Welcome to Think & Link, where we explore creativity, design and human imagination. Brought to you by Capsule, a special projects agency in Northeast Minneapolis working with clients like Patagonia, Herman Miller, Red Wing Shoes, Tyson Foods, and Pepsi Co..   We have Tyler LaMotte, a friend of Capsule since he hired us while working at Patagonia for what is now a famous bit of packaging design. Tyler is now the Chief Brand Officer at Jackson Hole Mountain Resorts. And, our long lost friend, Hope Frank, is finally taking the Think & Link stage to talk about her documentary project, Brave Blue World. It is airing on Netflix and starring Matt Damon, Liam Neeson and Jaden Smith. Feel free to watch the trailer for now and the full documentary on Netflix.   We will be talking about what the future of this big blue ball we live on looks like in the next decade and what it means to be an involved, active global citizen. As in all our sessions, we hope to inspire our viewers to go out and use design methods to improve the world around us.

This will be an intellectual sparring session with two great minds challenging each other to elevate how we study and design experiences. Both of these guests have made appearances on our stage before, and as before they come with a full quiver of inspired stories to share.   We have the gentleman of design, James Damian, former head of design from Best Buy. He is paired with the author of “Why We Buy” Paco Underhill who is best known for the phrase “the butt brush” -- and you’ll have to ask him what that means, or read the book.

Todd Allard and Jeremy Ericson are back together again. In the high school yearbook of life these two characters were voted most likely to work together, find their way to leadership positions and push the boundaries of their respective organizations. These two have fulfilled all the promises made in the margins of their respective yearbooks   Together, we rebranded a tarnished education institution, (a name we shall not mention) to what it is now, Altierus Career College. Todd left for larger aspirations and more challenging brand efforts, a rebrand of Lumber Liquidators. An organization no longer in business of lumber or liquidation. The new brand, LL Flooring, which you can find here, was an epic effort, comparable to getting a boardroom of executives to climb Mt Everest together.   Jeremy remained at Minneapolis-based, ECMC Education, but never to be outdone by a friend and colleague, he took on one of the largest challenges we have as a society; the middle skills trades gap. Yes, Jeremy, perhaps inspired by the size of the challenge, continued on the journey to not only transform a brand but the industry of career & technical education at large.

AI is here. Resistance is futile. Ignorance is not bliss (in this case). And, every industry will need to work out its relationship, adoption and perhaps even leveraging of Artificial Intelligence. It is predicted to be a larger revolution than the Internet and will change the value of nearly everything.   We have two guests, Paul Allen and Dan Mallin, who have been swimming in the deep end of the artificial intelligence pool for longer than most. They are here to give some insight into how you can work out your relationship with this new organism.   Paul Allen is the co-founder of Ancestry.com and Soar.com while Dan Mallin is the co-founder of Lucy.ai, the Mn Cup business plan competition and many other ventures.

We are going cycling for this episode of Think & Link; and we’ll have the joy of Phil Liggett as our voice. He is the NBC Sports Commentator for cycling, and happens to be friends with Edward Wimmer, Founder/CEO, Road ID, a technology and fashion item for marathoners, cyclists, and extreme athletes who may sometimes put themselves in a situation where an ID like this is a necessary caution. We are certain to be talking shop about the Tour de France, the expansion of cycling with everyone getting outside and onto a bike, and perhaps we’ll even talk about Lance Armstrong in a kind manner.   As always, this will be an interesting conversation about marketing, sports, culture and the designed world.

Question: What do the Catsup Crapper, Think the Unthinkable, Sparking Creativity, and The Aeron Chair have in common? Answer: Topics that will likely come up when Barry and Luke take the Think & Link stage in October.   We’re talking creativity, innovation and design in October with two authors, professors and grand thinkers. We have Dr Barry Kudrowitz paired with Luke Williams on the Think & Link stage for this one and based on past performances this looks to be a creatively curious conversation.

Welcome to Think & Link, where we explore creativity, design and human imagination. Brought to you by Capsule, a special projects agency in Northeast Minneapolis working with clients like Patagonia, Herman Miller, Red Wing Shoes, Tyson Foods, and Pepsi Co.. We have Bruno Singulani, global brand identity and design from Nestle along with Nicole Atchison, CEO of PURIS Holdings here in Minneapolis. PURIS is cultivating the future of food through a plant-based approach using peas. And Nestle is a global brand in food as a key to enhancing the quality of life for everyone.

We have Omar Ansari, Founder, Surly Brewing paired with Andy Pearson, VP of Creative Liquid Death. Both of these individuals and brands have been swimming upstream, defying the norm and breaking the molds of their respective categories. We think this pairing is so good, Apple Pie and Ice Cream are going to be jealous. Areas of learning from this episode: One: What it takes to question authority and norms of culture, and do something dramatically different from standard. Two: The importance of creativity in our community, in whatever form it takes and how that is changing in this current economy. Three: Creativity in a world where risk is measured in social media, cancellation and polarization.

