The Never Not Creative podcast is back after a 2 year hiatus. Joining Andy for this new season is co-host, Rachel Zhang, a digital product designer living in Sydney and with experience working across brands and agencies including Telstra, R/GA, Accenture Song and now her own design consultancy Ro&Co.This first episode of the new season focuses on B…

Paul Balfe is no football expert. But he is a male creative who was willing to chat to us about his mental health and his experiences with anxiety. Paul is Creative Director and Founder of Pennybridge Creative, an independent design studio at home on the Gold Coast of Australia. Paul shares his battle with anxiety as a result of the recent Queensla…

Nasya Kamrat is the Co-Founder of FACULTY, a certified, woman-owned spatial storytelling agency. After experiences working with multi-national agencies owned by the global holding companies, Nasya decided to start something new and do completely the opposite. Nasya is joined by Chief Creative Officer, Aaron Wolfe and both chat to Andy about the pos…

In our latest episode, Ve Dewey interviews James Routledge, the co-founder of Sanctus. After starting Sanctus, a coaching business to help improve mental wellbeing in workplaces, James has gone on to author the Penguin Business Book, Mental Health at Work. He's always very transparent and honest in his own challenges and shares how practice was the…

In this episode, Ve and Andy join forces to chat to recent winners of the Deutsche Bank Awards For Creative Entrepreneurs – Jameisha Prescod, founder of You Look Okay To Me, an online space for the chronic illness community and Nahum McLean, founder of African Diaspora Dance Association (ADDA), an organisation that aims to expand the curriculum and…

It's our third and final episode of the F Word Mini-Series. David and Ve sit down for an inspirational conversation around failure at an organisational level with the award-winning transformational change leader Eva Applebaum and Global CEO of Butchershop® Global, Trevor Hubbard. Within the episode, we go in-depth discussing failure, what the oppos…

In our second episode, David and Ve sit down with Alina Mendoza Lopez, currently an intern at Dragon Rouge London, and Max Ottignon, co-founder of the London based agency Ragged Edge to discuss failure at the individual level. Within the episode Max and Alina discuss their experience of failure: Alina discussed her relationship with failure in univ…

Based on the “The F word”, our latest mini-series focuses on "Failure." This first episode with Never Not Creative Co-creator, Ve Dewey and David Beare, Executive Creative Director of Dragon Rouge, come together to discuss what we mean by failure. Their discussion lays the foundation for future episodes exploring what failure is and what counts as …

The final episode of our Creativity and Football mini-series rounds out with The Hallway's ECD Simon Lee. Simon has lived experience with the ups and downs of mental health, but has also been working closely with mental health charity, Gotcha4Life for the last 3 years. The result of this work is the quite excellent Boys Do Cry campaign – a clever t…

In the 4th episode of our Creativity & Football mini-series we head to Switzerland with renowned lettering artist Stefan Kunz. Stefan is an internet phenomenon, entrepreneur and educator who is passionate about sharing his gift to inspire others. But his quest for excellence and always doing how best isn’t free from the challenges of struggling to …

It's the 3rd episode of our Creativity & Football mini-series. Craig Elimeliah is an award-winning ECD at VMLY&R in New York. A native New-Yorker he gets his football analogies from the oval shaped ball rather than the circular one. A couple of months ago, Craig wrote a brave post on Linkedin sharing his experiences with many years of mental heath …

Dr Zac Seidler knows a thing or two about football. Whilst he's scored many a goal from all over the pitch, his ultimate goal is to reduce the staggering rate of male suicide. In this second episode of our Creativity & Football mini series (psst, yeah the one on men's mental health in the creative industry) Andy and Zac discuss everything from ment…

Welcome to a Never Not Creative podcast mini-series. Creativity and Football. We're talking to men about creativity, football and... who are we kidding? This is an essential listen. A mini-series dedicated to the topic of men's mental health in our industry. We kick-off our first episode with Pete Brennan. Co-founder of Heaps Normal, Electric & Ana…

Asher Oliver didn’t take the traditional ‘qualified’ pathway into the creative industry. After graduation from university with a Business Management degree in 2009, he moved back home and encountered a huge struggle in regards to finding employment. Like many graduates having to rely on casual work meant Asher became a waiter in an Italian restaura…

Blair Enns (author of Win Without Pitching and Pricing Creativity) joins Andy to discuss the challenges that creatives have when it comes to business. How our emotional attachment to work can hinder financial success and why we shy away from the grown-up stuff. We also discuss the pro's and con's of unpaid internships and whether mental health issu…

Andy and Sarah are back with another episode on a Never Not International Women’s Day talk with Tom Tapper. Tom is the co-founder and CEO of B-Corp certified agency, Nice and Serious. In 2008, he co-founded Nice and Serious with a clear purpose: to make creative work the world needs. Since then, he’s exclusively worked with pioneering charities and…

