The Brave Ideas Podcast: Episode 4

How dyslexia can bring creative advantage.

In this episode of the Brave Ideas Podcast we chat with Steve Edge, a creative mastermind who turned his dyslexia into a powerful advantage.

Steve shares some incredible stories from his career, including working on Star Wars and how he climbed up Big Ben!

He discusses how thinking laterally rather than literally has fuelled his success in the creative industry.

Podcast Transcript 

Welcome to the brave ideas podcast brought to you by Athlon, a global brand and product development studio. In this series, we grab time with innovators and changemakers spanning startups to market leaders. Together, we explore how digital innovation is empowering them to bring brave ideas to market.

Victor

I’m Victor Creative Director at Athlon, and we’re doing this series of podcasts on brave ideas. And today I’d like to welcome Steve. So welcome Steve.

Steve 

Thanks, Vic. I’m Steve edge of Steve edge design. Wwe have a creative agency where, you know, many years ago, nearly 40 years ago, I created a formula where, because of my severity of dyslexia, instead of being informational, it was always about being inspirational, and instead of being literal, it’s about being lateral. And that’s the formula I’ve used throughout our career, in a sense of the business, myself, and of course, taking those ideas into the future.

Victor 

Okay, thank you. And so today’s podcast, the focus is on dyslexia and creativity and how that manifests itself in Brave ideas. Could you just give a little bit of your background in terms of dyslexia, first of all, to set the scene?

Steve  

I was very lucky at four years old, I discovered three things. I discovered glitter, magic markers and plastic scissors. I’m incredibly lucky was I was discovered with lots of learning difficulties. And a friend of mine, Dennis Gray, who was my dad’s best friend. He married a woman from New Zealand, and saw him, and she saw me as a four year old, and said, Look, this child’s got all these issues, because it’s not just dyslexia. Usually you get a few things along with it all. And they and she said i’ll home, teach Steve. I will teach him myself.

So I used to go to this house at four, four years old, and do my studies in the morning with Valerie. But very luckily for me was that Dennis was head of IPC magazines, and he had three publications that he loved, Practical Woodworker, Practical Boat Builder and Practical Homeowner. And therefore, if he was going to do an article on how to build a mirror dinghy, you’d have to make it. There’s no fucking Apple Max, no CGis, nothing at all in those days. So he had a workshop and a studio. And so therefore I used to do my studies in the morning with Valerie, and then in the afternoon, go to this amazing workshop with Dennis and start making things.

So you know how to make the Mirror dinghy would involve sawing, varnishing, making sales, and then eventually it would be photographed in stages in the photographic studio, in the house. And then it was, goes down to producing flat artwork, color ready, camera artwork. Nothing comes from a Mac. It was all CS 10 board, lick and stick, and created the artwork for the double page spread. 

So I was very fortunate that my mum bought me a sewing machine when I was five, which meant I could make all my own clothes, and the neighbors gave me all their obviously curtains. So these aren’t curtains today, by the way. They look like ’em, but they’re not. And I used to make all my own clothes, which was dresses, because it was simple. Like I said, I was a skinny little blonde kid allowed to wear bare feet and run around the house. 

Unfortunately, 13, there was a knock at the door. I have to go to school by law now, which was a bit of a shock to me, because I never assumed I would ever go to school because I can’t sit an examination, because it absolutely means nothing at all. And but Dennis wrote a letter to a school, and they accepted me in Dulwich  and said, Come and live in the art department.

So from 13 to 15, I lived in the art department. They entered me in for’ European artist of the year’ when I was 15, and I won it. There was Jim Henson, there ‘Frank Oz’. They said, come and work on the Muppets. So I worked on The Muppet Show for a while, which was quite amazing, which was great fun, meeting all sorts of people like, you know, Frank, Sinatra, Debbie, Harry, and all those amazing people.

And then, and then Jim Ensign said to me, there’s a man over the road. He wants to meet you. And this is when I was 17. And I said, Why are you getting rid of me? No, we’re not getting rid of you. I said, Yes, you are. I said, Where I come from that’s getting rid of he said, No, no, he loves all your work. You go and meet him. And I said, Okay, who I’ve got to go and see? Said, you have to go and see a man called George Lucas. I went, who the fuck is George Lucas? He said, Well, he’s a producer made the film American Graffiti. Go and meet him.

