Daring Forever (Find your Extraordinary)

A short bonus episode showcasing a few standout moments from this week's guest interview with Nils Leonard from Uncommon Creative Studio ~

Daring Forever. Podcast with Radim Malinic
daringcreativity.com |  desk@daringcreativity.com
Books by Radim Malinic Paperback and Kindle > https://amzn.to/4biTwFc
Free audiobook (with Audible trial) > https://geni.us/free-audiobook
Book bundles  https://novemberuniverse.co.uk

Lux Coffee Co. https://luxcoffee.co.uk/  (Use: PODCAST for 15% off)
November Universe https://novemberuniverse.co.uk (Use: PODCAST for 10% off)

Nils Leonard is the creative founder of Uncommon Creative Studio, with offices in Stockholm, London and New York. Its work covers design, advertising, film, narrative objects and art, including a show at the Venice Biennale. ~ 

In this conversation, Nils explains why he doesn't want to win the opening weekend. He wants to make reference points: work people still talk about years later. 
He talks about the long break after Grey that stopped Uncommon from becoming "Grey Part Two", and why the first question he asks every new client is "why are you here?" He also explains how three years of a website with nothing on it but a bouncing flag flushed out the time-wasters.
Nils looks back on LifePaint and what he'd do differently, tells the Yves Klein story that inspired the bacteria reveal at OFFF Festival, and explains why he markets to talent before clients. He ends with the kind of work he wants to make next: places and monuments built to outlast everyone involved.
Key takeaways
Treat every brief as a chance to matter. Whether work adds to your life's tapestry or just fills someone else's list depends on how you choose to see your job.
Define success before you start. Most of the industry's frustrations come from never asking the client what success really looks like.
Make it inevitable, not brave. The goal is an idea so right for the problem that nobody even sees it as a risk.
Build first, then invite. Taking an idea to a brand as an invitation, instead of asking permission, changes the power dynamic.
Scarcity is value. When everyone takes in the same inputs and offers the same things, being unlike anyone else becomes the offer.
Narrative objects travel further than adverts. A product, object or place that tells a story lets people retell it in their own way.
Market to talent first. If the best people want to work with you, the clients follow.
Want people, don't need them. The power lies in making things happen without depending on anyone.
Articulation matters as much as art direction. Creatives need to be heard outside their work, whether that's writing, speaking, publishing or making.
Make it for yourself. The most personal work is often the most universal.
Daring Forever. Podcast with Radim Malinic
daringcreativity.com |  desk@daringcreativity.com
Books by Radim Malinic Paperback and Kindle > https://amzn.to/4biTwFc
Free audiobook (with Audible trial) > https://geni.us/free-audiobook
Book bundles  https://novemberuniverse.co.uk

Lux Coffee Co. https://luxcoffee.co.uk/  (Use: PODCAST for 15% off)
November Universe https://novemberuniverse.co.uk (Use: PODCAST for 10% off)

A short bonus episode showcasing a few standout moments from this week's guest interview with Frances Yeoland ~
Daring Forever. Podcast with Radim Malinic
daringcreativity.com |  desk@daringcreativity.com
Books by Radim Malinic Paperback and Kindle > https://amzn.to/4biTwFc
Free audiobook (with Audible trial) > https://geni.us/free-audiobook
Book bundles  https://novemberuniverse.co.uk

Lux Coffee Co. https://luxcoffee.co.uk/  (Use: PODCAST for 15% off)
November Universe https://novemberuniverse.co.uk (Use: PODCAST for 10% off)

Frances Yeoland is a Sydney-born, New York-based creative director and artist who has spent fifteen years working across branding, campaigns and design systems, while building a parallel practice as an abstract painter and poet.~
She talks with Radim about growing up between Australia's Western outlook and its geographic place in Asia, discovering gallery spaces as a teenage sanctuary, and the long process of letting her commercial and artistic selves finally meet instead of staying separate. 
The conversation moves through her process, poetry as the seed of every painting, colour pulled from photos of everyday urban scenes, and the discipline of resisting the impulse to "fix" a stray brushstroke. They also wander into living eulogies, the value of sitting in ambiguity rather than being pigeonholed, and why doubt doesn't have to disappear for the work to be good.
TAKEAWAYS
Frances trained in graphic design in Sydney without knowing it existed as a career, discovering it was a way to combine language and visual delivery
Art galleries became a teenage sanctuary for her as a queer woman navigating a conservative upbringing, offering stories and ways of living she couldn't find elsewhere
She spent years keeping her commercial design work and personal art practice deliberately separate, before realising the two feed and sharpen each other
Her paintings begin as poetry — she writes fragments of language first, then builds visual rhythm and colour that mirror the feeling of the words
Colour choices come partly from a "colour stories" photo album on her phone, pulled from urban scenes and everyday compositions she notices while out in the world
She resists retouching or correcting mistakes in her physical work, treating an errant brushstroke as proof of the handmade rather than a flaw to erase
Showing her art publicly for the first time, in a solo show curated by Sydney Fishman, felt deeply vulnerable but gave others permission to be vulnerable too
She'd rather sit in ambiguity than explain herself into a single job title, believing people are too often afraid of mystery
Doubt, for her, never fully goes away — she's made peace with it being part of the process rather than a signal to stop
She and Radim riff on the idea of "living eulogies" — describing people by their values and qualities while they're still here to hear it
Daring Forever. Podcast with Radim Malinic
daringcreativity.com |  desk@daringcreativity.com
Books by Radim Malinic Paperback and Kindle > https://amzn.to/4biTwFc
Free audiobook (with Audible trial) > https://geni.us/free-audiobook
Book bundles  https://novemberuniverse.co.uk

Lux Coffee Co. https://luxcoffee.co.uk/  (Use: PODCAST for 15% off)
November Universe https://novemberuniverse.co.uk (Use: PODCAST for 10% off)

A short bonus episode showcasing a few standout moments from this week's guest interview with James Martin ~
Daring Forever. Podcast with Radim Malinic
daringcreativity.com |  desk@daringcreativity.com
Books by Radim Malinic Paperback and Kindle > https://amzn.to/4biTwFc
Free audiobook (with Audible trial) > https://geni.us/free-audiobook
Book bundles  https://novemberuniverse.co.uk

Lux Coffee Co. https://luxcoffee.co.uk/  (Use: PODCAST for 15% off)
November Universe https://novemberuniverse.co.uk (Use: PODCAST for 10% off)