I’ve followed Mike Smith ever since he designed the Perplexity brand identity and quickly realized he’s one of the most creative designers I’ve ever seen. Turns out his wife Chara is a positioning mastermind too so it makes sense why Smith & Diction is one of the hottest agencies in the game today.

So this week’s episode is a deep dive into brand strategy and what it takes to stand out in 2025 and beyond. We get into:

• What it takes to stand out in an AI world
• Their hacks for cracking a brand strategy
• Why the best brands have lots of “moves”
• Mike’s #1 piece of advice for younger designers
• What people really mean when they say “timeless”
• Their experience using Visual Electric in brand design
• Positioning Smith & Diction in today’s agency landscape
• a lot more

• We talk about how they used Visual Electric for their latest project (Alma Food). ⭐ Don’t forget you can use the code DIVECLUB to get your first month free.
• You can also check out the episode with Colin Dunn (CEO of Visual Electric)
• Mike says to make sure you watch the episode with Phi from Perplexity
• We talk about Topo, Cotopaxi and Steady bags