TRANSCRIPTION

Speaker 1: 00:03 Welcome to design speaks. This lovely podcast is brought to you by a graphic design geek and a regular human being, AKA a non-designer. One has questions, the other likely has answers. We want to talk about everything from what keeps us creative to your cousin who thinks they’re a designer just because they own Photoshop. We’re here to chat about music, pop culture, cool places, and basically whatever we feel is relevant.

Brandi: 00:37 Hey guys, welcome. I’m Brandi

Michelle: 00:40 And I am Michelle.

Brandi: 00:42 You’re listening to episode two

Michelle: 00:44 Dose

Brandi: 00:45 Of design speaks

Michelle: 00:46 For those of you who are bilingual dose

Brandi: 00:48 Oh design dose

Michelle: 00:50 Design dose

Brandi: 00:51 A dose of design

Michelle: 00:55 What? Let’s change the name now! Design speaks. We’ll stick with it.

Brandi: 00:57 We will give you your daily dose of design. That sounds really sketchy. Oh Well.

Michelle: 01:01 No, it doesn’t sound sketchy.

Brandi: 01:03 Like I’m spoonfeeding you some nasty medicine.

Michelle: 01:05 It’s like Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Hey, welcome. Thanks for joining us. We’re excited that you are here and with us and hanging out with us.

Brandi: 01:14 So if you don’t know anything about who we are and why we feel like we have a right to sit in these chairs and talk to you about design, um

Michelle: 01:22 I don’t

Brandi: 01:23 Well, one of us feels like I have a right. The other one

Michelle: 01:26 I’m learning

Brandi: 01:26 Makes me feel like I have a right

Michelle: 01:28 Yeah, you do.

Brandi: 01:30 Um, I encourage you to go back and listen to episode one because we kind of talk at length about why we’re here and what our goals are and what we have in store for you.

Michelle: 01:38 We have some fun things to talk about today.

Brandi: 01:40 Yeah. So today we’re going to talk about how graphic design is actually influenced by other areas of design.

Michelle: 01:47 Oooo, what does that mean? But what does it mean?

Brandi: 01:49 That sounds confusing? Yeah. So, um, I’m sure that all of you know that there are other, other kinds of designs. So there’s not only graphic design, which is probably the most elusive of design to define, which is why we’re here. But there’s also an automobile design. There’s fashion design, there’s interior design, stage design. Um, set and costume design and like there’s, there’s so many different areas of design that honestly like it’s like a big web but they’re all related. It’s like seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, but it’s designed.

Michelle: 02:24 Is it seven or six, it might be seven. Is it six degrees? I think it’s six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Brandi: 02:28 I don’t know. We have Google.

Michelle: 02:30 I’m really. It’s true. I’m really bad at that game. Just so you know. It’s like I don’t know what Kevin Bacon is in you guys.

Brandi: 02:37 I know I am too. But you know, it’s a thing. People know it. They know what it means. So yeah, I guess the point is that redesign, graphic design is related to more things than you realize. And that’s part of the, one of the goals of this show is to not only talk about graphic design and you know, answer questions about more specific things. But also to really show you guys like that you interact with design in some form. Maybe not exactly graphic design, but something related to it from literally the minute you open your eyes in the morning, really think about it. What do you do when you first wake up?

Michelle: 03:16 Turn off my alarm clock.

Brandi: 03:18 Someone designed the letters

Michelle: 03:21 Dang it! You’re so right.

Brandi: 03:21 On your alarm clock, like someone, had to figure out what typeface is gonna be good for those numbers.

Michelle: 03:27 That is wild.

Brandi: 03:28 Then you do what? Probably pick up your phone.

Michelle: 03:31 Um, well that is my phone.

Brandi: 03:33 Okay.

Michelle: 03:34 Um

Brandi: 03:34 Yeah, so It’s Apple

Michelle: 03:37 Sorry, Simon Sinek, he’s like, the first thing you do is look at your phone. And I’m like, yes, you are right sir.

Brandi: 03:41 Well, but it’s my alarm clocks that make it better.

Michelle: 03:44 No, he says buy a real alarm clock. I said, he will buy me an alarm clock

Brandi: 03:48 Write to him.

Michelle: 03:49 Waiting, Simon. Mr. Sinek

Brandi: 03:52 Send us, send us some alarm clock.

Michelle: 03:54 I actually have an alarm clock on my Amazon wishlist that I’m really, I really, really want. It emulates a sunrise.

