[MUSIC]

I love you.

>> Thank you guys.

I appreciate it.

I don't know how I live up to that, whatever that was, but

I can't thank you guys enough for being here.

It means the world.

First and foremost I I can't thank Mike and

all the guys involved in, in getting this thing put together.

To be here with all these great folks that are involved,

I know it means the world to me.

And I'm truly honored and humbled just to,

to be here in this amazing theater with very bright lights in my face.

But it's it's awesome to be here I can't thank you guys enough for all that.

Kinda going into it I started doing some research just about Columbia in general I,

you know, probably like you guys I didn't know a whole lot about it.

So I learned, I tried to, tried to, learn a little more about it and

what I learned was that, Aflac's from here.

Which is pretty awesome.

We all love the duck, right?

But also the amazing improv comedian, Wayne Brady is from here and

he was born here which is pretty awesome.

But above all that, I think what I'm most stoked for

is all the great public art that our city, this city has.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Like I don't think this

city knows how lucky we have it with all this amazing public art.

[NOISE] it's top notch you know, I mean, they really erect some good shit so.

>> [LAUGH] >> So,

I know a lot of us like to live tweet and I, I encourage you.

I thought I'd get us started with a few hashtags we should start with.

Obviously, #creativesouth is a good one we should use.

It's been a long day, I know I'm hungry, you know, #iDratherbesnacking than

listening to this asshole talk is probably a good one as well.

Um,#ithoughthedbealotbetterlooking, that's probably true also.

#whotheeffiswaynebrady, which is a callback to my previous slide,

which is probably also accurate.

And most importantly,

#canwillgaycomebackandtalkdisneysummore- plz?

Cuz that's probably gonna be very important here momentarily when I start

putting you to sleep.

So, I always like to kinda start off with a quote, and

it's my favorite quote out there.

And it's the harder I work,

[MUSIC] The luckier I get.

And that's the story of my life.

And its by Buck Owens, this is really an excuse to play honky tonk with Buck Owens,

which is my favorite edition.

But it's true, the harder I work, the luckier I get, and the my career is

kinda built on that as you start to kinda move through and share some ideas here.

My studio is Tad Carpenter Creative and

it's completely equal parts graphic design and illustration.

I couldn't do graphic design without illustration and

I sure as shit couldn't do illustration without graphic design.

But in the core of everything, I like to make, I live to make,

and I think that's probably why you guys are here too.

You love to make.

You wake up everyday wanting to make things and

that's what we do at our studio.

We don't discriminate really on what we like to make.

We like to do all kinds of things from brand identity work.

We do a lot of restaurants and brand identities.

This is a diner that we redid in downtown Kansas City.

We obviously do a lot of logo and and just lockups in general for clients.

We do a lot of starting to do a lot more apparel and dimensional objects.

Kidrobot was a client for, for years and we did a lot of dunnies\g and

apparel for them.

And then getting out, getting into more dimensional objects like snowboards.

So this is Zion, which is a Canadian snowboard company.

And and we've been doing a lot of boards for them over the years.

Which is totally like one of those, like, bucket lists kind of projects that you do,

you know?

We've been doing boards with them.

And, and I remember getting an email from a guy.

Just really cool to see how dimensional objects can go into the world and

do things that you never expected.

So, you know, doing this project with Zion and I get an email from a guy out of

Tampa, Florida telling me how much he loves this snow board, you know?

And I'm like, wow that's awesome.

There is no snow in Tampa, Florida man.

Like, why the hell did you buy this snowboard, right.

And, and I email them that, I'm like, dude, what the, you know?

And he told me, he's like, no man, I've never snowboarded in my life!

But I hang it on my wall as an art piece and that's what it is to me.

And that's cool that we get to create things, throw them out in the world, and

you don't know what happens with them.

So, so you know, creating snowboards and stuff, and

just dimensional objects in general, kind of a cool bucket list kinda project.

And of course we do a lot of editorial work, spot illustration and

then now starting to do more and more picture books and

children's books and true storytelling.

And and it's, it's one of those things that I always get asked a lot like,

why did you start doing children's books?

You know, you do gig posters and brand identities and things like that.

And for me, if we all think back,

like, what was that first experience we had with art, or with design?

And that was probably when you were a kid looking and

reading a picture book, you know?

And the fact that I can contribute, even in the smallest way

to maybe inspiring a kid to wanna be a graphic designer like all of us, or

an illustrator, or just art in general is a cool thing.

It's a lot of responsibility to carry but I love that.

It's a really cool thing.

To maybe that first kind of, kind of peek inside of our world for

a new designer hopefully.

So as Justin mentioned, I'm from Kansas City,

Missouri, right smack dab in the middle of the Midwest.

I love the Midwest very very much.

It shaped the way I think, the way I feel, the way I design.

There's something very Midwest just about my approach and just the way I work.

And then all those things in the Midwest really start to shape kind of who I am.

One of my biggest influences in this life is Mr. George Brett.

He was an amazing baseball player in the eh, 70s, 80s and 90s.

And, and, what's cool about George is

he was never the most athletic guy in the, on the field.

Yeah, he was handsome as shit.

I mean, look at this guy.

>> [LAUGH] >> But, but, you know, news flash.

He wasn't Bo Jackson, you know?

He wasn't like, this dude that'd show up and make it work.

Dude had to bust his tail.

And there's something innately Midwestern about that, that I'm gonna grit my nails,

I'm gonna tear it up, because I'm gonna make it work.

And he would do that he would just tear it up just based on, on want to, and there

was something very Kansas City about this, something very Midwestern about that.

And even something very Southern about that, Midwest and

South have a lot of kind of similar, kind of, you know, kind of core,

kind of, kind of thoughts in their in their overall process.

And George Brett was that for me he was my everything, you know?

He was, he was a, kind of the underdog, and I liked that,

you know, being from Kansas City even our food is kind of a rough around the edges.

Kind of like the South, right?

It's.

it's not fancy $70 steak, it's a six dollar gas station barbecued meal,

you know, but it's the best damn thing you'll ever eat, you know?

One of our, one of our kinda new residents in Kansas City is Anthony Bourdain.

He comes to our city all the time, specifically for

the barbecue, why wouldn't he, you know?

And and he, you know, about a couple of years ago he came out with his top

ten restaurants you have to eat before you die.

And of course it's like, you know, eating sushi off some girl's navel in Tokyo,

you know, but then one of them was Joe's Kansas City Barbecue

in the back of a gas station in Kansas City.

You know what I mean?

And that's who we are.

That is our shit, you know?

It's like, it's we, we roll our sleeves up, we get barbecue sauce all over us, and

we don't care.

It's the best meal you'll ever have for $8.

There's value to that.

I mean shit, Bill liked it too, you know?

>> [LAUGH] >> So it's like.

So innately being from Kansas City,

being from the Mid es, Midwest, we aren't showy people.

I think we, we act kind, and we, we realize that talent is never enough.

And I think those are good attributes, good qualities that we can kinda take as

designers and just as people in general, you know, on, on working with other folks.

Being from Kansas City there's also a lot of people just recently that have made

a big statement that are all from Kansas City.

I mean, shit, you know, Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Eric Stonestreet I mean,

shit, even Anchorman's Champ Kind is from Kansas City you, know what I mean?

Even this asshole is from Kansas City.

>> [LAUGH] >> But the people I'm more interested in

talking about is creatively some of the people that are from Kansas City.

Cuz those are the people that, again, really helped mold and, and, and

start to, to create like, what I am into and what I like culturally.

I mean, you got Charlie Parker back in the 30s started to create what we know as

jazz now in Kansas City.

Some of my favorite painters, Robert Rauschenberg,

John Steuart Curry, all attended the Kansas City Art Institute.

One of my favorite painters of all time is Thomas Hart Benton.

His studio's still in KC, he taught at the art institute.

Just an amazing, amazing human being.

And even more recently someone like Kate Spade sold her first book, or first book,

her first bag at Halls in Kansas City at a department store and

then obviously has gone on to create this huge brand.

