Students of Design

James is an author, type designer, and the founder of OHno Type Company, a digital type foundry based in San Jose, California. You might license some of his wildly imaginative fonts, including Beastly, Ohno Fatface, Degular, Polymath, Regrets, Obviously, and Hobeaux. Before he got his start in the bowels of graphic design, James studied design at California College of the Arts. Then he learned how to cast typographic spells while attending the Hogwarts of type design, AKA Type Media at the Royal Academy of the Arts in The Hague, Netherlands. James is also an educator and a podcaster—check out his podcast, Ohno Radio—and swears that Canson marker paper is holy in the world of sketching. If you geek out over naming, you'll be excited to learn that James almost named his foundry "The Spaghetti Factory" or "The American International Type Company." I don't know how to make those options make sense, but hey, man, back OFF, Life's a Thrill, and Fonts Are Chill.

Tune in for a talk about James's number one rule of letterspacing, his father's love for toasters, and the dominance of low-contrast sans-serif typefaces. Follow James on Instagram @ohnotypeco, purchase his fonts on his website ohnotype.co, or add them on Adobe Fonts, and read this blog post if you want to get started in type design. THEN, read his book, The Ohno Book: A Serious Guide to Irreverent Type Design, to level up even more.

Questions for this interview.

• Why do you design a specific set of characters before others, and how does that make you more efficient as a type designer?
• Can you explain the “Counterspace Equals Letterspace Technique,” also known as your “Rule #1 of Spacing?”
• Another technique is something you call “Three at a time.” Why three, and what do you mean by that?
• Which of these do you think is less important? Spacing or drawing good vectors?
• Why shouldn’t someone digitize their letterform sketches in Adobe Illustrator, and what makes applications like RoboFont and Glyphs so much better?
• Can you tell us what you learned from Jesse Ragan and his process for vectorizing a typeface called Showcard Stunt?
• Your father was an English teacher for 40 years. What did he say he should have been instead?
• Do you think you’re following your passion in the way your father didn’t follow his?
• What you do as a type designer is very specialized. Have you ever felt like you backed yourself into a corner or regretted not becoming a more well-rounded designer?
• Selling fonts on your website generates around 50% of Ohno's revenue, and Adobe Fonts accounts for another 40%. Is this still accurate? Can you explain how Adobe tracks sales and how that works?
• Why wouldn’t a type foundry choose to distribute with Adobe Fonts?
• How do you decide which ideas to pursue and actually turn into digital fonts?
• You recently released a book called The Ohno Book: A Serious Guide to Irreverent Type Design. Who’s it for? What’s inside it? What are we gonna learn by reading it?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com

Maya is an author and multi-hyphenate creative leader based in the San Fransico Bay Area, specializing in art direction, brand design, and illustration. Today, she's a Brand Design Lead at Yahoo, but she also worked at Lyft, Asana, and Square. WAY before working at any of those places, she spent the weekends at her grandmother's playing Sonic the Hedgehog and drawing Powerpuff Girls and Sailor Moon. She's also obsessed with 80s, 90s, and early 2000s pop culture, and has an affinity for hard edges, shapes, color blocks, and vibrancy. Recently, and in response to the murder of George Floyd, Maya spent three years writing and illustrating her book called The Anti-Racist Vocab Guide: An Illustrated Introduction to Dismantling Anti-Blackness. An excellent resource to learn more about terms like assimilation, blackface, privilege, tokenism, and white supremacy.

Tune in for a talk about her career as an in-house designer in the tech industry, showcasing culture in your work, how writing grounds and influences her visual directions, and the salad bowl theory. Follow Maya on Instagram @mayaealey, find brand design on her website mayaealey.com, and buy her book, The Anti-Racist Vocab Guide: An Illustrated Introduction to Dismantling Anti-Blackness, online.

Questions for this interview.