Anyway, when I met him, very nice man. He said, come and work with us on this film, and what do you want me to do? He said, anything you want work in the art department. And went to see this great art department, amazing art department, carpentry shops, ironmongery spray departments, plastic vacuum form machines and and I said, Wow, I came back to the best department I’ve ever seen. He said, Well, what do you reckon so amazing? Yeah. I said, What’s your film going to be about? He said, Oh, it’s going to be a great science and science fiction film. It’s going to be called Star Wars. I went, Wow, man, that’s a pretty good name.

And that was it. I did Star Wars. I worked on the Millennium Falcon, which was amazing, working on all the different aspects of that. Then we did a film called empire. Strikes Back. Did a film called Raiders of the Lost Ark. My dad supplied all the snakes on that filmIt was my pet monkey. In that film, the stun woman would not go in the snake pit, so it was me with my legs shaved, and I wear the party dress, and it’s me in the snake pit. Yeah, I’ll show you the pictures later on, of mine, of my legs and of me working on those films. 

And then I decided that was it. I was 23 years old when I finished that film, and I said, I’m going to set my own agency, because I was always interested in brands. I love brands. I buy into brands. We all know why we buy into a brand. It’s love. Is that your brow gets wiped. There’s nothing that tells you anything, but you want it and and I love this, and I love stories. And I said to the boys, it was Steven Spielberg and George Lucas when I said that I’m going to do this.  I said, You have taught me the best stories in the world. And I said, if you’ve got a good story to tell someone, to tell someone else. If it’s a bad story, then people keep stung.

So that was it. My idea was to create an agency that was very simple, spoon feed information that everybody wanted, and also at the end of the day to have fun. Because fun never destroyed anything. It only brings good and people want to be around happy, amazing brands that create a whole difference,

Victor 

Fantastic, some really interesting and fun anecdotes there. And you know, you’re what you’re wearing today. Did you make your suits?

Steve 

Yeah, I did make this one. I did. I mean, I my mum bought me a sewing machine, like I said, when I was five. And I’ve always kind of made clothes, but I still buy something. I’ve got a great collection of suits and outfits, and I still love brands, so I certainly buy a suit every so often, but I do enjoy making my own.

Victor 

And it sounds like having dyslexia really did put you on a trajectory for heightened creativity and even more heightened creativity and opportunities. So what were some of the challenges that you would have had if you didn’t have some of those openings within the creatives?

Steve

Ah, you know, a lot, a lot, I think, like I said, I use that expression quite a few times in my opening Spiel here, it’s been luck. I was very lucky.

I was lucky because, you know one, we met this woman from New Zealand who had never had been in London before, but rocked up at that moment, at that time when I was kicked out of school because they said this child, he. Be taught. He’s disruptive. He fucking doesn’t listen. He can’t sit still, he can’t look at a book, you know?

And she was there to give me confidence and without doubt, without having my upbringing from four years old to 13, having been told that I was wonderful all the time, because I was a creative little kid. I was very passionate about, like I said, making things, because I love to make things and create things. And it was truly an incredible upbringing. It gave me all the confidence in the world.

Because, actually, all of a sudden, I was proud of being dyslexic. I was proud of having these conditions. I didn’t see them as like it was an issue. It was like everybody else has got fucking problems. Why is my problem worse than your problem? And therefore I used it in a sense of that. You know, even today, sorry, you know, I go to a railway station. It’s fucking gobbledygook. It’s gobbledygook. But guess what I do, first person, excuse me. Can you help me? I’m dyslexic. Amazing. What do they do? They grab your arm. They think you’re disabled all of a sudden, and they take me on to the station. Thy’ll take me onto the train. They tell everybody, this man’s going to Dorking. Can you make sure when he gets there, you tell him he’s talking. 

So actually, the whole thing for me is to communicate and talk about what I’ve got, and everybody wants to help you. And I think without having that childhood upbringing, I probably would Nowhere have the confidence to say to people, sorry, what is that? You know, I’m in boardrooms all the time. I’m in the fucking biggest boardrooms in the world, literally. And, you know, you’ve got, you know, of course, first of all, you know, I walk into a boardroom. You can imagine they’re all nudging each other. And what the fuck is this? Just walked in, because that’s the nature of who I am, you know. And of course, within five minutes, they’re all my best friends. And then after five minutes, as soon as there’s words that come up in that boardroom that I don’t know if I can ask them, 

Victor 

so you have to be quite brave in terms of initially looking forward to say, Can you help me?