And then the man, the myth, the legend himself, Walt Disney,

is from the state of Missouri.

He started taking drawing classes at the Kansas City Art Institute.

He, he, later got a job at the Kansas City Star.

He was later fired

from the Kansas City Star because he didn't have enough imagination.

That worked out well.

>> [LAUGH] >> And then a, a, and then he a,

he started his first animation studio in Kansas City, called Laugh-O-Gram Films.

The rumor is he taught a mouse to eat out of his bare hands at that studio which

would then go to inspire, you know, something, I don't know what.

So it's all these amazing things that are coming out of Kansas City and, and I like

that, I like the people that came from here and their stories and what they have.

And I think it's important to realize kind of, be you.

You are, who you are.

And there's something about that from Kansas City.

And it's like, you know, and I, I, I promise guys,

I ain't just gonna talk about Kansas City for 45 minutes, you know.

But, but, I like, I like where I'm from and

think that's what I like about coming to these conferences, you know.

Getting to meet all you guys today, and just like throughout the week,

it's like, just learning where you're from,

what's your story, what's unique about where you're from, you know?

And, and that's what I always like about Kansas City and

going on these speaking engagements.

And, and I go around and I would talk to different AOJ chapters or

universities and everyone,

well first off, you know, I, I don't know what your impression of Kansas City is.

Probably nothing, to be honest, which is, you know, probably, that's fine.

And but like, people would instantly think I was either from San Francisco or, or, or

maybe Cal, or New York or something like that and I was like, no.

Kansas City's awesome and this is why.

And I would kind of talk about it.

And I would always wish that there was something out there that could kind of

promote that a little more or g, get that out there just a little bit more.

So, when I would come back from s,

speaking engagements, I would talk to my wife.

And, I said, gosh, I really do wish there was something that kind of highlighted

some of the things that are going on right now in Kansas City.

And, and so we started to develop this kind of idea and

it's called Made In The Middle and it's something we launched a few month ago.

I guess we launch it in December, and it's totally just a little passion project we

started, which I, I'll talk about momentarily more.

But it's, it's a website we developed that showcases all the great people and

designers and artists and illustrators and fashion designers And

all kinds of people making really, really cool things in Kansas City.

And it's purely something we just do because we wanna do it.

And, and I think there's a lot of really interesting stories and talents.

And I think it parallels a lot of things that you guys are doing all

over the country, too.

They, they have the same struggles, the same success that everyone has.

And it's cool to see some of the things they're doing.

We do different featurettes every, every week or so highlighting, this is

Matthew Huff who does just unreal modern architecture throughout the Midwest.

I think he does some of the, you know, most beautiful, beautiful stuff out there.

So we do these great little featurettes.

Then of course there's swag upon swag upon swag.

So we have all kind of fun, fun jazz that kind of share as far as that is concerned.

But again, it's because I, I love where I'm from.

It's, it's, it's made me who I am and I, and

I want to kind of continue to promote that.

And then, and then, ultimately, one of my favorite parts about the site,

if anybody ever wants to take and look at it, it's it' s we created a timeline.

And the timeline goes back to when Kansas City was founded in 1838 all the way up

until today.

Highlighting like really, really interesting,

creative moments for our city.

You know, again, like ca,

like Walt Disney going to the Kansas City Art Institute as a child.

The inception of the Kansas Jayhawk mascot and logo countless things.

Walt Disney getting fired from the Kansas City Star and

then Hallmark cards getting founded in Kansas City over 100 years ago.

And that's ultimately what makes Kansas City really special is what this man did,

JC Hall from Hallmark Cards.

And Hallmark Cards is a greeting card company.

And for, I know we're a little bit of a younger audience,

and greeting card is a piece of paper that folds in half, and

you write a sentiment in the middle and you mail it.

Yeah, greeting cards aren't doing so hot anymore, you know.

But what's special about it is that Hallmark Cards hires artists,

designers, stylists, photographers from all over the world.

They moved to Kansas City.

They see Kansas City.

They fall in love with Kansas City.

They don't leave Kansas City.

And cool things start popping up everywhere.

It's a special, unique little place.

And why I'm telling you about Hallmark?

I've never worked for Hallmark before.

I've done some freelancing with them over the years but never,

never really worked for them.

But why I tell you about him is, in 1975, Hallmark Cards hired this beautiful

strapping man, who I'm almost wearing the exact same shirt as him.

In, in 1975 my fa, my father was hired by Hallmark Cards, so

that's why I live in Kansas City.

My father was hired then and

to this day, today, as we speak, he is still an employee of Hallmark Cards.

He'll be celebrating his 40th anniversary with Hallmark Cards this June

which is a very rare thing in our world, you know?

Which is cool, yeah.

[APPLAUSE] Give it up for pops, man.

So on top of working for Hallmark for all of those years and, and now,

he's a creative director of the international division, so

he really spends most of his time outside of North America.

But he, he illustrated a lot of books, he did a lot of work.

Here's some examples of some of his books he's done over the years.

He done, gosh, nearly probably 40 children's books in his life.

So, I got to grow up with an illustrator and an author in my house,

seeing, wow, this is what you do?

It can be great, and it can also be horrible.

You know, he was like the art director to me.

It's like a third grader like trying to do something, you know what I mean?

But but it was great to be around this all the time.

And I knew that that was something that I wanted to be a part of.

You get to experience all these awesome things that he was getting to experience.

I mean, he got to art direct shoot, shoots with the Muppetts in the, in the 80s, and,

and you know?

I don't know why I needed to tell you which one were the Muppetts, and

which one were my dad, all right?

Hopefully, that's like, like kind of obvious, you know, but but

like I got to experience this.

And my dad, being kind of a, a product of the 1950s,

all the influences that were my dad's growing up very quickly became mine.

You know, my father was a huge fan of people like M Sasek and

Battaglia the Provensens.

I love the work of the Provensens.

Tom Eckersley is one of my favorites, and my father's.

So it's a lot of my dad's influences very quickly came mine.

Of course, you know, kinda piggybacking off Will and his wife earlier about, about

Disney, you know Mary Blair is somebody I just absolutely adore, you know.

And it's like I know like half of this crowd is from Orlando, right?

So like, you know [APPLAUSE] yeah, right?

So, so if you go to Disney World and

you ride, it's a small world when you tone out that awful song, right, and

just focus on the, the majesty and the beauty that is that ride.

It is perfect, the way it's designed, everything is so wonderful, you know?

And as a single man riding it over and over again,

they will very quickly ask you to leave in a very strange way.

Like, hey dude.

No kids, man.

[NOISE] Hit the bricks.

This is getting creepy, you know.

So but again, like these were my dad's influences and

very quickly became my influences, you know?

So if you're in the mid-century kind of illustration when I'm not pinning my

favorite ways to do twisted pony tails on Pinterest there is,

I do have a Pinterest board.

It's called Retro Pop, and like literally, all it is is just like,

it's just mid-century illustration that I like from that kind of era.

And it's a, it's a fun thing to collect, but but being able to grow up like that

and have parents that totally supported and encouraged me to be an illustrator and

a designer, and make things was super, super helpful.

And, and I can never thank them enough for, for, for allowing that.

And I, god, I don't know what the hell I would have done if

I wouldn't have done that.

I was always around it. It's like, ever since I was young,

I knew I wanted to be an illustrator or a designer.

When I was in third grade was really when I first kinda got my first taste for

like art and commerce.

And when I was in third grade, which is maybe a year or so after this,

you, the, you would think this here would be Halloween, but

this was Tuesday for Tod, [LAUGH].

Just kinda what I was into.

I also went through an Alex P Keaton phase.

The first like three years of my grade school, I wore a bow tie and

carried a leather brief case.

I went to a public school, man,

like that was like not like encouraged a lot but [LAUGH].

But again when I was in third grade was the first time I really

put together like art and commerce and like what this meant.

And there was a contest for

the Kansas City Chiefs which is our professional football team.

And, and when I was in third grade, they were really, really horrible so

not that different than now.

