As the first person to reach out to voluntarily be interviewed by Dumb Questions for Smart Designers, we knew immediately that Julieta Felix would have a great sense of humor, but it turned out she is also an absolute delight. If you want to talk about design, eating vegan, or Mad Men, you should get in touch with her, because she will lift your spirits.

As a visual designer, Julieta loves typography, branding, and illustration, as well as the intricacies with user experience. She grew up in sunny Mexico and came to the U.S. by herself eleven years ago with only a dream and $100 in her pocket. It sounds cheesy but it is true.

Julieta’s reputation precedes her; she has done work for Make-A-Wish, American Airlines, PayPal, Disney, Pepsi, and Macy’s, just to name a few of her global clients. She is currently Senior Product Designer at Target and founder of Busy Vegan, a plant-based recipe blog.

Join us in welcoming Julieta (we say it with an attempted accent) to the DQSD lineup!

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Brian Van Gogh (not his real name) is a man and a brand. He is an illustrator & designer who likes to work with funny people. His poster work promotes some of the best comedians in the industry. From Judd Apatow to Dave Chappelle, his nomenclature, Comedy Artwork is definitely in the spotlight, and the identity has only existed for a year or so.

The force behind the comedic design does not want to share his real name, wanting the work to speak for itself, as well as keep creating for high profile clients such like those listed above, as well as Funny or Die, HBO, and SiriusXM.

Brian also creates award-winning work for commercial clients, press, tech and more, but since we discovered him via our own love of comedy and pop culture, we will help keep his anonymity, which makes this Dumb Questions interview that much more entertaining. (more…)

Randy J. Hunt is a design leader, creative director, and author. He writes and lectures about design, and has been a visiting designer, as well as critic at many colleges and universities. His first book, Product Design for the Web was published by New Riders. It is a breakthrough introduction to modern product design.

The former Creative director at Etsy, Hunt is now head of design at Artsy, a resource for art collecting and education. Previously, he founded and ran Citizen Scholar, Inc as a design studio. He also co-founded Supermarket, a curated design marketplace.

Randy grew up in Orlando, Florida, where he appeared on the Nickelodeon television show Legends of the Hidden Temple. Even with years of expertise, Randy still exclaims that he is just getting started. If there is ever a reboot of that show, Randy should be in charge of everything from design and UI/UX to thinking of the obstacles and even hosting. (more…)

Jennifer Heuer is a graphic designer, illustrator and freelance art director. She primarily specializes in book cover design. Using custom typography, illustration or her own photography, she centers the cover around a concept or visual theme within the manuscript. But don’t judge Jennifer by her book covers, because she is much more.

Jen has written about women in book design on LitHub’s blog, and her work has been featured in various other publications including Print Magazine, The New York Times, and more. She is a visiting professor in Pratt Institute’s ComD department, where she was also a graduate.

We have been sitting on this Dumb Questions interview for a while, but to no fault but our own because we have been very busy, but this one with Jennifer Heuer is definitely worth the wait. She was a ray of sunshine, as we did this interview toward the tail end of summer when Jennifer was on vacation at the beach. We are thankful that she made the time and for her witty answers, plus we apologize for taking so long. She still hasn’t Tweeted in a while.  (more…)

In addition to being an exquisite visual development artist, illustrator, and animator, Syd Weiler is a partnered Twitch Creative streamer, as well as a current member of the Microsoft Creator Council and a 2016-2017 Adobe Creative Resident, during which she grew a creative community through streaming. Currently, she is creating Photoshop brushes and building an archive to refine the tools.

She infamously created the viral internet sensation Trash Doves, a digital sticker pack for iOS, licensed by Facebook. After her little ‘Trash Dove’ artwork unexpectedly went viral overnight, she had to quickly learn how to navigate the positive and negative aspects of online stardom. The country of Thailand is still feeling the effects. We don’t want to get into it, so just Google it if you’re feeling feathery.

