In the spirit of Christmas we made the hour long bonus content available to everyone, so no need to download a separate file today. Thanks to you all for being Members of The Circle of Trust.

Merry Christmas!!!

On the third annual Very Adventures In Design Christmas Special we find the guys just hanging out excited to wrap-up what ended up being a great year for all three of our hosts. Billy is finally sitting pretty with the success of Delicious Design League, James Flames had his biggest year ever and is rewarding himself with a month of from life to figure out what the future holds for him and the lovable loser Mark Hollywood Brickey can’t wait to start a new year with a new full time career of being the daily host of Adventures In Design, delivering a promised 200 episodes next year. So sit back, put a log on the fire, throw on your favorite sweater and sip from your favorite holiday drink. It’s time to spend a little Christmas magic with all of your friends at Adventures In Design.

Episode 104 - “OMG Posters Top 10 Prints of 2014” with Mitch Putnam

Mitch Putnam from OMG Posters stops by to update us on Black Friday and his newest project The VACVVM. He also shares with us his picks for the top 10 prints from 2014.

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 104
• When to promote a project.

In The Circle of Trust (Paid Subscriber Content)
• Tips on creating a successful press release for your artwork.

Episode 103 - Chris Parks aka Pale Horse “Hooks In The Water”

Illustrator Chris Parks also known as Pale Horse joins the show to talk about everything and anything that comes to mind.

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 103
• Living for a good story.
• Surrounding yourself with people that you want to learn from.
• Opening your mind to discovery and exploration.

In The Circle of Trust (Paid Subscriber Content)
• Finding Straight Edge
• Using psychedelic drugs to explore your mind and binging it back to your artwork.

Episode 102 “The Adventures In Diversity - First Annual Hanukkah Special” featuring DKNG Studios, Mark Hollywood Brickey & Special Guests.

Nathan Goldman Productions presents the first ever Adventures In Diversity Hanukkah Special full of special guests, great surprises and a Hanukkah miracle. Featuring AID alumni DKNG Studios for a good mixture of fun and a dash of design talk. Let the oil burn!

Episode 101 - “The Prequel” Mark Brickey & Billy Baumann

This is a demo of Adventures In Design recorded on October 18th, 2011 over two months before episode 01 “Pilot” was released on iTunes. It’s crude, it’s rude and it’s very rough around the edges but illustrates how far the show and it’s hosts have grown over the last 3 years. Enjoy?

Episode 100 - Shop Talk “The 100th Episode"

Mark, Billy and James record the 100th episode together on this very special Adventures In Design.

Episode 99 - Nate Duval “Built For Speed”

Designer and illustrator Nate Duval stops by to talk about turning your work into a in-house brand.

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 99
• How effortless it is to sell online during the holidays and talk a little shit about the classic photo of tubes.
• After time learning to be smarter with what shows you book for your studio.
• Focusing on creating retail products to gain more control of your design career and cash flow.
• “Built For Speed” Nate breaks down his method of creating happy clients and customers while keeping his process efficient. 
• Reacting to crowd reactions at live shows and using that feedback to better improve your product line.
• Spending money hiring others to do what you shouldn’t be spending your time on.

In The Circle of Trust (Paid Subscriber Content)
• Nate explains how he has been able to keep many regular clients over the years. 
• Work / Life balance and how it’s possible with good rules.

We check back in with Garry Booth of the Phone Booth Gallery about his recent trip to Miami for Art Basel 2014 where his gallery showed for the first time at Scope.

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 96
• Garry Booth shares with us details on the Phone Booth Gallery’s first showing at Scope during Art Basel 2014.

In The Circle of Trust (Paid Subscriber Content)
• We learn what emerging galleries look for when picking artists to work with and how much work you need to be able present to get the gig.
• “Gallery consignment” versus actually being represented by a gallery.
• Debating doing fine art under your actual name or choosing a moniker.
• How trends develop in art.
• Getting out of the shadows of your heroes and creating your own ideas and style. 

Episode 97 - “Always Plotting”  Dan Kuhlken 

Another post game holiday show episode, recorded in a parking garage just minutes after wrapping up the 2014 Unique LA Holiday show in downtown Los Angeles. 

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 97

• Importance of keeping a good PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) while working live events.
• Discussing booth design strategies.
• Mark talks about the balancing act of running different businesses. 
• Knowing when it’s time to refresh your product line.
• Thinking of money as the high score in the game of business. 
• We play pick the script.