Brandi: 04:01 Oh, neat.

Michelle: 04:02 I want that so bad.

Brandi: 04:04 I just want to really pretty designed one that doesn’t look like a hipster made it. Sorry, hipsters.

Michelle: 04:08 Hey

Brandi: 04:09 Michelle’s like half hipster.

Michelle: 04:11 Yeah. I don’t know. I’m like a quarter.

Brandi: 04:13 She inherited it.

Michelle: 04:14 My mom’s mom was a hipster, so I’m only like a quarter.

Brandi: 04:17 Her hubs. Her husband’s a little hipster, so she married into that.

Michelle: 04:20 Yeah, he likes music, like the Shins and the National and not that they’re bad, but no thanks.

Brandi: 04:26 So wait, I, I’m a little bit hipster and my music choices, I will admit it, but um, we can address that later anyway, the point is, um, you know, literally from the minute you open your eyes in the morning to the time that you close them at night, you’re interacting with design all day.

Michelle: 04:40 And you don’t even know it.

Brandi: 04:41 Yeah. Your shirt that you are is probably something a little more obvious, but your shampoo bottle, that’s packaged design.

Michelle: 04:49 Yeah. The reason I buy it too.

Brandi: 04:51 Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle: 04:51 That’s literally the reason I buy some of that stuff

Brandi: 04:53 Yeah, so much psychology that goes into graphic design, which is another thing that I want to point out on another episode.

Michelle: 04:58 How do you live is my first question for you, because if the fact that you recognize in that in every single thing you do like from, from waking up in the morning to opening fruit snacks for your kids to like what do you, how do you look at something and like not just like either cringe and die inside every single moment or just like, you know, burst with the joy?

Brandi: 05:20 That well, okay, so two levels. One is I actually appreciate things more because I know like how much work went into like a really good design. Um, on the other hand, I am, I at a point, it’s pointed out to me often by my husband that I choose things to buy based on how well or not well they are designed. Um, so it’s, it’s kind of hard and I know that sounds like such a first world problem. Like it’s so hard to buy things sometimes designed well, but it is, it’s like I, I really want to, it’s almost like when people boycott things and it’s sort of like, you know, boycott with your money. Show them where your money is. Like if you, if you, if you shop at such and such store, you’re showing them you support whatever. So it’s like, well I want, I want to buy things that are well designed so that the people that make things know that people care, that things are designed well because that helps people appreciate and understand what I do. And then there’s things that are really poorly designed that are just like frankly my children eat so many fruit snacks that I’m only going to buy them at Costco. So I have to buy the giant like Kirkland brand, which is, you know, fun fact, people that make cheaper things designed them on purpose to look cheaper with certain colors and typefaces.

Michelle: 06:37 See what the heck? I didn’t even know. I was just like, man, they didn’t care about that.

Brandi: 06:41 Yeah. So they do that on purpose because people see something that’s well designed and assume that it’s more expensive. So even if it’s the same price, they’ll choose the cheaper designed look because it looks cheaper. It’s crazy.

Michelle: 06:51 So design

Brandi: 06:53 It’s such a big world

Michelle: 06:53 Is everywhere.

Brandi: 06:54 Yes.

Michelle: 06:54 As Shakespeare says, the world is my stage end quote, end quote.

Brandi: 07:01 Sure.

Michelle: 07:02 You said something like that.

Brandi: 07:04 All the world’s a stage.

Michelle: 07:05 All the world is a stage. Yes. There you go.

Brandi: 07:08 Shakespeare. My other thing.

Michelle: 07:10 Why do I keep quoting things that you’ve obviously, I’m sorry

Brandi: 07:13 I know, just like quote Bieber and I will be like, sure, Michelle whatever you say

Michelle: 07:15 Never say never. I’m, is it too late to say? I’m sorry.

Brandi: 07:19 I don’t know. Is that a song?

Michelle: 07:21 Yes!

Brandi: 07:21 Okay. So Michelle doesn’t know anything about design and I don’t know anything about Bieber so

Michelle: 07:28 But we’re here to learn about both.

Brandi: 07:29 We’re gonna, we’re gonna educate each other on important things in life.

Michelle: 07:32 Yes.