Steve  

Very, very first of all, but then you realize that people don’t want to take the piss out. Yeah, people do understand sort of, you know, conditions, and they can’t wait to help. So as soon as I say, I’m sorry, so what does that word mean? And they, you know, calculate it means to add up or whatever.  Ah, thank you very much. And of course, now it’s in. It’s in because, you know, my mind remembers everything. I mean, the written word does not go in.

It’s like a, you know, So, yeah, I mean, you know, anybody out there that you know have got children that are dyslexic, the answer is, give them their freedom. Because whatever they do, trust me, they’re going to be amazing at it. They will be amazing. And of course, you know, when you give them that love and confidence to do it, they grow, and then they become a whole amazing person, not feeling like they’re insecure all the time and frightened to ask or to tell, you know, fly your flag for dyslexic, and trust me, you’ll be surprised who nudges you and go, Fuck me. I’m dyslexic too, by the way. I’m glad you said that. Thank you

Victor 

very good. You mentioned confidence a couple of times, and having confidence, do you think being dyslexic, and some of the challenges you had gave you more confidence, or did you have to kind of build up your confidence to address those challenges?

Steve 

You know, it’s a very good question. The question is that, because I was so young, I think, I think I just grew with confidence because I was very young, so because you’re at four years old, you know, the world’s amazing, right? And the world was amazing for me.

I had an amazing dad. My dad was amazing. He was an artist. He was a sculptor. My mum was an artist. My dad had to have a job because he worked in Smithfield meat market, which was an amazing with all the all the chaps in those days, and therefore I was Edge’s son. So I was allowed to wear pink tutus and fucking because, you know, oh yeah, you ever go at edgy son, and you’re in big trouble, right? So, you know, I grew up with that backup and that confidence too.

But also, you know, a household, I said, my dad supplied the animals for Raiders. And, as I said, my pet monkey, but we had lots of monkeys.

We had a pet chimpanzee called Primo that we had that grew up with us. And you know, when you think that, you know, there we are fucking in a council house with a pet chimpanzee. And of course, all the guests used to come round for dinner, and they couldn’t believe it. They shit themselves. There’s a fucking chimp sitting at the table and and so, you know, you know, my dad used to have a packet of sweets after we eaten. And it was like a party trick that everybody would take a sweet out the packet, and primo would weight this fully grown boss eyed chimpanzee and fingers like broom handles it had and and as the packet would come round, Primo, boss, I’d looked into the packet, everybody around the table. Amazing. It’s amazing. Primo. Big fingers in, grab a sweet, grab one end of the wrapper, and then the other end of the wrapper. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. The chimp would then undo the sweet wrapper, and then, on cue, throw the sweet where I need a fucking wrapper in front of everybody. 

So we had this incredible bohemian upbringing. I was very, very lucky, so privileged, confident and being allowed to live in this bohemian household and family where kind of we had great respect for everybody. We had confidence because we had a great understanding of nature, love of animals, how to bring up animals, how to treat people, and above all else, you know, lots of art materials around which was even better. 

Victor

That’s  one of the most surreal stories I’ve ever heard. I’m just taking a moment to kind of digest it really. Yeah, thanks for that. You mentioned the difference. You mentioned literal and lateral thinking and working. Could you elaborate on that a bit, please?

Steve 

Yeah. So a very good story on that, on that about being lateral, not literal.

I won a big award, the big award ever, which was the only award I’ve ever won, the only qualification I’ve got, but it was the biggest dyslexia award that you could win.

And and 500 people go to the Savoy, and 500 people are there because they’ve got in all aspects of business, whether they’re law firms, banks, even the head of the British Army has a table, the Navy, the Air Force. So there’s learning difficulties in all businesses. And of course, like I said, even in the Army, Navy and Air Force.And Kenny Logan was a great rugby player of wasps, Scottish International, and he had a big issue when he was growing up with this, like anyway, he he gave me my award, and I went back to my table with my family sitting around the table after giving my story and my life story. And it’s a big night for me. Richard Branson had won it the year before.

