Stephen Gates started his design education when he was two years old, setting type with his dad on a 700-pound cast iron letterpress in the basement. At the age of 12, he was introduced to the agency world, then moved in-house a time or two before arriving at his present gig as the Head Design Evangelist at InVision.

An international keynote speaker and host of The Crazy One podcast, Stephen points to the attacks on the World Trade Center as a defining point in his career. At the time he was working on creative for American Airlines.

On September 12th, Stephen’s world view had shifted. Design was no longer about making things look better. It was a way to heal a company. Today, Stephen sees many organizations struggling to find good form in dysfunction. As Stephen says, “Teams aren't struggling with the ability to do better-looking work. What they're struggling with is they're dealing with everything that surrounds that work.”

Tune in to hear Stephen’s thoughts on unspoken truths, design commoditization and the trouble with comparing our insides to others’ outsides.