Creative Lives

How do you make a series about gangsters in 1920s Birmingham, or a drama about Dickensian London? This week on the podcast, we talk to line producer and BAFTA member Brian Kaczynski, whose job it is to turn scripts into series. Working specifically in television, some of Brian’s recent credits have included the critically acclaimed crime drama Peaky Blinders. A recent panellist at a BAFTA Scotland event held at the University of Edinburgh, he spoke to us about how on-demand services are affecting the industry; reflects on the challenges he’s encountered; and explains why being a good ‘fixer’ is central to the role.

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This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Marianne Hanoun and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include ustwo, GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Laura Jordan-Bambach, chief creative officer of Mr.President, the independent agency she co-founded in 2013. We caught up with her at the company’s headquarters in Soho on February 8th, where she spoke to us about learning from failure, being tenacious and why she thinks advertising is a superpower.

Starting out as a student of Fine Arts in Sydney, Australia, Laura’s career journey has been a somewhat unconventional one – from discovering digital art and setting up her own business while studying, to helping advertising agencies to get online at a time when the internet was still in its infancy.

Acquiring skills in both advertising and design has helped propel her from one job role to the next. Through rewarding and challenging experiences, her journey eventually led her to take up the position of D&AD’s president, before co-founding Mr. President in 2013.

In the midst of preparing for a pitch, we caught up with Laura as she reflected on her journey so far, filled us in on life at Mr.President and talked us through a recent project for Stonewall.

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This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Marianne Hanoun and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include ustwo, GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

This week’s guest is SuperHi founder Rik Lomas, a New York-based tech educator, coder and startup advisor, who we interviewed on February 7th.

After growing up in Manchester, Rik graduated with a degree in Maths at Durham university in 2005. He admits that his studies have been almost entirely unrelated to his career so far, and that he spent a lot of time at university on side projects that called on his self-taught developing skills.

With an early interest in design, it was clear that Rik would eventually move into more creative work, joining an agency as a web developer in East London not long after graduating. His work then led to the world of startups, helping to grow multiple businesses and teams.

Having moved to New York a few years ago, Rik has built SuperHi from the ground up in a new country, and it now services students all over the globe. He told us about his introduction to coding, and why he felt the need to start accessible courses aimed at creatives.

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This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Indi Davies and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include ustwo, GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

Joining us on the podcast this week is Akwasi Poku, a creative at London-based agency Wieden+Kennedy, who we met on February 9th. Akwasi takes us on a journey through his varied start in the industry – from editorial and broadcasting experience to jobs in post-production – and explains why resilience is such an essential trait in advertising.

As part of a creative duo, both Akwasi and his partner Abdou Cisse have worked at Wieden + Kennedy since last year, having made the jump from R/GA, where they filled more traditional copywriting and art directing roles. A team for the past four years, Akwasi describes how they came together, and why working with a friend is so conducive to good, honest ideas.

Their work has seen them create ideas for brands such as Nike, Google and the Sainsbury’s (including on the recent Christmas campaign), and has even helped projects win awards from the likes of D&AD and Creative Review.

He tells us how he’s created his own opportunities along the way, the value of drawing from your own interests and experiences, and why persistence is your greatest assets as a creative. “The second you give up is when your journey stops,” he shares, “even in the bad moments you’re learning so much.”

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This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Indi Davies and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include ustwo, GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

Earlier this week we ventured to production company Strange Beast in London​ to catch up with animator and director Anna Ginsburg, as she worked on her latest project. She talked to us her process, the importance of self belief as a young woman in the industry, and how she first got a foot in the door.​

Anna graduated with a degree in animation from Edinburgh college of art in 2012, and has since grown an expansive and varied body of work that includes a range of techniques – from live action and hand-drawn 2D films to intricate stop-motion work.

Fresh out of university, her first music video for Bombay Bicycle Club won a BAFTA at the New Talent Awards, becoming a springboard for her ongoing work with music acts – which also includes creating tour visuals. And in 2016, her animated documentary ‘Private Parts’, commissioned by It’s Nice That and Channel 4, was met with critical acclaim and screened at film festivals across the world.

Anna’s work regularly broaches themes that mean a lot to her, from discussing sexuality to young peoples’ views on politics, taking a fun, relatable approach that often includes comic and absurdist scenes. While she predominantly works for music clients, she has also collaborated with brands such as Selfridges, Reebok and Arm and Hammer.

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This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Indi Davies and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include ustwo, GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

Of the many full time book designers working at Penguin Random House, Coralie Bickford-Smith has managed to build a reputation that now exists independently of the iconic publishing house. We met up with her recently to talk about how she’s been able to balance in-house, freelance and personal work across design, illustration and writing, and the biggest challenges she's encountered along the way.

Since joining the Penguin Random House team in 2002, Coralie has been behind some of the best-loved designs to emerge in recent years; namely her work on the clothbound classics series. Created using age-old techniques, the books are Defined by their pared back, pattern-based covers in minimal colour palettes. while most hardback editions last for a year’s print run before becoming paperbacks, many of Coralie’s designs are still available in their original format, 11 years later – a testament to their tireless popularity.

