Bonus Episode: Mikey Richardson RGD & Mike Kelar RGD

Explicit content warning

06/19/24 • 29 min

Each year, RGD asks a different Canadian design agency or studio to tackle the conference identity. In these shorter episodes, I’ll be speaking with some of those folks—our past DesignThinkers Design Partners. In this episode, I chat with Mike Kelar and Mikey Richardson. Their titles are both Co-Founder and Co-ECD at Jacknife. In 2008, the year they were our Design Partner, Mike and Mikey were working as AmoebaCorp. They took a very hands-on approach to the work but I’ll let them tell you more.

Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

Previous Episode

Aaron Draplin

This week’s guest is a DesignThinkers favourite. Aaron Draplin lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He makes work, under the moniker Draplin Design Co., for rock bands, comedians, restaurants, festivals and leftie politicians. He also makes typefaces, for the recently launched DDC Fonts, and has a DDC merch line that’s produced over 350 products. In 2016, he published his first book, titled “Pretty Much Everything”. It’s now in its twelfth printing! In this week’s episode, we talk about the immense privilege of living a creative life, the value of making work for the big bucks and not so big bucks, and what Aaron is thinking about now as he enters his next decade.

Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.

Next Episode

Erin Sarofsky

This week’s guest is Erin Sarofsky. Erin is an internationally heralded creative, regularly chosen by brand and entertainment titans to lead their most artful storytelling projects. Erin launched Sarofsky Corp in 2009, in Chicago’s West Loop. The firm has forged long standing relationships in the advertising and entertainment industries, but they’re best known for their main title sequences for movies like: “Peacemaker,” “The Staircase”, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “We Were the Lucky Ones,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and, of course, “Community.” In this episode, Erin and I talk about the challenges of bouncing between our creative and business brains. We spend a lot of time talk about what it takes to build a sustainable creative business, (i.e. cash flow). And we wrap up by talking about The Skrimps, Erin’s adorable and hilarious AI-generated characters.

Follow us on Instagram @rgdcanada or visit us online at rgd.ca. Purchase tickets to the upcoming DesignThinkers conference at designthinkers.com.