Charles Nix, Senior Executive Creative Director at Monotype, stops by to kick off Season 19 of The Reflex Blue Show!

We talk about working with type at scale (Monotype has a font library of 250,000+ from 4,500+ foundries, which is crazy). We also talk about the Fonts, Feels, & Reels: Generational Attitudes to Type – 2025 Report, 1 of the 6 type trends reports monotype released at the end of 2025.

We also discuss the need for a new (well, 2018?) version of Helvetica in Helvetica Now, the Creative Characters podcast, how Charles got started in type design, and more.

November 7th, 2025 marked the 20th anniversary of the podcast launch for “Be A Design Cast” (the show that we did before “The Reflex Blue Show”, which launched March 4th, 2008) … I guess I have been doing this for a while now. At the 10 year date, I wrote a longer post, this milestone gets a paragraph, and one that is 3 months late.

Enjoy.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Mark Mohammadpour was the lunch keynote speaker at the 2025 OnBrand Conference in Omaha last month.

Mark, through his company Chasing the Sun®, is a keynote speaker on employee culture and well-being, so, well, we speak about what that actually means (not the keynote speaker part, but what IS employee culture?). We also talk about working in Public Relations and how it is one of the top jobs when it comes to burning out employees. And the things to look for in job postings (both good and bad).

We also discuss Mark’s significant weight-loss from over fifteen years ago, keeping off the weight, and the effects of it.

A big thanks goes out the groups behind the OnBrand Conference for having me out again – AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska.

Enjoy.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Rachel Elnar & Erik Cargill of the Cheers & Tiers podcast stop by to talk about their show that is based partly around the heydays of the AIGA Leadership retreats. I was fortunate enough to get to be at six of these conferences, ending with the one in Omaha, Nebraska. I still miss this event and the immediate connections you had with the other 250~ people there. We also talk about design leadership, the need for design community, and human pyramids.

Enjoy.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download