INTRO MAXXING

Alex and Kevin are topic MAXXING. It’s the word of the year, didn’t you hear? The two fine gentlemen discuss getting a religious exemption from using AI, Dior’s hand-made AI video, Prada’s anti-AI animation AI allegations, the Skimms Advent calendar, Knicks Championship Ring Phishing, the Dune popcorn buckets, Cheerios Ziploc bags, Hormel bacon packaging, Jetty, Rowdy, Liberty, Subway bread jacket, and more!

We're pleased to welcome Christopher Noort to the show! Christopher is the Lead Designer at Studio Dumbar. He is a multidisciplinary designer with a curious eye for new design tools and a passion for experimental typography. He is responsible for leading multiple projects, including the Design In Motion Festival, OpenAI, the Utah Jazz, Apple, Entropy, D&AD, and many others.Christopher tells about his humble beginnings, getting into design via gaming message boards, starting at Studio Dumbar as an intern, the renegade Gert Dumbar, the iconic Liza Enebeis, the Studio’s process, their “kitchen reviews”, and so much more. What a delightful Dutchman! Enjoy!

For the first time in Front and Center history… We’ve got a Grammy winner on the show! Brent David Freaney is a NYC-based Art Director and Designer who founded the award-winning creative tech company Special Offer.Special Offer is a team of nine designers, directors, and producers. They do creative direction, art direction, campaign identity, visual identity systems, website design and development, album artwork, exhibition design, titles for film and television, and much more.They did the design and Art Direction for Charli xcx’s Brat, Rosalía’s Lux, and Madonna’s Confessions II, plus a variety of work for i-D Magazine, Louis Vuitton, Virgil Abloh, Tame Impala, Prada, and Martine Rose.Brent is a considerate and hilarious dude, and we had so much fun picking his brain and chopping it up with him. Enjoy!

Alex and Kevin are back with a topic show! They talk about Kelly Clarkson vs. Art of Play, the $60 loaf, Cute AI agents, the new passport, Wendy’s emo album, Dunkin’ x L.L.Bean, Hidden Valley Spooky Ranch, Subway’s Lunchtime Horrors, Butterfingers Pizza, Bush's Chili Magic, the Taco Bell Ultramarathon, and more!

WE GOT MOUTHWASH STUDIO IN THE HOUSE! We are thrilled to welcome Strategy Director & Partner Alex Tan and Creative Director & Partner Abraham Campillo to the program! Mouthwash is a design studio centered on new ideas and defining experiences, partnering with this generation’s leading brands and innovators to influence culture. Their approach challenges industry standards, adopts new technologies, and strives for a lasting positive impact. Over time, their work has naturally led them towards industry leaders across art, architecture, fashion, sustainability, technology, and beyond. They’ve worked with brands like Apple, Bonnie Clyde, Fender, Google, Lululemon, Nike, The North Face, OpenAI, Rimowa, Seed, and the Utah Jazz to name a few. They recently opened an all-day café in Los Angeles: Café Tondo. They also write Findings, a newsletter on the influences and trends that are quietly shaping our culture. And they make a successful magazine: Mouthwash Magazine, an exhibition in print for contemporary culture, art, and photography. Mouthwash is a creative powerhouse, a studio started by friends who met on Instagram and just liked working together, and they haven’t looked back since, and they never will. Enjoy!

This week on Front and Center… Alex and Kevin bring the heat. They talk about Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk, Sydney Sweeney’s new Novig campaign, Jessica Hische’s Muse logo controversy, Trump ‘rebranding’ AI, the new foldable iPhone, the Streetfighter popcorn bucket, big Capri Sun, the rotisserie chicken bag, the Betty Crocker slice of cake bag, Merriam-Webster’s new words, Buzzball x Poptarts, and more!

This week we are (were) live from Montreal! Our first-ever live podcast, here for your ears. In this episode, we close out a stacked day of incredible creatives speaking at Forum, the Annual Design Assembly in Montreal. Andrea Trabucco introduces us before we talk about the hot, delicious, yet unschmeared bagels we had and how much we like the city so far. We then bring out Ariane Leblanc, co-founder of Martha, and Bryan-K. Lamonde, co-founder and Creative Director of Principal Studio, to discuss Montreal, its design scene, and what makes it exceptionally good; working in two languages, being a good lover, our guilty pleasures, chaos, and more! 

This week we have Arthur Foliard on the pod! Arthur is the Executive Creative Director at Koto New York, where he leads a team and shapes brands through bold ideas, clear systems, and distinct visual worlds.Though we do not talk about Instagram (we recorded this in May), Arthur describes the deliberate slow build of Koto New York into what it is today: a branding powerhouse (my words, not his). He tells us about their work for Bolt, Lyft, Tripadvisor, and Amazon. Their work is alive and distinct on a massive scale. They work on some of the biggest and best projects in the industry, and it is impressive what they’re able to do.Welcome Arthur!

Alex and Kevin are back from California, and due to a scheduling (production) error, the fellas recorded a quick one just a few hours ago! Better late than never! Anyway, they talk about Instagram's new wordmark, Good Good x Callaway, Liquid Death x Garage Beer, JIF, and more!

Alex and Kevin are live from Brooklyn with a solo episode! The two tan dudes talk about the Allan Peters A$AP Rocky debacle, Hall Pass, Wemby’s new logo, The Cleveland Sirens Identity, Pepsi trying to troll Coke over their rebrand, Buc-ee's suing everyone, and more!