Syd also helped develop and kickstart Jenny LeClue, an interactive choose-your-own-adventure mystery game with memorable characters, a unique aesthetic, and an apically tangled mystery. She is a proud graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, where she studied animation and illustration. She loves video games, hats, tea, hair dye and her dog Beezly. As you will soon realize, her interview is hilarious and filled with surprises.  (more…)

Be nice, work hard and make the magic. That is how Kendrick Kidd lives his life and it seems to be working out for him. An Art Director by day and freelance Graphic Designer by night, Mr. Kidd’s focus spans illustration, branding, packaging, apparel, lettering, and typography.

His work is playful and fun, yet masterfully executed. He has created for mega clients, such as American Horror Story on FX, ESPN Magazine, WIRED UK, The Hollywood Reporter, Billabong, and a wide range of breweries across the United States.

Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, when Kendrick isn’t working hard, he is being a father, a husband, and trying to fit in a morning surf or skate session. The perfect combination of design, family and real life is what makes a day’s magic for the incomparable Mr. Kidd. (more…)

Lola Landekic is a talented graphic designer, illustrator, and editor based in Toronto, Canada. She lectures internationally about title design. She is also the Managing Editor of Art of the Title, the definitive resource for title sequence design, spanning the film, television, conference, and videogame industries.

She has a history of designing and editing for organizations such as OCAD University, Random House of Canada, and newspapers such as The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail.

Lola also contributes pages and edits to Wikipedia, adding pages in particular for women designers throughout history. She started the 10 Women of Title Design series of articles on Art of the Title, and the #womenoftitledesign hashtag on Twitter, which act as resources and highlight the work of women who design titles for film and television. (more…)

Shogo Ota is the epitome of the American dream. He moved from Japan to the United States 14 years ago to study art at the University of Idaho, without speaking a lick of English. He is now killing it in Seattle, designing posters for bands, identities for businesses, and he is the man behind last year’s controversial green Starbucks cup.

Shogo Ota loves to work on brand systems, logo design, event posters & materials, brochures, product packaging and more. Custom illustration on snowboards? Of course, he can do that. His studio, Tireman Studio, is a small design studio focusing on unique, fun and professional looks for a multitude of businesses. He has been called a stylistic chameleon, because he really studies what clients need and pushes himself to make something new every time.

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Jordan Scott (J-Scott) is a good example of not judging a book by it’s cover. He prides himself on being a grump, but in reality he is a sweetheart. He is a tattooed, bearded badass with the sensibility of an adorable artist. He also doesn’t want to touch spiders.

Jordan is an Art Director with the design and animation studio Oddfellows. Additionally, he runs the curated animation inspiration site IceCreamHater. Prior to Oddfellows, Jordan was a longtime member of the freelance animation community, bouncing from Vancouver to Seattle, New York to Los Angeles, before settling down in Portland.

He claims that he is highly unqualified and unprepared, simply hoping to fake his way through without anyone noticing. However, everyone, including his clients, such as Saturday Night Live, Google, AirBnB, Verizon, McDonald’s, would disagree. Whether design or animation, Jordan always brings the influence, peppering it with flakes of pop-culture and his self-aware sense of humor.

Jordan has never been a part of an exclusive design club, served on a jury, spoken at a conference, or won an award for his design or animation work, but he prides himself in being an active member of the creative community and interacting with other creators both on and offline. (more…)

Andy J. Miller, aka Andy Pizza, is all about momentum…and he has a lot of it. His successful podcast, Creative Pep Talk, encourages everyone, from creatives to technologists, to generate momentum using whatever it takes. This very Dumb Questions interview was featured at the end of episode 139 – The Key to Making Authentic Work (Part 3 of the Creative Destiny Series).

In addition to podcasting, Andy is a designer and illustrator, who travels the globe regularly for speaking engagements and boosts of inspiration. He is the creator of the Indie Rock Coloring Book, and has done work for the likes of Google, Nickelodeon, Converse, Smart Car, Sony, and more.

Andy doesn’t like beige, but has an undying enthusiasm for sharing what he’s learned, and an empathy to help others succeed. He is a father, a husband, and he is hilarious. We would like to someday buy him a beer, a slice of pizza, and watch television with him.  (more…)