Overshare: Honest Conversations with Creatives

In this bonus episode of Overshare Season 3, Working Not Working co-founder and CEO Justin Gignac hosts a roundtable conversation with two senior recruiters from highly-celebrated companies. Lauren Ranke is the Director of Creative Talent at Wieden+Kennedy and Chloe Harlig is the Senior Creative Recruiter at Squarespace. Lauren and Chloe discuss how their hiring approaches have changed during quarantine, why self-initiated work is more important than ever, how they continue to keep their eyes trained on the future, and whether remote work will become the standard. You will leave this conversation feeling better educated on the thoughts and considerations of those who bring creatives work.

In the season 3 finale of Overshare, host Justin Gignac sits down with Brooklyn-based photographer Jeremy Cohen, who has received A LOT of attention recently. Like most of us, Jeremy has had a lot of time on his hands these past couple of months. He’s used this time to think, to look out his window, to cook naked, and to cook up a quarantine record for the most romantic gesture. This whirlwind saga involves drone flirtation, a human-sized bubble, millions of views, a great distraction for all of us, and a reminder of our shared humanity.

Directing Duo Coodie & Chike got their big break directing Kanye West’s music video “Through the Wire,” followed by music videos for “Two Words” and “Jesus Walks." They have since worked with big acts like Pitbull, Erykah Badu, Lupe Fiasco, and Mos Def, founded their own production company called Creative Control, and directed docs for ESPN "30 for 30" and BET. Their latest release is "A Kid from Coney Island" about Stephon Marbury. In this conversation with host Justin Gignac, you will learn that not having the time or money or resources to make great work are just excuses, and that wherever your happiness is coming from right now, that’s what really matters. This episode is packed with insights and endless positivity.

Dr. Vivienne Ming is a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur, author, and self-described mad scientist. Socos, her fifth company, is an independent institute exploring the future of human potential. In her free time, Dr. Ming invents AI systems that help treat her diabetic son, predict manic episodes in bipolar sufferers weeks in advance, and reunited orphan refugees with extended family members. Though she creates AI systems and Robotics, Dr. Ming sees creatives and the creative economy as an integral part of the future of work. In this conversation with host Justin Gignac, Dr. Ming offers scientifically proven secrets to a more successful life, advice on how you can future-proof your career with resiliency and a growth mindset, and a whole lot of knowledge that you can drop in your next Zoom call with friends, family, or coworkers.

Charlie Engle is an addict who runs and a runner who writes. He’s not just any kind of runner; he's the first to run across the entire Sahara, and now, he’s attempting to become the first athlete to trek from the lowest point to the highest point on every continent. It’s a fitting pursuit for an individual who has experienced extreme lows, like a 21-month stint in prison and being kidnapped at gunpoint in Kenya, and the extreme highs of bouncing back and forging ahead. Luckily for all of us, Charlie addresses everything with complete candor in this conversation with host Justin Gignac.

Lauren Hom is a Detroit-based designer and letterer, known for her bright color palettes, playful letterforms, and quirky copywriting, Lauren has worked with clients like Starbucks, Google, AT&T, YouTube and TIME Magazine.

Lauren saw herself solely as an illustrator and letterer, but added “teacher” to her list of titles after connecting with a career coach in Vietnam. And who wouldn’t want to have her as a teacher? Lauren wants to put things out there that she wishes she had known when she was getting started. She's a hustler, she’s transparent, she’s humble, and her illustration and lettering business is on track to make half a million dollars this year. Host Justin Gignac was gobsmacked when she admitted this on her IG Stories. For those of you not in illustration and lettering…that’s a lot.

In this episode, you will learn the importance of destigmatizing money in the creative industry, and how necessary it is to be around people who help you dream bigger and encourage you to think about yourself in a different way.

Jonathan Jackson is the co-founder and partner at WeShouldDoItAll, which he started with his wife Sarah Nelson Jackson. The name is born out of a simple intention, that designers should not be confined to a singular expertise. In the words of Robert A. Heinlein, “specialization is for insects.”

WSDIA has dabbled in everything, including branding, spatial, environmental, interactive, and print projects. They’ve collaborated with Nike, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Spotify, Samsung, and ESPN. "I think it's human nature that people want to put a title on you or put you in a box in a certain way. We are constantly trying to fight that. Constantly trying to hold a mirror to ourselves and see how the world sees us and try to combat that."

In this episode, you will learn the power of not having a self-limiting mindset, and how important it is to have diverse voices in the room when creating design and culture.

In less than a decade, Sophia Chang has managed to champion a name for herself in the art, design, and streetwear community worldwide. With her BFA from Parsons School of Design coupled with a natural acumen for business, she has collaborated with A-list names across multiple fields such as Samsung, Nike, Refinery29, Adidas, Apple, Footlocker, HBO, and the NBA.

During this conversation with host Justin Gignac, Sophia describes herself as a skill hoarder. As Sophia explains, “Teach a man how to fish and they’ll eat for the rest of their lives.” It's an approach that has prepared her for evolving in an ever-shifting creative industry, and Sophia is already considering how to draw from that well in the current climate.

In this episode, you will learn to assess and repurpose your skills in new ways for people who may need them. And you’ll learn ways to be proactive when work starts getting slow.

Archie Lee Coates IV is a founder and partner at PLAYLAB, INC., an extremely multi-disciplinary creative practice. With no particular focus, Archie and company simply explore things that interest them by initiating and working with others on ideas. Like + POOL, an initiative to build a water-filtering floating pool in New York’s East River.

During this conversation, recorded live at On Air Fest, Archie discusses the roles that exploration and adventure play in aptly named PLAYLAB, INC's creative approach. "We don't have any goals as an office that are that specific. There's no financial goal. There's no size goal. There's a happiness and quality of life goal."

In this episode, you will learn how to dream bigger, how to seek out that feeling of "I can't believe I'm doing this," and the importance of knowing when to check yourself when you're going through the motions.

This episode is from a live recording on stage in Cannes, France during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Host Justin Gignac has a beachside chat with street art legend Tristan Eaton.

Tristan started pursuing street art as a teenager, painting everything from billboards to dumpsters in the urban landscapes of the cities where he lived. He created his first toy with Fisher-Price at the age of 18 and was and was at the forefront of the designer toy craze in the early 2000s with his work at KidRobot, creating the Dunny and Munny art toys.

He is regularly commissioned by a roster of clients that includes Nike, Versace, and even Barack Obama. These days, Eaton is one of the most prominent street artists working today. His large scale mural work features a meticulous, visual collage of pop imagery mixed with his unique personal style, all executed with freehand spray paint on a colossal scale.

In this episode, you will learn the importance of self-reinvention to escape formulaic mediocrity, how to know if your subconscious is driving your work, and why inviting people into your own invented universe is perhaps the only way to get clients to give you free rein.