Abbreviated Episode. NO BONUS CONTENT

Episode 96 - “Happy Birthday Brickey” featuring the Circle of Trust

We celebrate our host Mark Brickey turning 40 with 5 randomly picked members of the Circle of Trust for the first ever on air meeting.

Featuring:
Brian Behm of media content designer and project manager for Rooster Teeth.
Paul Hess user interface designer and screen printer.
Julie Madison maker and owner of My Only Regret Besides Dying 
Annie Liebert a designer who recently relocated to Portland.
Dan Davis from Kinship Goods a product line based out Charlestown, WV.

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 96

• Creating a community out of your brand.
• Turning your design studio into a retail location. 
• What kind of interviews are our favorites and where do we want to see the show go.
• The struggle of keeping the struggle real.
• Mark talks honestly about the often audience request of more female guests.
• A pitch for a series of 2015 episodes where we follow a fellow creative launch a new career.
• Mark gives the Circle of Trust a chance to tell him whats the worst moment of the show.

In The Circle of Trust (Paid Subscriber Content)

• Talking about projecting your next year and the steps to make these projections actually happen.

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 95

• A little hardware  discussion where compare our setups and get into the age old debate PC vs Apple.
• We talk about poster sales and recap the last week of crazy markdown sales.
• Billy announces a new chapter in his career.
• Mark shares big box wholesale opportunity gone wrong.

In The Circle of Trust (Paid Subscriber Content)

• James Flames walks us through his beginning steps on how he starts a new illustration. 
• Discuss picking top quality employees that cost more over cheaper fixer uppers. 

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 94

• Using college resources to springboard your career.
• Grabbing an entry level position in the music industry.
• Working with bands and making connections.
• Wholesaling limited edition items.
• Limitations of working in a collage style.
• Finding images and making something new out of them.

In The Circle of Trust (Paid Subscriber Content)

• Being inspired to make your live event booth look better.
• Curing the loneliness of working freelance. 
• Using new iPhone scanners instead of a traditional desktop.

Talking Points You’ll Hear On Episode 93

• Making your career part of your identity as person.
• Debating the difference between ticketed crafting events versus free events.
• Reliving the biggest assholes we’ve ever met doing live events. 
• Tips on blowing off jerks in your booth.
• Picking the proper events for your brand.
• Opinions on the ABC show Nashville.
• Discuss what makes a good Black Friday sale.
• Adding “added value” when a sale isn’t appropriate. 
• The life cycle of project and your relationships with others.

In The Circle of Trust (Paid Subscriber Content)
• Derrick Castle explains the method of woodblock printing and how to make an affordable setup to start making prints at home with minimal costs or space needed. 
• Tips on using house paint as your medium.
• The benefits of playing transparent base.

Covered Topics

• Can a love of history effect your modern application to your work.

• Working with scratchboard and collaging your own parts.

• Taking the biggest career leap of your life because you’re going to be a dad and now’s the time to start making life happen.

• Teaching your kids to print and what your kids teach you in return about being an artist. 

• Streamlining your look. 

• Selling your artwork to the multitudes.

• Blessing yourself with a chance to win.

In The Circle of Trust

• Remembering a mutual friend the late Jason Noble.

• Figuring out when to donate your time.

Topics on Today's Adventures In Design.
• A great internship can lead to a great career.

• Allowing yourself to still be a fan even though you’re in the inner circle of your scene.

• Mark & Tabie’s mutual love of designing every part of a design into a into a container and then interlocking all of the pieces together.

• How wife’s can make for the most brutal but best art directors. 

• Setting up a great print setup in small spaces.

• Registration and creating off contact when printing tips.

• Building a business in a big city.

• Tabie gives an “Idiots Guide To A Risograph”

In The Circle of Trust

• Tabie shares with us how he learned to master handwritten type.

• Tabie talks about being a chalk typographer.

• Compartmentalizing your layout in the inception phase of a project versus worrying about composition at the very end. 

• The new hybrid of being a graphic designer and illustrator.

• Being in love with classic 2 color design. 
 

Failure Tour 03 - Cleveland, Ohio - Ramone Rivas II, Aaron Sechrist & Oliver Barrett 

ACT I
Ramon Rivas II a comedian based in Cleveland, Ohio shares with us how failure is all in the perspective in which you choose to see it and often very temporary. 

ACT II
Aaron Sechrist relives getting fired from his first ever freelance gig because his work ethic hadn’t matured even though his talents had.

