

Take the geekiness of the Chip Kidd interview and multiply it by 1,000! Christine manages Hallmark’s licensed-products division, which means she wheels and deals with everything I love about TV and Movies. Also Twilight, but that’s not her fault.
 
Guest:
  Christine Taylor of Hallmark 
Main Topics:
  Pop Culture: The Simpsons, Star Wars, Twilight, The Office, 30 Rock
Student Tip:
  Guest appearance by Mig Reyes 
Release Date:
  November 6, 2009
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Season 1

Donovan’s Pick: Episode 5

The visuals of this show are what makes it in this one (you have to almost "watch" it in your iPod window). This changed the way we started giving presentations, as our talks have become more interactive over the past couple years.
 
Special:
  PORTFOLIOWN’D
Main Topic:
  Nate and Donovan re-present their show-stopping presentation at a student portfolio event called Meet the Pros. Episode covers how to make a great portfolio from top to bottom.
Release Date:
  April 2, 2008
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Nate’s Pick: Episode 17

Finally meeting my design hero, Chip Kidd, did not disappoint. We spent the majority of this show geeking out on Batman, Watchmen, and his books, The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners.
 
Guest:
  Chip Kidd
Main Topics:
  The Cheese Monkeys, The Learners, Bat-Manga!, Watching the Watchmen
Taboo Typeface:
  Bell Gothic
Release Date:
  September 10, 2008
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