Lo and behold, the head of the British army came over. And he said, Steve, congratulations. He said, How would you like to come to Aldershot and blow some shit up? I went fucking too, right? Brother. Next guy came over, Steve, I’m head of Savile Row. Can we make you a suit? I said, a free one? Yes, of course. I went to right man.

Anyway, a guy comes over, very nice guy. He said, Look, Steve.  I’m restoring Nelson’s Column. He said, there’s more people been on Everest and Nelson’s Column, because there’s no stairwell. The last time it was restored was 40 years ago, with Blue Peter. John Noakes went up there and he said, and we’re now going to be using materials, but it won’t be the next 40 years when people have to go up. It’ll be 150 years. So he said, but look, we’re having a dinner party for 15 people, and we’d love you to come and join us. On top of Nelson’s Column. Unbelievable.

So I few weeks later, I find myself on top of Nelson’s Column. It’s incredible. The view of London up there is amazing. And above all else, there’s Nelson. He’s 25 foot tall. Anyway, afterwards, we were standing on the parapet, which is, again, you can’t believe how big it is up there. My client. Now, my client, he said, Steve, look. He said, as you know, we’ve restored this great, great monument. But look, it points down to a National Portrait Gallery. He went, and we restored that. I went, Wow, he said, and Greenwich naval college and Hampton Court and Windsor Castle.

So lo and behold, three weeks later, I went to their office, and I’m sure you guys have been there where he’s proud to get his 15 year old letterhead. I. When they say, What do you think? Well, it’s shit, but you can’t. So what you can say is, we I did with this company. He said, What do you think? I said, well, it served you well up until now.

And of course, what was interesting about it was the company was called David Ball Restoration, and underneath it had brickwork, lead work, stonework, copper work, zinc work, slit your fucking wrist, work. And I went, Whoa, man. He went, what?  No, no. He said, Listen. He said, that’s least of my problems. I said, Well, that is your problem. He said, No. He said, We’re called David ball restoration. I went, Yeah. He said, The trouble is, when people ring up and go, can I speak to David ball? My secretary says, no, sorry, he’s dead. Oh, no wonder nobody’s heard of you. You’re fucking dead, and therefore it’s crazy. I said, you have to.

He said, Yeah, but I’m worried about name changes. I said, Brother, you don’t worry about name changes when you’re dead. I said, look, it’s DBR, that one, isn’t it? Right? Because you’ve got this d and this b r, people that know who you are, there’s no problem. People that don’t know who you are, and actually don’t give a fuck about your name. What they care about is, if can you can deliver, if you can deliver it, that’s what they want to know.

So we created DBR. I found the God of restoration, Janus. What was interesting about it was, though, and here we are. The thing about being lateral and about being literal. So the literal side of any construction businesses, they talk about it like that. David bull, restoration, brickwork, lead work, copper work, the zinc work. And of course, I said, guys, that’s your problem. What we did, DBR god a restoration. And underneath, we came up with the lateral and it says, Making sure the past has a future. DBR, making sure the past has a future.

We did one banner with this black and white, white out of reverse banner. DBR, Janus god a registration. One side of his chin is unrestored, and because he’s double headed, the other side fully restored, making sure the past has a future.

Now, if you ask any of those boys in that company, what do you stand for before leadwork, looking embarrassed, don’t know what to say. Now, all of a sudden, oh, we make sure the past has a future. This one banner was put outside strand the High Court in strand. Few days later, a guy had driven past it and was wowed by it. Because of that. Obviously they had to go through a process, but they won because of that banner. The 25 year restoration of the House of Lords. They did Big Ben, and they’re doing the House of Commons from that one thing of being lateral, not literal.

Victor  

Wow. So you massively, you saw what they had, you massively simplified it and put a story behind it. Yes, fair to say. And how did having your background and dyslexia help you get there? 

Steve

Because I think it’s very difficult. if you’ve got something you don’t know, because you’ve always had it, and therefore, you know, I live with it, but all I know is that it’s been a great asset because, and it sounds kind of, you know, corny and cheesy, but  I just think differently. I look at things differently, I behave differently, and all that I use because what you said earlier on about confidence, and therefore confidence comes with everything. And therefore, because I trust in what I have, this gift of dyslexia, I use it because I know full well my gut feeling is telling me, yes, this is right

Victor 

in your projects. How much do you go with gut feel, being brave, pushing things and how much is about being practical, sensible, making sure everything’s done to meet what’s expected? 

