Kicked out of school and home at 17, he spent two years making bad decisions before finding his way into design. Now he advises Affinity, sits on Canva's Design Advisory Board, and works with brands like Disney, Nike and Liquid Death. This is how that happened.

In this episode we get into the full story - the difficult upbringing, what creativity actually saved him from, his very loud opinions on personal branding, what mastery really means in a world full of noise, and why he thinks the threat to creativity isn't AI at all - it's the disappearing space that creativity needs to thrive.

00:00 Intro - from kicked out at 17 to the Canva design board

03:08 The real story: abuse, drugs, rock bottom and finding design

14:25 The contrarian streak - where it actually comes from

23:48 Personal branding: what annoys James most about it

31:29 Visibility vs mastery - why talented people aren't always the busiest

45:41 Being in the room: why face-to-face still beats everything

58:24 How motion design conversations with clients have changed

1:06:34 Is creativity dead? Why the environment is the real problem

James Martin, known online as MadeByJames, is a brand designer, author, educator and advisor with nearly a million Instagram followers. He sits on the Design Advisory Board at Canva, advises Affinity, and is a partner at Lincoln Design Co, where he works with brands like Disney, Nike and Liquid Death. He writes a weekly Substack and has spent over two decades building brands and challenging how the industry thinks about craft, reputation and success.

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Months in Motion is produced by OK Social, a London-based motion design studio.