Join Andy Wright and Sarah Nguyen in another episode to discuss two powerful talks from Never Not International Women’s Day - ‘Until your fear of me isn’t my problem’ with Tanarra Schneider, and ‘Until we flip the question’ with Andy Polaine. Tanarra is a Managing Director at Accenture Interactive, leading Design in the Midwest. She spills the tea …

Somewhere around 2015, the first of the John genre articles arrived, trumpeting that there are more CEOs named John than women CEOs in their entirety. In this episode, we have a well-presented talk by Jess Lilley, who focuses on this issue and talks through what we (John) can do about it. Jess is a co-founder at The Open Arms, a creative company th…

Jane Duru (Verbal Design Director, R/GA) and Sumita Maharaj (Associate Design Director, Re:) join Sarah and Andy to discuss their recent submission to Never Not International Women's Day. From having to bring a 6-pack to a meeting to get a seat at the table and a constant need to over-prove themselves Jane and Sumi share their stories and experienc…

To make meaningful change in workplaces all around the world, we need to recognise that the gender inequity in our industry and society is a cultural problem. We need to show men what they can’t see all around them - the norm. The norm that has let stereotypes rule and anyone but a privileged white male suffer. Join this discussion with Daniele Fia…

International Women’s Day 2021 has passed. But this year, we're not going back to business as usual. As far as we're concerned, it will always be Never Not International Women’s Day until all women including women of colour, women with disabilities, and queer or trans women, stop being penalised for being women. This new season of the podcast highl…

Dr Sally Fitzpatrick is a Clinical Psychologist and the Acting Program Manager, Mental Health and Research at Everymind, our partners in the Mentally-Healthy research study. In this episode she’s joined by Author and Creative, Alex Wadelton to tackle community questions about finding meaning and purpose through work, disclosing mental health challe…

Victoria Davies has spent years as a leader in the advertising industry. Now though, Victoria has swapped running some of the most successful agencies in London and New York to start an artificial intelligence business to nudge leaders into being better. This episode is recorded in partnership with Gabberish – Creative Therapy For Creative Minds. A…

After years of learning in the agency business, championing and doubling-down on a project-based model, Trevor Hubbard is on a mission to wipe out failure. The one thing standing in his way? Clarity, or lack of it. Having co-founded, and then bought outright, his agency Butchershop in California, Trevor's hit on a formula for a successful business,…

Kelly Mackenzie founded White Bear in 2014. Since then it's gone from strength to strength. No surprise really, as when we caught up with Kelly it was clear that she doesn't let much stand in her way. We chat about the challenges that women in the creative industry can face in rising to the top and how even, for all designers, this industry can som…

We chat with Ekaterina Solomeina the founder of Future London Academy. Ekaterina challenges the traditional concept of University, a linear career path and how we learn. What happens when we move into the next phases of our career as we need to continue to learn, develop and grow? And, as we move into a quest for more diverse teams, how do we creat…

An incredible, far-reaching episode with experts on the future and our mental health. Prue Jones, Design Director at Fjord provides a unique perspective on where to from here in 2020. Dr Zac Seidler, a psychologist and specialist in men's mental health, who also works with Movember shares practical, respectable and relevant advice. Hear advice and …

18 months on from our first study into the mental health and wellbeing of the creative, media and marketing industry, we’re back with a deeper dive. The purpose of the second study was to evaluate what’s changed since 2018 and to further understand how people cope and what can be done to improve the situation. This episode includes a recording of t…

When Brooke Strozdas wrote about her side hustle observations she was just letting off steam. Then bang, Twitter responded and she'd clearly hit on something that many people must have been thinking. Why all the pressure to have a side hustle? Is it becoming a mandatory? Is having a side hustle more important than the skills and passion you have fo…

With guests, Jess Lilley, Creative Director of Leo Burnett and Aileen Alegado, Psychologist. We discuss when's the right time to ask for a payrise. Is our industry ageist? And what's Survivors Guilt and how do we get over it? Register for future Asking For A Friend events at https://www.nevernotcreative.org/asking-for-a-friend. Links: https://minds…

Andy first met Daniele Fiandaca in 2002. He was COO at (then) independent agency Profero. They were his agency and he was their client. Since leaving Profero in 2009, Daniele has gone on to co-author 3 books including 'Creative Superpowers: Equip Yourself for the Age of Creativity', become Head of Innovation at Cheil, co-founded Token Man, Brand So…

When we stumbled across Creative Confessions in our insta feed, we sensed an immediate familiarity. Veronica Mike and Josh Schneider are on a mission to improve the stigma surrounding mental health in the creative industry. Based in Brooklyn, New York they've been researching with creatives across the world as well as creative leaders in New York a…

This episode is a fully loaded chat with Andrew Dobbie (Founder of Made Brave) and Peter Czapp (Founder of The Wow Company). One's a creative founder, the other's an accountant – in fact, Peter is Andrew's accountant. In this fascinating chat, they share stories of how they and other agencies are coping right now. There's lots of advice for how to …

