About Spencer Nugent

As the founder of Sketch-A-Day.com, Nugent has been engaged in providing free, high-quality online design sketching tutorials and on-site sketch workshops since 2008.. 
Nugent has worked with General Motors, Astro Studios as well as brands including Adidas, Dell, Intel, Hasbro, and more..
 Through his own business, 50/50 creative labs, he provides creative experimentation and consulting in the categories of Industrial Design, UX, Graphics, Illustration, Prototyping, and Implementation. 
On top of his regular content creation and running his business, Spencer has partnered with Advanced Design and teaches a 12-week online course on Design Discourse for the educational program Offsite with the goal of helping students to figure out why they design, what they design for, and how to communicate the value of their work.

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What does it take to create a game and launch it from the ground up? How do you prepare concepts to pitch to major retailers like Target and Wal Mart? Tim Walsh shares his uncensored advice on how to successfully navigate the challenges of creating games and toys in the play industry. 

About Tim Walsh
 TIM WALSH is a professional speaker, author, game designer and filmmaker. As a play advocate, Tim is out to prove play is a means through which we find our passion,pique curiosity, encourage problem-solving, spark creativity and promote intrinsic motivation. A 30-year veteran of the toy industry, Tim’s designs and codesigns of games have sold over 7 million copies in 13 countries and include the games TriBond, Blurt, Mad Gab, Feed Fuzzy, Bull’s Eye and many others. 

Tim’s latest game, MEGA MOUTH: The Game of Reading Lips from Big G Creative is now for sale exclusively in Target stores nationally.

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When is the last time you've been deeply inspired by the world around us and the amazing things we have created? Yorgo Lykouria shares inspiring insights on his design process, how we can make an impact, and what it takes for us to create our ideal environment.  This audio was taken from a live YouTube Q&A segment featuring Yorgo. You can view it here.

About Yorgo Lykouria

Rainlight is an integrated design studio, operating between offices in London and New York with client collaborations across North America, Europe, and Asia. Part Laboratory, part workshop, part studio, Rainlight combines inspired design thinking with business acumen to create products that enhance how people live, work, and play.

London-based Creative Director, Yorgo Lykouria, discovers the needs of a changing world through cross‐cultural research utilizing an extensive network of experts in various market sectors. A selection of some of Rainlight’s internationally-renowned partners includes Tecno, Scavolini, Allsteel, Carnegie, Zumtobel and Okamura.

For more information follow @Rainlightstudio on social and visit www.Rainlightstudio.com

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In this episode we discuss how having clear vision/mission statements can make or break your final design. We talk about mentorship, how to choose final design solutions, and what makes a designer more or less successful.  This episode was a live recording that aired June 4,2021 and can be viewed online on The Variable YouTube channel.

The "daisy chain" mentioned in the podcast: 

Design ...is one of many...
Outcomes ...which are created by...
People ...who are attracted to...
Culture ...which is built from...
Organizations ...that arise from...
Strategy ...that is determined by...
Mission ... which is driven by...
Vision 

About Bob Baxley

Bob Baxley is a design executive who lives and works in Silicon Valley. He currently serves as the Senior Vice-President of Design & Experience at ThoughtSpot, a business intelligence and data analytics platform. Prior to ThoughtSpot, Bob was Head of Product Design at Pinterest where he built, led, and managed a multifaceted design team responsible for both the consumer and business facing elements of Pinterest.

Starting in 2006, Bob spent over eight years at Apple, where he served in senior leadership roles for Apple’s retail and e-commerce teams. As a Director of Design, Bob hired and led the creative team responsible for a broad variety of applications including the Apple Online Store, the Apple Store app, and the transactional areas of iPhoto and GarageBand.

As Director of Design for Yahoo! Search, Bob built and led the design team that created Yahoo! Answers and designed other search-centric properties. Bob’s career as a designer began at Claris Corporation where he was Lead UI Designer for the initial releases of ClarisWorks and MacProject Pro.

The author of “Making the Web Work”, Bob is also a sought after public speaker sharing his experiences and observations about a range of topics related to design, technology, innovation, and the culture of Silicon Valley.

Bob holds a B.A. in History and a B.S in Radio/Television/Film from the University of Texas at Austin as well as a Master of Liberal Arts from Stanford University.