And and, and so they were doing this contest.

Said, hey, if you draw season draw a ticket design,

you can then win season tickets for the cheese for a year.

And I was like, oh, that's rad.

I'm gonna try that.

So I tried and somehow I won.

And like, I mean, look at that hand typography, guys.

I mean, like, get out of town, man.

So, so again I entered this and I won.

I was like, wow.

And so I got free season tickets.

They honored me at the 50-yard line of a football game.

And there's like nine people there cause it was horrible.

And and and, and

they sent a football player to my school in a Ferrari to drive me around.

They did this whole assembly.

And then at the end of the assembly,

I was in third grade, a fifth grade girl asked me out.

So [LAUGH] I can pinpoint the day that I fell in love with art and

design, because people will give me things, and I get older women.

So it was like [LAUGH] it was a, it was like a magical day for me and, and design.

Around the same time this was going on as a in,

in third grade I started to hang out with a gentleman named Gordon MacKenzie.

And Gordon is a really, really special person.

He was an amazing guy.

Gordon was one of my dad's best friends.

And, and Go, Gordon worked at Hallmark Cards for years and years.

And his title at Hallmark was was very ambiguous.

He was a creative paradox, that was his title.

Really they didn't know where to put him cuz he was kind of an instigator.

And, but ultimately what Gordon's job was at Hallmark was, hey,

Hallmark is one of those businesses that is over 50% business people, but

then another 50% that is creative people like us.

And how do we let these people work and live together?

How does that work?

So Gordon would try to bridge that gap in tons of ways.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

And and Gordon eventually, would eventually leave Hallmark, and

then go on to write an amazing book, and go on lecture upon lecture.

Very well received in the creative community.

But the book he would write was Orbiting the Giant Hairball.

And I can never recommend that book enough, still to this day.

It is so great for all of us as designers.

It's, it's Orbiting the Giant,

Giant Hairball kind of it's kind of your surviving with grace in, in all of us as

creative people living in a non-creative environment sometimes, you know?

And Gordon was unbelievably inspiring.

This was, I think, my dad and Gordon in a meeting, Gordon prepony tail and, and

goatee.

I don't know why NBC News was there,

my dad with the rocking mustache, it must have been the 70s, right?

So but Gordon, I just remember spending time with him as a kid and

thinking he was just the coolest guy.

I would, I would go to Hallmark all the time as a kid because my parents

couldn't find a babysitter.

So they would just lock me in a conference room a lot of the times, and

just be like, all right, he's not gonna go anywhere, you know?

And and I remember, Gordon would come in and hang out with me.

And, and Gordon had all kinds of really interesting philosophies on design and,

and one of them was everyone has a masterpiece in within them from birth.

And I'm such a believer in that, you know?

We all run across people that are like, oh, I can't draw or I can't do this,

you know, and and Gordon, Gordon called BS on that all the time.

So Gordon would go to speak to schools all the time, specifically like grade schools,

he would go to kindergarten and ask, hey,

out of all of you, how many of you guys like to draw?

Every one of them, you know.

Double hands up.

Like, yes, I love to draw, you know?

Then you go to third grade and, you know, how many of you guys like to draw?

And you know, it's like maybe about half that many, you know, kind of.

Then you go to sixth grade and there'd be the, the two of us in

the background kind of, I like to, I like to doodle on occasion, you know?

You're kinda looking around.

As we get older, we very quickly start to compare ourselves to others.

You know, oh, god, that guy's really good.

I could never do that.

I'd better do something else.

But, you know, and the comparison is, it's bad.

You don't need to do that, you know?

You are you, and you should make what you make.

Because if you don't make it, no one is, no one, no one's gonna make it for you.

And I like that idea.

I like that philosophy behind that, you know?

And, and Gordon just was a really inspiring guy with messages like that.

He was a big proponent for risk, you know, kind of walking out on thin ice and

wondering if it can support you.

Every few years, you have to take a risk.

Things could get vanilla very, very quickly.

And I like that idea of reminding ourselves how important risk was.

Everyone of you here has taken a risk, you know?

News flash, every one of you parents wanted you to be a doctor or a lawyer.

You know what I mean?

Sucks, right?

Oh, my god, my, my daughters gonna be a designer.

I don't even know what the fuck that is, oh my god, you know?

[LAUGH] You took a risk, you're here, you know, you have to continue to take risks.

Here's a huge component of a play.

Play is so important.

What we do is play, you know?

We, we get to do this.

And, and for me play is a lot of different things, you know?

It's just reminding myself how important drawing is As, you know,

just keeping sketchbooks and, and little Post-It notes just to doodle and have fun.

You know, cut type and make weird faces, you know.

Whatever play is, remind yourself to do that.

I think it's important for us to kind of continue to remember.

Be passionate about something,

how can something that you're passionate about be something you can play with.

And mine happened to be, oh the Kansas City Royals.

Sorry, it's more Kansas City talk but it's the Royals.

I, I can't be excited enough about the fact that we went to the World Series,

pardon me, we went to the playoffs for the first time in 30 freaking years last year!

I was, I was four years old the last time we were in the playoffs, you know!

Oh, that's us clenching to go to the World Series, but I was ver, I love the Royals.

I freaking love the Royals.

I went to a lot of 100 last seasons like it was amazing.

So I have a good friend in the industry Erik Marinovich who runs

Friend of Type which a lot of you guys probably know.

And I had Erik come visit the university I teach at, and it was during the playoffs.

So Erik saw how unbelievably passionate I was cuz I dragged him to go watch games

with me for night after night.

And it so happens that when the Royals clinched to go to the World Series, so

did the Giants and the Giants is one of Eric's favorite teams.

So, then Erik contacted me and was like,

Dad, we should totally do something on Friends are Tight, man.

I'll make a piece.

You make a piece.

You know, for the whole World Series and I was like, oh, yeah, yeah.

That sounds horrible man like I gotta do something every day for

like during the World Series?

I was like, I can't do that you know, I was like that's too much work and and

he was like well we'll just do one piece each, I was like oh that's great,

that's perfect.

And then the next day he tweets out that we're gonna do a piece for every

game of the World Series and I was just like, Eric you threw me under the bus,

he's like yup, you're in now man and I was like oh my god,

so again this was two friends that were like you know, what let's just have fun.

This is why we got into this, you know?

Let's just have fun making design, you know?

So again we did that on, on Friends of Type which Eric runs.

You know, I would do a piece for game one and then he would do a piece for game one.

And then these are some of the pieces I did.

I wouldn't wanna put Eric's up there because they're too good.

But like, you know, these are some of the pieces that I did just again, for fun.

There was no client involved.

There's nobody telling us what to do.

We only had a few hours to make them.

But you had fun and you reminded yourself why you do this, you know?

And I think that's really important to do on occasion is,

remind yourself how lucky we are to do this.

In the end of the day, like I said, we get to do this.

Like that's important to remember.

I'm sure we all have, my best friend in the world is a truck driver.

He drives a beer delivery truck, you know.

He loves his job.

It's an awesome job.

Like, we get a lot of free beer, you know.

Like, it's great, he loves it.

>> [LAUGH] >> But does he get to come to Georgia and

talk to 400 of his favorite friends about, like, beer delivery routes or some shit.

I don't know, you know.

No, he doesn't get to do that, we get to do that.

You know, we get to come here and talk about design and

things we're passionate about, and we get to be apart of.

I think that's really special that we, we get to do this.

My practice is broken up kind of in three parts, really two.

My own studio, a, as we briefly mentioned.

Do a lot of posters, which really is kind of under my studio.

And then I teach at the University of Kansas, [INAUDIBLE].

An-, and teaching I think a lot of people when you think

of the University of Kansas, you probably think of basketball or

to be honest again you might not think anything at all.

That, that, you know, [INAUDIBLE] But yes, you probably think of basketball.

You might think of T-Robb throwing it down.

You might think of James Naismith,

that's the dude that invented the game of basketball.

Yeah, he was our first coach.

The rules of basketball to live in our arena.

You know what I mean?