Coralie’s knowledge of historic book design processes date back to her student days at the university of reading, where she earned a degree in typography and graphic communication. Fearing that pursuing a career in book design would limit her options further down the line, she started out in commercial design at an agency. We hear her reflect on her journey, and her wisdom for budding designers.

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This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Indi Davies and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

Our guest this week is Pentagram partner and co-founder of non-profit public service, Do The Green Thing, Naresh Ramchandani. As Pentagram’s first advertising and communications partner, he talks to us about how creativity can make a cause visible, and why he counts idealism and pragmatism as two essential skills for creatives.

Armed with a portfolio of witty, sharp and award-winning campaigns, Naresh arrived at Pentagram following an already successful career in advertising that saw him co-found agency Karmarama and non-profit public service Do The Green Thing – as well as writing his own column for The Guardian. Joining Pentagram in 2010 as the design consultancy’s first advertising and communications partner, the move seemed to usher in a couple of other firsts, with Naresh working on everything from YouTube’s debut ad campaign to creating Pentagram’s first-ever music video.

Growing up with initial hopes of becoming a record producer, a love of music turned to a love of words, and he soon enrolled on the English and American Literature course at Manchester University. Later inspired by John Webster’s legendary ‘Martians’ ads for Smash, it wasn’t long before he landed a job as a copywriter for the London-based advertising agency HHCL, winning a Gold Lion for his campaign for Maxell Cassette tapes – and the title of best advertisement in the world – in his second year at the company.

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This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Marianne Hanoun and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

In this edition of our Creative Lives podcast, we talk to London-based illustrator and artist Hattie Stewart. She shares what she’s learnt along the way, including how to manage client communication, describing her favourite recent projects, and tells us why working for free is rarely a good idea.

Known for her unique style of ‘doodblebombing’, Hattie’s drawings are recognisable for their precise, cartoonish and psychedelic forms – often laid over photographs or existing graphics as character-filled streams of consciousness.

Hailing from Essex, Hattie began working commercially for fashion brands such as Luella while she was still studying on the illustration BA at Kingston. Graduating in 2010, she has since amassed a client list that includes Apple, Mac Cosmetics, House of Holland, Marc By Marc Jacobs and Pepsi. She has also published two books, and had her work exhibited across the world.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. While she balanced commissions with coursework, hattie says studying was no walk in the park – coming up against opinions and directions from her tutors that didn’t suit her way of working.

After leaving college, Hattie was able to continue freelancing alongside part time work at a bar. It was here that Hattie’s style came into place, as she doodled onto printed images – forming the basis of a now ongoing series of playful interventions onto photographic images and magazine covers.

This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Indi Davies and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

This week we chat to multitalented, London-based creative Anna Lomax. Combining work as a creative director, set designer and art director, she’s learnt to swap hats according to project. Creating striking, colour-rich visuals for editorial and commercial clients, she is often responsible for both creative concept and production. She talks us through her path – from a rocky start at university to expanding a network niche list of specialist makers.

Studying illustration at university, it took a while for Anna to find a course that suited her, dropping out of Camberwell in London after her first year to start at Brighton. Here she was able to take her illustration work far beyond drawing, and soon discovered a line of work that truly appealed to her. And thanks to a group visit to Ron Nordsworthy’s studio in New York, Anna’s eyes were opened to the world of art direction.

Working from her studio in East London, Anna surrounds herself with things that inspire her – from posters to trinkets – as something of an avid collector. She reflects on early jobs where her technical know-how was still limited, and how a promotions job for Topshop became a springboard for her career.

This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Indi Davies and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.

This week we talk to Raj Panjwani, service designer for the Ministry of Justice. He talked to us about what it’s like to work for government, taking ego out of your work and what emerging designers can do to prepare themselves for service design roles.

After gaining years of experience in multiple areas of design, Raj admits that his working history has made him something of a generalist. But this has all become invaluable input for his current role as a service designer for the ministry of justice, where his work ranges from workshops and interviews to creating detailed system maps – all towards improving governmental services.

Graduating in 1992 with a degree in media communications, Raj started out on a traditional graphic design path, cutting his teeth at studios in the South West of England and Australia, before moving to London where his journey took him from creative agency Gyro, to freelancing, to running his own business as a creative director. Eventually Raj made a shift away from design that makes things look good, into design that is truly useful and accessible.

Joining innovation studio Sense Worldwide as a design director in 2002, he spent the next 15 years growing and evolving the company, collaborating with clients such as Nike, sonos, converse and Barclays. Here the focus was on helping brands create work that puts the user first, providing research-based guidance to be used internally.

Having left just last year, Raj came onto the digital team at Ministry of Justice soon after, and is now working on services that improve the justice and prison system.

Lecture in Progress is an online resource that inspires and informs the next generation of creatives by providing practical advice and day-to-day insight into the industry. This podcast series features creatives sharing what they do and how they got to where they are.

This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Indi Davies and the producer was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible by the support of a number of brand patrons – they include GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.