Creative Figures

Rebeka Arce on growing up in a steel town, sharing doubt as a creative director at Collins, and the "aesthetics of fear" in design.

"I feel like LLMs are built to please us, not to contradict us. And I think contradiction is a big part of a creative process."

Rebeka Arce grew up in Barakaldo, near Bilbao, a town shaped by the steel industry. Her mother wanted her to become a doctor and her father suggested topography, so she studied that first, before committing to design. She went on to live and work in Berlin and Madrid, where she started her freelance practice, and moved to New York to join Collins as a creative director. She now works independently.

She explains why she separates the creative act, the design practice and the design industry, why she doesn't want to call it AI, and how fear of being too different or not being enough is leading decisions in the industry. She also talks about cultivating curiosity outside the laptop, choosing to share her doubts with her team at Collins, and what her students taught her about being a learner.

Timestamps

00:00 Opening

01:35 A life in constant flux

03:03 Growing up in a steel town

05:28 A doctor or a topographer

07:36 Choosing design

10:09 Working-class values and resilience

13:57 Berlin, Bilbao and Madrid

17:49 Moving to New York

19:35 Diversity and being unfinished

23:10 How the design world has changed

23:56 The creative act, the practice and the industry

26:22 Why she doesn't call it AI

27:52 The aesthetics of fear

31:42 Teaching and curiosity

34:04 Where ideas come from

35:08 Contradiction and working in a team

37:35 Showing doubt as a creative director

39:54 "The creative practice is a violent act"

42:00 A big team or working alone

44:20 Choosing her projects

46:32 Coming back to Spain

48:03 What she learned from her students

Rebeka Arce Website: https://byarce.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebekaarce

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekaarce/

Behance: https://www.behance.net/rebekaarce

Creative Figures Website: https://creativefigures.fm

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeFiguresFM

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/

Hosted by Alen Kapetanovic.

© Alen Kapetanovic. Madrid, Spain. All rights reserved. This work may not be used to train AI or for automated data mining purposes, including under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790.

Designer Erik Herrström on why starting a project on Pinterest leads every designer to the same work, and the research his studio uses instead.

"If you start your project by going to those sites, you are gonna end up designing what all the other designers in the world are doing right now because it's fed to you by algorithms."

In this bonus from his Creative Figures conversation, Erik answers what young designers should use instead of mood boards built on Pinterest, Savee, Are.na and other inspiration sites. Something can feel fresh on the morning you start, he explains, but most other designers are seeing the same thing at the same time. His studio starts with research instead: Reddit and YouTube to see how an audience talks and communicates, and sometimes Google Street View to understand a local area. That, he says, is often where the magic happens, and it makes more sense to clients than something that only looks shiny.

Timestamps 00:00 Opening 00:13 What to use instead of mood boards 00:29 How algorithms make us design the same

If you liked this episode, listen to the full conversation with Erik Herrström on Creative Figures.

Erik Herrström

STUDIO HERRSTRÖM: https://www.studioherrstrom.com/

The Echo: https://the-echo-book.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herrstrom/

Studio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studioherrstrom/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikherrstrom/

Studio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/studio-herrstrom/

Creative Figures

Website https://creativefigures.fm

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeFiguresFM

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/

Hosted by Alen Kapetanovic.

© Alen Kapetanovic. Madrid, Spain. All rights reserved. This work may not be used to train AI or for automated data mining purposes, including under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790.

llustrator and artist MURUGIAH on whether artists should reinvent themselves, and why he follows the fun instead.

"Don't let what you did last get in the way of what you want to do in the future."

In this bonus from his Creative Figures conversation, MURUGIAH answers whether artists should reinvent themselves every few years, the way Madonna does. He describes how he moved from digital work to analogue painting through small adjustments, keeping his motifs and line style while changing the surface. He talks about a 3D animation projection project with a collaborator working in Unreal Engine, and why collaboration means letting go of how your work has looked before. And he explains why he lets his past digital work speak for itself while he focuses on getting good at painting.

If you liked this episode, listen to the full conversation with Murugiah on Creative Figures.

MURUGIAH

Website: https://murugiah.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_murugiah/

Creative Figures

Website: https://creativefigures.fm

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeFiguresFM

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/

Hosted by Alen Kapetanovic.