Like, that's pretty rad.

You know, you could think of Paul Pearce, the truth, and maybe Mario in the shot.

No way? No?

Anyone? Anyone?

Anyone?

What about Andrew Wiggy Wiggy Wiggy Wiggins?

First round draft pick last year in, in the NBA.

I don't know.

It could be that.

But oh whoops, that's his first dunk as a Kansas Jayhawk.

My fault.

>> [LAUGH] >> But I love Kansas Jayhawks.

Unfortunately, our basketball seasons normally end like this,

unfortunately most of the time.

Which they did again this year.

But ironically enough I've never once seen one of those guys on campus.

These are the students that I teach every day at the University of Kansas.

>> [LAUGH] >> They're very, very dedicated,

talented designers of the future.

That I'm very delighted to teach.

Teaching's one of those things that I never in a million years

thought I would do.

I never in a mill, million years thought I should do.

But, I started to do it.

And, then I feel in love with it.

And now I'm afraid I could, I, I don't know how to survive without it.

It's one of those, kind of, part of my practices that it's like, I'm so

inspired to see what students are doing and

to see how exited they get about what I’m excited about which is design.

That it is, it’s a very selfish thing because I love it.um because I love it and

it’s hard and it’s a lot of sacrifice.

And you work full time like we all do.

To then try to teach when you have the time.

But it is, it is so rewarding,

it makes you such a better designer to then also do that.

Mitch and I also design a lot of posters.

Me and a buddy of mine started a screen printing studio, oh gosh, in 2006.

And we kinda started that way and

I started designing a lot of posters ever since.

I don't, I'm not really involved with the screen printing shop anymore.

He just runs the print shop full time.

But I design a ton of posters still.

And work with tons of different musicians.

And it's, it's, it's a truly, truly fun thing.

It's design at its core.

But it, in the essence,

still the most important thing, especially when you're designing a poster is concept.

Concept is king when it comes to designing posters.

And whatever that concept is, it can be the smallest of concepts, but

anything when you're designing a poster.

I mean, if you go to the far, far right in the middle that's a,

a flight of the Concord poster.

And anybody's a friend [INAUDIBLE] or

fraud of the Concord, you see that poster and you know when I'm down to my socks.

It's business time, you know what I mean?

>> [LAUGH] >> So it's like, whatever that concept is,

it needs to be present, it needs to be out in the forefront.

That's important.

It's easy to make something pretty, but we're not cake decorators, right?

So adding that concept it very important.

And in my studio, again I talk about risk.

Risk is important and, and my studio is definitely involved in that now.

For a long, long time it was really just kind of, kinda me.

Like, trying to balance it all and figure it out.

And, and more recently we're starting to expand, and we're starting to grow, and

we're kinda trying to figure that out.

Just right now as we speak my wife, who I, I really out kicked my coverage with her.

But my wife is coming on full time, so

we're in transition of that over the next couple months.

And then we have four really amazing interns that work with us.

So, we have at least two people with us everyday in some regard.

So it's really, really amazing collaborative

collective of people that we have starting to work as a team.

My wife, as I mentioned.

Mentioned is one of the most amazing designers I know.

I'm so lucky to have her in a lot of different ways [LAUGH] but

she's such a talented art director and designer.

And the fact that's she's coming on full time now is so exciting, and

I'm just, I'm excited to what's, what's next for us.

She's been an art director at, Willoughby Design Group,

which maybe a lot of you have heard of.

The Ann Willoughby is a very well-received designer.

She actually is, owns the the longest woman-ran design firm in the country.

Which is out of Kansas City.

And my, my wife, is kind of in charge their, their largest,

one of their largest accounts which is Panera Bread.

So for the last several years my wife,

kinda runs the Panera account which means she's designing all of their in store,

she's art directing all of their photo shoots.

And she’s doing, especially our favorite part about it on it that,

she would work on is their holiday campaign.

So she would always design all their cups and their bags and

all their in store which I think is just always top notch.

I am always blown away with what she works on.

Which I’m, I’m just kinda bragging about my wife now, this is what this has become.

>> [LAUGH] >> But again our studio for years and

years was a loft in downtown Kansas city.

We loved it there.

It was fantastic, but then we kinda got this idea to take a risk.

And we thought, "Hey let's try something different.

Let's sell this loft that we loved, and buy a crackhouse."

>> [LAUGH]

[LAUGH]

>> Every designers dream, right?

[LAUGH] >> So, we bought a crack house and

we tore it down, and we started working with a friend of ours who's an architect

to design us a live work space in some way,.

So we got renderings we started working through it and these are some of

the renderings of the space where we'll be moving and we are now,

we're in, you can kinda see the bottom concrete level is our office space,

walk out space for clients and our staff, and we'll live the two floors above that

and so then we started constructing this project and.

What I learned very,

very quickly in doing a construction project like this as designers is

as designers, we very much have champagne taste with beer wallets, you know?

And so that is very hard thing to grasp but we do.

And so we started designing this space and it was a dream project.

And, and one day I posted just a little photo here on the left about that project

and somebody posted on Instagram.

Did you seriously design your house to have a huge C for carpenter?

If so, thumbs up emoticon!

>> [LAUGH] >> Wow.

So, again, we haven't had it professionally shot, but

you can start to see kind of how it's coming together now.

We're really excited about the space and future possibilities, kind of,

of that space, you know?

It's gonna be a, a fun ride, I think, for sure.

At the end of the day, kind of getting into projects, too.

It, it is, it's story telling.

I'm like what we do is story telling.

Yes, with children's' books, that's a very literal interpretation of it, right.

But, just as any kind of design project we do, it's story telling.

And, several years ago, I started a project, with, where Georgia.

There was, there was a new idea for a burger restaurant in Atlanta.

And they didn't have a name.

They didn't have anything.

And they came to me with, this idea to try to start selling burgers in a better way,

and that would be trying to get all of the beef and

their produce and everything from that region, from that area.

And so we started to, started to talk and started to figure this out.

And, and for us, when any branding project starts,

the first thing we do is some basic research and strategy.

And we start a lot with, we do these kind of creative charettes and these

little strategies [INAUDIBLE], where we get to know their, their brand attributes,

and their positioning, and their voice, and all these things.

So we can design to that.

And then, in the, and then, as we move forward, if there's discrepancy, or

they have questions, we can always go back to exactly what they wrote and they said,

which really helps things.

So again, we start with strategy.

For me, everything always starts with pencil and paper.

Like I just have to work that way.

Like I have to write and draw.

So, for me, I start just doodling logo ideas and mark ideas and start to explore.

I start to move onto the computer a little bit.

These are just basic logo ideas like none of these even made it to the client.

These were just ideas that fell on the cutting room floor.

Why I thought it'd be a good idea to show a cow face in the logo lock up.

No one wants to see the face of the thing they're getting ready to consume, man.

>> [LAUGH] >> What, like, oh,

this burger's delicious.

Thanks!

Skippy, Bessie, whatever, you know, like yeah.

Your butt's delicious, I don't know.

You know, it's like, yeah, it's like, no one needs that, you know, but

you have to make those things.

You have to get them out of your system, you know?

So for us and

kinda what we do a lot of times is then we share brand concept boards, you know?

And those normally have several boards, but one concept we shared was this.

And, and this was one basic concept and

they were very responsive to the kind of illustrative nature for a specific reason.

Another concept we shared was this.

It was a little, a little, probably almost feel like too much of a coffee shop or

something you know?

That was a concept that never went anywhere.

This was all about like being layered and it was very textural.

Another idea that they really responded to the mark.

This one was just a little more graphic.

Kind of simple iconic based direction.

And in the end, what we really responded to with this particular brand,

was these two basic kind of ideas.

We loved this illustrative, kind of whimsy.

And we loved this kind of word bubble, which is almost a call to action.

Yeah! Burger, you know?

It fit.

It made sense.

So our brand,

our kind of logo lockup became this, with our main logo being the word bubble mark.

But then it had to be kinetic, it had to work on lots of platforms.

