Overshare: Honest Conversations With Creatives

In this bonus episode of Overshare Season 3, Working Not Working co-founder and CEO Justin Gignac hosts a roundtable conversation with two senior recruiters from highly-celebrated companies. Lauren Ranke is the Director of Creative Talent at Wieden+Kennedy and Chloe Harlig is the Senior Creative Recruiter at Squarespace. Both companies recently received some well-deserved acclaim from Ad Age, with Wieden+Kennedy winning Agency of the Year and Squarespace winning In-House Agency of the Year.This recording is from a live virtual event that took place on May 7th. Lauren and Chloe discuss how their hiring approaches have changed during quarantine, why self-initiated work is more important than ever, how they continue to keep their eyes trained on the future, and whether remote work will become the standard. Our digital audience of creatives, many of whom submitted thoughtful questions that Justin relayed to the recruiters, left the conversation feeling better educated on the thoughts and considerations of those w

In the season 3 finale of Overshare, host Justin Gignac sits down with Brooklyn-based photographer Jeremy Cohen, who has received A LOT of attention recently. Like most of us, Jeremy has had a lot of time on his hands these past couple of months. He’s used this time to think, to look out his window, to cook naked, and to cook up a quarantine record for the most romantic gesture.From his balcony, Jeremy could see his neighbors’ roofs. He started photographing and filming all of the activity: yoga, working out, kite flying, book reading, and dancing. But one neighbor stood out. He waved to her from his balcony. She waved back. He then taped his phone number to his drone and flew it across the street to her. That meet cute has snowballed into "The Quarantine Cutie" romance, which has since taken over the internet. Millions of people have watched videos of him sending the drone, asking her out, and showing up to their dinner date in a human-sized bubble to practice proper social distancing.Jeremy has offered not

Directing Duo Clarence "Coodie" Simmons & Chike Ozah, better known as Coodie & Chike, have so much infectiously positive energy and perspective from all their years in the business. We're thrilled to have them on this week's episode of Overshare. Coodie & Chike started collaborating in the early 2000s and got their big break directing Kanye West’s music video “Through the Wire,” followed by music videos for “Two Words” and “Jesus Walks." They had less than two days to put "Jesus Walks" together from scratch, making it nothing short of a creative miracle, not to mention a classic. Their recounting of that experience with host Justin Gignac is a celebration in the art of scrappiness.Coodie & Chike went on to work with big acts like Pitbull, Erykah Badu, Lupe Fiasco, and Mos Def. In 2007, they founded their own production company, Creative Control. They’ve since directed ESPN "30 for 30" documentary Benji, BET documentary Muhammed Ali: The People’s Champ, and just released A Kid from Coney Island

Dr. Vivienne Ming is a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur, author, and self-described mad scientist. She's been named as one of the BBC 100 Women in 2017, and as one of the Financial Times' "LGBT leaders and allies today". Dr. Ming co-founded Socos, her fifth company, an independent institute exploring the future of human potential. In her free time, she has invented AI systems to help treat her diabetic son, predict manic episodes in bipolar sufferers weeks in advance, and reunited orphan refugees with extended family members. Dr. Ming also speaks frequently on issues of LGBT inclusion and gender in technology. In this conversation with host Justin Gignac., Dr. Ming talks about choosing a college major based on a coin toss, how her ultimate goal is to give the key note at Comic-Con, and why Dr. Ming sees creatives and the creative economy as an integral part of the future of work. Coming from someone who creates AI and Robotics, that’s pretty reassuring.In this episode, you will learn that the scientif

Charlie Engle is an addict who runs and a runner who writes. He’s authored a memoir titled Running Man and has given inspiring talks to CEOs, marathon runners, the United States Armed Forces, and at think tanks and conferences.Charlie's not just any kind of runner; he does ultra marathons that test his limits. Testing limits is kind of Charlie's thing. Sometimes it's intentional: he ran across the entire Sahara Desert edge to edge, which had never been done before. Sometimes it's accidental: he's been to prison, and also kidnapped at gunpoint in Kenya. Now, Charlie is about to attempt his greatest feat and become the first athlete to trek from the lowest point to the highest point on every continent. It's a fitting pursuit for someone who has experienced extreme lows and repeatedly bounced back with equal highs.Charlie’s life has been anything but dull, and the way he’s responded is similarly dynamic. Luckily for all of us, Charlie is an open book, and talks about all of his hardships and moments of persevera

