018: "What if..." with Frank Grubich (part 1)

Explicit content warning

06/20/24 • 76 min

For today’s pod - I’m thrilled to bring you part 1 of my interview with Frank Grubich. He’s had a 35 year career that’s still going. He’s a creative juggernaut who owned a successful design agency for years called Laughing Dog—years before I designed with him. And he's worked on everything you can think of in the creative and design industry.
Yet, the qualities I appreciate most about Frank are his insane curiosity and his passion to differentiate, all balanced with a surprising humor and down to earth ease. Plus he’s got this intense focus on striving for the why of everything, while exploring the future always asking "What if..." which we discuss in detail.

I’ve never met another person like Frank. He’s one of a kind. I cherish the years designing on his team—they were like taking multiple design master classes. I learned so much from him both as a designer and a person and I’m grateful that he is a mentor of mine.
~ Noel

From Frank
I Believe

Everybody wants change, but nobody wants to change.
Without trust, nothing is possible.
All jokes lead to the truth.
Parameters make creative better.
If we aren’t making our clients nervous, we aren’t doing our job.
Clients succeed when we connect people to people — not to stuff.
Design is a process, not a thing.
The problem with customer experience is never with the customer.
An agency should be more passionate about the client’s business than the client.
You can’t truly think outside the box until you respect the box.
Successful brands are not born in boardrooms (or in Zoom meetings).
If you’re billing creativity by the hour, you’re doing it wrong. (a.k.a. the path to efficiency leads to obsolescence.)
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Real value is in the artful execution and implementation of ideas.
True innovation is a messy, ugly, exhausting process. If someone is telling you it's easy— they're lying.
It’s more important to have a sense of purpose than it is to have a sense of place.
Creativity is an agency's leading point of difference. Treat is like your business depends on it (because it does).
My team should be better than me.
There are no boring clients, only lazy agencies.
Nobody—and I mean NOBODY—wakes up and thinks, “oh goodie, more data!”
I believe there is nothing more wasteful than doing nothing.
If a client thinks their nephew can do that, don't waste another minute on that client.
I believe I have the second coolest job in the world.
House was right — everybody lies.

A76 was created by Noel Childs
Season 3 on Scale is produced by Noel Childs
Season 2 on Change was produced by Noel Childs
Season 1 on AI was produced by Casey Hudetz and Noel Childs
Our theme music was composed and performed by Stella Solveig
and mixed and mastered by Abbey Nettleton
Our outro was read by Kari Childs

If you like what you hear, please give us a rating.
Or become a member of the A76 Patreon at patreon.com/A76designpod
Have a question or comment, email [email protected]
and connect with us on Bluesky

From Frank
I Believe

Everybody wants change, but nobody wants to change.
Without trust, nothing is possible.
All jokes lead to the truth.
Parameters make creative better.
If we aren’t making our clients nervous, we aren’t doing our job.
Clients succeed when we connect people to people — not to stuff.
Design is a process, not a thing.
The problem with customer experience is never with the customer.
An agency should be more passionate about the client’s business than the client.
You can’t truly think outside the box until you respect the box.
Successful brands are not born in boardrooms (or in Zoom meetings).
If you’re billing creativity by the hour, you’re doing it wrong. (a.k.a. the path to efficiency leads to obsolescence.)
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Real value is in the artful execution and implementation of ideas.
True innovation is a messy, ugly, exhausting process. If someone is telling you it's easy— they're lying.
It’s more important to have a sense of purpose than it is to have a sense of place.
Creativity is an agency's leading point of difference. Treat is like your business depends on it (because it does).
My team should be better than me.
There are no boring clients, only lazy agencies.
Nobody—and I mean NOBODY—wakes up and thinks, “oh goodie, more data!”
I believe there is nothing more wasteful than doing nothing.
If a client thinks their nephew can do that, don't waste another minute on that client.
I believe I have the second coolest job in the world.
House was right — everybody lies.

Previous Episode

016: Crafting sails for future change with Casey Hudetz

In today’s episode, I talk with friend of the pod Casey Hudetz. He’s a Senior Product Design Manager at Docusign, an AI enthusiast and international speaker on all things AI, tech and UX Design. We chat about many things including reconnecting with the greater design community and building sails to catch the future winds of change.

Next Episode

019: "What if..." with Frank Grubich (part 2)

Bringing you part 2 of my conversation with mentor and creative juggernaut, Frank Grubich. If you haven't listened to Part 1, definitely go check that out first.
In this lively conversation, we chat about how walking your dog leads to deeper insights, the challenges designers face in being valued and how we all need to continue to push boundaries by taking risks and continuously asking questions.

We get into managing change throughout the conversation, including showing clients options and we discuss Frank's approach to nurturing the design team that I worked on years ago.
I'm grateful for the time Frank has given to the podcast and I hope you find our conversation both entertaining and meaningful.
If you'd like to join A76's Patreon, check out the two levels of support. I appreciate you taking the time to consider it.