Charles Nix, Senior Executive Creative Director at Monotype, stops by to kick off Season 19 of The Reflex Blue Show!

We talk about working with type at scale (Monotype has a font library of 250,000+ from 4,500+ foundries, which is crazy). We also talk about the Fonts, Feels, & Reels: Generational Attitudes to Type – 2025 Report, 1 of the 6 type trends reports monotype released at the end of 2025.

We also discuss the need for a new (well, 2018?) version of Helvetica in Helvetica Now, the Creative Characters podcast, how Charles got started in type design, and more.

November 7th, 2025 marked the 20th anniversary of the podcast launch for “Be A Design Cast” (the show that we did before “The Reflex Blue Show”, which launched March 4th, 2008) … I guess I have been doing this for a while now. At the 10 year date, I wrote a longer post, this milestone gets a paragraph, and one that is 3 months late.

Enjoy.

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Lyn Wineman opened up the 2025 OnBrand Conference in Omaha last month with her talk, “The Invisible Problem: What’s Really Holding You Back – and How to Fix It.” Her talk, covering the importance of branding, was a great way to start a conference on, well, branding.

We talk about signs of a bad brand, a few red flags in a potential new project, and branding.

We also discuss her “Agency for Change” podcast, and her book, “Untangling Spaghetti: A Branding Fable.”

A big thanks goes out once again to the groups behind the OnBrand Conference – AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska.

Enjoy.

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Mark Mohammadpour was the lunch keynote speaker at the 2025 OnBrand Conference in Omaha last month.

Mark, through his company Chasing the Sun®, is a keynote speaker on employee culture and well-being, so, well, we speak about what that actually means (not the keynote speaker part, but what IS employee culture?). We also talk about working in Public Relations and how it is one of the top jobs when it comes to burning out employees. And the things to look for in job postings (both good and bad).

We also discuss Mark’s significant weight-loss from over fifteen years ago, keeping off the weight, and the effects of it.

A big thanks goes out the groups behind the OnBrand Conference for having me out again – AAF Nebraska, AMA Lincoln, AMA Omaha, and PRSA Nebraska.

Enjoy.

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Jessie McGuire of ThoughtMatter was last on The Reflex Blue Show during the 2023 HOW Design Live conference in Nashville, TN. This time, we speak via Zoom about, well, first that Nashville venue, and then move onto ThoughtMatter’s Censor This! event that was held at their office during the New York City Design week back in May and created to discuss what a designers role is in civic engagement.

We also cover their work for the NBA 2K League (the official Esports league of the NBA), ThoughtMatter’s Where Democracy Begins mural (and what it takes to get a mural made in NYC), and more.

Enjoy.

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Rachel Elnar & Erik Cargill of the Cheers & Tiers podcast stop by to talk about their show that is based partly around the heydays of the AIGA Leadership retreats. I was fortunate enough to get to be at six of these conferences, ending with the one in Omaha, Nebraska. I still miss this event and the immediate connections you had with the other 250~ people there. We also talk about design leadership, the need for design community, and human pyramids.

Enjoy.

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Katie Johnson & Ilana Griffo of GoodType stop by The Reflex Blue Show to discuss the many things GoodType has been up to over the past few years.

We talk about The Typecast podcast, their 30 day rotating social media challenges, the GoodType Instagram account still being crazy popular, The Kernference, and more.

Enjoy.

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Stefan Bucher and his monsters return to The Reflex Blue Show. Last being on the show when he was in Omaha back in 2018, well, it’s been a while. But we start by going way back to The Reflex Blue Show episode 2, when his 100 Days of Monsters book had just been released. All these years later? Well, the monsters have never really left, and are now celebrating 20 years with a completed A Revelation of Monsters book that launched on Kickstarter.

We talk about over 1,200 monsters and counting of course, his Skillshare on book design (which leads to how it also covers pricing, which could be a 12 hour Skillshare on its own), how having some savings allows you to say no (and how much of a difference that makes in your career), what 344 is up to now, and more.

Enjoy.

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Prescott Perez-Fox returns to The Reflex Blue Show!

We talk about changing from a career in design to a career in teaching, as well as a career in teaching back to a career in design. We also talk about Creative Mornings, other ways to stay connected today, and more.

Enjoy.

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Paul Lukes stopped by the studio back in November to record the kick-off to Season 18 of The Reflex Blue Show.

We talk about graffiti-inspired art, making time to do fine-art in addition to graphic design, working in collage, the CoLab group Slack channel and quarterly-skills showcase as well as the NoCo Marketing Mixers he helps with in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Enjoy.

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Brayan Montes-Terrazas was part of the inspiration track at the 2024 HOW Design Live Conference in Denver, Colorado. Going under his art name of YAMZ World of Color, his work truly is an inspiration. We talk about how choosing yourself in your creative work can only be good, the path to becoming a full-time illustrator, merch, and more.

Enjoy.

Once again, thanks to the team at HOW on a great conference. This is the last of our recordings from the 2024 event, and for those that missed any, we had three daily recaps:

As well as eight interviews (which includes this one):

This was my thirteenth HOW Conference (the first being the 2009 event in Austin, Texas), and I cannot say how much of an impact it has had on me – the friends and memories I have made over the years at this wonderful event, the numerous speakers I have had the opportunity to podcast with, the events that surround the conference, and so much more. This month, they posted on their website, “We have made the difficult decision to postpone HOW Design LIVE, including the 2025 event. While we recognize this may cause inconvenience, this decision enables us to better align with the evolving industry landscape and focus on creating an even more impactful and valuable experience for our community in the future. Thank you for supporting HOW Design Live and its community over the past 35 years.” I do hope to see this event again, but I also know that the community that it created will remain for a long time.

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