Lauren Hom is a designer and letterer based in Detroit, schooled in New York, and raised in Los Angeles. Known for her bright color palettes, playful letterforms, and quirky copywriting, Lauren has worked with clients like Starbucks, Google, AT&T, YouTube and TIME Magazine. Her work has been recognized by Communication Arts, the Type Directors Club, and the Webby Awards.Lauren saw herself solely as an illustrator and letterer, but added “teacher” to her list of titles after connecting with a career coach in Vietnam. And who wouldn’t want to have her as a teacher? Lauren wants to put things out there that she wishes she had known when she was getting started. She's a hustler, she’s transparent, she’s humble, and her illustration and lettering business is on track to make half a million dollars this year. Host Justin Gignac was gobsmacked when she admitted this on her IG Stories. For those of you not in illustration and lettering…that’s a lot.In this episode, you will learn the importance of destigmatizing

It’s funny how there are some things you don’t know about your friends until you interview them for a podcast. Overshare host Justin Gignac has known Jonathan Jackson since 2006 after they both won the ADC Young Guns, but Justin learned a lot about his friend during this conversation that he never knew. Hopefully you listeners will learn a lot from this interview as well, and then go get to know Jonathan’s work.Jonathan Jackson is the co-founder and partner at Bushwick design studio  WeShouldDoItAll, which he started with his wife Sarah Nelson Jackson. The name is born out of a simple intention, that designers should not be confined to a singular expertise. In the words of Robert A. Heinlein, “specialization is for insects.”WSDIA has dabbled in everything, including branding, spatial, environmental, interactive, and print projects. They’ve collaborated with Nike, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Spotify, Samsung, and ESPN. "I think it's human nature that people want to put a title

Sophia Chang hails from the borough of Queens, New York and in less than a decade managed to champion a name for herself in the art, design, and streetwear community worldwide. With her BFA from Parsons School of Design coupled with a natural acumen for business, she has collaborated with A-list names across multiple fields such as Samsung, Nike, Refinery29, Adidas, Apple, Footlocker, HBO, and the NBA.During this conversation with host Justin Gignac, Sophia describes herself as a skill hoarder. As she explains, “Teach a man how to fish and they’ll eat for the rest of their lives.” It's an approach that has prepared Sophia for evolving in an ever-shifting creative industry, and she is already considering how to draw from that well in the current climate. There’s something really refreshing about how forthright Sophia is in her creative mindset. Not only does that help her frame her own practice; that decisiveness translates easily for potential business partners and clients.In this episode, you will learn to a

Archie Lee Coates IV is a founder and partner at PLAYLAB, INC., an extremely multi-disciplinary creative practice. With no particular focus, Archie and company simply explore things that interest them by initiating and working with others on ideas. Like + POOL, an initiative to build a water-filtering floating pool in New York’s East River.During this conversation, recorded live at On Air Fest, Archie discusses the roles that exploration and adventure play in aptly named PLAYLAB, INC's creative approach. "We don't have any goals as an office that are that specific. There's no financial goal. There's no size goal. There's a happiness and quality of life goal." Archie also talks creative belief systems, the feelings he's chasing to measure how far he's come and what he still aims to accomplish, and how he visualizes his legacy as a coffee table book. If his son would leaf through the accomplishments of his parents and say, “Our family is tight,” that would seal it. In this episode you will learn how to dream bi

This episode is from a live recording on stage in Cannes, France during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Host Justin Gignac has a beachside chat with street art legend Tristan Eaton.Tristan started pursuing street art as a teenager, painting everything from billboards to dumpsters in the urban landscapes of the cities where he lived. He created his first toy with Fisher-Price at the age of 18 and was and was at the forefront of the designer toy craze in the early 2000s with his work at KidRobot, creating the Dunny and Munny art toys.He is regularly commissioned by a roster of clients that includes Nike, Versace, and even Barack Obama. These days, Eaton is one of the most prominent street artists working today. His large scale mural work features a meticulous, visual collage of pop imagery mixed with his unique personal style, all executed with freehand spray paint on a colossal scale.In this conversation, Tristan discusses how toy design was a natural evolution from the world of street a