Steve 

It’s very funny enough. It’s a cake you’ve just described, and all those recipes go into our cake, because actually, it’s all of that. 

First of all, when we use the word brave, we’re not using risk fucking nothing to do with risk brave. Brave is actually pushing the boundaries to find difference and true difference, not difference for the sake of it, but also finding something that’s really authentic has those foundations, and you know full well that it’s going to be a great story to be able to weave in for that, like I said, to have that authenticity.

But as I said, to be brave to find the difference, difference that no one else is doing with that difference, it’s to create, wow, to create something. That’s incredibly memorable. And at the end of the day, when it comes to the mark, the brand, the logo, it has to be easy to use, and it has to be beautiful on the eye, because at the end of the day, that’s what we always want to look at, beautiful things with beautiful stories, in amazing fucking opportunities that we get ourselves involved with.

And the thing about, like I say, harping back to the braveness of it all, is to convince the company you’re working with but you’re going on the right route and that you’re not, as I said, it’s nothing to do with risk. It’s far from a risk.

Everything is calculated. We know the science of graphic design, whether it’s color theory, whether it’s iconography, whether it’s about the written word, it’s all very, very calculated, and we can answer and fight our corner in the boardroom any moment, because there is a reason why we’ve done every fucking millimeter of what we bring to the table for them to see. So we find the thing also that we know they really want, not what they think they want.

And as we know, the world’s changing with technology and AI, so now we’re looking at all sorts of new ventures and aspects of bringing in how can we make the brand even better. How can we get their story out quicker? How can we send it direct to the people that want it and the people that don’t want it, they don’t even know about it, you know, all those things we’re working on.

Victor 

And do you have processes and tools to deliver the story, to get to the ideas, or is it how much is instinctive?

Steve

Yes, that’s a really good question. It usually starts off instinctive, and then we back it up with research that we’re looking for, picking people’s brains, finding elements of things that we can weave into it, but, but, yeah, I mean, now we’re in this world where, you know, research, my team will be using AI. We will be going out there. So you know that type of data that we can get saves an awful lot of time for us to verify something that we think is a big idea, and immediately, now that’s not working.

Let’s go somewhere other route. So it’s great that we can use it in a sense kind of, not frivolously, but in a way that, you know, we only want to pick what we want, but at great speed, and so therefore we don’t go down the line of wasting hours and hours and hours on the wrong track.

Victor

Yeah so, do you use it mainly for getting the research you need quickly, as opposed to generating ideas? 

Steve

yeah, yeah, yeah. And at the moment, you know that thing about generating ideas, I had to do a spiell a few weeks ago. It was a great company called Ask Bosco, and they had eight, eight difficult tongue twister, eight AI companies talking about the future of AI. And then they asked me to come and do my spiel with them again, dyslexia, AI and would AI ever take over the Brander? Would it be able to brand a company in the way that Steve Edge Design would?

And of course, what was very interesting is no, they fucking can’t. And I told them in that room, and I said, Look, guys, I said, AI at the moment, what you guys have just told me you’ve just blown my mind because they did. I said, but let me tell you about how and why AI at this moment, maybe in a week’s time, because it’s learning all the time or never will be able to is that I told them a very simple story. 

I branded the first build to rent company called Essential Living. And with essential living, it was unique. It was literally basically building above tube stations. So. therefore you could get to work, very quickly. And it was high end, very nice, beautiful apartments, all encompassing rents, whether it’s, you know, internet, gas, water, all in one bill. So people love this concept.The three boys that had created this, one of them, unfortunately got booted out. They couldn’t get on. They didn’t get on.

And he couldn’t believe it. He set it up, and now he’s out. Came to meet me. He said, they can’t believe it, Steve, I said, What? He said, essential living. I’m no longer with them. Well, you fucking Yeah, I know, but I’m not with them. He said, You gotta help me. I need a new name. I need a brand, and I need it quick. All right, leave it with me.

