leaders x design

This week we interview Abby Showalter, who tells us everything that we need to know about the organization For The Love of Alex (@for_the_love_of_alex_inc). For The Love of Alex is a non-profit organization that helps low-income families pay for veterinary care for their furry family members. I feel that I can speak for all of us when I say that this is something we can all help support. If you want to donate to For The Love of Alex now, go to iwanttosavealife.org, but also keep listening to hear how the organization works and what else we can do to help our communities.

Jordan Schellinkhout (@jordanlee_design) is an incredibly talented designer and illustrator in Philadelphia, PA, and the creative mind behind Jordan Lee Design. Everything from an adorable doodle on a post-it to brighten your day to awesome branding work, this girl does it all (but you won’t find her on craigslist… we’ll explain later)! We’ll talk about being a designer in-house compared to freelancing and how sometimes unexpected twists in your career path can turn into a positive. She also has a fun connection to one of our hosts, which we’ll dive into during the episode!

Mi Kim is the exceptional owner and chef of Raised Donuts (@raiseddoughnuts) located in the Central District in Seattle, WA. She also has an incredible pup named Noodle (@noodleishungry) who assists in running the show. During this episode, we talk about how Raised Donuts came to be, the importance of learning, and we find out that Krista is clearly missing all of these donuts. So we are going to try to fill that hole in her heart with a donut. Get it? Donut… hole? Okay, sorry, anyway, meet Mi Kim.

This week, we talked to Julie Anixter (@julieanixter), the Enterprise Design Principal at Throughline (@throughlineinc), past Executive Director of AIGA (@aigadesign), a woman who lives and works with companies and organizations that align with the ideals she wants to see in the world. We discuss the America 250 campaign (@america250_pa) that started in Pennsylvania, Creative Reaction Lab (@crxlab), dealing with Imposter Syndrome, the value of having an actual conversation (hence, this episode), and marketers and designers’ responsibility to contribute to their community in positive ways. Because, “If you don’t do it, who will?” Errata: Julie meant to say Google, not Amazon, sponsored the AIGA Design Census, and Secretary Albright was the first in her role, Secretary Rice was the first woman of color. She credits her faulty memory to 2020.

Our second episode includes an interview with Renee Gittins (@rikukat), the CEO of Stumbling Cat and the Executive Director of IGDA (@IGDA). She enlightens us about her journey to get to where she is today and how inspiration is, quite literally, all around us within video games and the industry itself.

For our first official episode, we interview Sidney Shea (@sidshea), an incredible social media and digital marketing maven. We talk about her experiences within the industry as a millennial woman, especially during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the positives and negatives of social media.

While embodying the entrepreneurial spirit of “doing it ourselves,” Allie and Krista introduce themselves to the audience and kick this podcast off the right way.

Starting on Black Friday we will be bringing you some of the most incredible leaders in the design community right to your ears. Tune in every Friday!