Shawna X is an independent artist and creative based in New York, known for her vibrant, visceral and highly graphical image-making across mediums in digital, spatial, and motion spaces. She creates experiences in music, fashion, and technology, collaborating with the likes of Adidas, The New Yorker, Warby Parker, and Ghostly International. Shawna's work addresses themes like cultural identity, the creative process and more recently, motherhood.During the conversation, Shawna opens up about how her work has evolved with recent life changes, and why sometimes that means letting go of certain clients. As she's grown as an artist, Shawna's priorities have shifted. "More than the money, more than the project, it's the people you're making work with...No project is really that glamorous." She also investigates what exists beyond surface-level goals. For Shawna, the bigger picture is freedom: of the mind, from pressures of society, from labels of motherhood and cultural expectations. The audience who she feels she

We're bringing back some of our favorite, most inspiring episodes in the lead up to the launch of Season 3. In our most popular interview to date, Working Not Working co-founder Justin Gignac sits down with David Droga, Creative Chairman and Founder of advertising agency Droga5. At the time, David was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and three years away from selling his company to Accenture for almost half a billion dollars. He reflects on years of influential work for clients like Google, Under Armour, Newcastle, UNICEF Tap Project, Prudential, and Jay-Z, and opens up about sibling rivalry, the importance of setting almost unattainable goals, and how he balances outrageous ego versus outrageous insecurity. Follow @OvershareTalks on Instagram and Twitter.

We're bringing back some of our favorite, most inspiring episodes in the lead up to the launch of Season 3. In this episode from our first season, Working Not Working co-founder Justin Gignac welcomes artists Shantell Martin and Ivan Cash. If you're looking for a fresh perspective on your work and life this conversation will inspire you. Both Shantell and Ivan create work that focuses on human connection. Helping us put down our devices and our personas and live in the present. The resulting conversation is especially lively and insightful, as it shifts from creative foundations to the complex ideas of sharing and spontaneity and connection, to how artists can challenge an overreliance on technology both professionally and personally.

Welcome to a special bonus episode of Overshare. Host Justin Gignac sits down with acclaimed illustrators Ping Zhu, Daniel Fishel, Marly Gallardo, and Molly Magnell to discuss all aspects of navigating a creative career through the lens of illustration. The group tackles a wide range of topics from how to break in and get the attention of clients, being patient with yourself as you develop and discover your personal style, how to determine what to charge and what is too low for each of them, how to ask for more money, and techniques they use to navigate down times. This conversation is full of insights and advice from 4 artists navigating different stages in their careers—from Molly who is fresh out of school to Ping who was an answer on Molly's quiz in school. This episode is a complement to Working Not Working's Illustration Week content. You can find more interviews, articles, short films, and exhibitions on Working Not Working Magazine. This episode was recorded by our friends at Second Child in NYC. Most

In the final episode of Season 2, host Justin Gignac sits down with one of the founding fathers of streetwear, Jeff Staple. Jeff is the founder and creative director of Staple Design and Reed Space. His 2005 collaboration with Nike led to riots outside of Reed Space as people fought to get their hands on the limited Nike SB Dunk “Pigeon”. Many people credit that moment, and that shoe, as the shoe that catapulted sneaker culture to the masses. Jeff hosts the podcast Business of Hype on Hypebeast Radio. He’s also one of the nicest and most respected people in the game and the unofficial mayor of the Lower East Side ever since he opened his store Reed Space in 2001. He is now the Creative Director of TGS Holdings whose shop Extra Butter is only a few doors down from the original Reed Space location on Orchard Street. During the conversation, Jeff shares how he has sustained success over two decades in the game and avoided becoming just another trend. He also divulges his somewhat questionable and illicit use of