We’ve been rather proud of our pairings at Think & Link; Pants Optional, but we’ve outdone ourselves this time. We’re pairing Château La Mission Haut Brion Bordeaux red wine with the best meal you’ve ever enjoyed. We have Vince Voron, formerly of Apple, Coke, Dolby and now with Ripple, he is known for designing iconic elements into brands. And, Soon Yu, Author, Innovator, Formerly VF Corp; and Soon Yu has written a best selling book, Iconic Advantage which showcases brands and designers who have proven what iconic design delivers for brands. If you’re not enjoying this one, check your pulse.

If you’re a fan of behind-the-scenes brand stories, we’ve got you covered in this Think & Link pairing. We have Guy Kawasaki and Lisa Mann on the stage and their combined experiences have influenced this fantastic list of brands; Apple, Kind, PepsiCo, StumbleUpon, Canva, Motorola, Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, and Trident.  And, those are just the public ones, there are certainly more unlisted.

We’ll be talking about the importance of activity, getting outdoors, connecting with nature, entrepreneurship, loved brands, designed experiences, and so much more with this inspired global leader. Joy Howard is one of our favorites we met while working with Patagonia. After leaving Patagonia, she went on to lead marketing at Sonos and Lyft before launching her own venture, Early Majority—a beautifully responsible active outdoor gear company.

There’s something intuitively elegant when these two founders are on the stage. Ashley Sumner is the founder of Quilt, an audio social app designed to be a safe space and started a meme in the founder community with “I am a XFemaleX Founder”. Jann Parish was an iconic CMO and left it behind to become a co-founder of GLU, Girls Like You, a beauty brand with her daughter Lila.

In this episode, we have the iconic David Rubin, Chief Marketing Officer of The New York Times. Yes, that little known publisher has agreed to grace our show. David’s only requirement was a pairing with a legend in marketing Fernando Machado, the former Chief Marketing Officer of Burger King and Activision Blizzard. Fernando and David will be talking about digital transformation, returning vibrancy to experienced brands and the role design has played.

In this episode we cover retail, design and the arts, a trio of subjects delivered perfectly by this duo of founders. We have Megan Tamte, founder of EVEREVE and Mercedes Austin, founder of Mercury Mosaics on the show, just in time for some Black Friday retail therapy blended with art and design. If you’re at all interested in a creative model of retail growth, designed by Megan, this will be a great listen. And, if you have any affection for handcrafted, beautiful works of art and the adventurous world of entrepreneurship, Mercedes is certainly an inspiration. Enjoy the conversation. 

In this episode we explore leadership and culture, the flour and water in a recipe for an exceptional organization.  We have the pleasure of welcoming our client from Zurich, Switzerland based venture, Katadyn and Shawn Hostetter, who led the North American organization and delivered amazing results with our Capsule team. Shawn is paired with DeAnna Murphy, an organizational development leader at People Acuity. 

In this episode, we show our love for product and experience design. Angie Tebbe of Rae Wellness and Kate Lubenesky of W&P are two amazing entrepreneurs who have used design to improve the little things in our lives.  And, by little, we don’t mean unimportant.  In fact, these bits of how we live make a big impact on how we thrive. We hope you’ll see why we admire these two founders for their contributions to the design and entrepreneurial community.

In this episode we are taking the Think & Link discussion to intellectual curiosities born of blending science and design. We thought of no two better representatives than Eric Quint of 3M Design, paired with the co-director of Science House, Rita J. King. In her words, Science House is a cathedral of the imagination in Manhattan focused on the art and science of doing business. Eric is the former head of design at 3M and the author of Design Leadership Ignited: Elevating Design at Scale. If this isn’t a pairing as good as peanut butter and jelly, then we ask, what is?

In this episode we are excited to have Amanda Brinkman of Sunshine Studios and Lisa Armstrong formerly of Resideo on the podcast. Amanda started the show Small Business Revolution while helping all of us question why we can’t do more good while doing well. Lisa has led marketing in large technical organizations, earning herself icon status in our community.  We cover some very interesting topics with this pair of dynamic marketing and creative minds. We chat about the design of culture, creativity inside organizations and marketing innovation. 

On our stage we have former client, Dan Buettner of Blue Zones and our friend Scott Lien of GrandPad. Dan is a researcher, author, Netflix special host and Founder of Blue Zones, a company studying and implementing evidence-based ways to help people live longer and better. Scott is the Co-Founder of GrandPad, a technology company reshaping the way seniors connect with their loved ones.Together, our two guests discuss how to live a vibrant and long life, exploring the importance of our relationships and daily choices, and how they can impact our lifespan and quality of life.

In today's episode, we have a representative from FabFitFun, Ryan Waymire, on the Think & Link podcast to talk about what they are seeing. Along with Ryan we have Kara Goldin, the founder of Hint Water and the only person we know who has had a drink with Maria Shriver. We’ll be talking about women in entrepreneurship and what the near future looks like through their lenses.