Brandi: 07:33 So, uh, yeah

Michelle: 07:35 The one thing that we can agree on right now is a very solid and huge inspiration. Um, you may have heard of it. It’s big. It is a movie out right now, musical. Some people don’t like musicals, but those people who don’t even like musicals have really come to enjoy this one. We are of course talking about La La Land

Brandi: 07:54 La La Land

Michelle: 07:55 Um, it’s up for something like 14 Oscar nomination

Brandi: 07:59 Yeah, won tons of Golden Globes already.

Michelle: 08:01 If it wins all of these nominations, it’s going to be up there with Titanic and break a few records. All of the records.

Brandi: 08:06 And this will be the first year I actually want to go to an Oscar party and like wear long white fancy gloves

Michelle: 08:12 Because of La La Land?

Brandi: 08:13 Because of La La Land

Michelle: 08:14 That’s how much it’s inspiring you.

Brandi: 08:16 Yeah

Michelle: 08:16 Um, we both have been no spoilers. Just so you know, we’re not, we’re not going to spoil this movie for you

Brandi: 08:22 Spoiler free.

Michelle: 08:22 I can’t even give you my solid opinion on this movie because, um, it will spoil things for you. We’re just going to be talking about inspiration and why this movie is everything to us right now.

Brandi: 08:34 Like everything

Michelle: 08:35 We wake up in the morning and both of us probably turn on the soundtrack. We drive to the soundtrack. We are just loving songs

Brandi: 08:43 Dance around our office ridiculously to the soundtrack

Michelle: 08:46 You just admitted and that’s something new for you. That’s just called my daily life. Like I did that every day.

Brandi: 08:52 I’m like, I like this. This is so much, Michelle that I actually risk looking like an idiot to myself in my office and dance around.

Michelle: 08:59 Don’t be embarrassed.

Brandi: 09:00 It’s okay.

Michelle: 09:00 It’s, it’s getting you out of your shell even though you are in front of no one

Brandi: 09:04 Yeah, except me. You know, I embarrassed myself enough in front of myself.

Michelle: 09:07 So good.

Brandi: 09:08 So yeah, I mean, this movie, um, my inspiration doesn’t even revolve around any spoilers. A lot of my inspiration comes from the fact that I just, I mean, I love musicals anyways. Um, some of my children’s favorite movies are musicals like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins and um, Sound of Music. Uh, you know, so I’m really into these things anyway. But this one was really unique in the way that they like melded modern with like that classic, a golden era of musicals in Hollywood thing and just?the, the comedy and the chemistry and the set designs. The, I mean, I automatically go to like, you know, especially because my husband’s a video producer. I also now have the ability to see through that lens in addition to graphic design. So it’s also like video production design. So like, it’s just like always, it’s like a thing I have in front of my eyes all the time.

Michelle: 10:06 It’s beautiful. And the, the fact that that’s one really cool thing about this movie is that since you do have all of those, um, your eyes have been opened to those types of things through design and also your husband being a videographer, um, he, he’s let you know certain things and you look at, you view this movie now with like, oh my gosh, that is amazing. I would’ve never thought about that or the way they did that transition was incredible.

Brandi: 10:32 Yeah. Have you notice things more since you’ve been working with the video department.

Michelle: 10:36 Yeah, so I work, I’m the, I’m a production assistant. We went over this in the last episode, but just in case you missed it. Um, I am a production assistant for a video team. Um, and I have, I got hired because I have administrative skills, not because I know anything about videography.

Brandi: 10:53 And you have an ear for sound, which is important and video

Michelle: 10:56 It’s muy important. and I feel like I, I do have a slight grasp on what’s good and what’s not good. Um, but I’m learning so much more. And in my, I haven’t even been there for a year, but in these past few months, seven, almost eight months, I have learned so much and I view things with, yeah, a new, a new, um,

Brandi: 11:18 Appreciation

Michelle: 11:19 Appreciation for sure. So watching La La Land

Brandi: 11:21 Or critical eye, depending

Michelle: 11:23 Oh gosh, it’s ruined some things. Like one of the guys I work with, work with was like, I don’t like Lord of the Rings. And I was like, I basically, it was like silence, like the, what you just heard was me in my reaction in silence.

Brandi: 11:36 How can you not like Lord of the Rings?

Michelle: 11:38 He went to film school, he said, he said, I want to film school now. I don’t like it. I was like, ah, yeah, things. I don’t want to be ruined for me. But um, because I’ve been in this area of my life where I’m learning about, um, movies. And then I also love music. I love musicals. La La land was just like a breath of fresh air for me and I find inspiration through it. And right now I think you want to play a song.

