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Have you ever found yourself straddling the world of art and the world of design, not sure if you should commit fully to one or the other? 

Enter Zach Litoff, a multi-media artist AND designer whose work blends art and design to create visually compelling narratives. He’s here to chat about existing in both worlds and the benefits he’s found in living in multiple creative spaces. 

In this conversation you’ll hear about Zach’s multi passionate interests in art, science and athletics. You’ll hear an interesting idea about the ways in which the historically significant painters were, in fact, designers. You’ll hear about the mind shift that’s helpful to blur the lines of commissioned design and artistic practice and Zach’s approach to different types of creative projects. Finally, you’ll hear about a few recent, meaningful projects Zach’s most proud of and Zach’s approach to failure.

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We’re talking about brands with multi award winning designer Amelia Nash, Brand & Marketing Manager for the School of Visual Arts Masters in Branding program and Senior Staff Writer for PRINT Magazine.

In this conversation, you’ll hear about Amelia’s predictions in branding through 2025 related to strategy, design and emerging practices.She shares her excitement about typographic revival in brand identity design and sustainable practices in packaging. 

You’ll hear about the way branding is an ecosystem, balancing trendiness with timelessness and the influence of local design on global brand strategy, and Amelia shares a range of examples throughout. We end the conversation with Amelia’s hope for the future of branding (which is her hope for humans everywhere!).

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Let’s talk portfolios!

Meet Robert Smith, a seasoned creative leader, branding strategist, and published author with over 30 years of experience in the design and marketing industry. He is the architect/creative director of the beloved Farm Boy brand. With a reputation for blending creativity with business acumen, Robert has been recognized with more than 100 industry awards for excellence in design and branding.

In this conversation full of rich insights, you’ll hear why even bad internships are successful in developing self-awareness, excellent advice for portfolio creation, as well as advice on where to have digital presence as a designer. You’ll better understand why storytelling is so important in a portfolio and how to approach it, portfolio upkeep, and concrete Ideas for standing out in a competitive space. Finally, you’ll hear what you can learn from a box of Fruit Loops about promoting your work.

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In this episode, you’ll meet one of Diana's best friends, Eden Kim, who talks about her recent career break travelling around the world and the lessons she’s learned along the way. Eden considers herself a global citizen, with home being wherever her heart happens to be visiting at any given time. Over the years, she’s transformed from a 21-year-old from South Korea who didn’t speak English to someone who moved to Canada alone, built a cross-border career, and became a fearless networker.

This conversation is anchored around an event, a lesson and a story Eden’s learned over the past 1+ year. You’ll hear small world stories and profound learnings. You can follow Eden’s journey on instagram at @edenkimfromkorea.

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Back your bags, we’re going on a trip! 

Today I am speaking with Mark Domanski, Director of Destinations, who oversees the build and expansion of the immersive miniature exhibits at Little Canada. 

In this conversation, you’ll hear about the design and creative collaboration within Little Canada, as well as the attraction’s origin story. You’ll learn about the interdisciplinary nature of the build team, and materials and techniques used to create the models.

You’ll hear how storytelling happens in the space, including the incorporation of Indigenous voices, in consultation with Indigenous communities. Finally, Mark shares his ‘not to be missed’ list of what to see when you check out the space for yourself. 

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Today we are talking about signs that define Toronto! Featured today is Kurt Kraler, a registered Architect (OAA) and project manager at ERA Architects and co-creator of the book “The Signs That Define Toronto”.

In this episode you’ll better understand how and why signs can tell us so much about the changing culture of a city, including iconic signs like Honest Ed’s, Tip Top Tailors and Zanzibar (and why the latter is particularly unique). You’ll learn how signs can shape community identities, Queer signage in Toronto, and why signs in Toronto changed after 1911. 

You’ll hear Kurt’s big a-ha moment in the final stages of finishing his book, the importance of shifting policy around historical sign preservation, and a San Fransisco advocacy group’s approach to restoring and preserving neon signage within their city.

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This final episode of 2024 features Austrian interface and app designer and fellow type geek, Oliver Schöndorfer. In this episode, you’ll learn LOTS about web typography, specifically:

• How Oliver defines web typography
• Web font hierarchy 
• The ins and outs of choosing a typeface for the web
• The difference between ‘web fonts’ and ‘web safe fonts’
• A brief history of web typography
• The crossovers between typography for print and typography for the web
• The way that screen size plays a role in setting type
• Why variable fonts are a game-changer for the web, including how optical sizing works
• Best practices for accessible web typography
• The difference between absolute and relative units and why this matters
• Why we shouldn’t trust AI-generated type (yet)
• And finally, Oliver indulges Diana’s improv game to summarize key takeaways about web typography in to a dessert metaphor (yum!)

I encourage you to check out my two previous episodes with Oliver, Episode 134: Pairing Type with Oliver of Pimp My Type and Episode 156: Untapped Typography Potential.

Check out the show notes for some links to articles Oliver mentions in the episode at www.talkpaperscissors.info. 

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This episode features Radim Malinic, the creative director and designer at the helm of award-winning branding and creative studio Brand Nu Studio and the independent publishing firm Brand Nu Books. In this episode, you’ll hear about Radim’s journey and evolution with mindfulness techniques, why Radim is a self-described ‘Eternally Curious Idiot’, what his unbalanced existence used to look like versus what his more balanced existence looks like now. We chat about failure, opportunity and fear. Finally, you’ll hear about Radim’s 7th, forthcoming book, including the book he decided not to write and the one he’s writing instead.

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This episode features Alec Vivier-Reynaud, a french bio-designer and graphic designer. At the intersection of biology and graphic design, his biodesign researches propose a new paradigm where images become living entities. You’ll hear about Alec’s love of printmaking and how Alec’s proprietary process works. If you think combining cyan, magenta, yellow and black is cool, you’ll be fascinated by what happens when you combine bio inks (think beyond colour to texture, volume, shine and more). Finally, you’ll hear what happens to type when Alec prints letterforms.

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This episode features Jess Goldsmith, founder of Women of Type!

In this episode, you’ll hear about Jess’ role in the world of type, including the community she’s created, uplifting and amplifying the work of women and non-binary artists in the typography and lettering industry. 

You'll also hear about recent features that Jess is jazzed about and ways to get featured on the women of Type page.

Finally, Jess shares great advice for creative professionals everywhere.

I'm all about interesting projects with interesting people!
Let's Connect on the web or via Instagram. :)