Design Speaks

By Brandi Sea Heft-KniffinBusiness Education Arts How To Marketing Design

Design Speaks episodes

August 03, 2017 Graphic Designer or Graphic Artist, What’s the Difference? – Episode 025

This week Brandi’s husband Kenny is sitting in for Michelle. Things might get weird, stay tuned!

:50 Surprise! Michelle is gone this week but extra surprise: Brandi’s husband Kenny is filling in.
MORE NOTES TO COME
12:40 Kenny’s song is by our good friends Copperlily it’s called “A Lot to Learn”
15:00 Brandi thinks it’s Tuesday, but it’s Wednesday
34 min
July 20, 2017 A Little Bit About Type & Inspiration – Episode 024
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Michelle wants to know some stuff about type and who Brandi looks to for inspiration for type, or letters, or typography, or.. ..lettering? It’s a fun time you guys. :50 Welcome!!! Michelle’s week was super productive. She went to a wedding AND listened to an entire season of a podcast. NPR’s Invisibilia…AND binged the latest […]
The post A Little Bit About Type & Inspiration – Episode 024 appeared first on BrandiSea Design Co..
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Visit BrandiSea.com for more content and resources!
35 min
July 20, 2017 A Little Bit About Type & Inspiration – Episode 024

Michelle wants to know some stuff about type and who Brandi looks to for inspiration for type, or letters, or typography, or.. ..lettering? It’s a fun time you guys.

:50 Welcome!!! Michelle’s week was super productive. She went to a wedding AND listened to an entire season of a podcast. NPR’s Invisibilia…AND binged the latest season of OITNB. Dang.
3:07 Michelle’s song for the week: Selena Gomez, Bad Liar
6:20 Brandi’s week was very similar to Michelle’s. Wedding times, 4th of July, and then it was time to straight veg. She camped out on the couch and watched a new show… Handmaids Tale, iZombie and Fear The Walking Dead.
7:00 Handmaids Tale has so many great uses of coloring, Grays and reds! <3
10:22 Brandi’s song for the week: Fountains of Wayne, It Must Be Summer
13:08 When did “Spotify” become a verb?
13:40 Michelle found an issue of Print Magazine on Brandi’s counter. So todays TOPIC is… Who are some good people to look for inspiration in typography?
15:02 Typography is arranging type (letters.) It’s taking a pre existing font or type face and altering it digitally.
15:12 Hand lettering is making custom type and usually by hand,
18:00 Just typing out a word in a font is NOT typography.
18:30 The Spacing matters!
Tracking: space of the entire word and
Kerning: spacing between letters.
19:52 Typographers spend a lot of time doing very details things, including tracking and kerning.
20:45 Brandi has over 15,000 fonts! Is there such things as Fonts Anonymous????
21.45 Fonts can range anywhere from $30-$500 or more and usually come as a family (Bold, italics, etc…)
25:00 House Industries, MyFonts.com, P22, Font Bureau, The Lost Type Co-Op
25:44 The Lost Type Co Op allows you to download for free and pay if you’re able! Kind of like soundcloud.
26:35 Tobias Frère Jones
27:05 Erik Spiekermann – looking to buy a new typeface
27:08 Inspiration- Jessica Hische, and LindsayLetters, type directors club, lettering co.
Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea!: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any questions you want Brandi to cover at [email protected]. Thanks to Vesperteen for letting us use his genius (“
35 min
July 13, 2017 How to Handle Creative Discouragement – Episode 023
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Michelle went to a creative event this week and wants to know what tips Brandi has for creatives who are feeling low or discouraged that they won’t ever have another good idea. :50 Michelle’s week! 1:00 Michelle went to a “creative night” with special guest Propaganda. 1:25 Check this dude out. Seriously. Smart guy, amazing […]
The post How to Handle Creative Discouragement – Episode 023 appeared first on BrandiSea Design Co..
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Visit BrandiSea.com for more content and resources!
29 min
July 13, 2017 How to Handle Creative Discouragement – Episode 023

Michelle went to a creative event this week and wants to know what tips Brandi has for creatives who are feeling low or discouraged that they won’t ever have another good idea.
:50 Michelle’s week!
1:00 Michelle went to a “creative night” with special guest Propaganda.
1:25 Check this dude out. Seriously. Smart guy, amazing things to say. He’s a rapper, spoken word artist, and so much more.
2:19 Does anyone else turn on their voice memo and just record fun conversations??? Is that weird?
2:50 Brandi’s week! Lots of time spent at the library. Here are some cool children’s art books she’s found!