Right? So it worked horizontally.

It worked stacked with the tag.

We have a mascot it works with and

then the tagline we came up which is keeping it real.

It makes sense to our consumer but

it also makes sense to exactly what you are consuming.

You are consuming real food from your state, from your area.

It made sense.

So our brand became very illustrative you know?

And, and the reason and the idea behind that was when I started to visit

the space before we went in there, there's a lot of negative wall space everywhere.

And there's also an opportunity where we need to educate the consumer a little bit,

just about like why am I spending $14 on my meal,

when I can go to Wendy's across the street for $3, you know?

So we thought maybe this illustration was a way to kind of educate the consumer

a little bit.

So if you kind of look at the brand,

if you've ever been there, there's lots of like wall art in very specific places.

And a lot of the, you've been to the, you've been to the burger, yeah?

You've been to the YB?

Cool. That's awesome.

And so, and they're, yeah, I can't.

So there, there, there's going to be others opening, I am told.

I don't know what I'm not supposed to say or should so.

But yeah! So it's like, really exciting!

But, but we were very specific on where we wanted the art to be.

Like, let's put it where they're waiting in line because then they can

read this and it can just be little messages about what they're consuming.

But we thought that would be really helpful, so

you can kinda see how, how that brand came together which is really awesome.

And, and for me, when creating a brand identity.

The value of a successful brand.

I, I don't think it's found in like pixels and paper.

But it's really found in how that brand is brought into your life.

Like, how do people interact with that brand?

And that's what's really, really exciting about Yeah Burger.

You'll see throughout this little montage, or some of the other photographs I took,

everybody goes to Yeah Burger and they stand under the Yeah Burger sign.

And pretend like they're yelling yeah burger, right?

It's become this like crazy Instagram-able moment and I would like to sit here and

tell you that that was my plan from the get go.

Oh yeah.

What, what girl.

You know, but no.

Like it became this and that's awesome.

It became this great thing that people interact with and bring into their life.

And that's what a successful brand does.

You know it's like I'd never read this tweet that someone, that someone sent me.

Hey, I went to a place tonight that based solely on their logo and design,

the Yeah Burger in the ATL.

Oh, and my burger had bacon [UNKNOWN] on it.

What? Yeah.

Bacon jam.

So, again, >> [LAUGH]

>> This girl is driving down the street,

and sees our brand and says I want to go to there.

>> [LAUGH] >> And if that's not enough to show you

the value of what we do I don't know what is, you know?

So, I always like that.

Yeah, I every restaurant I work on is totally different, you know.

This went is very, very smooth.

It just clicked, it clicked, it clicked.

But not all of them do.

And so, for us, it can start as easy as you know, so I have this restaurant idea.

And again, this is also in Atlanta.

I don't live in Atlanta.

But I do a lot of work in Atlanta, somehow.

I don't know how this works out.

But again, someone said, hey I have this idea for a restaurant.

And all they had, all I knew was it was gonna be Southern Style Fried Chicken.

That was it, like that's it.

We don't got a name.

We don't got nothing you know, wow okay.

So we went through strategy the brand concept.

We went through all this stuff and then at the end he just was like you know,

I think I just want like a little logo.

I can just start plopping and dropping on everything and calling it a day you know?

And I was just like oh my gosh man, I was just like oh my gosh I did all this work,

we did all this stuff and then you just want the idea.

He just wanted this little idea to start plopping and dropping.

And so, I just remember leaving that meeting, feeling just like so defeated.

just such a kick in the crotch, you know?

You're just like, oh my gosh, you know, what had just happened?

And I remember driving away just not knowing what to do.

But I turned my car around and I went back to the meeting.

And I just started like right back into my dog and pony show.

You know, just like, this is what you should do.

You're missing an opportunity for this, this, this.

And I don't know if he was just ready for me to shut up or what happened.

But he looked at me, he said,

Tad I trust you let's go with what you recommend, done.

And my first thought was where the hell were you like ten minutes ago bro.

Like I just went through all this you know, but

I think he saw how passionate I was about his business.

And I think that's what he thought.

So then we created this brand and it's this fried chicken restaurant in Atlanta

called Chick-a-Biddy it's farm fresh chicken inside, it's, man, chicken and

waffles like, almost as good as that Bridge place last night,

that party we were at, you know?

So amazing chicken waffles and we created, I created all these like,

little hand painted iconography that would then be used in a lot of different

applications and a lot of different things.

Menus and, and, and all the tray liners.

Really fun signage interior and exterior.

Then we had a lot of fun just with the interior space also.

It’s a really really fun project and

again almost really ever happened if I didn't take a little bit of initiative.

And say you know what, I think you’re making a mistake here.

A really, really fun project.

And so its like doing that project I learned ya know you have to fight for

what you believe, you know fight for it.

But you need to be kind and be honest.

I think that’s important for and try not to ever let it get unfun.

I know that's hard with deadlines and this and that, but

try not to ever let it get unfun.

I've also worked with Adobe quite a bit, I know there's some people from Adobe

here actually, so, I'll be on my best p’s and q’s here for a moment.

But no.

I got to do some work with Adobe.

And it was really amazing that I remember the day I got a call from Adobe.

And I was like whoa, like how, how, I mean getting a call from adobe is like getting

a call from like a pencil, Ya know what I mean.

You’re like whoa I use you every day to like make shit like hello pencil,

this is amazing like [LAUGH] >> This is awesome, you know?

>> [APPLAUSE] >> And, and, and I remember when they

called, my first thought was like, how the hell do you know who I am, man?

And my second thought was, I sure as shit hope you're not calling me cuz I'm using

pirated software from when I was in college.

>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] Luckily, that was not the case.

So, at the time, this has been about a year and a half or so ago,

they were pretty quick.

It was to launch CS6.

And our CS6, 5 or whatever it was at the time.

What was cool was they were like hey it's not out yet.

We want to give you a prerelease of Adobe Illustrator and

we want you to create a piece.

And it was specifically, because it was when they were launching their new pattern

tool, I'm sure a lot of you guys use their pattern tool, it's fantastic.

It's a fantastic addition they've added and they were like hey we want you to use

the pattern tool, somehow include that in your work.

Come up with a piece, whatever you have in mind, let's take a look at some ideas and

go from there.

And then we're going to document all the steps that you do, and

it's going to be included for

every single person in the world that buys a WCS6 will get a document.

He meant showing all of your steps to create your shit.

Now they're just like, whoa, oh, my God.

Mind blown, you know?

I was like, okay, well, all right.

So, yeah, so we did.

We created this, piece and they documented all of the steps which is cool.

And this was just kind of the piece I created on the left.

And for those of you that have been using Illustrator longer than some of

us you might remember the original packaging for Adobe Illustrator.

And it was, it was Botticelli's Venus painting.

So this was like con, my interpretation of Botticelli's Venus painting,

is what it is.

>> [LAUGH] >> So.

So if you look at it, there's lots of little patterns.

So we pulled those patterns out with the pattern tool.

We made bags.

Because we use those at trade shows and

all kinds of stuff to promote their project.

And it's just been this wonderful, seamless relationship.

Even more recently, Adobe and I have been doing a lot of work with a lot of their

learn tools where, again, I'm creating these kind of like hero header

images showcasing a lot of the new content that they have online.

So I've just been creating a bunch of a bunch of work for that as well.

Which is like really fun, it's just great stuff.

And like, working with Adobe, and

I'm not kissing ass because I think Adobe people are here, love you Adobe.

>> [LAUGH] >> Like, that has nothing to do with it,

but they are, it's one of those clients that's just seamless.

But, you know, sometimes, not all clients are that easy.

And, several years ago I partnered with an agency out of Dallas and

it was to work with on a project with Dr Pepper.

Dr. Pepper owns Snapple and they are like we need this new idea for Snapple.

We have this idea of this half and half concept where it's half tea half flavor.

I was like rad, that's cool.

Let me throw some ideas in there and I did and they liked them and

it was full steam ahead and so we started creating these half and

half Snapple concepts that were going to be half flavor monster, half tea monster.

