The Creative Mindset

Business
Arts
Society & Culture

I&CO founding partner Rei Inamoto speaks with the world’s leading practitioners of creativity from industries such as art, design, architecture, cuisine, and much more, to offer a glimpse into the minds of what it takes to build a successful career. In each episode, these creative luminaries share their beginnings, intimate moments of success and failure, and pieces of advice for work and life.

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Introducing The Creative Mindset with Rei Inamoto

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#001 - Finding Your Calling - w/ Ian Spalter of Instagram/Meta

Rei speaks with Ian Spalter, former head of design at Instagram who led the redesign of Instagram in 2016, after which Instagram saw an explosive user growth worldwide. Featured in the Netflix documentary “Abstract: The Art of Design,” Ian is currently the Director of Metaverse Design at Meta and oversees the design of its Avatars and immersive social products.In our first episode, Ian opens the conversation by sharing his early fascination for computers in his adolescent years, his pivotal moment of realization amidst his “boring” job, tips for landing your dream job, and advice he would tell his 25-year-old self.

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#002 - Why Play, Not Talent, Is More Important to Creativity

In this episode, we welcome back Ian Spalter, the Director of Metaverse Design at Meta, to discuss how introducing a “state of play” in the workplace is key to creativity, whether talent is nature or nurture, Japan through Ian's eyes, and challenges as a Black designer.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:55 How do you encourage an organization to be more creative?

08:30 Is creativity nurture or nature?

10:58 “Play” helps reduce the fear of making mistakes and leaves space for experimentation

11:54 Areas of creativity in Japan and vice versa

15:12 Observations about businesses and culture in Japan?

19:55 Challenges as a minority and how to overcome them

23:53 Advice for the youth in Japan

25:48 Rei’s Three Key Takeaways

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#003 - From Intern to CEO: Managing Your Career & Happiness

Rei speaks with Cindy Gallop, former founder of BBH New York and current founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn, which launched at TED 2009 - ‘Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference’. Today, Cindy pushes to socialize and normalize sex to make it easier to talk about and promote good sexual values and behavior.

In this episode, our guest Cindy shares her work philosophy to attain key career milestones, her choices as a leader to enable creativity to flourish within a corporate team, and how a personal midlife crisis led to one of the best decisions in her life.

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#004 - One Woman’s Crusade to Redesign Porn

Happiness can sometimes feel challenging, or even impossible to attain, in the world we live in. Provided that there may be no single one-size-fits-all solution, what if you could design your own system and focus on what “you” want to make happen?

On our episode this week, we welcome back Cindy Gallop, CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn, to hear about how a personal midlife crisis became her very opportunity to find a refound conviction, and how she used this to launch her own business to keep herself happy.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:01 Beginnings of MakeLoveNotPorn
00:03:27 When free access to porn online and reluctance to talk about sex converge
00:04:50 A refound conviction
00:06:21 The issue is the reluctance to talk openly about sex in the real world
00:28:18 What is the single piece of advice you’d give a young person going into advertising today?
00:28:37 Go into any industry to make what “you” want to make happen, happen
00:28:50 Advice for youth in any industry: Take a look around to identify what you think is missing or would love to see and start it yourself
00:29:36 If you want to be happy, design your own system
00:32:03 3 key takeaways

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#005 - “Learn how to surf”: Advice on riding life’s waves

You could never fully know what life has in store for you. But when it comes to life opportunities, Paola Antonelli shares how being in the "right place" makes a difference.

On this week’s episode, we welcome Paola, the Senior Curator of Architecture & Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), to hear about the beginnings of her career, life events that became curation opportunities, personal emotional challenges, and how she found herself overcoming these.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:47 Journey to becoming a curator
00:05:40 Finding opportunities to curate a show
00:06:00 “It was just being at the right place at the right time, or just being in the right place, period”
00:09:21 What are key turning points in your career?
00:12:30 Unwelcoming experiences in New York
00:15:06 “Depression is a reality and I needed to learn to deal with it”
00:17:22 Life advice: “Learn how to surf”
00:18:51 Three takeaways

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#006 - Curating Creativity: Tips to Unlocking your Inner Artist

The desire to attract people’s attention may just be your powerhouse for creativity, according to Paola Antonelli.

On this week’s episode, we welcome back Paola, the Senior Curator of Architecture & Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), to hear about the specifics of her work as a curator, how curiosity can help you stay motivated, and how creativity is like “flowers becoming flagrant to attract bees”.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:14 Key shows in your career?
00:02:39 What gives you a creative edge?
00:04:10 Creativity is a desire to attract people’s attention, similar to how flowers become flagrant to attract bees
00:05:17 Many rejections, but not failures in life
00:07:11 What drives your curiosity and motivation?
00:11:00 Ideas are a dollar a pound
00:13:23 Three takeaways

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Schedule Change: Our Podcast is Moving to Thursdays

We wanted to let our listeners know that we’ll be making a small change to our podcast release schedule. Starting this week, our podcast will be moving to a brand new day of the week. Instead of releasing new episodes on Mondays, you can now look forward to hearing from us every other Thursday. So stay tuned this Thursday to welcome our next guest, John Maeda. Thanks for tuning in!

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#007 - Why Being a Doormat is Not Always Such a Bad Thing

Working across different disciplines is no easy feat, and requires interdisciplinary knowledge, empathy, and perseverance.

On this week's episode, we welcome John Maeda, former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and currently VP of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft, to hear about his experiences as a Japanese American in the US and Japan, pivot from engineer to designer, and his mission as a "bridge person" to help people transcend between disciplines and cultures.

John Maeda is an American technologist and product experience leader with a passion for RESILIENCE and renewal. Currently serving as chief technology officer of Everbridge where he leads the company’s long-term technology and product vision, including innovation and IP strategy.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro
00:05:27 John’s Beginnings: The son of a tofuya
00:09:30 What was your impression of Japanese designers?
00:10:02 Every culture likes to build a wall around itself
00:11:15 How did you become a designer?
00:14:41 Transitioning from Japan back to the US
00:16:00 How would you teach creativity to a “non-creative” person?
00:17:13 Artists and designers suffer more, and the root of all interesting design is a good problem.
00:19:03 The advantage of being a “bridge person”, seeing all the problems around you and helping to solve these problems
00:20:06 Pros and Cons of being a bridge person
00:20:59 Three takeaways

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#008 - Creativity Is a Privilege for the Wealthy. Or Is It?

What does it mean to be creative, and is creativity a privilege reserved for the wealthy?

On this episode, we welcome back Dr. John Maeda, former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and current VP of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft, to hear his definition of creativity and his candid thoughts on what it takes to be creative. He also reflects on personal experiences as an Asian American, his childhood idol, Tora-san, and the importance of resilience in building your career.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:14 Is creativity nature or nurture?
00:02:55 Creativity is a privilege
00:04:31 Advice from a legendary graphic designer: Money gives you the liberty to choose what to do and what not to do
00:05:55 Asian American heritage and personal experiences
00:11:05 Crossing boundaries to bring people together
00:11:55 An actor of integrity
00:15:28 Learnings crossing over from academia to business
00:18:30 Three takeaways

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