A couple of weeks later, ring him, come come down to the studio, comes to the studio, sits in the studio. Bang. I put up on the screen. There’s your name, Fuel. He looks at me like, okay, took the word to the logo type. Showed him what that looked like, showed him the color palette showed him some applications of the things that he’d probably need, a fucking hard hat of that and a fluorescent jacket. And then I go back to the beginning, and I said, so there we are, fuel. What do you know? Steve?

He said, Okay, look, thank you.  I’m looking at he said, Fuel. I get it. We need fuel to move forward. We need fuel for any I know you fucking ain’t got it. You went, I haven’t got it. I said, No, you haven’t got it. So what is it fuel? Fuck You Essential Living. He can’t believe it. He goes absolutely bonkers. Fuck, I’d love that as fuck you essential living. I says, Yeah, that’s what it stands for.

Now, guess what? One I knew that we talk about brave, that he was brave enough to use it, because I know his personality. I know what a wild guy is and how straight and fabulous he is in business, that he got it and understood it. We knew the story of where it came from. I understood the whole process, and therefore no way AI could have come up with that name for him and that brand identity for him, because it would be totally impossible, because it’s about human intelligence and about personality. And we know that every brand has a personality, but that was definitely to do with human intelligence that I knew we would get away with that.

Victor

Thank you. I think it’s also a lot to do with your confidence in going in with a single and such brave and courageous idea. Would you normally be so brave to go in with one strong idea would you normally kind of pitch a few to gage their reactions. 

Steve 

Its very good point. You know why I did it for free, and I ain’t gonna give him three fucking options for free, right? Because if you give something free that has no value to it, and therefore people can become so difficult giving them free. I’m not sure about that one. And maybe I like the color palette on number two, but maybe I should have the font, I don’t know, really, and therefore, and, well, yeah. But you know what, I’d never give anything for free. Do my potatoes. For your tomatoes. Luckily, if you you know, if Ferrari said, would you brand us, make sure you get a nice little fucking motor out of them, right? But at the end of the day, free has no value, even though it’s the best logo you can give.

And so therefore, knowing again, here we are topping AI, I knew that Darryl will be very appreciative once I knew that I found that one thing, that his personality, his humor, that I only had to do one and that was the answer. And also sorry I couldn’t top that, yeah, Fuel. I was so happy. So proud. I loved it so much. – couldn’t sleep the night before, before I presented it, because I knew, therefore, he would be the happiest man on the planet. And every time he talks about it, he’s happy, inspired, and everybody around that room never forgets Fuel.

Victor

So you work with a team. You have a team. How do you install your your your gift, your passions, your experience with your team?

Steve

Them just being around me. Them just being around me. You know, they know what I’m like. They know my conversation. But also they see me how I operate. In other words, I definitely operate they know very different to everyone else. Once we’ve once we’re in front of clients, you know, we always have a good time. And obviously they know that I can answer every question, whatever client throws at us, 

Victor 

So just want to talk about any tools that you might use. So for instance, we are just starting a project with a company called Texthelp, and they have a series of tools to help children with learning challenges, including dyslexia, work on the kind of peer level, with their with their peers. Also, adults can use these tools. Are there tools that you use to help you with your dyslexia at work.

Steve 

it’s called a PA. No, I mean, I’m lucky. Look, I’ve got, I’ve got so many people around me that write everything for me, that will pick up everything, that will answer questions that I ask, and, of course,

Remember, guys, I’m old school. Okay, so you know I’m not. I’m not a computer boffin. I’m a broad brush. I am a glitter magic markers and plastic scissors. I do work on that process in the beginning, and obviously about briefing in the big ideas, which I do to my team and my head of design and strategic people that, you know, I’m a talker, yeah, and then once I’ve got that implemented, and then start working on it. And. Yeah, and so, you know, my hands are being held all the time as for going back to the tools I do use. Fucking can’t believe I can talk to my phone and it writes it out.

All my clients know that if they get it that there’s some words that are not quite right, they can work it out themselves, because they can read so they’ll know that some of these words are, you know, instead of calling him Bert, he says bird or whatever, you know, you know full well that, you know, there’s no issue.

And then obviously, I’ve got on my on my iPad, because I have to have an iPad for computers. I can’t press the button and not touch the screen because it’s difficult. So I have my iPad that I can blow images up with my fingers, and I can touch the iPad. But also, sorry, my iPad reads, reads things to me.