Brandi: 12:02 Yes. So this is, this is the first song that you hear when the movie starts and it’s awesome. I mean, you just want to tap your foot and

Michelle: 12:11 It’s not, it’s not anything if you’ve probably heard it if you heard of the movie, you’ve probably heard the song but um, enjoy

Brandi: 13:03 So there’s just a small taste of like the energy and the like classic joy in this film. And to start with something like this, you know, the, there is, there is design in the composition of this music and I think that’s something that, I don’t know that is unique to me, but I feel like, um, something that I can give to you guys for this podcast is seeing design everywhere. And I, when I hear songs like this and I, I see that they’re attached to movies that are so well done, I feel like everything must have been well designed. Anything good was designed at some point including, you know, this song. And it was like meant to start with like a bang.

Michelle: 13:47 Yeah. And it, oh it did. It did. Um, I think I went into this, I went into this showing of this movie with kind of like, I was nervous because everybody had told me how much they loved it and not just you. Like everyone has told me how much they love this movie and I am a fan of musicals. I have a musical tattooed on my wrist. It’s

Brandi: 14:11 A whole musical?

Michelle: 14:12 Just the whole thing. The entire thing. No, I have keywords tattooed on my, I don’t know, I love musicals. Um, my favorite, the one that I had the tattoo on is Moulin Rouge. Like I, there’s something about it that I just, it takes, it takes me away. Like I love it so much. And so I went into La La Land just being like, Oh man, I’m so nervous. What if this is terrible? Like what if this is bad? And it blew me away

Brandi: 14:35 You are, you are a glass half empty so

Michelle: 14:38 I know. I like to call myself a realist.

Brandi: 14:42 Not a pessimist. You just see the glass.

Michelle: 14:43 I’m just keeping it real. I’m just keeping it real. Um, so I went into this just thinking, oh man, this could be scary. And I walked out like, okay, I’m ready to walk back into the theater and see it again

Brandi: 14:55 If we had the money in the time. We would’ve just

Michelle: 14:57 Done it again.

Brandi: 14:58 Paid for tickets, obviously.

Michelle: 15:00 Definitely. I’m not going to movie hop. Who Do you think I am?

Brandi: 15:03 So Michelle, what was it specifically? Um, you know, I realize that you’re like the none

Michelle: 15:09 The non-creative no non-design.

Brandi: 15:12 You are creative. We’ll go into that later. The non-design side of this. Um, and what was it that inspired you about this?

Michelle: 15:21 Well for one, the is beautiful. The story is obviously what everybody’s, I think everyone is going to come together on. Um, it was just so perfectly written. Um, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone had amazing chemistry.

Brandi: 15:34 Yeah.

Brandi: 15:35 Um, I, one thing that I really, really love when watching a movie, this goes for watching, watching, watching big movies. Like I would go back to Moulin Rouge, I’ll say definitely La La Land. Um, but also like Lord of the Rings and all of the Harry Potter movies. I for some, for some reason I picture myself as a part of the cast and I’m wishing I was apart of the cast, not necessarily in the world of La La Land or in the world of

Brandi: 16:03 Like watching it happen

Michelle: 16:03 Not living in the Shire or whatever, but being a part of the cast and realizing and seeing how much fun they’re having together making this, um, even though there’s probably been arguing in the background or um, you know, whatever’s something else, some not so happy moments, but also lots of hard work. Like I know what it takes to get through that hard work and make something amazing. Like it’s, it’s worth like that putting the energy into something is so worth it. And when you see the end product like La La Land, oh man. Like, so in my mind, I’m thinking I love to be a part of this cast. In that first song that you just heard, it’s a big cast. Like there are a lot of, it’s a big number. So there are people dancing around on vehicles and it’s so much fun

Brandi: 16:49 I know, I feel like I need to ask Kenny if it was a one-shot, it felt like a one-shot

Michelle: 16:53 It did. But actually

Brandi: 16:54 I don’t remember any cuts.

Michelle: 16:56 It blows my mind that it can look like a one shot and not be like, but wait, where did you cut? I don’t get it.

Brandi: 17:02 Beautiful, beautiful editing.

Michelle: 17:03 So it was, the coloring is so much fun to like, there’s certain colors that just pop. Just watching, going back to my original inspiration, um, of the wishing I was a part of the cast when a movie can make me wish I was a part of the cast, it’s got me.