• In general, how were you able to string together such a solid list of companies to work for? (And) Looking back, is there anything that you believe you did (really) well that helped you get those jobs?
• What would you say to a college student who’s hesitant to take an in-house job or a mid-career designer considering a transition from agency life? What’s waiting for them in the in-house world?
• If you had to start looking for a job tomorrow, what signs would you look for that tell you a company truly cares about creativity and design?
• You often start your process with words and emphasize writing over visuals. Why do you do that, and can you explain how that approach helps you shape your visual direction?
• What about the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s still speaks to you emotionally or visually?
• What advice would you give someone who wants to showcase culture in their work but doesn’t quite know how to incorporate it?
• Your mother emphasized the importance of your education and self-sufficiency. How have those ideas influenced your creative career over time?
• Can you give us some context behind why your book exists, what it’s a response to, and what you hope people take away from reading it?
• How did you balance clarity with depth, especially when simplifying terms that carry so much history and weight?
• Can you help us understand the difference between the salad bowl and melting pot theories?
• Suppose someone’s in the middle of an interview process and they’re concerned about a company's commitment to diversity. What can they do to figure out how important diversity is to the company they’re interviewing with? Or what would you do?
• What have the most inclusive environments done well to make you feel seen and supported?
• Are you still holding yourself back? Are you still on the journey to authenticity?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com

Olga is a Ukrainian-born and New Jersey-based muralist and lettering artist. Thanks to her godfather, she began painting at the age of six and has been an artist ever since. She has created artwork for notable clients, including Crayola, Snapchat, Tillamook, Coca-Cola, Trader Joe's, and others. Olga spent nearly a decade working in the magazine industry, and she reviewed a lot of resumes during that time. One time, someone's father called Olga to ask why she hadn't hired his daughter for a job opening. YIKES! After branching out on her own, and after hundreds of murals and lettering projects, she has a basement full of paint and way too many pens and pencils to know what to do with them. She's also a firm believer that Alphacolor makes the most buttery and saturated chalk you will ever find. Some of her book recommendations are "In Progress" by Jessica Hische, "The Lettering Manual" by House Industries, "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg, and "The Body" by Bill Bryson. Once upon a time, she was afraid of dogs and highways, but has replaced those fears with a love for bunnies, hiking, and typography.   

Tune in for a talk about fundraising to support those affected by the invasion of Ukraine, how to use toothpicks, tweezers, and paintbrushes to refine food lettering compositions, and what to do when a client tells you to create whatever you want instead of giving you any type of direction. Follow Olga on Instagram @olgamuzician, and check out more of her work on her website: olgamuzician.com. If you're interested in learning how to make art with food and objects, you should take her tactile lettering class on Skillshare!

Questions for this interview.

• Did you ever think lawn signs would help lead you to such a meaningful mural in your career?
• Regarding the invasion of Ukraine. How're you doing? How're you holding up overall? Can you share some of your feelings about what's happening over there?
• How did it feel to see your work take on that kind of public and emotional significance?
• Can you explain what tactile lettering is for anyone hearing that term for the first time?
• What's the most surprisingly cooperative food you've worked with, and which one made you want to quit halfway through?
• Can you walk us through how tools like tweezers, toothpicks, and a paintbrush help you refine food lettering compositions?
• How often do the foods you want to work with influence the words within a design? Or do you usually come up with the messaging first and then select the most appropriate foods to match those words?
• What went wrong when you tried to add the finishing coat to your hand-painted skateboard?
• You painted a challenging set of murals for HoneyStash. Could you elaborate on the challenges of that project and explain how the viewer's vantage point made it difficult to paint those murals?
• What questions do you think we should ask ourselves before agreeing to a project with a low budget? Or, in other words, how do you decide if it's worth it?
• Is your mural minimum still $3,500?
• How do you handle a client who doesn't have a clue what they actually want and just tells you to do whatever you want to do?
• What made you feel successful, or what would make you feel that way? Is it a particular income amount? Is it a specific type of work or a specific client? Is it something else?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com

Kory is the Creative Director and Founder of Park St Studio, a design studio based in Phoenix, Arizona. His wife, Kasey, is also his business partner, and she played a significant role in establishing the processes and practices that streamline the studio's operations. They have a great story of how they met, and together, they've worked with apparel brands, breweries, coffee shops, and the Phoenix Suns, among others. Their focus is on branding, packaging, merchandise, and custom illustrations, and Kory's come a long way since his childhood days of spray painting on particle board in his backyard. He's a fan of DKNG, David Walker, Benny Gold, I Am Sloth, and Wacom products, and he would love to have dinner with Ellen DeGeneres because he thinks she's hilarious. Here's his favorite quote: "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

Tune in for a talk about taking your design business to the next level with a CRM, learn precisely when he talks to his clients about how much money they should pay him, and he breaks down how he handles discouraging feedback without losing his confidence. Follow Kory on Instagram @korymiller and his studio @parkststudio. You'll find more of his work on his website: parkststudio.com. Party on!

