Scott Dadich is a designer, filmmaker and entrepreneur. He’s currently the co-CEO of Godfrey Dadich Partners, a design, content and strategy firm. Prior to that he worked at Conde Nast as the editor of Wired and leading the build out of Conde Nast’s digital strategy including the tablet editions of their magazines (if you remember when those came out, they were incredible products that were among the first publications that really felt tablet-native). He’s also the creator of the amazing new Netflix series “Abstract: The Art Of Design”– I’m sure a lot of you have already binge-watched it, and if you haven’t then do yourself a favor and check it out ASAP.
Today on the podcast,
- We talk about why you should listen to your instincts or as he says, to the voice inside. He’s got a great term for this which is finding “gut/head alignment.” I’m a big advocate of learning how to hear and trust your instincts and this has been my biggest asset in many ways.
- He gets into the making of “Abstract,” the transition from journalist to filmmaker and some of the common elements they saw in all of the designers that they profile in the series – a lot of good stuff here for those of you who are into habits.
- On that note one of the things that comes up a couple times is the power of the exploratory process in honing your craft – for example drawing as a means of visualizing your ideas. The key here is that its not about making a beautiful perfect drawing per se, it’s about the process of exploring the idea – it’s a muscle that you’ll grow by exercising it on a regular basis.
Enjoy!
Design is just decision-making
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Some Questions I Ask:
- Describe yourself to the folks at home. [0:55]
- Did working at Wired serve a need in bridging your transition from Condé Nast to your own project? [2:08]
- How long have you been out of Wired? [3:13]
- How did you come to work with former President Obama and what was it like? [3:32]
- What surprised you the most about working with the President? [6:07]
- Do you feel like working with the White House closed a chapter or was an opening to something bigger and better? [8:15]
- Talk to me about defining yourself as having more than one title? [10:11]
- How has your background parlayed into film? [13:18]
- What other common themes did each subject in Abstract share? [15:14]
- Was it a goal to of Abstract to communicate the process of design? [17:48]
- What were some inspirations for the show? [20:20]
- How do people find the show? [21:39]
- When I juxtapose creativity with a small “c”, photography, design with creativity with a big “C”, what comes to mind? [22:14]
- Do you have a message for people who don’t consider themselves creative? [24:21]
- Do you have advice for people who are following in your footsteps? [26:35]
- When I use the word intuition, is that what you’re talking about with listening to what’s inside you? [29:53]
- What kinds of habits have you noticed across the series and also what habits do you have that you feel like have helped you be successful? [30:51]
- Can you recommend three science fiction books? [31:57]
- What kinds of things don’t you do? [32:23]
- What other projects are you working on? [33:34]
- Besides scifi and The Crossroads of Should and Must, do you have any other book recommendations? [35:06]
- Do you have any parting words? [36:58]
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- What it’s like to work on a project with the President of the United States. [4:41]
- Former President Obama is a geek about artificial intelligence. [6:45]
- My own experience working with the White House and what I’ve learned from those experiences. [7:04]
- Why you should watch Scott’s new Netflix series about creativity and design, Abstract. [8:45]
- How Scott applies his skillsets from different disciplines to move into different creative outputs. [10:39]
- Why James Altucher says you should be working on about five projects at any given time. [12:35]
- The wonderful challenges and marriage between storytelling and making films, and why Scott loves the puzzle. [13:25]
- A surprising finding that Scott had while making Abstract is that all the designers in the series draw. [14:27]
- What Scott calls design hallucinations and how he uses them to create. [15:23]
- How I use design hallucinations to communicate creative ideas. [16:24]
- What design is and why Scott wanted to demystify the design process for the laymen. [18:30]
- When designing Abstract, Scott first started by designing a book that would communicate the the production team on the look and feel of the series. [21:20]
- Why conversation about details is important to the big picture. [22:44]
- Why you should doodle. [25:00]
- How Scott’s intuition told him to leave his dream job and why he listened. [27:01]
- How my intuition, perhaps my best quality, has led me to where I am today. [28:40]
- What intuition means to Scott; gut, heart and head alignment. [30:07]
- Another common theme between the designers in Abstract is that they all excel somewhere outside of design. [31:30]
- The three science fiction books Scott recommends: Seveneves, 2312, The Martian. [31:59]
- Why doing something active and connecting with the earth can help you solve a problem faster than putting your nose to the grindstone. [32:25]
- Why any young leader should read HBR on Managing People. [35:21]
This podcast is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world’s largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker, money/life and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts — Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.