© Alen Kapetanovic. Madrid, Spain. All rights reserved. This work may not be used to train AI or for automated data mining purposes, including under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790.

Illustrator Nick Liefhebber on paper cuts, woodcut printmaking, going independent one day at a time, and why limitations shape his work.

"When you just start making things you like, it doesn't feel like work."

Nick Liefhebber is an illustrator, designer and printmaker based in the Netherlands. He started as a graphic designer, and his turning point came when he decided to make work he didn't have to explain, just for himself. He left his job gradually, from five days a week to four, then three, before going independent.

He explains why almost all of his work starts with physical materials such as cut paper, how woodcut and linocut are pushing his colourful work towards black and white, and why he blocks time for personal work that later shapes his client work. He also talks about social media feeling more like work, why he compares the future of illustration to an artisanal bakery, and what he would tell his ten-year-old self: trust yourself.

Timestamps

If you liked this episode, listen to Murugiah on Creative Figures.

Nick Liefhebber Website: http://www.liefhebber.biz/

Shop: https://liefhebber.bigcartel.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nick_liefhebber/

Behance: https://www.behance.net/Liefhebber/

Creative Figures 🔗 https://creativefigures.fm

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeFiguresFM

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/

Hosted by Alen Kapetanovic.

© Alen Kapetanovic. Madrid, Spain. All rights reserved. This work may not be used to train AI or for automated data mining purposes, including under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790.

Designer Erik Herrström on his book The Echo, why his studio never shows clients a mood board, and designing identities for Whitney Houston and Elvis Presley.

"We never show mood boards to our clients, ever."

Erik Herrström grew up in a small village in the south of Sweden and built his first website at twelve. He interned at R/GA in New York on the redesign of Nike.com, later joined the team of a designer he had idolised as a teenager, and spent years at Spotify, where he worked on Spotify Wrapped. Six years ago he moved to Vienna, where he now runs STUDIO HERRSTRÖM.

He talks about the David Bowie exhibition his team built in a SoHo subway station, creating identities with the estates of Whitney Houston and Elvis Presley, and why mood boards keep work measured against other people's references. He explains why he wrote The Echo, how beta readers changed its whole structure, and why he self-published it. He also shares his view on AI and brand design, and his advice for young designers: stay curious, avoid shortcuts, and ask to shadow someone experienced.

Erik Herrström

STUDIO HERRSTRÖM: https://www.studioherrstrom.com/

The Echo: https://the-echo-book.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herrstrom/

Studio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studioherrstrom/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikherrstrom/

Studio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/studio-herrstrom/

Creative Figures 🔗 https://creativefigures.fm

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeFiguresFM

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/

Hosted by Alen Kapetanovic.

© Alen Kapetanovic. Madrid, Spain. All rights reserved. This work may not be used to train AI or for automated data mining purposes, including under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790.

Illustrator and artist MURUGIAH on leaving architecture, finding his own style, and opening the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration with his first solo museum show.

"Everything you've done, it doesn't have to just end. It can be fuel for what you do next."

MURUGIAH trained as an architect for seven years before turning to illustration. Born in Burton upon Trent and raised in South Wales with Sri Lankan heritage, he spent more than a decade searching for a style that felt his own. A mentor's advice during the pandemic led him to make work about his childhood search for identity, and a new piece every week built the visual language behind his commissions, posters, clothing collaborations and public sculpture.

He talks about his debut solo exhibition, MURUGIAH: Ever Feel Like…, one of three shows that opened the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in 2026, and explains why he feels no guilt about leaving architecture. He also speaks about the slowdown in commercial illustration and how he works across public art, talks, workshops and his own products. For artists starting out, he recommends persistence, obsession with the subjects you love, and a simple two-column exercise for finding work no one else could make.

MURUGIAH Website: https://murugiah.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_murugiah/

Creative Figures 🔗 https://creativefigures.fm

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeFiguresFM

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/

Hosted by Alen Kapetanovic.

© Alen Kapetanovic. Madrid, Spain. All rights reserved. This work may not be used to train AI or for automated data mining purposes, including under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790.

Kieron Anthony Lewis opens this one by saying he cannot do the project justice by describing it. That you almost have to see it.