So every one depending on the flavor would kind of switch out and they loved it.

It went to print,

I started getting samples I started wetting my pants with excitement.

I was gonna be able to go to a 711 and buy, like, a bottle that I designed.

I'm like, oh my god, this is awesome!

You know?

So we got all these samples and I was super jazzed and so

excited about all this stuff that was coming in with Snapple.

I'm like, dude like this is gonna be so cool.

And then last minute, I mean I [INAUDIBLE].

It was like last minute that we get a call from a,

from a higher up and Somebody got kind of a little cold feet.

We don't know if this is the right demographic.

We're pulling it.

We're gonna go with something else.

>> Oh.

>> So it's like, okay.

>> [LAUGH] >> I get it.

You know?

It happens to all of us.

You know. It happens to all of us.

[LAUGH] [APPLAUSE].

But, but what you have to,

what you take away from it is that you have to learn to let go, you know.

You learn to let go.

[LAUGH]. Oh it's not that bad.

You've all seen worse shit than, you've been at my table today there's

worse shit than that at my table over there, but no, it's not that bad.

But again it's, it's a little expected.

And you're like damn, and we almost, we almost snack one by, guys.

You know, we almost did it.

And so we ended up here or they ended up there.

I don't know. I had nothing to do with that, but, but

again, you learn to let go.

Something new comes along.

Something new happens and that's great.

We kinda started off my presentation probably four hours ago

talking about passion projects, you know.

And I think passion projects are super, super important.

To me a passion project is very, very simple.

It's inventing something you love,

writing something you'd read, make something you'd buy.

Simple.

And for me those passion projects really started with like very true story telling.

For me, it started in the, in the Isles of Greece, you know its all go there.

Together, you know?

And and, and so my wife and I got married about six years ago.

And, we were really lucky to go to Greece for our honeymoon.

You guys should look into it, they're kinda having some financial trouble.

You can kinda get there kinda cheap, so you know.

>> [LAUGH] >> You know.

Help them out.

Buy some Greek yogurt or something.

So so again, we got to go to Greece.

And my wife loves the fact that I don't really take some days off.

So like, we're on our honeymoon.

I have my sketchbook.

I have some notes with me.

And she's just like, Dude, we're laying on a beach in Greece.

Can you not like, you know, chill?

But, but I remember and anyone here that's married

can remember how unbelievably fun it is to plan a wedding, you know?

>> [LAUGH].

>> Oh, seating charts and cake tastings and uncles and aunts and

don't sit next to Uncle Drunk.

You know, he's a, you know, whatever.

>> [LAUGH] >> So it's like, it's a nightmare.

So you spend an entire year planning one day of a party.

You know, my.

[INAUDIBLE] probably knows a little something about that.

Right? So you know it's like,

you just plan that one all year for one day.

And then poof it's over and then here we are on the isles of Greece,

in the, in the beaches of Greece.

I just remember looking to my wife and I'm like wow we planned this wedding for

a whole year and then now, here we are, me and you babe the next 50 years.

Here we go, you know, and it's like,

you it's like a little bit of it it's like, it's over, like the weddings over.

You know, it's sad.

And I remember looking at her and

being like I bet this is how Santa Claus feels every year, you know?

You know, I bet, dude, home boy plans a party all year long and it comes and goes.

December 26th comes, I bet dude's so bummed out at the end of,

on December 26th.

I like that idea.

That's kinda funny.

I kinda like this.

So, while I was in Greece, I just started sketching and doodling some basic ideas.

I was like, man, he's the holliest jolliest dude around.

That bad had a bad day.every once in a while, you know?

I liked that idea.

So.

Again I came back to the states and I was like, you know,

I'd done some work in publishing like I've done some illustrations and

a lot of book jackets and stuff like that.

I was like well I'll just float this concept to couple people and

see what they think.

And, well, it became this-

[MUSIC]

>> [LAUGH] >> [NOISE] [NOISE]

>> [MUSIC]

So no one asked me to make this book, you know?

But we turned [INAUDIBLE] around this publisher and

some people were [INAUDIBLE].

They were like, yeah let's do this, you know?

Like wow, oh my gosh.

Like, a book I made, and idea I had is gonna be [INAUDIBLE] and PS,

this song's going to be stuck in your head for like a month man, and I, I apologize.

Oh it's going to be in there forever.

So we made this idea.

So we made this book.

And it came out several years ago.

It's called Sad Santa,

and it's about the saddest day of the year which is December 26th.

And again, no one asked me to do this, I did it on my own, and I got it sold.

And it was an amazing experience.

And and, out of that all kinds of fun things happened, like we got to go on

a book tour, and like we were in New York and got to do an event at Macy's.

On Thansgiv-, like the day before Thanksgiving.

So, like, it was literally at Macy's, it was me, the Rockettes, you know,

like the Rockettes, you know, me,

the Rockettes, and all the characters from the Macy's day parade, like, all them.

At Macey's, like doing this event,

like somebody's out like doesn't fit at all,you know.

But we got to do this and

this would have never happened if I wouldn't of taken that initiative.

Around the same time I had a couple of other ideas and, and

one was this series of called I say You say.

It's all about like interactive.

Reading and learning through repetition and flaps and and so again the same kind

of idea like I was like guys, just a random idea, I'm gonna float it by

a couple publishers let's just see what they think and then it became this.

>> [NOISE] [MUSIC] Wake up.

[NOISE] Quack quack quack quack quack >> I say

>> Animals.

>> You say.

>> Baa, baa, baa.

[MUSIC]

>> Holy smokes.

>> [MUSIC]

[INAUDIBLE]

[MUSIC]

[INAUDIBLE]

[MUSIC]

So again, it wasn't really something that anyone asked me to do, but we did it, and

we made this book.

And in it, in it, we came out with the first two which is opposites and

animal sounds.

And it was an amazing experience to create all these fun things that again,

no one asked me to do but we did them.

And then we came out with two more, colors and feelings.

And like, so just like that like it wasn't a client that came to me to do it.

It was a passion project that I needed to get out of my system.

And then now we have a four book series that's out and living in the world and

families and kids and adults are, are, are enjoying it and experiencing it.

And then those books inevitably then lead to more books.

And so these are some other books I've worked on, a little more recently.

One, one of my favourites of them is Zoom!

Zoom!, which just came out last year.

My favourite part of designing books is actually the in pages.

I love designing in pages, they're so

much fun to create, it's just a really really neat thing to be a part of.

Hopefully maybe a young designer, just a kid's life.

I think all of us remember reading a book with that adult in our life and

that's a special thing.

It's really fun and I'm.

So, like, no, like, crazy live tweeting for a minute.

Like, I don't think I'm supposed to show this.

But, I have a new four book series coming out this year and it's called.

It's called Who's That, and it's another flat book.

And it's going to be, the first two coming out are, Who's that Barnyard Friends and

Who's That On the Go.

And in October Who's That Arctic Animals and

Who's That When I Grow Up are coming out.

So again, like Things just continue to grow.

Thanks for taking a bunch of pictures, man.

I'm just kidding, you can.

I was just joking around.

But so it, it's cool to see like how these things start to come around from these

projects cuz in the end, especially when it comes to passion projects

if you're passionate about it, so are others, you know?

And you should get it out there,

and that's kind of how gig posters are, too, you know?

It's like they're not passion projects, like you're getting paid from a client,

but you know, newsflash, a lot of music and musicians don't have huge budgets.

So, it's like, a lot of times, those budgets are pretty small.

But those projects lead to other projects.

You know, me doing a lot of gig posters led to, you know,

several years ago, I got to do a full tour for John Mayer.

That was, gosh, 36 cities, 36 different posters for John.

Again it was an amazing project.

Like quick, quick quick, you know.

Say what you will about John.

He's said some weird stuff over the years you know what I mean,

but dude is super easy to work with and when I say he's super easy to work with.

His management is super easy to work with.

John didn't call me up on the phone once.

What's that all about.

You know little things like again about concept

like this yellow poster with the house.