This episode is from our April Asking For A Friend event. We all know that “asking for a friend”is an easier way to ask a tough question. So once a month we’re going to allow anyone anywhere to “ask for a friend”, to an industry leader, and a psychologist, anonymously, and online. Asking For A Friend is an initiative by Never Not Creative, Young Bl…

Sean Hall has seen almost every nook and cranny of our industry. From working in one of Australia's most iconic agencies to running one of Australia's most iconic brands, he now focuses on helping as many of us as possible to improve our energy levels and mental wellbeing. Energx is Sean's business and passion and it's taken him around the country …

In this episode Sarah and Andy chat to Mitch Wallis, the Founder of the Heart on My Sleeve Movement. Entwined within Mitch's story about his own Mental Health journey is solid scientific and strategic advice on how to tackle mental health at work. The difference between addressing performance and addressing mental health, and how we can all play a …

We’re back. Season 3 kicks off with Chris Freel and Nina Nyman from Unltd. We talk all things mental health and how to do good in our industry. Perfect timing as we’ve recently launched the new Mentally-Healthy survey (got take it now - link in bio) and Nina is also the co-chair of the Mentally-Healthy Change Group with Andy. This is a great chat a…

In our final episode of Season 2 and 2019, Andy and Sarah catch-up with the formidable "Monty" AKA Sarah Montague, Creative Director at ooh! Media. With her career as a Solid Gold dancer over before it even began, Monty got into the world of advertising. 23 years later and it's still all about the words, the pictures, the gold nugget of a human ins…

We caught lettering artist and typographer, Craig Black as he was whizzing around Australia for his national AGDA tour. But better than that, we also invited his wife Alison to bring her expertise as a mental health nurse to our conversation about mental health and the life of a creative. Craig has shared a lot about his personal story, "and while …

Sarah and Andy catch up with Shruti Rai about designing for the edge cases and how to embrace audiences and use cases that we might not be comfortable with. Diversity becomes a major theme of our conversation and inevitably, the benefits that a more diverse team can bring to the perspective and solutions for a project. Shruti is an experience desig…

This episode, Andy is in Tasmania for Foundry Live. Foundry Live is a conference by Foundry Creative School in Tasmania. Every few months they invite industry leaders to speak to their students and local businesses. At the end of September, Andy attended alongside Todd Henderson, Director of architecture firm, Cumulus; Chi Ryan, Experience Strategy…

Professor David Alais is a psychologist and neuroscientist at The University of Sydney. Sarah and Andy caught up with David to understand better how the creative mind works, and how we can do a better job of looking after it. David's research focuses on how we perceive the world through our senses, how we interpret and create our reality, and how w…

This episode is packed full of advice on running a business as a creative – get your notebooks out! Andy and Sarah caught up with Emily Cohen, creative business consultant and author of Brutally Honest. We discussed the challenges facing creative businesses, changing models, how to deal with clients, and how to get serious about business. Emily sha…

Andy and Sarah caught up with Chris Doyle who last year started an initiative called This Is Not University. TINU is a mentoring program that Chris started to help bridge the gap between education and career as he realised that he didn’t have the time / money to be able to commit to hiring interns. Almost a year in and Chris joins us with Wilson Le…

Our industry is nothing without the people who make it. So, what do we do to make sure they're thriving? How are we helping them grow? In this episode, Andy and Sarah catch up with Manon Pietra, People and Culture Director at PHD Media. We discuss how to talk about and develop job satisfaction, the minimum standards of a mentally healthy workplace …

Australian Design Radio and Never Not Creative hosts Matt Leach and Andy Wright found themselves in Brisbane together at The Design Conference. Therefore, it was a no-brainer to combine mics and interview the founders of Ustwo, Sinx and Mills about the ups and downs of running a business and what it's like to do all of that as best mates. You can f…

After a month of high quality events in the creative industry, Sarah and Andy unpack how important it is to get out to find inspiration, community and spend some time on your own self-development. Sarah attended Rare by Google, Semi-Permanent and The Design Conference (TDC), while Andy was also a co-host of TDC. We discuss the great job these event…

This episode was sparked by a tweet. On the 2nd April, Andy tweeted, "Sometimes it feels like we really don't want to create a better industry. When you look at what we do to the people trying to start out or get ahead it's simply baffling..." It was followed by a series of examples and stories that people had shared through the Never Not Creative …

Big questions in this episode. Is the lack of diversity in the creative industry holding us back? Can we be more creative as a result? What's it like to be a person of colour in our industry? Jane and G work in a Sydney creative agency. Both people of colour from London, they're certainly a minority in the Australian creative industry. What has the…

Maggie Tang (ex Frost, Houston Group and current Head of Brand at Ableton), and Christian Hewitt ex R/GA, part of InVision's Design Leadership Forum and current Head of Design at Streamtime) join Andy and Sarah to discuss what it's like to make the decision to go in-house as a creative. Will you compromise your creativity? Do you get bored working …