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About Brett Lovelady:

Brett Lovelady is the founder of ASTRO Studios in San Francisco / Silicon Valley / CA. ASTRO
is a team of innovation experts & designers of consumer brands and products that inspire
markets and strive to improve the human experience.
Brett founded ASTRO Studios in 1994 to blend the value of design with technology and cultural insights producing a wide range of iconic, brands and products for clients like: Nike, HP, Western Digital, Logitech, P&G, Shinola, Xbox, Vive and many more worldwide.  Brett is recognized as one of America’s top design leaders, advocating for design and directing some of the world’s most culturally relevant programs, while helping clients generate billions in new
revenue worldwide.
 
ASTRO and Brett have worked on hundreds of products and brands, from Fortune 100 clients to start-ups, receiving a range of industry recognitions including Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in Design, two BusinessWeek Design of the Decade awards and 9 nominations for Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Brett has also co-created and launched his own brands, most notably ASTRO Gaming** now part of Logitech’s family of brands. Recently ASTRO joined forces with London based PA Consulting a world leader in innovation & commercialization.

 **ASTRO expanded beyond design when in 2007 when they spun-off ASTRO Gaming
Inc., (AG) into an industry leading, hi-performance e-Sports company. In 2011 the venture-
backed AG achieved #13 on the INC. 500 fastest-growing companies list and was acquired by
pre-IPO, Skullcandy Inc.  Then in 2017, AG was sold Logitech expanding rapidly in pursuit of
global gaming domination.

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This audio is taken from a YouTube live event with Michael DiTullo. View replay of the original broadcast on The Variable

In this episode of The Variable we sit down with the famous Michael DiTullo and talk about the fundamentals of Industrial design and cover the following lessons from Michael's illustrious career.
- What do Industrial Designers do? Clarifying our mission, purpose, and how the online personification of an industrial designer isn't true to our actual role. 
- Major milestones of your career as an Industrial Designer?
- The purpose of sketching
- What defines successful design?
- Value of unconventional design process

And we open up the mics for guests to speak with Michael during our Q&A segment. 

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Jacob Ballard from the famous Instagram account @sketchfresh talks about what it takes to level up as an industrial designer. In this live Q&A episode we talk about how to successfully find new clients as a freelancer, how to improve your portfolio, the value of sketch ideation and what we can expect to see for the future of industrial design. Most importantly, we talk about the emotional impact of design.  Be sure to follow this sketch master at www.sketchfresh.com

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In this episode of The Variable we talk about what it takes to take yourself to the next level as an Industrial Designer and how to make the most out of your early years in the industry. Britt shares his experience spreading his wings just after graduating, the lessons he's learned along the way, and he tells us specific things we can do to make the best impression in job interviews. He talks about pushing ourselves to perform in our design work, and the value of getting uncomfortable to see success. 

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If you're looking for advice on how to turn your side hustle into your main hustle, our interview with Scotty Russell from The Perspective Collective won't disappoint. Scotty shares his inspiring story of how he started from rock bottom and built up a creative community and thriving business. Be sure to check out Scotty's mentorship programs and design products on his website and subscribe to his weekly podcast The Perspective Podcast  for added motivation to help you get through your weekly grind. 


About Scotty Russell

Scotty is an artist, designer, coach, podcaster, and speaker working under the name Perspective-Collective. He’s an outer space, pizza loving cat dad, AND human dad based in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

After 5.5 years building his creative side hustle outside his Corporate Cubicle, he took the leap and  made the full-time shift to Side Hustle Coach in January 2020.

He’s a graphic wizard, a mega-motivator, and marketing savant thats on a mission is to help creatives blaze their own path to side hustle success OUTSIDE THEIR DAY JOB.

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This episode we opened up the channels and let our listeners talk directly with Tucker Viemeister about his experience in the design industry. We talk about his early career setbacks, his most well-known products, and what he's learned along the way. 

About Tucker Viemeister-
If you don’t know who he is, consider this your very brief introduction to the creative mastermind BusinessWeek calls a "Guru." Tucker humbly describes his profession in 3 words- I design stuff. 

His illustrious career spans from developing consumer products, transportation, architecture, digital interactive responsive experiences, graphics, to branding and strategy. He’s designed cookware and sunglasses for Corning, street furniture for the National Zoo, internet appliances for Google, a mobile kitchen/classroom for Jamie Oliver, and in the beginning, jewelry.

Viemeister was the lab chief of the LAB at Rockwell Group. Before this, he was VP of creative at Studio Red who is know for their multidisciplinary work with big companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Starwood. He also help create the new "Fourth and Towne" brand for Gap, and helped found a number of well-known design organizations like  frogdesign NY, Razorfish's physical design capability, Smart Design (where he helped design the widely-acclaimed Oxo "GoodGrips"), and Springtime USA who specialize in mobility, brand development and smart products for clients like Heineken, Nike, Toyota and Kate Spade.

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