Just a Chat With

In this episode we sat down with Philippe Meunier who is Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder of Sid Lee, one of the world’s premier creative agencies with offices in Montreal, Toronto, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

With over 28 years of experience in the industry, Philippe has overseen all the creative output for a host of major international clients including Absolut, Adidas, Starbucks, Red Bull, and many more.

As an active member of the creative community, Philippe has been invited to chair and serve on the jury panel at various national and international competitions, such as the Cannes Lions International Festival, the D&AD Awards, the Canadian Marketing Awards and Communication Arts.

Collaboration is an essential part of Philippe’s approach to creativity and is especially evident in the culture and ideology of Sid Lee. The agency’s core values are based on collectivism and the belief that the group is far stronger than the individual, so every idea and opinion is given equal value. The result is an agency where everyone works (and plays!) hard as a team, sharing both the workload and the rewards.

Famous for his Zen-like approach to the craziness of running a large creative group (consequences of his love for surfing and yoga), Philippe firmly believes that great work comes from happy people, and he lives by this motto 24/7.

See more of Philippe’s work here: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/philmeunier

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Hosted by Andrew Dobbie. Powered by MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

In this episode we sat down with Kevin Pike who is an award-winning American film special effects supervisor, below the line talent agent, and screenwriting consultant, best-known for supervising the special effects on Back to the Future. He and his company FilmTrix Inc. were primarily responsible for construction of the film's iconic DeLorean time machine.

Kevin got his start in film doing set construction for the movie Jaws, working with the Special Effects crew. Kevin then went on to work with several major studios for film, television, and commercials, working with directors such as Tim Burton, Wes Craven, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Zemeckis. 

Kevin’s worked on several other iconic films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Last Starfighter, Fight Club, and Jurassic Park III.

Kevin has earned nominations and awards including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects for the Amblin Television Production Earth 2 in 1995, a Clio Award for Best Special Effects on a Levi’s commercial directed by Michael Bay in 2000. He also received a BAFTA nomination, and was considered for Oscar nomination on Back to the Future. 

Kevin has lectured at USC, UCLA, and Columbia College Hollywood as well as teaching Special Effects classes at the Academy of Art University. Additionally, Kevin has served as a Governor for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and on the Executive Committee for the Visual Effects Branch for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Kevin lives north of Los Angeles, California, where he manages his company,  Filmtrix, Inc.  He is a writer’s consultant and a story developer for studios and production entities, helping writers complete their scripts and advising them on how to pitch their written work to producers.

See more of Kevin's work here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Pike

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Hosted by Andrew Dobbie. Powered by MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

In this episode we sat down with Alexandra Watkins who is an author and leading authority on brand naming.

Alexandra is the Chief Executive Boss Lady at Eat My Words, a brand naming firm based in San Diego, California. Alexandra’s book, “Hello, My Name is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick” was named as one of the Top 10 Marketing Books by Inc magazine and sits proudly on my shelf as one my all time favourites. 

Since 2005, Alexandra and her firm have created brand names for hundreds of clients including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Disney, Gap, Twitter, and Xerox. Alexandra is also a popular speaker, delighting audiences at Startup Grind, Endeavor, Collision, and LA Tech Week. She’s also had the pleasure of speaking to MBA students, lecturing at institutions such as Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and many more. 

Prior to running her own agency, Alexandra was an advertising copywriter, working at leading West Coast ad agencies, including Ogilvy and Mather, where she helped launch Microsoft Windows. 

In her free time, Alexandra creates imaginative succulent arrangements in bird cages, teapots, and other interesting containers she finds by scouring the local flea market in San Diego. She works out of her San Diego pool house where she has been chained to her desk for the last 6 months creating a fun new online course on how to create super sticky brand names.

See more of Alexandra's work here: https://eatmywords.com/

Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/justachatwith

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Hosted by Andrew Dobbie. Powered by MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

In this episode we sat down with Darlene Vogel who is an actress well-known for her very first role as Spike, a member of Griff’s hoverboard gang in the movie Back to the Future 2. 

Darlene got her start in New York City and has landed over 100 national commercials, including the ‘Milk does a body good’ campaign. 

Darlene has been acting for over 35 years and has done numerous guest stars and Pilot work. She landed the series Pacific Blue in 1995, working on 88 episodes playing Officer Chris Kelly. She also played Melanie McIver in the “One Life to Live” soap opera.

 Darlene has three recently-released thriller films including “The Spearhead Effect”, “Extracurricular Activities” and “Day 13”. She’s also had a few starring roles in movies made for Lifetime television including “Smuggling in Suburbia", “Dirty Teacher” and “Walking the Halls”. She’s also made guest appearances on Full House, Northern Exposure, Boy Meets World and CSI.

Currently living just a mile from the beach in sunny Santa Monica California with her two children, Owen and Audrey, Darlene is an avid dog rescuer with 3 dogs, 1 cat, and 3 bearded dragons! 

Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/justachatwith

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Hosted by Andrew Dobbie | Founder, MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

In this episode we sat down with David Martin who is the President and Founder of Fantasy Interactive. With offices in New York, San Francisco, Miami and London, Fantasy is a human-centred product innovation team that ships premium products and ecosystems for the world’s biggest brands. Since launching the company in 1999, David has worked with a suite of amazing brands including Netflix, Xbox, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, MTV, Ford, Porsche, Huawei, Samsung, Tinder and Masterclass (a personal favourite of mine!). 

David now also works in a Chief Creative Officer capacity, directly with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, and Richard Yu CEO at Huawei.

Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dNn-ySWwMI 

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Hosted by Andrew Dobbie | Founder, MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

In this episode we sat down to chat with Ben Radcliffe who is a digital artist and Media & Entertainment Technical Specialist currently working for Unity. With over 20 years’ experience in CG Feature Animation, Television Animation, and VFX, Ben has worked across the globe with a variety of high-end studios, including Dreamworks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Walt Disney Feature Animation, MPC, and Industrial Light and Magic.

Ben has worked on several amazing projects over the years, including Shrek 2, Veggie Tales, The Polar Express, Chicken Little, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Martian, The Jungle Book, Avengers, Transformers, Dr. Strange, and many more

In his current role, Ben is a Media & Entertainment Technical Specialist for Unity Technologies, working with key Game Studios, VFX facilities, and Animation Studios throughout the UK to advance the art and science of film making, visual effects, and animation through the use of Unity, which is the world’s leading real-time 3D development platform, and opens up incredible possibilities for filmmakers and creators across industries and applications in 2D, 3D, VR, and AR.

Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qNjQmGYD1dc

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Hosted by Andrew Dobbie | Founder, MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

In this episode we sat down to chat with Franki Goodwin who is Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi. Franki is also the CBO of Western Edge Pictures and Gennaker Group. A graduate of Glasgow School of Art, Franki spent the first part of her career running boutique film marketing agency 'Franki&Jonny', making ground-breaking campaigns for the film industry. Since then, she’s worked across numerous award-winning film, entertainment and brand campaigns—including winning over 80 international advertising awards, including 9 Cannes Lions.

See Franki's work here: https://www.frankigoodwin.com/

Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/g574Lobse6c

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Hosted by Andrew Dobbie | Founder, MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

Season 2 of Just a Chat With is finally here! To kick things off, we sat down with the amazing Debbie Millman who is a writer, designer, educator, artist, and curator who is also well-known as the host of the podcast ‘Design Matters’. Debbie has over 20 years of experience in the industry, working with 200 of the world’s largest brands including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Kraft, Liberty Mutual, Starbucks, Pepsi-Cola, Haagen-Dazs, Gillette, and Burger King—which she designed the logo for.

Debbie has contributed to several media outlets including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer and Fast Company, and she is also the author of six books, covering a wide range of subjects including branding, design, art, and philosophy.

Debbie is also President Emeritus of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), one of five women to hold the position in the organisation’s 100-year history and chair and co-founder of the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She was previously the editorial and creative director of Print magazine.

Debbie’s podcast, ‘Design Matters’ is one of the world’s first and longest-running podcasts, and garners over 5 million downloads, annually. Debbie has interviewed over 500 design luminaries and cultural commentators, including Milton Glaser, Malcolm Gladwell, Barbara Kruger, Seth Godin, Amanda Palmer, and many many more. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t had a listen already!

See Debbie’s work here: https://www.debbiemillman.com/

Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iLbzwCROBtM

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Hosted by:

Andrew Dobbie | Founder, MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

Lewis Phillips | Founder, Campfire - http://www.campfire.agency

Given all that’s happening with COVID-19, we’ve decided to shift our focus for from brand and design for this episode and talk about how all of us in the creative industry can look after our mental health. With this in mind, we had Kate Harris on the show. Kate is the Regional Director at NABS, which is a support organisation for the advertising and media industry based here in the UK. 

Learn more about NABS: 

https://nabs.org.uk/

Call the NABS advice line (UK only): 

0800 707 6607

Donate:

https://nabs.org.uk/about-nabs/donations/

Give us a follow on our social channels:

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Hosted by:

Andrew Dobbie | Founder, MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

Lewis Phillips | Founder, Campfire - http://www.campfire.agency

In this episode we sat down to chat with James Greenfield who is the Creative Director and Co-Founder of branding agency, Koto, which is in its fifth year and has offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, and in London. James has 18 years of experience in the industry, working with brands such as Skyscanner, Fanta, Venmo, Airbnb, and many more. James is also a global speaker and frequent writer on branding for Creative Review magazine.

Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BC-zNAKkYvI

Give us a follow on our social channels:

- https://www.facebook.com/JustaChatWith

- https://www.instagram.com/JustAChatWith

- https://twitter.com/justachatwith

- https://www.linkedin.com/company/35615125/

Hosted by:

Andrew Dobbie | Founder, MadeBrave - http://www.madebrave.com

Lewis Phillips | Founder, Campfire - http://www.campfire.agency