ACT III
Oliver Barrett shares with us how investing too much of himself into doing pop culture gallery shows forced him to make a very hard career and ego decision.

In The Circle of Trust - Our Super Friends Panel Talks About: 

• Zeb Love joins us in the Circle of Trust

• How we fail on the money side of being creatives.

• Amusement parks versus amazing parks and Katy Perry

• Plus a Thanksgiving surprise from OK Pants.

Failure Tour 02 - Louisville, Kentucky - Jeral Tidwell, Ron Jasin, Tyler Deeb

Act I
Jeral Tidwell tells us about being too stupid to admit failure and how will power and determination helped him recover from a near career ending motorcycle accident. Hear how Jeral used his get out of dead free card. 

Act II 
Ron Jasin of Madpixel Design revisits the time where he gave up on design for a three year stretch in manual labor only to return back to his true labor of love and started to write the best pages of his career. Act III
Tyler Deeb confesses that a job that didn’t allow him to brag about his work taught him to put his head down, work hard and  to strive for something better. 

In The Circle of Trust - Our Super Friends Panel Talks About:

(Exclusive Content) 

• What a stranger doesn’t know about your seemingly fabulous career.

• Earning the right to not give a fuck about what others think about you.

• Selling artwork because it’s your art not because it’s associated with a client.

Failure Tour 01 - Nashville, Tennessee - Derrick Castle, Drew Binkley, Print Mafia

Act I
Derrick Castle shares with us a lesson learned of design by association when he placed his public reputation in the hands of client. 

Act II
Drew Binkley of Monkey Ink Design revisits a failure at the start of his career where a short deadline influenced him to take a short cut that he quickly regretted for a long time to come. 

Act III
Print Mafia preach the lesson of letting clients get in the way of their artistic vision and blowing a possible career changing opportunity.

 In The Circle of Trust - Our Super Friends Panel Talks About: 

• Advantages of being an artist in a city that is large enough to have art culture, but small enough to not be the nations focus. 

• Using vintage imagery as the basis of creating new artwork and the artistic instinct that tells you which pieces are good to use and which seem like a headache. 

• How long is too long to wait for payment from your clients.

Mark Brickey, Billy Baumann & James Flames send you to the weekend with a Shop Talk about having a healthy artistic ego, the downside of business traveling and debate the damage of placing your studios work on sale.

AID regular Mitch Putnam joins the Circle of Trust to talk about best practices when shipping a large volume of prints to either clients or customers. Mitch and Mark also discuss what artists can do to make the most of Black Friday sales and the benefits of creating an email customer mailing list for your company.

Santa’s little helper Eric Siegel runs Tree Hopper Toys a handmade wooden toy company from the outskirts of Chicago. Eric screen prints and hand cuts classic styled toys, often with a modern design sensibility. We review his product line and learn a lot about running a small shop, wholesale and toy design on this episode of Adventures In Design.

Alan Hynes and Mark talk skateboarding graphics, American Hardcore music and printing their first posters. Alan talks about how happy he is with not having a signature look as a designer. The guys also set the record for most times the phrase "you know" has ever been said on the AID airwaves.

Oakland’s very own Mike Sutfin allows us to visit is designer dungeon where we talk to him about oil painting, toy design and his personal projects that he hopes to birth through the new collective of artists and designers he joined known as the VACVVM.

Join the bad boys of design for a first ever Friday Morning Shop Talk where they make 4 major announcements about the future of both Adventures In Design and AID-AM. A must listen episode for anyone who loves the show or at least pretends to tolerate it.

This double guest episode of Adventures In Design AM starts off with Nicole Stevenson cofounder of Patchwork Craft Fair and illustrator Gregg Gordon of Gig Art.  First up Nicole promotes the upcoming Patchwork Craft Fair in Oakland this sunday. Nicole and Mark also trade great tips for vendors doing craft shows this holiday season. Up next we have Gregg Gordon a seasoned veteran of the music industry for over 20 years. Gregg talks about the old school days of the music industry, being a part of Flatstock’s (rock poster convention) maiden voyage and lastly his greatest project yet - taking time away from design to raise his adorable daughter Violet. 

Mark Brickey with David Smith and special guest Nathan Goldman sit in for a late night interview where they talk about how losing projects sucks and the embarrassment that comes along with the one that got away. Mark gives his opinion on online grammar narcs and how he lives by the golden rule of “Don’t Post About, What You Don’t Know About”. The guys talk about what makes for a good Instagram account and David talks about his stupid standards and how they at times cripple his goals. 