Questions for this interview.

• Can you explain what Kasey does for the studio, talk about her expertise, and describe how her skills complement yours?
• Eventually, Kasey stepped away from her job to devote all of her energy to Park St Studio. What was that transition like for both of you? Was it stressful, exciting? How do you remember feeling?
• How do you interact with clients so they feel like you're a part of their team, rather than just a person they've hired to create something for them?
• How did you feel when you realized you weren't the only person who didn't have it all figured out?
• What is it about the way you approach those conversations, and why do you think clients feel comfortable with the thought of working with you?
• How quickly and at which point in the process do you start discussing money if the client doesn't bring it up first?
• What advice would you give to someone trying to determine the value of their work?
• Is there a process, a technique, or an approach you've picked up from another studio or agency that has helped you run your business more efficiently and better overall?
• So, when a client lets you know you've missed the mark, how do you process discouraging feedback without letting it shake your confidence?
• You painted a mural in the middle of an active construction site. What was that experience like, and what was your biggest takeaway from it?
• Can you explain how your use of Instagram has evolved, and also touch on how you've used the search feature, hashtags, and other accounts to help you find new people to work with?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com

Nathan is a seasoned Illustrator, Artist, and Designer living in Austin, TX, and surprisingly, we never crossed paths while I was living in Austin. But I bet we were in the same place at the same time and never even realized it. His artwork draws inspiration from urban culture, graffiti, street fashion, and sports. At the same time, his use of texture and exaggerated character features adds a gritty New York City vibe to his illustrations. Nathan's list of clients includes the NBA, NFL, New Balance, Under Armour, Nike, Timberland, and other well-known brands. Besides reminiscing about cartoons from the '80s and '90s or classic G.I. Joe packaging, he enjoys sitting down for a meal at Jeffrey's Grocery. He's also the only person I know who has participated in a 4-hour design competition on YouTube for a chance to win $10,000.

Tune in for a talk about why he was afraid to label himself as an illustrator early on in his career, why a part of him belongs to New York City, and how he almost derailed a design competition by asking to use the restroom, lol. Follow Nathan on Instagram @atpcdesign and check out more of his work on his website: alltheprettycolors.com. Also, "Don't Never Not Give Up".

Questions for this interview.

• Do you think most people have the perception that you're only an illustrator, and do you feel like the rest of your skills are underrecognized?
• Having lived in Dallas for a bit, is any part of you a Dallas Cowboys fan?
• You've created artwork for the Dallas Mavericks. Can you explain how you got your foot in the door with the Mavs and describe what you made for them?
• When illustrating basketball players, how do you decide which details to emphasize to make a player recognizable?
• How do you break down movements like a crossover or a reverse layup into something static yet still dynamic in your illustrations?
• What is it about New York City that captures your attention, and how does the city influence you?
• Could you explain the concept behind the Trio of Time series, and then tell us about the inspiration behind the idea for your timepiece?
• Did that project teach you anything new, and what challenges did you encounter when designing for such a small mechanical footprint?
• You were on a design competition show called Card Stars. What did you know and what didn't you know about the competition before it started?
• Was the competition the first time you've ever sat down to create within such a strict, uninterrupted block of time?
• How stressful was the experience of working within a strict time limit on your slow-ass laptop, with cameras rolling, people shuffling around, and the weight of trying to do your best work for a chance to win 10,000 dollars?
• Making your family proud was essential to you. Do you feel like you did that?
• Which collaboration felt the most like a true reflection of your own voice as an artist, and why?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com