Brandi: 17:18 So, um, being more specific, like, uh, not only does it inspire you, like that can be so vague, like, um, you know, uh, sunrise inspires me, but like what, what has this, if anything, has this like inspired you to do anything specific? Like to behave any differently or to like hesitant spired you to do anything action-Wise?

Michelle: 17:42 Well, I

Brandi: 17:43 Since you saw it?

Michelle: 17:43 Um, yeah, I think the Emma Stone’s character, Mia, is, um, she’s an actress. I don’t think that’s giving anything away

Brandi: 17:52 No

Michelle: 17:52 She’s an actress. And um, I think in the, just in that field of life, if you are in the acting career

Brandi: 18:03 Community

Michelle: 18:03 Community, um, it’s a hard thing to break into and I’m not, but her story and her journey through this whole acting thing was inspiring because she’s writing a play and she’s doing all these things by herself. She’s like being a go get ’em type of person and she’s really conquering a lot of fears throughout the entire movie. Um, and that’s not the focus of it or it’s not one of its, I guess it is one of the focuses, but it’s not the main focus of the whole thing. But just that little part right there, I was like, man, she just did it. I just need to go out there and do it. Just do it.

Brandi: 18:38 Oh, so that’s where all that came from.

Michelle: 18:41 Like Nike says

Brandi: 18:42 Well, you know, they make millions of dollars for a reason

Michelle: 18:44 And we, they did not pay us to say that.

Brandi: 18:46 Amen.

Michelle: 18:47 They did not pay us, but they can.

Brandi: 18:49 Sure, sure. Why not have a Nike sponsored design podcast?

Michelle: 18:52 Sure. I mean, they have that cool check mark.

Brandi: 18:54 Yeah.

Michelle: 18:55 There’s designed in that

Brandi: 18:56 Right, well, yeah, that they paid like $50 for back in the day. Yeah. That’s a story for another time

Michelle: 19:01 Fun fact. Um, but what of, okay, so same question goes for you. What is it that inspired you about La La Land that keeps you inspired today?

Brandi: 19:11 So, um, I would say generally what inspired me was, um, how well they merged the two styles. I kind of said that before we played the other song, but um, to kind of explain that a little better, you know, that’s what basically I have to do with design all the time, is I have a very specific creative process, um, that I go through to find the big idea, the concept. And that’s, that’s something that anyone that creates anything has, whether they realize it or not. And so the concept is kind of what guides the look. Um, it guides your font choices, guides your color choices. So, um, the way you would like to be on the cast, I would like to be in those ideating meetings. You know, where like they’re sitting back

Michelle: 19:59 Wait, what meeting?

Brandi: 20:00 Ideating. Like creating ideas

Michelle: 20:02 Ideating. That is a brand new word. I have never heard that word.

Brandi: 20:06 Your vocab word for this week is ideating. Yeah, it’s definitely like a creative jargon word, but it’s basically creating ideas. It’s like where you sit and brainstorm.

Michelle: 20:16 Okay.

Brandi: 20:17 And they’re called ideating sessions where you sit and you talk about like, okay guys, we’ve, you know, in this instance, you would sit down with the script and the idea and talk about, okay, so what feel do we want this to have? Like, okay, I can just imagine them saying like, it’s going to be like, like the 40s, 50s mixed with like now like

Michelle: 20:39 That’s exactly what it was.

Brandi: 20:39 Yeah. And so like the costume design, like the colors and everything are very 1950s ish, you know, from her dresses in every single scene to her, their dance shoes. I mean

Michelle: 20:53 I love their dance shoes

Brandi: 20:53 And you know, his, his suits and his ties, his skinny ties in like all these things. Um, you know, and then there’s also jazz like jazz music worked into this. So there, that’s like a whole other scene design wise and era wise. So like all these things I think about when I’m designing like for a poster for any kind of play, I have to figure out, okay, what is this about? How do I need it to feel and what colors are going to, you know, color psychology. Like how am I going to make sure that people are feeling the way I want them to and how am I communicating the message through my design. And so in a movie, it’s a lot easier to communicate because you can use actual words. But the things that I appreciated the most about Lala land is the things that were communicated to people subconsciously that they didn’t realize. The things like the colors of dresses she’s wearing during certain scenes are communicating different, different things to the audience about maybe how she’s feeling. Um, similar to like body language. Like these are just things that I like think about. And so

Michelle: 21:54 I didn’t even think about that.

