Montreal-based creative director and founder of Design is Yummy, Elana Rudick, returns to the podcast for the first time since season one. With twenty years in the industry and a new talk on the horizon, Elana joins Radim to explore what it really means to make design human — from the studio floor to the stage.
They cover the rollercoaster of running a creative studio post-pandemic, why slowing down your thinking is the new competitive advantage in an age of rapid AI execution, and what happens when a chocolate bar becomes your CV.
Elana's new keynote, "The Shift to Human: Reconnecting with What Matters," gives this conversation its spine — a call to bring soft skills, relationship-building, and radical accountability back to the centre of creative work.
Takeaways
Post-pandemic unpredictability has forced creative studios to diversify and pivot — and that pressure, uncomfortable as it is, makes you better
Thinking and execution are separate skills; as AI speeds up making, the quality of your thinking matters more than ever, not less
Sitting with work before presenting it — resisting the rush — is a discipline that consistently produces better outcomes and deeper client trust
Accessible tools haven't removed the need for designers; they've changed the conversation that happens before a brief even arrives
Soft skills — communication, empathy, relationship-building, curiosity — are the most transferable assets any creative can carry into an uncertain future
Calling three people a day throughout the pandemic built some of Elana's most enduring and trusted professional relationships
Daring doesn't need to be loud or gimmicky — it just means stepping outside your own comfort zone, whatever that looks like for you
Showing up as your best self is the foundation; the work, in whatever form the future demands, will follow from that
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