* Come Look With Me Series
* I Spy for art pieces
* No One Saw

9:13 Brandi’s Song this week is by Portugal, The Man
12:15 Topic of the week – this week we talk about how often creatives are completely burnt out, or more commonly, overcome by fear and have some intense low points. Fear of not succeeding, fear of their idea being terrible, fear of never having another good idea ever again. F E A R.
16:41 Most important things to do to make sure you keep on having good ideas!!!
16:41 NUMBER ONE on the priority list! Making sure you have a process and f o l l o w i n g it!!!
17:01 If you don’t follow your process, the outcome for your next project will pretty much be the same as your last project.
18:11 It can be lonely and frustrating if you don’t know a lot of creatives, so the next thing you should do is have a community. Find one! Social media is your friend for this, as well as the REAL LIFE community you live it! Check out this blog post that has all of the links you need to find your community!
21:26 Try new things! Tired of logos? Dabble in photography, learn about screen printing, do something new that can expand what you actually work on!
23:30 Propaganda says, “When things are hard, I really enjoy the wrestle to excellent.”
24:56 Embrace the struggle. Embrace the journey.
23:54 You do you! Be amazing.
Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea!: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any questions you want Brandi to cover at [email protected]. Thanks to Vesperteen for letting us use his genius (“Shatter in The Night”) in every episode of Design Speaks!
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28 min
July 06, 2017 What Creatives Can Learn from the Hipster Mindset – Episode 022
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This week we approach the ever-ubiquitous word “hipster”. What is a hipster and what can we, as creatives (or normal people) learn from them to be better at what we do? 2:00 Reminiscing about Leatrice Eisemen! 2:30 Michelle’s Week: Lots of filming and sun! 3:33 Tanning sucks. It’s bad for your skin, it fades your […]
The post What Creatives Can Learn from the Hipster Mindset – Episode 022 appeared first on BrandiSea Design Co..
Support the show
Visit BrandiSea.com for more content and resources!
42 min
July 06, 2017 What Creatives Can Learn from the Hipster Mindset – Episode 022

This week we approach the ever-ubiquitous word “hipster”. What is a hipster and what can we, as creatives (or normal people) learn from them to be better at what we do?
2:00 Reminiscing about Leatrice Eisemen!
2:30 Michelle’s Week: Lots of filming and sun!
3:33 Tanning sucks. It’s bad for your skin, it fades your expensive tattoos, AND you have to buy new make up. No thanks.
5:00 Michelle’s Song: The Chainsmokers and Coldplay, Something Just Like This.
8:20 Check out the artwork for this song. It’s pretty sweet.
8:40 Remember, you can listen to our spotify playlist if you wanna hear any of the music we’ve played on Design Speaks!
9:30 Brandi’s Week! She worked at the event Michelle was filming at, but at night. She spent time at the pool with her kiddo, and read some books— “The Film Club”
11:40 Brandi’s Song: Wavorly, Strangers In Love
25:45 *NSYNC is better than Backstreet Boys. Don’t argue. They had Justin.
16:30 Definition of Hipster: A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural original mainstream.
19:31 Brandi’s definition: People who say they’re not following the trends, but they actually are.
19:48 Question of the week: Is there anything good/anything we can learn from “hipsters”?
21:45 Check out Brandi’s blog post, “What We Can Learn From The Hipster Mindset”
21:55 The term hipsters came from the 60’s beatniks. They were trying to go against the trends, not set them. Black turtlenecks, not a lot of color… Opposite of the hippies.
23:23 Hipsters place high value on certain things… Whatever they choose to be passionate about, they become really passionate about and make it awesome. Coffee, house decor, organic food. Often this leads to changing the world!
24:14 The like new versions of old things. A weird nostalgia for things they’ve never experienced (vinyl records, polaroids/analog film)
25:00 Midnight in Paris
26:58 The hipster mindset is to use hands on tools – sketchpads, things that are not computers.
27:45 Lomography definition, in case you didn’t know what it was
28:03 This might create a jack of all trades, master of none mentality because everything is so easily accessed.
30:00 They see the world differently. They have the ability to look at something gross to other people, and see its potential. (an old chair dumped on a sidewalk. they take it home, and remake it.)
21:34 Their unique approach to problems are rad! They share their process, their progress, and have a new sense of transparency that we haven’t experience before they showed up on the scene.
33:40 By doing this, it creates a community of likemindedness.
34:29 Hipsters want to know the trends, but they want to find something in it that’s special to them. (Brandi looooves the word “bazillion”)
35:19 Designers have to do the same thing! We should be following the trends, but figuring out what’s special in them to us.
36:21 Seriously, be willing to learn from people who are not like you! Change your outlook.
Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea!: Instagram, Twitter,
42 min
June 29, 2017 INTERVIEW: Leatrice Eiseman, International Color Expert at Pantone – Episode 021
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On this weeks episode we interview the one and only Leatrice Eiseman! She is the director of the Pantone Color Institute and an actual, international color expert! She is from Seattle, travels the world, and has written 10 books! 4:05 First question! What does Leatrice tell people when she’s sitting on an airplane and she […]
The post INTERVIEW: Leatrice Eiseman, International Color Expert at Pantone – Episode 021 appeared first on BrandiSea Design Co..
Support the show
Visit BrandiSea.com for more content and resources!
43 min
June 29, 2017 Guest Interview: Leatrice Eiseman, International Color Expert – Episode 021