Adam is the Principal and Creative Director of Vicarel Studios, an artful branding and graphic design studio in Denver, Colorado. He loves avocados, even though he was willing to cut them (and feta) out of his diet early on in his career to be more frugal. RESPECT. Adam has worked with notable clients like NBC, lululemon, New Belgium Brewing, SYFY, and Native Roots Cannabis Co., and he believes "If you're thinking about doing a thing, you probably should have already done it." We hung out in Austin earlier this year, had some drinks, I told him about the biological father I can't find, and then he snuck off to the restroom to take a sip of whiskey from his flask—frugal. I'm kidding, the flask part didn't happen, but it's 100% believable. One of my favorite questions I asked him in this interview was about how our work expands to fill the available time we allot it.

Tune in for a talk about four near-death experiences in four years, why he rebranded and repositioned his studio in 2020, and the most significant amount of money he billed for a single project. Follow Adam on Instagram @adamvicarel, connect with him on LinkedIn, and subscribe to his almost weekly newsletter at vicarelstudios.com/newsletter. Yeah, dawgie!

Questions for this interview.

• Can you tell us why someone held you up at gunpoint and how you felt in that moment?
• You were involved in a car wreck. How would you rate the safety of your 2019 Kia?
• Could you explain Parkinson's Law and share your thoughts on it?
• There was a time you described your work as an artful implementation of strategic design. Why did you decide that wasn't working, and how have you refined the way you talk about your studio since then?
• Can you share why you felt the need to rebrand in the first place and what your objectives were in trying to reposition yourself?
• Which templates or practices would you implement sooner if you could go back in time?
• If you think back on your life and your career, what are some of the reasons you were resistant to taking action?
• What's the budget or dollar range you hope a majority of the projects you accept fall within?
• How fearful have you been that you'll present finished ideas to a client and they respond in a way that makes you believe they feel like they're not getting their money's worth?
• Will you share the most money you've made on a single project?
• What does the phrase "chasing the fog" mean to you?
• Why do you view perfectionism as a form of procrastination and ultimately an excuse that many creatives use?
• Can you think of a time when giving first (without expectations) came back to you in an unexpected way?
• Can you tell the story of how you fucked up on The Real Housewives of Dallas, and talk about what you wanted to do on the show, but you didn't do?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com

Brooks is a SoCal-born and Colorado-raised Independent Designer and Illustrator based in Denver. For the past 10(ish) years, he's been the driving force behind Nowhere Land, an outdoor and adventure-inspired apparel brand and design shop. You can recognize his work by its bold colors and stylized landscapes that transform into the shapes of animals.

I met Brooks this year (2025) at Crop Conference in Austin, TX, while we were reviewing student portfolios, and we almost got into a fender bender on our way to Via 313 for lunch. Luckily, the other driver recognized Brooks as the Skatepark Gremlin, and everyone calmed the hell down. Lol, I made that part up. We didn't talk about this, but I love how the compositions of his designs remind me of tattoos. However, something we DID discuss was what it was like for him to live and work out of his RV full-time.  

Tune in for a talk about reaching milestones by setting smaller goals, how he shifts his perspective when he realizes he's complaining about working for himself, and some insight into his process for making color palettes. Follow Brooks on Instagram @nowherelandsupply and consider sketching in the color pink, because Brooks does, and because it works.

Questions for this interview.

• You're great at many things. What do you think you don't do so well?
• What was it like working for yourself full-time out of an RV?
• I'm pretty sure Starlink wasn't around in 2016, so how did you access the internet when you needed it?
• You thought you would work for The Duck Company forever. Why did you think that, and why didn't you stay there forever?
• You said you would rather struggle working for yourself than for somebody else. Five years later, do you still feel the same way in 2025?
• Can you explain what the phrase "short steps, long vision" means to you?
• When you find yourself complaining about working independently, what perspective or mindset helps you step back and appreciate the freedom that working for yourself offers?
• Baseball was your life until 19 or 20—how did the shift away from pursuing pro baseball open the door to art and design for you?
• What kind of inspiration and techniques have you pulled from different designers and illustrators?
• Do you still use a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator for your illustrations? If so, how do you split the work between those two applications for a typical project?
• How often do you lose work because of Photoshop or Illustrator crashing? Is it easy for you to remember to save frequently, or do you still get caught off guard?
• How much direction from a client do you need to feel comfortable getting started, and how do you push back when a client says "do whatever you want"?
• Can you walk us through where you like to sample colors from, or where you look for inspiration?
• How have the compositions of your illustrations improved over the years?
• The 10th anniversary of Nowhere Land is in 2026. What does that mean for you, and how does it make you feel?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com

