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PODCAST

Creative Slash

Brad Woodard and Dustin Lee

Have you ever wondered what secrets drive the most profound, successful, famous, and unique creatives?Then the Creative Slash podcast is for you. We dig deep to discover the high-leverage concepts, philosophies, tools, weird obsessions, and quiet daily routines that fuel their success—the stuff that rarely gets talked about publicly.You"ll get an inside look at what really drives the world"s greatest graphic designers, illustrators, and artists through in-depth interviews with creatives who"ve

arts design

All Episodes

117:34

Ep. 056 – Tom Froese – Finding the Why in Commercial...

Creative Slash ·

2026/10/01

Most of us were told the same thing. Make something every day, share it, and the people will come. But what happens when you do exactly that for years, the numbers stall, the platforms change the deal, and the thing you love starts to feel like homework for an algorithm? In this episode, we talk with illustrator, teacher, and author Tom Froese about building a very public career as a self-described introvert. It starts with camera presence and resting dad face, then turns into a bigger conver...

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105:03

Ep. 055 – Chris DeLorenzo – Johnny Cupcakes, a...

Creative Slash ·

2026/09/24

Most people see a slackline, a motorcycle, or a recurve bow and think, “That’s not me.” Chris DeLorenzo sees the same things and signs up for lessons. He taught himself to slackline one summer. He has a motorcycle license he has never used. For a while, he wondered if he was quietly training for the apocalypse. In this episode, we talk with Chris about his years as lead designer and art director at Johnny Cupcakes, his move into illustration for places like The New York Times, and the 500-foo...

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119:46

Ep. 054 – Van Berkemeyer – Design, Music, and the...

Creative Slash ·

2026/09/17

Van Berkemeyer has built two separate creative careers: one as an illustrator and designer, one as a musician who's had real viral hits and industry attention. He says neither one ever actually felt like arriving. In this episode, Brad and Dustin talk with Van about growing up on a small farm in rural Texas, working as a cowboy on an Oklahoma ranch as a teenager, and building BerkMade, his illustration and design studio, alongside a music career as Van Andrew. The surface topic is juggling tw...

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94:45

Ep. 053 – Christian Helms – The 99-Pack, a McDonald's...

Creative Slash ·

2026/09/10

A 99-pack of beer sounds like a joke. It's about as tall as Shaq and weighs eighty pounds. When Christian Helms described it to his mom, she said she didn't get it. A few months later, she called to ask if he'd seen what Austin Beerworks did. In this episode, we talk with Christian Helms, founder and creative director of Helms Workshop in Austin, about the 99-pack, Howler Brothers, a week living with Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, and a career built mostly on naive optimism. Underneath the stori...

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66:39

Ep. 052 – Bill Gardner – Stolen Magic Secrets, a $20...

Creative Slash ·

2026/09/03

There are thousands of magicians who can handle a deck of cards better than David Copperfield. There is one David Copperfield. Bill Gardner has a one-word answer for why, and it turns out to be the same word that explains why one designer’s work gets remembered and another’s gets filed. In this episode, we talk with Bill Gardner — founder of LogoLounge, owner of Gardner Design, and a man who put himself through college as a working magician — about story as the actual engine underneath brandi...

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90:03

Ep. 051 – Paul Lukes – Graffiti, Getting Clean, and...

Creative Slash ·

2026/08/28

Designers spend their careers trying to make things beautiful. So what do you do when your boss tears up the polished sign you made for the tip jar, tells you to redo it in crayon, and the ugly one makes more money? In this episode, we talk with designer, artist, and reformed graffiti writer Paul Lukes about the road from painting the streets of San Francisco to a career built on craft, community, and a published ethics page. It is a conversation about addiction and recovery, about what graff...

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66:53

Ep. 050 – 50 Episodes, Over 40 Creatives, and the...

Creative Slash ·

2026/08/21

Fifty episodes and over forty interviews in, Brad and Dustin have heard just about every piece of advice a working creative can give. About half of it directly contradicts the other half. So they went back through a year of their own transcripts to find out what was actually true underneath all of it. In this episode, Brad and Dustin mark Creative Slash’s 50th episode by digging through their own interview archive for the patterns that kept repeating: the formula almost every guest fits witho...

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82:30

Ep. 049 – John Hendrix – Sandcastles, Doubt, and Why...

Creative Slash ·

2026/08/14

Somewhere along the way we started assuming that the thing you were made to do and the thing that pays your bills are supposed to be the same thing. John Hendrix does not think that is true, and he has spent a twenty-year career and a whole graduate program arguing otherwise. In this episode, we talk with illustrator, author, and Washington University art professor John Hendrix about making work that is too weird for the church and too churchy for everyone else, why perseverance beats talent ...

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45:40

Ep. 048 – Allan Peters, A$AP Rocky & the Design...

Creative Slash ·

2026/08/07

In this episode, Brad and Dustin dig into the recent Allan Peters and A$AP Rocky situation, but the real conversation goes much deeper. It turns into a bigger discussion about design influencers, public criticism, jealousy, visibility, client work, AI, and why there may not be one morally pure way to build a creative career anymore. It is part industry therapy session, part internet anthropology, and part two designers trying to figure out why everyone is suddenly so mad. In this episode, we ...

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93:48

Ep. 047 - Emily Balsley - Murals, Community Art, and...