On this weeks episode we interview the one and only Leatrice Eiseman! She is the director of the Pantone Color Institute and an actual, international color expert! She is from Seattle, travels the world, and has written 10 books!
4:05 First question! What does Leatrice tell people when she’s sitting on an airplane and she has more than a few minute to talk to someone about what she does?
Leatrice wears a few hats. She truly is a color expert. She knows what each color means and why color is an integral part of what we do.
6:00 What would you say to designers who pick a color based off it “feeling right”.
Feelings do enter in to a certain extent, but there are so many more things to evaluate. Like: who are your competitors, The psychology of color, and what are the upcoming trends? It’s a thoughtful process, because as a designers you have to explain WHY you chose those colors.
*Brandi is super validated right now*
8:16 Do color meanings evolve over time?
Yes! They can! There are some that “never” change. One that has is the color brown. Over time, from a historical perspective, it went from being described as “dirt” and “dirty.” But Martha Stewart came out and taught us a few things and then pop culture/artsy movies like Chocolat came out and started changing how people see the color brown.
12:25 Would you say that there is such thing as an ugly color?
To Leatrice, this is a very personal question. She dives into the psychology of why people consider colors ugly.
14:23 How does color influence pop culture, or does pop culture influence color?
The people who work on films are very well versed in color. So color gets into a film because the makers know about it. The movie comes out, and the consumer/viewer of the film sees the colors on the screen, and then they want the things and colors that they see on the screen,
Example: The new Peanuts movie, The colors are a lot more vibrant and pop a whole lot more than it did years ago when the original came out.
20:00 How does color stretch across all forms of creative and design industries?
It used to be that whatever came down the runway was what the colors of the season were. That has now changed. In the 90’s we then saw Mac computers come out in different colors, and that sort of made people think “wait, maybe I should jump on that.”
It turns out, you can’t just read specific things that address your specific niche of an industry. You have to keep your eyes open. Something that Leatrice reads often is Wired Magazine. It came on the scene as a very electronic based thing but is a great source for upcoming trends. Gathering information from unusual places is a good thing to focus on.
24:25 Leatrice is NOT a color dictator! She’s more of a… “color guru”.
25:00 How do you choose the Pantone color of the year?
She (and the other people who work on it) stores away information all throughout the year. She travels throughout the world, and is constantly on the look out for patterns and trends. You see colors everywhere. Everyone involved in the choosing process observe artists who are getting a lot of attention, and they also look into the psychological effect of the color. The meaning of the color is very important to them!
29:30 They have some ideas for the color of 2018 but NO spoilers!!
30:10 How are colors going to change in 50 years?
As long as children are given to crayons to draw with, there will always be color in the world. It’s a part of who we are!
33:26 Do you think a persons favorite color says some...
43 min
June 22, 2017 Type or Image, Which is More Important? – Episode 020
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This week Brandi and Michelle talk about which came first, the image, or the type? And which one matters more…? :50 Lesson of the day: Do NOT run before you have to talk into a microphone! 1:20 Michelle talks about her oh-so-interesting week. She saw a hawk. Is that cool? 5:00 Brandi’s week. She went […]
The post Type or Image, Which is More Important? – Episode 020 appeared first on BrandiSea Design Co..
Support the show
Visit BrandiSea.com for more content and resources!
27 min

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