Brandi: 21:55 Yeah. And it’s, it’s definitely, you know, it just like lighting in a scene or something. Um, so that, it really inspires me to, you know, remember to continue loving the thing that I try to do always, which is color, color theory and really making sure that the meaning I’m putting into everything is really there. Um, something else that I, that I thought was really cool in a way I, I tend to kind of beg on hipster stuff a bit, just more like as a little jab, but there are things that I really do love about like the hipster culture and something that I’ve, I’ve learned to appreciate is like this new style of like, I don’t even know if this is what it’s called officially, but like hipster photography where you were like really far back a ways.

Michelle: 22:38 It’s the wides.

Brandi: 22:38 Yeah. Really wide angles and things like really centered. Um, and you can like barely make out the people or whatever. Um, there’s a couple scenes and I don’t know if you can think of what they are, but there’s a couple of scenes like if you were to stop the scene right there, it looks like a picture.

Michelle: 22:55 Yeah.

Brandi: 22:55 And it’s just framed so beautifully and that’s something that I also rose was really inspired by was the framing of scenes.

Michelle: 23:04 And I see a lot of that just because I know you and I know your work, um, some of your work, I guess I haven’t seen it all, but I’ve seen a good amount of it over the years. Um, one of them that reminds me of one thing that you were doing that actually never, it was never able to be finished, but it was, it was a very wide, if it was for a dance party, if you think about it, it was a very wide view of what the night was going to be. And so I see that a lot in your work. You tell you, um, the hipster in you. I see the hipster in you, I know it’s there and I’m going to pull it out a little bit more.

Brandi: 23:37 Yeah. And I guess, and I actually wrote a blog post, if you guys have been carried to read it. It’s basically like some things that you can learn from the hipster mindset, which are really valuable for design. But besides that, like photography is probably like, like the little sister to graphic design because there’s a lot of the elements that are the same, you know, like composition and negative space and contrast and like all these things that are actually important in both fields equally. So I tend to view those as almost like graphic design scenes like when I see them on the screen. So I would say the specific things that inspired me to create, we’re like the compositions, like creating really clean and pretty compositions. And, um, the most recent thing I actually made wasn’t even anything necessarily. Um, graphic design officially. It was just the lettering piece that I did, um, called, uh, for the fools who dream. And I just wrote that and lettering because like, that’s a really fun thing that I pulled from that. It’s one of the best songs.

Michelle: 24:38 Is that something that you, um, is that like, is lettering something you go to whenever you’re inspired or like what is your go-to when you feel inspired?

Brandi: 24:47 Probably lettering lately because I’m really trying to get better at it. Um, when I feel inspired I generally write, um, not just because it all starts with writing Sean Wes, but I do love to write and my good ideas usually come from writing or I do a mind map and usually that like takes me somewhere. Poster design is probably what I do most.

Michelle: 25:08 A mind map is, um, make sure I have this right, a mind map because I know this is like basic and I think we did it in English class.

Brandi: 25:14 You definitely did it in English class.

Michelle: 25:15 But it’s kind of like you start out with like a circle and then you write something in the circle and from there spawn ideas

Brandi: 25:20 Yeah, it’s like a, it’s also called like a web.

Michelle: 25:22 Okay, web is what is what I know it as to me and it looks like a spider web sometimes.

Brandi: 25:26 Yeah. So their webs are there. I call it a mind map there. They’re different things. But that’s like the another trick that I can talk about another day and how to find a concept is, is mind mapping. But it also helps you just like, get out all of your, your ideas without having to make anything

Michelle: 25:41 And not forget them.

Brandi: 25:42 Yeah. And then you can go back to that later and go, oh, okay, so I wanted to use this layout and I wanted to use these kinds of images. And then you just kind of go grab all those things and put them in your design.

Michelle: 25:50 And I think mine mapping should be like a pretty important part of your process to

Brandi: 25:54 Definitely.

Michelle: 25:55 And you, I mean in the conversations we’ve had leading up to, um, recording these podcasts as well as just like in your, in general, anytime you’re talking about design, you like the one word that comes out every single conversation as your process.

Brandi: 26:12 Yeah.

Michelle: 26:13 Like you are

Brandi: 26:14 Sorry

Michelle: 26:14 All about, no, that’s okay. It’s your consistent. Um, I think so that’s obviously really important to you, is your process. And without your process, what, what are you, what do you, what can you do?