Andrew is an Independent Designer in Colorado Springs who runs a studio called Impossibly Awesome Design Co. He specializes in logo and brand identity design, packaging, and illustration. Many of you know him from attending Crop Conference, and if you've been to The Springs within the past few years and had a beer at Bristol Brewing, you probably came across his work.

I met Drew on October 15, 2022. Trust me, I found the calendar invite for our very first coffee hangout shortly after I moved to Colorado, and he's a big reason I was able to get involved in the local design community so quickly. Drew was also on my original shortlist of potential guests for this podcast, so interviewing him has been a long time coming. If you hang out with him long enough, you'll start to learn things about competitive volleyball, bourbon, the Rubik's Cube, and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. One of the most fascinating things about Drew's creative journey is that he's completely self-taught. He didn't attend school for design, but he does hold degrees in marketing and finance. Finance? Yeah, finance.

Tune in for a talk about the pros and cons of being a self-taught graphic designer, curating his (own) design curriculum, cherry-picking the best ideas from the people he admires, and tips for getting started on a project when starting doesn't feel impossibly awesome. Follow Drew on Instagram @impossiblyawesomedesign, and check out his portfolio website: impossiblyawesome.design.

Questions for this interview.

• Why was the Bristol Brewing project the one that helped you feel like a true professional?
• You asked Nick Longo for help on that project. What kind of help were you looking for, and what advice did Nick give you?
• What kind of impact has Colin Christie made on your design career?
• What gaps or challenges have you encountered as a self-taught designer that you think could have been addressed in design school?
• How has being self-taught helped you as a designer? In other words, what are the advantages of being self-taught?
• Were there times when you seriously considered enrolling in a formal design program? What ultimately kept you on the self-taught track?
• How do you like to invest in yourself, and what are some examples of things you've spent money on to help you level up?
• Have you ever purchased a design course or a resource and felt like you didn't get your money's worth?
• Did you do anything differently this year in preparation for the Crop Conference or during the event compared to previous years?
• Do you remember which presentation at Crop was your favorite?
• Do you find it challenging to stay creative and consistently generate great ideas?
• Do you think working in-house or at an agency full-time would make it easier to stay creatively locked in, or do you think it would be even more challenging?
• When did it finally sink in for you that you can say no to the projects you're not super excited about?
• Do you have any tips for getting started on a project when you're feeling overwhelmed?
• Why is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield worth reading, and how can it help us break through creative barriers?
• Since getting married recently, is there a possibility that combining your incomes could expedite your decision to leave your day job and focus on Impossibly Awesome Design Co. full-time?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com

Marisa is a Chicana woman and the Creative Director behind If Only Creative, a Bay Area creative studio she founded in 2022. Her studio offers brand identity and packaging design, social media strategy and management, content creation, and trend-setting commercial photography. After serving ice cream, burgers, and coffee, and changing her major three times in college, Marisa attended the University of Huddersfield—which she claims is an amazing place, but I don't believe her—and earned a degree in Marketing. After living in England for seven years, holding roles at creative agencies and breweries, and spending thousands of hours listening to Miley Cyrus, she moved back to sunny California to focus on working with women- and POC-owned businesses that are impact-driven. Along the way, Marisa turned her frustrations surrounding the way people celebrate Cinco de Mayo into a special dinner series highlighting and honoring the ingredients and flavors found in Puebla, Mexico, called El Otro Lado.

Tune in for a talk about her connection to the food and beverage industry, the effects of defining your core values, and how forming an advisory board of creative people she trusts has helped her grow her business. Follow Marisa on Instagram @ifonlycreative, and check out the delicious-looking work on her website: ifonly-creative.com.