Instead of the usual illustrator, designer or printmaker we tend have on the AID airwaves today we mix it up with a designer of tea. Christopher Coccagna is an artist of a different medium. He’s the founder of T-We Tea and has created to date 39 original blends of tea and gives each one a name more outrageous than the next. The product may be different but the business perspective and passion for his art is very much the same.

It’s a Sunday night in San Francisco and Mark wraps up the 2nd weekend of holiday vending with Nathan Goldman of DKNG Studios and Shaun Wagoner of Tiny Whales. It’s another late night after a long day of working and the conversation is all over the road from talking about event pricing, admitting to someone you talk shit about their business and strangely a lengthy conversation about pregnant women??? A classic way off topic and out of bounds episode awaits you.

TGIF - Thank God It’s Finally (Almost Over). We catch Mark on the last night of several late nights getting ready for a road trip up to the bay area to do holiday shows in November. Dan Kuhlken of DKNG Studios swings by the office for this after midnight recording session. Hear two good friends hop from topic to topic during a late night work bender.

Brandon Rike learned his discipline in life from playing music in a hardcore band. Everything that he learned to fight for in the world of music was transformed into a very efficient career in designing for that same music industry. Brandon designs with a complete control, rigid structure and creates a massive amount of projects for his always growing roster of clients. Hear his blue collar approach to the arts and take a ounce of it with you to improve your own output and profitability.

Todd Slater joins AID-AM and talks about his 10+ year career as a graphic designer turned illustrator and shares his insight on how this transformation slowly evolved. Todd and Mark review his 300+ posters on Gigposters.com and break down the different chapters in his stunning art career and document the steps to becoming one of the best known names in modern poster design.

Brian Ewing talks about how being a professional artist isn’t always about drawing well but sometimes about presenting yourself well and how at times he saw his rock posters as giant business cards. Mark and Brian bond over how shit going wrong can make you realize how to make it all go right and talk about how a little bit of being bullied may be good for the soul in the long run.

Mark and Shaun Wagoner (founder of children’s apparel line Tiny Whales) share notes on how they both kicked off their holiday selling season with appearances at Patchwork Craft in Long Beach. The guys each share how important a successful holiday selling season is to a small brand and how money made during the holidays needs to carry them over the dreaded slow months of the upcoming new year. This episode is an honest exchange of two friends trying to figure out the method to their holiday retail madness. 

David Cook aka BONETHROWER is a illustrator based in Los Angeles who loves to use repetition as way to problem solve the puzzle pieces in his mind. Influenced by skateboarding, punk rock and psychedelic imagery, BONETHROWER proficiently creates hand drawn illustrations ranging from the obscene to the downright disturbing. He shares with us how being colorblind helped create his unique color pallet and really tries to explain how he sees his artwork as problem solving.

Illustrator Tony Moore shares with us his career story of leaving college to work Masters of The Universe and then moving on to create several of his own titles while sometimes picking up work for some of the biggest names in comic book industry. We talk to Tony about being co creator of The Walking Dead and what a career looks like after you've had a hand in birthing a pop culture giant. He's a great guy that chooses trees over skyscrapers and really believes that inversting in yourself is the best use of your time and money. A very inspirational dude!

Mitch Putnam joins for his third appearance to talk about the recent Mondo Batman seventy-fifth anniversary show, his new secret project THE VACVVM and all things Halloween. Special guest Nicole Stevenson stops by briefly to talk about the upcoming holiday season with her craft fair the California famous Patchwork Craft.

Long time friend Jordan Buckley stops by the studio talk about the origins of Every Time I Die and how down time on tour and a great dad inspired him to relaunch the dream of an art career. Jordan shares how he doesn’t want to be “the guy in a band with the clothing label” and how really doesn’t want to take advantage of his cult like following. Jordan also makes peace with not exactly knowing where his life going because no one likes to watch a movie that they already know the ending to.

Ryan Milner spends his days as an illustrator at the in-house art department for action sports brand Billabong. His spare time is devoted to being a part of thriving Los Angeles art scene where he regularly contributes to the community with original paintings, illustrations and prints. Over a year ago he accidentally launched a passion project titled Zombie Mondays, where through illustrations of Zombies he motivates himself and others to get back into the work week and join the walking dead for another 5 work days.

Billy Baumann is back to AID with illustrator Randy Ortiz to talk about the Secret Panel project and to promote their first 3 releases for this Saturday's event at CHALLENGERS Comics & Conversation in Chicago. Randy talks about his progression as an artist by covering his past, present and future paths for his art career.