Brandi: 26:28 You’re a hack designer. That’s what you are

Michelle: 26:32 Oh interesting. I’m gonna get on my process then.

Brandi: 26:33 I mean, let’s be honest like everybody has a process for something. I mean, when, whether it’s creativity or, I mean you probably put your makeup on the same way every day, right? Do you?

Michelle: 26:46 I try to, but when I went, honestly, when I go out of order, it’s messed up.

Brandi: 26:51 It’s weird, right

Michelle: 26:52 I’m just gonna start over. Yeah.

Brandi: 26:53 Yeah. I mean, and that’s like a goofy way to relate it, but like everyone kind of, so they say like everyone puts on their pants one leg at a time, but like however you get dressed, you probably get dressed that same way every day. That’s a process.

Michelle: 27:05 Your, your morning, your morning routine is usually your process process. Yeah.

Brandi: 27:09 Yeah. So yeah, design no different. And I guess, um, we’re kind of going off off the topic for today just a little bit, but, um, I mean today was all about how you know, design is shown in lots of different ways and how La La Land has kind of inspired both of us in different things.

Michelle: 27:30 So one thing I want to encourage because I want to do this now, um, I want to encourage everyone to do is try and recognize design in areas that you weren’t even looking like if you are a graphic designer or if you are constantly in that, this mindset, um, you probably, you probably noticed design and a lot of areas that others don’t. But if you are like me, try, try and see design and areas are recognized design and areas that you wouldn’t usually like I would never think my alarm clock, but it’s there.

Brandi: 28:03 Johnny Ive at Apple, he’s no joke. He designs that thing.

Michelle: 28:07 That’s crazy.

Brandi: 28:08 Yeah

Michelle: 28:08 You know their name. You know their name. He has a name

Brandi: 28:10 He has a name. He’s a big deal.

Michelle: 28:12 That’s crazy.

Brandi: 28:13 Yeah, I know you’re going to learn a lot of probably people you’ve never heard of in your life.

Michelle: 28:17 I’m thankful

Brandi: 28:18 And it’s okay because I’m probably going to eventually learn about a bunch of pop stars that I have never

Michelle: 28:22 Mostly just like Justin and Taylor Swift.

Brandi: 28:24 Well, I do know about them, but I couldn’t really tell you what they sing often. To wrap up, I just wanted to talk a little bit more about, you know, how, how design is influenced by the things and um, how design can then influence the other things if that makes sense.

Michelle: 28:41 It does. It’s full circle. Yeah, I like it.

Brandi: 28:44 Yeah. So I’m, I’m no trend forecaster by any means. Um, I will say that something I’ve always said is that graphic designers need to be the coolest people in the room because it’s our job. Like we have to know what looks good always like

Michelle: 28:59 Yeah.

Brandi: 29:00 Um, and that doesn’t mean that we’re trendy, but that means that we know about them. Um, some things can happen when, when anything becomes really popular, they tend to kind of effect like the trends and things that happen. Um, I don’t know. There’s two versions of the, uh, the La La Land poster. I encourage you to look those up, but um, one is, is just basically like a picture. Um, it’s, it’s the cover of the soundtrack, um, a photo from the movie. But the other one is, is like a stylized, like if you know anything about design and era as you’ll know what I’m talking about, but like a mod. Mod style, like a sixties mod styles. Does that make sense to you?

Michelle: 29:39 Nope. Is it like the, I think I know which one you’re talking about.

Brandi: 29:44 It’s like hipster and I say that it’s hipster because hipsters are very like mid-century.

Michelle: 29:48 Yeah.

Brandi: 29:48 It’s, it’s like a mid-century design. It’s got a sea green.

Michelle: 29:51 I know what you’re talking about

Brandi: 29:52 And like a cream color. So I can see, you know, they, I think that they were influenced to do that design by what’s happening now. Like this whole like retro revolution thing that’s happening in design and photography and fashion and everything is like, oh the old days were better. But in this case like I think it was so successful, um, because not only did they take that for the movie to bring in like all those past elements in marge them with modern ones, but the design of the second poster, which is like something I really want to find. If any of you know anyone that works at the movies, please send me one. The double-sided vinyl poster

Michelle: 30:27 You know, it wouldn’t hurt just to walk in there and ask

Brandi: 30:30 I know you’re probably right. It’s going to win. It’s going to win awards and people are gonna like sell them for hundreds of dollars on eBay.