This Overshare is an in-studio conversation with film director and creative director Elena Parasco (@elenaparasco). Host Justin Gignac (@justingignac) chat's with Elena about her burgeoning directing career and the motivation behind it. Instead of complaining about the lack of content that represented women in sport in a way that relates to her, she decided to make her own. The result is a growing body of work that examines sport and play through the female gaze. Disrupting those traditional, cliché stereotypes of sports imagery that we’re used to and making work that celebrates more accessible female role models. Elena is tenacious and resilient when trying to get her ideas out into the world, whether for herself or for clients like Nike, Air Jordan, A$AP Rocky, Calvin Klein, and Guess. She touches on how her non-traditional background studying cognitive science and psychology has informed her creative career and filmmaking. And is adamant about the necessity to have women in the room when creating content.

Host Justin Gignac (@justingignac) sits down in the studio with Tina Essmaker (@tinaessmaker) for a deeply personal conversation. Tina opens up about loss, divorce, resiliency, and new beginnings as she moves on from her role as Co-Founder and Editor in Chief of The Great Discontent. She embarks on this next chapter of her career as a coach, speaker, and writer with courage and enthusiasm. Tina has made a career out of listening to and supporting others. For more than a decade, she was focused on social work helping runaway and homeless teens. Then co-founded TGD where she interviewed over 250 artists, makers and risk takers, including Cheryl Strayed, Debbie Millman, Reggie Watts, Tavi Gevinson, Leon Bridges, and Krista Tippett. In this episode, you will learn how to pick yourself back up in difficult times and create a life from the inside out based on what’s important to you instead of reacting to outside pressures and expectations. Follow @OvershareTalks on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook SHOW NOTES: Tin

Dave Franzese and Mark Richard Miller are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their creative studio Dark Igloo. Host Justin Gignac (@justingignac) invites the duo into the studio to reflect on the past decade of creating work that's drenched in humor and nostalgia. They discuss their mission to do 50% of projects for themselves (like Bored Game and Contact Us) and 50% for clients like Bonnaroo, Nike, Dig Inn, and most notably, GIPHY. Their conversation touches on topics from '90s nostalgia, what we absorb from our parents, and how having children has changed their perspective on both work and play. In this episode, you will learn that every project, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, is an opportunity to build a relationship that could change your career in the future. And that passion, enthusiasm, and play are self-perpetuating and worth prioritizing. Follow @OvershareTalks on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook SHOW NOTES: Deep Work by Cal Newport Jim Henson Stan Winston Maslow's Hierarchy of Ne

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at Camp David in Brooklyn, NY. Host Justin Gignac (@justingignac) sits down with the incomparable Jon Burgerman (@jonburgerman). He’s an artist and author whose ability to play is contagious and inspiring. If you haven’t seen Jon’s work check out the links below. His Instagram brings so much joy on a daily basis. Whether it’s bringing every imaginable inanimate object to life with googly eyes in his Instagram stories or the characters he creates, everything will make you smile. Jon lives by the motto “It’s Great to Create” and his work is a reminder of the joy of creating. All of us had those skills to make and play as kids and some of us were fortunate to not lose it. In this episode, you will learn that the key to creative freedom is really to just stop caring what other people think and you’ll learn how to reframe your thinking when jealousy of other peoples’ work or success inevitably creeps up. Follow @OvershareTalks on Instagram, Twitter, and Faceboo

This episode of Overshare is with Jaime Robinson and Lisa Clunie, founders of creative agency Joan—a company inspired by the trailblazing, take no shit Joans throughout history. It’s a fitting moniker for these two. Having spent their careers at companies like Fallon, BBH, Pereira & O'Dell, Wieden+Kennedy, and Refinery29 they set out to create a different kind of creative agency. Host Justin Gignac (@justingignac) dives into the incredible partnership, deep friendship, and obvious overflowing love Lisa and Jaime have for each other and for the work they do. There's a lot packed into this episode. There are songs sung, honest insights on the challenges of starting a business, and a few references to Howard Hughes bottling his pee. In this episode, you will learn that happiness and ambition can actually co-exist, and how meeting a stranger that shares your passions can unlock whole new chapters in your career. Follow @OvershareTalks on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook This episode is brought to you by Squa