Like John had a request.

Hey man, this is my home town.

My nana's gonna be there.

Can you just make sure it's not like some weird like bleeding devil or

anything like that?

So I was like cool.

So like that's a drawing of John's house,

like where he grew up in Connecticut, you know?

So like, trying to make sure those concepts are there, and, and

doing posters led to more work.

You know, doing campaign as a Ray-Ban.

We did a never, I did a never hide campaign with Ray-Ban

where they sent these ugly sunglasses to me there.

And then wanted them back in return so

I was like wait, like we were supposed to use that as inspiration for the, for

the poster for the advertisement and that piece we created ended up everywhere like

in every magazine you can think of, the centre image here

my dad texted to me one day he was in Beijing one morning I guess.

That Hallmark Beijing or something, I don't know, and literally was walking to

work and said, dude, I am walking to work in down town Beijing and

I walked into a ten foot tall example of your work at like a sun glass hut or

something, you know.

He'd be like, how cool is that that our work,

it's all the way on the other side of the world?

Like, that is so cool.

And then like cool things that you, or crazy that happened.

I was like a huge Dexter fan.

I don't know if anybody else watched Dexter and liked Dexter.

>> [NOISE] >> Rad, right.

So I'm watching it one season, as we all are on on pins and needles, right?

If you look way down here, dad found a clue on the wall but

if you scroll way down to the end of it my poster was on Dexter.

So that's like, like life, life long dream checked, right?

>> [LAUGH] But, like, you never know like, what's gonna happen and then like,

Ray-Ban called me like, hey, we're gonna make a commercial of your piece.

And I was like, Oh, that's awesome.

That's cool. Do you need me to, like,

do some animation for it, what do you want?

Oh, no, no, no, we're gonna do live action and it's already done,

we just wanted to show you.

And I'm like, really?

All right, that's kind of cool, I guess, you know.

They made this live action version of my campaign, even down

to like the inside of the guy's ear is blue and stuff, like, kind of odd right?

You know, but like that's awesome, that's cool, let's do it, you know, so, it's so

unexpected on what we do.

And then one of the last projects I'll show you guys is,

is I got to do a whole, whole campaign for Conan O'Brien.

And this was a year or two ago when he, he kinda made his transition to TBS and

the whole LA thing was happening, a, and they were doing a summer concert series.

And I mean, it's Conan O'Brien.

It's Coco, man, like I'll do anything for you, you know?

And, you know, outside of the fact that their team doesn't have the best taste in

musicians, it was really, really awesome to create this whole series of posters.

And it's kind of like this designer in me, I wanted them to work kinetically.

And I wanted them to work as a system.

So if you kind of go down the line of them,

they actually all connect in some way.

And obviously the pallet connects them, too.

But there's all, there's, there's concept in all of them.

And there's a little bit of Conan in all of them, and

there's a little bit of the musicians.

So, you know, you have Ke$ha on the far left,

I can't believe I'm talking about Ke$ha at a design conference.

But, we have Ke$ha on the far left, but you can see there's like,

there's a disco ball, there's spilled pills in the background.

>> Conan's in his Ford Taurus holding it, you have the, have the pier and

the boat crossing over to Edward Sharpe, where we have a home, we have a desert,

which are both songs of his.

We have the Hollywood sign which goes over to KT Tunstall where you have a b,

a big black horse and a cherry tree, comes over to Pitbull.

We have a pitbull, a, a, and that's kind of a given right?

But you got to do this, I got to work with Conan who is amazing and again,

it was a great job, it was a great team to work with.

But then, when the project was completed, what came in the mail,

I would have done the project for that, you know.

Conan sent me a signed poster and

it said, To Tad, you are a talented man, love Conan.

To Tad, this is not what my hand looks like.

[LAUGH] >> It

doesn't get any better than that, like we get to do this!

So to kind of recap, embrace the power of play.

You know, your job today might not be, you know, doing the cabbage patch for

the whole office or something.

But you know what, your job might need you to do the cabbage patch and

have some fun today you know?

Do that, embrace that,

it's important to remember, remember to, to have a little fun at what we do.

Go out and take risks, it's important!

Things can get vanilla and stale really fast, you know, remem,

remind yourself, take risks.

Love what you do!

That's the bottom line of anything and everything, man.

We, we unfortunately are not this spinning rock long enough, and

if you're doing something you don't like, switch, man.

It's not a big deal.

Do something you love and it sounds like most of you guys are all doing something

you love, which is important.

That's why you're here, right?

Passion projects are good.

Passion projects are good, make sure you do them.

It's important.

It fuels you.

It'll make you a better designer.

Exercise.

That has nothing to do with graphic design at all.

It's just good life advice, man.

>> [LAUGH] >> We sit for like 15 hours a day, man,

like, we're going to get that flat butt syndrome thing that I keep reading about.

I'm really worried about that, you know.

So, it's like, like get out there, walk around the block, you know, do something,

you know, it's important.

And, at the end of the day, like Buck Owens told us at the very start, you know,

go out there and the harder you work, the luckier you're gonna get.

I'm a firm believer in that, man.

Go out there and get lucky.

So I can't think you guys enough.

I'll shut up now.

Thank you guys so, so much for having me speak at your conference.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> So

I know we're like, nine hours late is what I'm told.

So joke's on you, you're gonna go outside, it's 3am actually.

>> [LAUGH] >> So

if y'all want to do a couple questions, we can do a couple questions.

I got some posters up here if you all are into screen printed paper,

we got some posters here.

We got a little book, we got some letter pressed greeting cards.

If anybody has a question, you're welcome to any of this stuff, it's yours.

We can, we can, we can hang out a little bit.

I cannot see shit up here man, let’s get real.

Yeah, you right there.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

Oh I don’t.

At all. >> [LAUGH]

>> Yeah well I mean,

I'm actually a pretty organized guy.

Now my wife hops on my computer and it's like a nightmare to her.

She's like what is all this that's going on?

You know, I mean, to be honest, a big part of my wife becoming, not only my,

my life partner, but now becoming my business partner full time,

is, it has a lot to do with organization.

Because it's like I, I got to a point where I can't keep burning the candle

at both ends like I'm doing.

I need someone to come on with me, you know, full time, and

who can I trust more than her, you know?

And so that has a lot to do with organization.

And for me, I'm very diligent about organizing all of my files,

in I label everything very specifically.

I created a system for me, like, if you don't work in my office,

it would make no sense to you probably, but like, we have a, we have a system.

That's important for everyone, like create a system for yourself and

follow it, and, and, and do it but ultimately, at the end of the day,

also remind yourself you cannot do everything.

Like as much as we all think we can, you can't.

Surround yourself with good people, you know, if that's,

I mean, you don't have to have a wife that's a really fantastic designer also.

But, is it, is it someone that you trust?

It comes down to trust, you know, it's, it's a weird industry we're all in,

that it's, it's it's design, right, it's our business.

But like, this is more than business, you know what I mean?

Like this is what we would all be doing for fun tonight.

You know what I mean?

Like, shit, it's Saturday night, I'm gonna throw a movie in and draw, you know, or

I'm going to work on this.

This is what we do.

So, it's important to us, so the people that you surround yourself with,

that's the most important thing ever.

You know? Like, find good people and

the more people you have helping you, the more organized you're going to be.

Why? Because you have more time

to do this and that.

It's when we get busy, we start just throwing shit all over the place and not,

you know, it, it's, it's find a way to give yourself more time, you know?

And it's like, nothing pisses me off more than, like, I, I'm not worried about

billing, you're late on that, or the, the bill, the budget's not quite enough.

Whatever. Money is money, you know.

It sucks we have to deal with it.

We focus on it, I get it.

You know?

But someone once told me, there always gonna be more money.

Like, there's always gonna be something out there.

But if you, pardon my French, you fuck with my time?

Now then I get pissed off.

You know what I mean?

Like, it, cause, unfortunately, we're never gonna get any more of it, you know?

Like, that's all we got, you know?

