Low-Key Legends – Details, episodes & analysis

The long-awaited interview with the founding team of Smith & Diction is here at last! In this conversation, Mike and Chara Smith discuss their design, copywriting, and branding approach, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and authenticity. They share insights on the role of words in creating effective brands, the benefits of working as a couple, and the value of incorporating outside experiences into the creative process.

Smith & Diction Process Doc

Social:

Medium

Instagram

Twitter / X

Threads

In this episode of Low-Key Legends, I interview Nathan Riley, the design director at Unseen Studio to learn how he got started in design and built Unseen Studio with his co-founders. We discuss the early years of the studio, the significance of self-expression and passion projects, and the influence of sharing on Dribbble. We explore Nathan's journey into 3D design and the agency's shift in 2018 towards creating immersive web experiences.

Nathan on Social: Unseen Website Nathan's Instagram Nathan's Twitter / X LinkedIn

In this episode of Low-Key Legends, I chat with Emmett Shine, a designer, and entrepreneur. We discuss the importance of passion and creativity in business. Emmett emphasizes the value of infusing personal delight and creativity at scale and its impact on brands and experiences. We talk in-depth about the insights on the success of Gin Lane and Pattern Brands, highlighting the importance of creating a culture that encourages leadership and entrepreneurship and how founding both led him to his new venture, Little Plains. Little Plains is Emmett's new design agency where he combines his passion for art and design with business effectiveness. He discusses positioning Little Plains in the market and the importance of staying true to his unique voice.

Social: → Little Plains → Pattern Brands → Emmett's Site → Instagram → Twitter

An audio buffet-style sampling of the three Low-Key Legends guests from March. This episode features our top lessons and takeaways from each interview. Focusing on the fundamentals of running a design studio, pricing your work, and pushing past creative block. This episode offers a little taste of a much longer episode that you can dive into whenever you have time. Get a feel and vibe for each of the guests. Chapters: 0:00:42 Pricing Web Design Work with Filippo Cipriani 00:39:20 Creating a Successful Business with Rachael Yaeger 00:55:41 Pushing Past Creative Block with Mario Šimić

Mario Šimić is a senior designer at BORNFIGHT STUDIO® a digital design studio in Croatia, crafting masterful websites and user interfaces. Mario went from an engineer to designing masterful websites, paying extreme detail to craft and interactivity. Mario shares his perspective on the power of side projects and how they help you evolve your taste and hard skills. Mario dives deep into how to break through creative block and making meaningful impactful designs, while pushing yourself and your team. Join us for this incredible Web Design Creative Crash Course with Mario Social:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Twitter/X

Dribbble

BORNFIGHT STUDIO®

Sitting down with Rachael Yaeger to chat shop on all things Human and business. We explored what success means to Rachael and how it looks closer to walks in the woods than it does to fat stacks of cash. We discuss the roots of Human and Rachael's profound entrepreneurial spirit. We explore what makes Human's branding, design, and websites so unique, and how Human creates using an Ocean's 11 business model, expanding their capabilities when needed. But who is Rachael? Rachael Yaeger is the co-founder of Human, a brand-led, digital studio specializing in design and development all under one roof. The tl;dr of it all is they're good humans making good work for good humans.

Social:

Human Site Twitter Instagram

In this episode of Low-Key Legends, we chat with Filippo Cipriani head of studio at Adoratorio, Adoratorio is a digital agency based in Brescia Italy working with clients like Netflix, Guicci, Maserati, and more crafting exquisite brand and digital experiences.

We dive into the fundamentals of what makes for a successful design studio and great creative work. How the words you use to tell a story are equally if not more important than the visuals you use. In this epic far-ranging conversation we chat we explore food, wine, and hospitality, the lessons Fil learned in Hotel and hospitality school, and how Anthony Bourdain changed his life.

Strap in and take a mental flight ✈️ to Brescia with me.

Filippo on Social: → LinkedIn

→ Twitter / X

→ Website

Just the tip[s] no fluff, but we love the fluff here. This is a buffet-style tasting of all the episodes aired in February. A beautiful set of interviews that range from entrepreneurship, branding, creating digital experiences, and pricing creative work. Chapters: 00:00:48 The Entrepreneurial Spirit with Erin Hines 00:16:38 Branding 101 with Jowey Roden 0:40:19 Web Experiences & Creating Emotion with Claudio Guglieri 01:04:35 Pricing Work Effectively with Milkshake Studio

We sit down with the studio that brings all the people to the yard - Milkshake; partners Alex and Simon talk all things digital branding, sprint-based pricing, food, dad jokes, and zombie apocalypse strategy. We go deep into the modern world of branding and how you're biggest brand asset is your website. Today all brands are digital and need to be online with a website that showcases their values. Code is a modern design medium, let's use it to make dope things! Milkshake is an upbeat creative studio based in Greenpoint Brooklyn that creates clarity for companies through design and technology. We will go much deeper on this as we dive in. Alex, Simon, what a pleasure to have you here! Welcome to the show! Grab some fries because we've got the milkshakes covered.

Chapters:

0:11:50 Running Projects

0:23:40 Specializing

0:41:23 Alex & Simon Backstory - Milkshake Origins

1:04:10] Skills Learned Building The Agency / Relationships

1:33:04 Sprint Based Pricing

Milkshake On Social: Website Dribbble Twitter / X Instagram

In this episode, I sit down with Claudio Guglieri, the designer and creative director. With 20+ years in the creative and design industry. We dive into the power of play, the impact of ideas, craft, creativity, leadership, team building, hiring, and more. Our focus for this podcast is on how to lead a creative life and have creative longevity in the design industry, to stay relevant and in an ever-evolving world. Claudio is the head of design at Opal Cameras, Opal is a product design and engineering company, based in California, known for making high-end cameras. The Opal C1 is the ultimate webcam for home setups, I would recommend it to anyone. It is great for video calls and even recording. We recorded the video for this episode with the C1, from Opal. You can catch the video version on Youtube with this link here.

Social:

→ Personal Website

→ Twitter / X

→ Instagram

→ Opal Camera