Illustrator Miles Tsang discusses how his illustration and printmaking style has evolved, the process of making process videos and dives into the human condition while sharing his heart felt alienation as a kid. Miles explains how the arts helped him come out of his social shell.

Bryan Sculthorpe may be the most important artist in my life. The Circle of Trust was blessed with this world famous artist to give us an hour of his time to talk about his master works celebrating club sandwiches, lasagna and layered chocolate cake. Bryan also brakes down the brackets on deciding the best snack food of all time.

Illustrator Rich Kelly joins us for a conversation about his illustration styles and how they could fill up Mark’s dream gallery. We talk about the many looks of The Rich Kelly and how they each naturally evolved. We debate editorial work versus gig posters and talk about the benefits of making yourself a fish out of water by placing yourself in a different career scene.

Strawberryluna is a husband and wife illustration and printmaking team from Pittsburgh, PA. A year ago this December, "Life Happened" to the couple who had always put their life’s passion, their work, first. Suddenly, the business that they had devoted themselves to, would be placed on the back burner, so they could spend nearly a year dealing with something many of us will encounter one day - a sick parent. But for them, it was times two! Hear how Strawberryluna made it through an overwhelming last year to return back to work with a new outlook on life and career.

“Is For” is the latest group show at Galerie F in Chicago, consisting of two sets of artists interpreting letters of the alphabet, one set created by 26 different printmakers and the other set by 26 different street artists. Galerie F has quickly become the home base for both silkscreen and street art in Chicago, making this show a true celebration of the disciplines the gallery champions. David Welker joins in the conversation to talk about his lengthy career as a painter and his newly found love of printmaking. Artist Mosher stops by to represent street art and explain why he has chosen this outlet of outlaw creativity.

John Vogl of The Bungaloo is an accomplished illustrator that focuses mostly on hand printed art prints and gig posters that he's always illustrating the old timey way of pen on paper. On this episode we talk about his recent fundraising print for students of Ferguson, Missouri, his hectic move into a new office space and his dog. 

Sam Verrill co-creator of long time charity poster show "Screen 'N' Spokes" stops by to talk about this weekend's opening at The Cotton Candy Machine in Brooklyn, NY. You'll learn about the origins of the annual event, how the love for the art scene can make you an active part of it even if you're not an artist and we'll talk about a career at American Express. Get your bike and credit score ready for this fun episode of Adventures In Design AM.

While on the Failure Tour Mark stops by Crackhead Press in Louisville, Kentucky for a one on one interview with illustrator and desktop publisher Justin Kamerer of Angryblue. Justin shares his ever changing work schedule and some of the influences that helped him create his signature style. He also shares with us some of the details of his biggest client project to date, an animated short directed by Rob Zombie for Assassin's Creed that he co-created with Tony Moore of Walking Dead fame. 

llustrator Mike Budai stops by the Failure Tour and shares how he only makes art for the fun of it and doesn’t let one ounce of the business get in his way.

Illustrator Oliver Barrett swings by to talk about illustration, using reference images while illustrating, consumers extreme love of pop culture and baseball

Designer Tyler Deeb has an amazing story to tell you about how he turned a lack of freelance work into a life changing event. Tyler puts the same amount of effort into his business practices as he does into the artwork and products that his company Misc. Goods Co. produces and that's saying a lot because his artwork is flawless and beyond well thought out.

Drew Binkley from Monkey Ink Design located in Nashville is stopping by to talk about printmaking, poster designing, all things southern and next week's Failure Tour appearance in Nashville.

This very special episode of Adventures In Design new morning show AID-AM was recorded at the Phone Booth Gallery in Long Beach, CA in front of a live studio audience. Featuring a panel of professional makers and curators of the handmade arts. Join Mark Brickey, Shaun Wagoner of Tiny Whales, Screenprinter Danny Askar, Delilah Snell of Dear Handmade Life and Garry Booth of Phone Booth Gallery for a paneled discussion of themed around making something you love and then making a living from it.

Join AID-AM this Monday for an interview with Dan Stiles, but not just a normal interview, a FOR REAL interview for his upcoming book through Powerhouse Press titled “One Thing Leads To Another”. The interview that Dan and Mark have on this episode of AID-AM will be used in Dan’s upcoming book exploring his career as a commercial illustrator. Hey kids there’s nothing more excited than watching a book get made first thing on a Monday! See you then.