Michelle: 30:35 It’s just a lot of money.

Brandi: 30:36 I know. Yeah

Michelle: 30:37 We should talk about that eventually. How much would you pay?

Brandi: 30:40 Oh Gosh. Yeah, it’s probably disastrous how much I would pay for good design in some cases.

Michelle: 30:45 But I appreciate that it is your line of work.

Brandi: 30:48 Yeah.

Michelle: 30:49 Your field.

Brandi: 30:49 Yeah. So I mean ultimately I can see, you know, that this whole trend of um, really musicals and bringing these really, I hate to say wholesome because it sounds really boring and like I’m not bagging on Hollywood or anything but like bring back like decent, wholesome entertainment that’s like really great stories. Really well designed. And like people love it.

Michelle: 31:15 You can tell people, you can tell the people behind the scenes cared.

Brandi: 31:18 Yeah. And it wasn’t like, what’s going to make money? How much skin can we show? Like, let’s make a great story design everything from the poster to the shoes really well.

Michelle: 31:29 Um, one thing I’ve always heard in, excuse me, in the mainstream is sex sells and that was not a part of La La Land.

Brandi: 31:40 Not at all. Barely implied if anything

Michelle: 31:43 I went and before I saw the movie I looked up like, okay, what is this movie about? Am I going to have to like do it? Do I have to, you know, worry about little kids seeing it because I do know a few little kids, none of mine are old enough to, my daughter’s not old enough to see it, but yeah, mine, my child, both of my children have seen it. If that helps four and eight.

Michelle: 32:03 So I went beforehand, I went and looked, I’m like, okay, are there sex scenes? Is there nudity? Um, are there scantily clad dress, you know, women. Um, so I just had to know and there wasn’t and I was like, oh, that’s surprising. And it has some Oscar.

Brandi: 32:18 Yeah, I mean, wow. If that doesn’t show like what, what’s something well done? Well written and well designed can do like for uh, I guess community, a culture, that’s the word.

Michelle: 32:33 Yeah. Culture.

Brandi: 32:34 Like I think this could really like kind of take a turn for, for a things, you know, there’s

Michelle: 32:41 Like obviously sex is always going to sell

Brandi: 32:43 Yeah. Of course But what I think it shows like that maybe were or getting better at appreciating things that are not just like playing to our lowest human common denominators.

Michelle: 32:55 Right. I like that. Hey, intelligence.

Brandi: 32:57 Yeah.

Michelle: 32:58 Alright.

Brandi: 32:58 Intelligence sells do that.

Michelle: 33:00 Intelligence sells.

Brandi: 33:02 Maybe. We’ll keep working on that.

Michelle: 33:05 Yeah. Um, I think, I think we’ve had a good run today.

Brandi: 33:07 Yeah. So as always, um, as always, all these two episodes so far, but we’ll be

Michelle: 33:12 That’s always

Brandi: 33:13 The case from here on out. If you guys have questions we want to answer them like a Michelle is here on the normal human being side and I’m here on the quasi design expert I guess. And we want to talk to you guys about any questions you have.

Michelle: 33:30 And honestly, your questions are going to spark questions for me as well because I am, um, I’m not super knowledgeable on the graphic design side of things. Like look, looking at Photoshop scares me. Like what are you doing this?

Brandi: 33:43 That’s okay design’s not all about photoshop.

Michelle: 33:45 I know, I know. And because of you, I know that, but I didn’t know that before. I’m like well yeah you, you put things in Photoshop and you like move them around and stuff, right?

Brandi: 33:53 And magic

Michelle: 33:53 And magic happens

Brandi: 33:55 Just press the magic button.

Michelle: 33:56 Where is that button? I know that we need to know about that button. Have this special touch. But yeah, so when you, when you ask questions it sparks questions for me and then we’re all happy because we ask these questions and get answers and so we’d like your questions. We’d like your feedback. Um, anything you’ve got we are ready for, um, join us next time on design speaks. This has been a blast, don’t you think?

Brandi: 34:22 I think it’s a blast-y blast. It’s a blast from the past

Michelle: 34:26 Because we were talking about

Brandi: 34:28 La La Land.

Michelle: 34:28 Oh my gosh. Full Circle.

Brandi: 34:30 There you go, guys. That’s what we’re all about here. So we’ll see you next week.