So it's like, any way that you can manage your time the best, that's, that,

that's the most important thing y'all have.

You know? And I think that's important to remember.

I'm sorry I'm so long winded.

Like, I don't even know if I answered your question, man.

So if you want any of this stuff,

please, I don't think I can throw it at you from there so

feel free if you want to come down and grab something you're welcome to, man.

How about right here, someone from Orlando, right?

>> Woo!

>> Geez!

>> So my question is for the Conan series.

Did you do all, like as one, since they all had like, the same elements.

>> Mm-hm.

>> Did you design them like this one huge layout?

>> I didn't design it in one huge layout, but we did design them all at once.

So, I mean, just like anything, I shared sketches first with them and

we had variations.

Like hey this is one kind of concept we can do where it is like

this big long scene.

I used, even had an idea where there was like, like weird dye cuts and like,

you know, there's like just some weird ideas I threw out there.

But I designed them all at once.

And I designed them individually.

I think they, like all individual arts boards or something, you know?

But no, they were all, all at one time.

They all printed.

They're all individual posters but they all kind of printed at one time.

They shipped at one time.

And then so,

everybody that went to the show at TBS all got one of those posters there.

And then what's the coolest about that project for me too, is like,

if any of you guys ever watch Conan and they show the bands in the green room,

they have the whole series hanging in the green room.

So any time the band is warming up or the musician is like in there doing coke or

whatever they do in their green room, they get to stare at my posters,

you know what I mean?

So like, that's like so cool.

And a, and like, all, they're always Instagramming like, little like,

music things that they do on the team Coco Instagram feed,

and it's always like my posters behind them and it just like dude, it melts me.

I'm just like wow because Conan to me is just like as good as it gets, you know?

Like dude is, like, he's a genius, he's so clever and smart.

So again I probably didn't answer your question at all so yeah, yeah, yeah,

feel free if you want any of this jazz right here.

Yeah, please take something yeah, let's go with right there.

>> [BLANK_AUDIO]

>> Yeah, of course.

There's lots of stuff gosh.

There's, like, types of, I mean, gosh, I don't know.

I, I love, I mean when it comes down to it, I love creating brand identities.

I think that's like my, my favorite type of work.

Because it's, it's everything.

Like it's, it's, it's everything.

You can think of interior space, you can think obviously of creating,

creating an identity and logo, and marketing logo system.

But like, it's everything.

I hope just to continue to create identities and, and things like that.

I hope to stat creating, I always want to do a good balance of,

like, large ones with, I love startups.

Startups are my favorite.

Like, yeah, there's, a lot of times not the budget there, but

sometimes there's a lot of, like, really cool freedom that you can do.

I hope to continue to do those.

I would love to, I mean, I don't know why I think this,

but I've always, I like sports, like I grew up, like, randomly, like,

I was, I played football my whole life and I was also the art kid.

So like I would come to my weird keg parties with my football friends and

bring all my g, friends with green hair, you know.

And be like, hey, you guys are gonna love these guys,

we’re all going to hang out, you know?

And, I love sports, and it’s like,

I think it would be fun to start designing, you know, within that realm.

And more specifically, I would love, I mean,

I think all of us would love to like brand a team or something like that,

which I don't think that's really feasible.

But like, I don't know, I feel very lucky.

To do a lot of the work that I like.

And it's I love the balance and that's why we all probably got into what we did,

is that you can wear a different hat over and over again many times in a week.

And, it's like, do a children's book, then I'm working on, like,

we're branding an international freight shipping company right now like it's

very different you know.

Then we're also working on a children's book.

And then we're doing a campaign for Macy's right now, and then we're,

we're doing some stuff with Target right now.

We're doing something, so it's like it's so different, all the time.

And like that variety is so awesome, you know.

That's really, really cool.

So yeah, I think sports could be cool.

I think, I mean I've never done work, I don't do a ton of work in apparel.

I think doing work with Nike or something people like that could be cool.

And I've talked to them a few times but it was never the right fit and, yeah,

I think there's a lot of things like that.

Feel free to come up, come up when you're done.

We'll take, I don't know what, they don't pay attention.

I think they take a nap back there.

Let's do, let's do another back there.

>> [INAUDIBLE]

>> Mm-hm.

>> [INAUDIBLE] >> Yeah I don't know.

That's a really hard question because you're right.

Cuz I remember being young, well, I actually like to think I'm still young,

but I'm not am I?

Oh, God. But anyway, no,

I remember like being a student and always being like, oh, man,

when I am gonna find my style, or whatever, you know?

And I don't know if I believe in that really, you know?

First and foremost above anything I'm a designer.

That's what I am, I am a designer.

As a designer we have to be able to be very versatile.

The best designers are the most versatile, in my eyes.

Should be able to do a lot of different things.

To me that's the way I kind of approach graphic design.

If I'm doing a poster for Jenny Lewis it's going to have a very specific sensibility

but, if I'm doing a children's book, that's not the same sensibility.

You know?

I should be able to try something else.

And, I don't think I should be pigeonholed to a specific style.

So I mean my recommendation would be explore a lot of different things.

Through making more, you are going to find your own voice a little bit.

And that's how I feel.

Like, even though it might be a poster for

Radiohead and then it might be Yeah Burger or something.

I still feel like you can kind of tell they maybe came from my hand a little bit.

And I think just through making, continually making, you find yourself.

And I feel like that would be my recommendation to anybody like

trying to find that style, if you want to call it, is just keep making things.

Because you're eventually going to find what feels right to you,

what is authentic to you.

And a lot of you saw where I came from with, like, my dad and being around

Hallmark, and it's like all these little bit of whimsy is probably what and

why I respond to things that are a little more whimsical sometimes, you know.

But that still doesn't mean that I don't want to try other things.

Like, I'll be totally honest, I daydream about something all the time and

it's that I want to create an alter-ego that I don't tell any of you guys about.

And like, just some weird name.

You know, you're like whoa, have you seen this new illustrator from Poland?

But it's gonna be me.

And it's gonna be, like, the darkest shit you have ever seen in your life.

>> [LAUGH] [APPLAUSE] >> Just wait for it.

It's gonna happen.

So, like, it would just be cool, it'd be fun.

Let's do one more, and we'll, we'll, let's go get a beer, guys.

Like, it's party time, right, like, let's do this.

Let's, let's go right here.

Ya sure.

I'm sorry guys, you can come see me over there, I'm gonna go to my booth,

we can hang out and talk there, I promise.

>> [INAUDIBLE]

>> I mean it's a little bit of both and,

and anybody whose written a book understands that the book

couldn't be successful without a really successful, editor.

So every publishing company I work with, you're assigned an editor.

And so I, I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not like a great writer.

Like, that's not my, my strength.

But I also I think I'm fairly good at ideas and concepts.

So I can get ideas and concepts through, but

then they can help me with grammar, and story, and, and all that.

And the editor makes you really sound a lot better than you are and

so I always am very, very thankful for the editors that I work with.

I also run every book by my wife like I mean,

like all married men should I run everything I do by my wife.

>> [LAUGH] >> And

my books ain't the no exception to that, anybody that follows me on Twitter

they know I can't spell and punctuate worth shit.

So my, my story, my writings, are very, very reflective of that.

And so she's great about just helping me get those things to a good place.

And what's good and what's not.

There's no one on earth that, that is more real with me than my wife.

Like, just straight up, like, no that cat, that's a stupid idea.

You should not waste time on that and I'm like awesome.

Cool, that's great but she'll also tell me what is.

So I rely a lot on her and then the editors I work with,

which they make your work really come alive and that's important.

Like I said earlier, you can't do everything yourself.

It's surrounding yourself with people that are positive and that you trust you know.

Again, guys I know, like I said, it's 4 a.m now and we, we're 19 hours late.

[LAUGH] But like, I cannot, I'm so honored for everyone who reached out to me to

bring me here and I'm so honored that you guys are all still here hanging out.

It's a crazy honor to be with you guys and I can't thank you enough for having me.

Let's go have a good time tonight, you all.

>> [APPLAUSE]