The big thing that I have that was all, which is up my sleeve, is the 777, I’m out and about with clients. I’m at lunches. I have lunch dinners, and if the email, because I’ve checked my emails, but not for any word, but for the 777 if there’s a heading, there’s a 777 anybody in the room, they can read it to me, because we know full well. It’s, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a straight business discussion. And anybody in that room, wherever I am, even on a platform again, I say, Excuse me, I’m dyslexic. Could you read this email for me? And they’ll read it. And therefore it’s the 777 that’s that’s that I’m looking for.

Victor

So what, what do you mean by 777

Steve  

It’s literally, uh, numerals 777, as a heading on an email that’s been sent by my PA, which means she says, just show it to someone, let them read, read it and then come back. So, yeah, sorry, it’s it’s three sevens.

Victor  

You mentioned old school and new school. You embraced the old school more. So do you think the new school AI all the tools that are available. Are they used Well, from what you see, or is there kind of a need for creatives to embrace the old school, more pens and paper, more markers?

Steve

Well, you know what? It’s very interesting. We do embrace it all. Because obviously, when I say I’m old school, it’s just the way I operate. But throughout my whole life, having a design agency, I’ve seen that the future, sorry, without change, we have no future. Nobody likes change, but if you don’t have change, you’re dead. And when in 1984 the apple Mac came out, everybody said to me, fuck Steve, you’re dead. Why? Oh, because it’s going to take over creativity. Come on, it’s a tool. It’s a tool. So because it’s a tool, you have to have a creative person to use it. I said, You think when, when French curves came out, that they showed them to Leonardo da Vinci, and when you’re fucked, Leonardo, what do you think? You said, No, I can use these. 

I can get my better curves on all the things that I’m drawing so so we know about the change, the thing that did change, actually, when you think that from an Apple Mac in those days, in 1984 we used to have, like, I say, Rotary pens. We used to have flat board called CS 10 board that had a chook chalk on it. We used, as we know, the scalpel with a 10 a blade that we used to scrape back to clean it, blue pencil so the camera wouldn’t pick it up on the camera ready?

Artwork we have to PMT machine that was obviously photo mechanical transfer, where you would draw a logo in a fucking pen big and then reduce it and then lick and stick cow gum spray mount on the board. Right? I loved it. I fucking loved that, you know. And now, obviously we embrace the Apple Mac. The Apple Mac changed the world and and I couldn’t believe it that from all of a sudden, from creating an artwork on the screen, that it would go to camera ready artwork and go straight to a plate where that plate would be made and printed. If I can talk about environmental friendly and speed, 

I went to all the typesetters, my mates, typesetters. Because, remember, we used to go to typesetters for the type to be set, for it to fit in the artwork that we give to spread. And I went, boys, I’m telling you, we’re using our own typesetting bit now in our apple man, we’ve got this machine calling that, Nah, fuck off, because they’re all spins. In those days, they were all like in the print Slade union always had a fucking cigarette in their mouth banging away on the type and and I said, I’m telling you, you’ve got to look into anyway, within a year, the whole typographic industry fucking disappeared. I mean, it truly, totally disappeared. So, so now, yes, I’m always looking for the future. We’re always using things that we know is going to bring a great advantage.

 Luckily, we lean and mean. I’m sure, like you guys, we can go with the flow. You can change direction, because you must never, ever give up. 

Victor

Great. Thanks. So I think we just got to one more quick question. You’ve achieved so much. You’ve got so many strong stories. What’s your proudest achievement,

Steve

Having five and most amazing children, and my amazing wife. My amazing wife that looks after me every day, reads to me from six o’clock in the morning to seven o’clock with anything I want to know, but the majority of things, she’s finding out things that I didn’t even know existed because she’s a great reader and academic, and so therefore she’s bringing tape things to the table, or, you know, it’s, you know, things. I look at all my children, and they give me my power, my energy, and I’m very lucky.

Victor 

thank you, Steve. It’s been a pleasure to meet you. It’s been an honor and an inspiration to meet you.

Steve

Thank you very much indeed. And let’s all, let’s all carry on and creating. And thank you and

Victor 

thanks everyone for listening to this episode of brave ideas.