Creative Slash ·

2026/07/31

Emily Balsley makes art feel like something that should spill out of your sketchbook and into the neighborhood. In this episode, we talk with illustrator, muralist, and community art instigator Emily Balsley about building a creative life around color, curiosity, local projects, and the kind of ideas that make people stop on a walk and think, “Wait, who made this?” Emily gets into her path from graphic design to illustration, why she stopped calling herself a designer, how neighborhood art pr...

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104:32

Ep. 046 – Jason Craig – Cash Flow, Chicken Bones &...

Creative Slash ·

2026/07/24

Jason Craig is the type of guy you talk to about freelance work, and suddenly it feels like you’re seeing the whole thing in technicolor for the first time. This episode gets into the parts of freelancing people usually skip over. Cash flow. Repeat clients. Fast little projects that keep the lights on while the big projects take forever to approve. Jason also talks about why being easy to work with might be one of the most underrated skills in design. Talent matters, obviously, but so does tr...

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101:54

Ep. 045 — Dan Lee — Leaving the “Right” Career and...

Creative Slash ·

2026/07/16

In this week's episode, we talk with graphic designer, illustrator, lettering artist, and all-around creative entrepreneur Dan Lee. We've admired Dan's work for years. At Creative South 2026, we finally got to sit down with him, and we walked away struck by his optimism about the creative industry, his genuine love for other creatives, and his impeccable style (he was sporting a Westersen hat from Don Clark's western wear venture — see episode 28). Here's some of what we get into: How to leav...

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98:38

Ep. 044 – Kate Smith – How Being Unmistakably...

Creative Slash ·

2026/07/09

This episode features artist, illustrator, greeting card designer, and licensing powerhouse Kate Smith on what happens when you stop trying to make work that looks “marketable” and start making work that sounds, feels, and thinks like you. Kate talks about building a creative business from her own weird little ideas, emotional instincts, funny phrases, and need to put more joy into the world. That deeply personal approach has turned into a massive licensing career, with her work selling...

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86:37

Ep. 043 – Chris Piascik – The Accidental Illustrator...

Creative Slash ·

2026/06/28

This episode features illustrator, author, YouTuber, and accidental Adobe Fresco evangelist Chris Piascik on building a creative career by staying weird, making a lot of work, and refusing to turn art into a fake polished performance. Chris gets into his 14-year daily drawing project, why YouTube changed his business more than Instagram ever did, how his new book The Accidental Illustrator came together, and why being honest about your process is more valuable than pretending everything is ef...

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79:45

Ep. 042 - Brad Stoneking - Design, Deadtooth, and Why...

Creative Slash ·

2026/06/18

This episode features designer, artist, and Piedmont Brand Company founder Brad Stoneking on building a creative life that doesn't run on chasing algorithms, copying trends, or pretending every designer has to be an influencer. Brad gets into his work under the name Deadtooth, how personal art differs from professional design, why production work deserves more respect, and how years inside agencies set him up to run a small studio doing serious work for big brands. It's funny, blunt, oc...

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101:41

Ep. 041 – Goodtype – Magic, Momentum & Building a...

Creative Slash ·

2026/06/11

When we sat down with Ilana Griffo and Katie Johnson of Goodtype, we expected to talk about typography, online education, and what it’s like to run one of the most recognizable brands in the creative space. And we did. But there is so much good stuff underneath that. Funny, inspiring stories and philosophies that will change how you think about your creative business. In this episode, we talk about: How Goodtype grew from an inspiration account into a thriving creative business. Priorit...

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102:57

Ep. 040 – Jeremy Slagle – Family, Creativity &...

Creative Slash ·

2026/06/04

In this episode, we sit down with designer, illustrator, and longtime Creative South community member Jeremy Slagle to talk about building a creative career by following curiosity wherever it leads. From raising two graphic designers under the same roof to turning a pickleball obsession into real client work, Jeremy shares how some of the biggest opportunities in his career came from personal projects, side interests, and ideas that initially seemed too small to matter. We talk about the valu...

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106:07

Ep. 039 – Lenny Terenzi – The War I Didn’t Know I Was...

Creative Slash ·

2026/05/28

For years, Lenny Terenzi built the kind of creative life designers dream about. He ran a beloved studio and screen printing shop, taught workshops to hundreds of creatives, spoke at conferences around the country, helped build creative communities, and created work that genuinely impacted people’s careers and lives. And yet underneath all of it, he secretly felt like he was failing. In this episode, Lenny opens up about discovering later in life that he had been living with ADHD his entire ad...

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105:42

Ep. 038 – Orlando Arocena (Mexifunk) – The Man Who...

Creative Slash ·

2026/05/14

In this episode, we sit down with legendary illustrator Orlando Arocena (Mexifunk) to talk about building a creative career by leaning into the things other people run away from. While most designers saw Adobe Illustrator as limiting for hyper-realistic illustration work or something to outsource, Orlando saw an opportunity. He spent decades pushing the software far beyond what people thought it could do. Eventually, he became known for his coveted work with major films, entertain...

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90:38

Ep. 037 – Creative South — Community, Creativity &...

Creative Slash ·

2026/05/08

We spent the week talking with designers, illustrators, educators, and other creative professionals from across the country about why they keep coming back year after year, what makes Creative South different, and whether creative conferences are actually worth the investment. The conversations drift from creative burnout and imposter syndrome to bizarre conspiracy theories, typography pet peeves, client stories, and the weirdly specific things only designers care about. But underneath ...

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56 results

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