Questions for this interview.

• First things first. Have you met Miley Cyrus yet?
• What was your childhood like, and what can you tell us about how you grew up?
• Why did you pivot away from saying "Latina-owned" and start saying "Chicana-owned," and can you talk about the nuances of that decision?
• IF you consider your career, are you finally doing what your heart tells you you should be doing?
• Why does the food & beverage industry have such a firm grip on you, and why does your passion thrive in that industry?
• How did defining your core values provide clarity and direction for your creative work and your business goals?
• How do you check yourself to ensure that your approach to a client project is grounded in authenticity for both you and your client?
• How can you quickly tell if a client is more interested in the community or the competition?
• What does the phrase "impact-driven" mean to you, and can you give us an example of an impact-driven client you've worked with and how they make an impact in the world?
• Could you explain what El Otro Lado is and provide a better understanding of what frustrated you when you came up with the concept?
• What is your ultimate goal for the event, and what do you hope people who attend one of the dinners will take away from the experience?
• What are you looking for, and what are some essential qualities a designer needs to showcase when you're searching for someone to partner with on a project?
• Why did you create an advisory board, and how does it help you grow as a business owner?
• How did you discover you were charging at least four times less than the amount you should have been charging for your services?
• What can you do differently that you believe would make you a better leader?

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If you LIKE what you hear, please subscribe and keep listening. Sharing this episode with someone is the best way to support the podcast. 

If you LOVE what you hear and want to help me keep the interviews coming—consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi.

Also, I'm always looking for questions from listeners. If there's a burning question you want to hear answered on the podcast, please email it to me at [email protected].

Follow @studentsofdesignpod on Instagram for updates, episode drops, and behind-the-scenes content.

The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

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Nicholas—Nick—is a Graphic Designer and founder of Miner Design Co., located near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He specializes in identity design, illustration, and packaging design, and works with restaurants, food and beverage companies, hospitality, and retail clients. Embracing discomfort has been a recurring theme throughout Nick's life, and much of his work ethic stems from his experiences living with his grandfather. He's a firm believer in "People Over Projects," and building relationships with his clients is more important than the dollar amount tied to each project. But, don't get it twisted, Nick's just like us. When he was younger, he wanted to build things with K'NEX for a living. He has a bookshelf full of design books that he doesn't reference often enough, he sent a job to print with a watermarked Shutterstock image in the layout, and he worries about where his next client will come from.

Tune in for a talk about running his business, screwing up his taxes, and good old fashioned printed self-promotion pieces. Follow Nick on Instagram @minderdesignco, connect with him on LinkedIn, and see award-winning work on his website: minerdesignco.com.

Questions for this interview.

• What does the phrase "People Over Projects" mean to you?
• Have you ever had a client demand a refund during a project?
• What conversation do you have with yourself, and how do you reframe rejection when a pitch or one of your proposals gets turned down or maybe even ignored?
• Would you recommend a troublesome client to a close design friend? How would you handle that situation? Is it something you've run into before?
• Your grandfather once said, "There may be men out there stronger or smarter than me, but nobody is going to outwork me." How do these words shape you and Miner Design Co.?
• Do you struggle to find balance between honoring that work ethic and knowing when to step back?
• Can you tell us the story of how your grandmother helped you redefine how you were marketing yourself and how she helped you get a job after graduation from LSU?
• You had a rough and uncomfortable childhood, and you moved seven times in high school. How did that volatility shape your ability to adapt and persevere in your career today?
• Surprisingly, you left your full-time agency job when your daughter was born. Why did you make that decision, and how did you and Katie prepare financially and emotionally for that transition?
• Have you ever made a mistake with your taxes?
• What was your biggest "aha" moment in your first year after going all in on Miner Design Co.?
• What part of the business still intimidates you in 2025?
• You recently posted a video on Instagram about your latest self-promotion piece. Can you talk about how it works, who you're sending it to, its versatility, and the cost of producing each one?

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The music you hear on the podcast is Accident by Timothy Infinite and PUSH !T by Nbhd Nick.

studentsofdesign.simplecast.com