WiseNoise: The Creative Practice Podcast

This week I'm joined by Freddie Öst, co-founder of Stockholm's Snask, the agency behind Make Enemies and Gain Fans.We start with the naivety that started it all: three graduates who looked at the agency ladder and decided to build their own rules instead. There's the teddy bear they sent to Glasgow School of Art (still sitting on a shelf in the office), the quote they doubled as a joke and got accepted, and the years of working weekends and clothing stores before it worked.Then the self-initiated projects that made them famous: Shower Beer (18cl, 10%, four gulps), the Love Is Korea rebrand that got them threats, and the Dollar Store Halloween campaign that upset half of Sweden.Heavy Dessert: burnout. Snask's answer? Nobody works after five. Flip it so you work to live.Plus a Bingo Wheel with karaoke, magnesium and Sauchiehall Street.Check SNASK for more of Freddie's work. -Brought to you by WiseLove Studio ✌️

WiseNoise, Steven Wakabayashi: Design as Data, Selling with Your Ears, and Why Health Comes FirstThis week I'm joined by Steven Wakabayashi: founder of Stranger Creative, the New York digital product agency, and of QTBIPOC Design, the nonprofit opening pathways into the industry for queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and people of colour.We start with his unlikely route in: physiology, neuroscience and dance, and the auditions where he was told they "weren't looking for an Asian dancer."Then he shares his screen and walks me through design systems for enterprise sites with tens of thousands of pages, and turning design into data: machine-first documentation that lets AI apply a brand's thinking properly.Plus the health crisis that reset everything, months of silence in monasteries, and a Heavy Dessert on selling your design:"sales is 90% listening and 10% confirmation."Bingo Wheel topics: sketchbook or iPad, Giorgia Lupi, Taylor Swift's colour, and a very good coffee machine.Bought you by WiseLove StudioSupport the podcast and buy the Merch: https://www.wiselove.studio/shop/wisenoise✌️

For this episode, I'm joined by Brand Strategist & Creative Director Kirsten Murray and Edible founder Alex De Sousa: mentor and mentee at Edinburgh College, who years later worked together to build a brand for people living with food allergies.Alex has around 28 food allergies. We talk about the game of whispers that is asking for allergen info at the table, the lamppost sticker research that pulled 500 responses from a couple of hundred stickers, and how Edible turns any allergen sheet into a personalised menu.Kirsten takes us through the strategy: the mission to make the world more edible, food bandits, mascot NOM, "big spoon energy", and why the logo came last.Plus ADHD, Secret Seven Inch, and a Heavy Dessert on self-promotion without the ick.Watch this full episode on YouTube.See more of Kirsten's work: www.kirstenmurray.comBrough to you by WiseLove Studio

This week I'm joined by Tegan McDougall and Charlotte - the inaugural winners of the Wiselove Studio Emerging Talent award at Gray's School of Art degree show.We talk about the chaos of getting a degree show ready (painting floors, no sleep, that panic of 'have I done enough?'), what four years at Gray's taught them, and the daunting step into industry.Tegan discusses her 'Reimagining Football' project as she channelled the work of past programme designers like John Elvin.Charlotte walks us through her brilliant project 'Fille' - a feminist magazine and brand born from her dissertation on the male gaze, inspired by the lad mags she studied, built on actual street graffiti she found around Aberdeen, and designed to make feminism feel approachable rather than daunting.Plus: the AI elephant in the room, typography (the hardest thing nobody talks about), and a Bingo Wheel that lands on tuna mayo and Dirty Dancing.Topics covered:• The degree show grind• Tegan on 'Reimagining Football'• Charlotte's feminist magazine 'Fille'• Street-art branding & film-prop inspiration• AI as a tool, not a threatTegan: www.instagram.com/teganthecreatorCharlotte: www.instagram.com/cag_designWatch the epsiode on the YT Channel. Brought to you by WiseLove Studio

This week I sat down with Matt Burns, co-founder of the world-renowned beverage design agency Thirst.We went right back to the beginning — meeting over a pint at the Velvet Elvis in Partick, Glasgow after Matt answered a Gumtree ad straight off the boat from Australia, to making the single most effective spreadsheet in design history (cold-emailing 44 Scottish breweries and getting one life-changing "yes").Matt opened up about partnering with marketing specialist Chris to form Thirst, what it really takes to grow a design team from solo on-the-tools to 17 people, and the massive undertaking of redesigning iconic Scotch brand Bruichladdich (including cutting CO2 by 65% and introducing a world-first paper pulp wrap).Plus: Metallica karaoke, dealing with creative block by talking to walls (or HMRC letters), and a Heavy Dessert deep-dive into finding the sweet spot between specialism and generalism, why great work doesn't get bought if you don't believe in it, and why design schools never teach you how to sell.Topics covered:• Moving from Sydney to Scotland and starting over• The cold-email spreadsheet that built Thirst• Creative + Business partnership dynamics• The Bruichladdich redesign & sustainable packaging• Bingo Wheel of Wisdom curveballs 🎡• Heavy Dessert: Specialism vs. generalism & the art of selling creative work_Get the new pod merch at: www.wiselove.shopThis episode was brought to you by WiseLove Studio.