Obsessed Show

Today on Obsessed Show I'm chatting with co-founder of Handsome, John Roescher.

John Roescher is a former military vet who started the company because of a passion for the potential of the internet to explore new ideas and make connections - a similar urge that originally led him to join the military right out of high school. Once COVID hit, though they had worked with major global brands, they had somewhat lost that love.

Looking down the barrel of the pandemic and on the verge of closing, he made the hard choice to tear Handsome down and rebuild from scratch, culminating in a complete rebrand and restructuring, embracing the weirdness he loves about the web. He brought on R/GA veteran Jennifer Allen as COO to help lead the change. The resulting success was reflected not only in his renewed love for the digital but growth even during the pandemic:

We're going to dig into John's story of 2020, and more, so without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with John Roescher.

Okay kids, all the way from Austin, Texas, please welcome John Roescher.

Today on Obsessed Show we've got our first ever (I mean, I think it's the first-ever... once you're past 150 episodes, you have the right to forget stuff) - so I THINK it's the first-ever letterpress designer and printer, and his name is James Lewis Tucker.

You guys may not know this, but I got my start with very print-oriented design roles, and I've had the pleasure of producing a few letterpress projects, and it's just one of my favorite design touches.

Today we're gonna nerd out with James about all things letterpress, and why we might still be thinking about letterpress going into 2021.

Side note: I was (strangely) about to lose my voice during this recording, so apologies in advance for when my voice gets all wonky.

So without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with James Lewis Tucker.

Prescott Perez-Fox is an art director, brand strategist, speaker, podcaster, and teacher, recently transplanted to Phoenix, AZ. Now a Lecturer at Arizona State University, he brings his knowledge, passion, and a few hard-fought lessons to the next generation of multidisciplinary designers.

In addition to his brand-focused design work, Prescott is the founder and host of The Busy Creator Podcast, a popular discussion show dedicated to creative productivity, workflow, culture, and technology. He speaks at workshops and conferences on topics relating to creativity and workplace dynamics, and regularly consults with agencies and teams on improving their practice and work systems.

Prescott completed his BS in Mechanical Engineering at Drexel University before heading to England's University for the Creative Arts for an MA in Graphic Communication. Prescott is also the founder of the NYC Podcast Meetup, an avid swing dancer, and veteran rugby player.

Without further ado, please welcome our third conversation with Prescott Perez-Fox.

Valerie Aurilio, General Manager, and Phyllis Murphy, Executive Creative Director Today on Obsessed Show it's a two for one sale... I'm chatting with Valerie Aurilio, General Manager at Landor & Fitch, and Phyllis Murphy, Executive Creative Director, at Landor & Fitch.

If you're doing any design work in the branding space, there's very little chance you haven't heard of Landor, and as we record today on the evening of November 3... spoiler alert, we didn't know who won yet.

But Valerie and Phyllis are literally branding America's future. Together, they are leading a partnership with the America 250 Foundation to execute a multi-year campaign that builds Americans' awareness and understanding of the nation's 250thanniversary in 2026.

So without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Valerie Aurilio and Phyllis Murphy.

Throughout his career, Gomez has regularly shifted between live-action, animation and graphic design, cross-pollinating between the mediums to inform his design aesthetic with outside influences. While it may be common practice in the design space to stick to one lane and perfect a given discipline, Jose has found the most growth as an artist by switching it up.

He's worked for some impressive clients such Gatorade, HBO, Mountain Dew, Ford, Adidas, Slack, Mercedes, Cleveland Cavaliers and AT&T.

So without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Jose Gomez.

Howard has a unique design point of view. Over the past 25 years, he has served scores of Fortune 500 companies, including Pfizer, CVS/Caremark, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, and SAP, by leveraging the concept of simplicity to activate customers and employees. He challenges design teams across the world to bring humanity to brands.

You could say Howard was born to design. Maybe we'll dig into that story in a moment. After founding a NYC-based design company at the age of 28, which was purchased by Omnicom in 2001, Howard joined Siegel+Gale in 2004. Since then he's brought simplicity, a global perspective and systems thinking to designing brand programs for some of the largest companies on the planet.

As many of you may know, I'm a total branding geek at heart, so I'm incredibly excited to chat with Howard about the future of branding, and to learn more about Siegel+Gale.

Today on Obsessed Show I'm chatting with Illustrator & Package Designer, Abraham Lule.

Born and raised in Mexico, Abraham Lule describes his body of illustration, typography and packaging work as design with a human touch. His spectrum of skills is flexible and ever-changing, bringing a truly unique crafted flair that is undeniable in his work. He has worked for clients such as Facebook, Capitol Records, Jose Cuervo, and Diageo. He is also a Typography Excellence Medallist and the Type Directors Club recently chose him to be an Ascender.

So without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Abraham Lule.

Today on Obsessed Show I'm chatting with Ben Solomon, Creative Director of Conran Design Group U.S.

Ben brings over a decade of brand-building experience to the Conran team. From full identity development, socialization, and activation, Ben has helped brands develop their own unique, impactful expressions. Prior to joining Conran, Ben was a Creative Director with Interbrand Health in New York and a Design Director with Interbrand in Shanghai. Ben holds a BA from Lehigh University and an MS from Pratt Institute.

Ben and I are going to dig into his story and talk about branding in the healthcare and wellness branding space.

So without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Ben Solomon.

Today on Obsessed Show I'm chatting with Pinar Guvenc Managing Partner of SOUR studio, which stands for Social + Urban.

She and her company have helped companies like Twitter, Google, P&G, Lego, Mercedes-Benz, the UN and many others solve problems through the power of workshops.

SOUR is the recently rebranded name of the former Eray/Carbajo, an international award-winning architecture and design firm.

We talk to lots of graphic designers and creative directors in the commercial design and ad world, so I'm excited to chat with someone on the architectural side today.

So without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Pinar Guvenc.

Show I'm chatting with Jonathan Courtney, the CEO & Founder of one of the most well-known innovation agencies in the world, AJ&Smart, and author of the Workshopper Playbook.

He and his company have helped companies like Twitter, Google, P&G, Lego, Mercedes-Benz, the UN and many others solve problems through the power of workshops.

So here to tell us about his secret to better design projects, and his journey from the classical agency to AJ& Smart, please enjoy this conversation with Jonathan Courtney.