He is right, which is awkward for a podcast. So here it is: a 456-page hardback with gold foiling along the edges, sealed inside a case made of concrete, cast in the shape of Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. Around seven kilos all in.

The book features 161 artists connected to that square, produced in connection with the Lagos Biennial and timed to Nigeria's 65th independence anniversary. The brief, as he first understood it, was that they were going to make a coffee table book.

He designed it over roughly two years in London, with London printers. The concrete case was made by the team in Lagos. Which means the first time he saw the two together was when he arrived in Nigeria, almost nervous, thinking — can you imagine if it doesn't fit?

This is Second Take, a short format on the show. One idea, one guest, lifted out of a longer conversation. You do not need to have heard the original.

Full conversation with Kieron: https://creativefigures.fm/s02-e12-kieron-anthony-lewis-on-editorial-design-identity-and-finding-meaning-through-work/

Find Kieron here: https://kieronlewis.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kieronanthonyl/

Find me here: https://creativefigures.fm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/

Video version includes footage courtesy of Lagos Biennial https://lagos-biennial.org/ and Kieron Anthony Lewis https://kieronlewis.com/

I asked Andy how long it took him to start liking himself the way he is. He did not give me a number. He said it is something he has to constantly return to and refresh.

This is Second Take, a short format on the show. One idea, one guest, lifted out of a longer conversation. You do not need to have heard the original.

Around 25, Andy started to realise he probably has ADHD. His first reaction was not relief, it was grief, because this was not something he could hustle his way out of. Not long after, he found what he now calls the neurodivergent lens. Brains are different, not necessarily worse or better, and they perform differently in different contexts. Which brought him to a thought that changed things: maybe he is not broken, but in this society, this is a disability.

From there he started trying to cultivate himself rather than overcome himself, and he explains why that shift matters particularly for artists. He also takes the Joseph Campbell line about the cave you fear to enter and argues it is usually read wrong.

He does not present any of this as finished. He calls loving himself a continual battle.

Full conversation with Andy: https://creativefigures.fm/s02-e30-andy-j-pizza-adhd-self-worth/

Find Andy here: https://www.andyjpizza.com/

https://www.creativepeptalk.com/

https://www.instagram.com/andyjpizza/

https://www.andyjpizza.com/rso

Find me here: https://creativefigures.fm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/

Gemma O'Brien describes flow as a forgetting of yourself. Fully absorbed, at one with the work, no sense of time passing.

Then the conversation turns to boredom, and that half is the sharper one.

This is Second Take, a short format on the show. One idea, one guest, lifted out of a longer conversation. You do not need to have heard the original.

Gemma talks about why flow arrives by surprise rather than on demand, the difference between being absorbed and being zoned out, and why filling in a mural outline does not count. She contrasts it with scrolling, which also makes time disappear but leaves you without any sense of agency or control.

She is also open about the parts of her job that bore her. Admin, client emails, the middle phase of a project that is all small tweaks and colour changes. A few years ago she resisted all of it, on the logic that this was supposed to be her passion so it should all be fun. She does not think that any more, and what she says instead is the part worth hearing.

Full conversation with Gemma: https://captnoffscript.com/s02-e35-gemma-obrien-bored-of-herself/

Find Gemma here:

Website: https://www.gemmaobrien.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrseaves101

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript

Website: https://captnoffscript.com/

Mat Voyce makes motion work for Nike, Pepsi and Disney+. He also tried animation at university, hated it, and decided he would never do it again.

This is Second Take, a new short format on the show. One idea, one guest, lifted out of a longer conversation. You do not need to have heard the original.

Mat got one A across eleven GCSEs. It was graphic design. He dropped out of AS levels because the school would not keep him on for two subjects. He went to art college, did nothing but design for two years, and left with a distinction and student of the year. Then he got to university, dropped back to the bottom of the pack, and sat the animation module he still shows in talks as the thing he swore off.

He also talks about the big brand names arriving, and the imposter syndrome that came with them and never really left.

Full conversation with Mat: https://captnoffscript.com/s02-e08-mat-voyce-on-anxiety-creativity-and-finding-your-thing/

Find Mat here:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/matvoyce

Website: https://www.matvoyce.tv/

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript

Website: https://captnoffscript.com/