NXTLVL Experience Design

EP.87 STORYTELLING THAT BUILDS BELONGING with Naomi Crellin, CEO Storycraft Lab

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sun, 5 Apr 2026 01:30:35 +0000

ABOUT NAOMI CLARE CRELLIN:
Naomi Clare’s LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/naomi-clare-crellin

Websites:

storycraft.education (Company)

belongingplaybook.com (Company)

storycraftlab.com (Company)

Email: naomi.clare@storycraftlab.com

BIO:

Naomi Clare Crellin is a visionary leader who excels in transforming intent and insights into actionable, accessible strategies.

As the Founder and CEO of Storycraft Lab, she specializes in refining big ideas and concepts into meaningful and measurable experiences. Naomi is adept at mapping strategic processes that guide both teams and clients from development through delivery, helping to define goals, refine messages, and measure the impact of the stories crafted.

Her expertise lies at the intersection of spatial experience and messaging, having collaborated with a diverse range of organizations including Microsoft, Motorola, Bloomberg, the IFC, the Smithsonian, the Human Rights Campaign, and many more.

Beyond her work at Storycraft Lab, Naomi has served as an adjunct faculty member, bringing her passion for education into the classroom. She partners with organizations dedicated to making the world a better place, inspiring students to harness their creativity and curiosity. As an empowering educator and experience strategist, Naomi is committed to helping others succeed.

She finds immense joy in co-creating with teams, generating engagement, and telling stories through interactions. Her dedication to collaboration and innovation is at the heart of her work, and she loves the impact she and her teams create together.

Naomi Clare Crellin is not just a leader but a catalyst for change, fostering an environment where ideas flourish, and meaningful experiences are crafted.'

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to Episode 87! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…

In every episode we follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.”

And as we continue on this journey, we’ll continue to invite guests on our journey that are thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.

If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. I think the IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing us to keep on talking about what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.org

Today, EPISODE 87… I talk with Naomi Claire Crellin is a visionary leader who excels in transforming intent and insights into actionable, accessible strategies. Her work uses story as a vector towards belonging.

Naomi believes that a well-told story builds trust and genuine peer-to-peer connection in audience advocacy. This in turn bolsters personal growth and psychological safety; encouraging participants to take calculated risks towards innovation.

We’ll get into all of that in a minute but first a few thoughts...

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

Bio:

David Kepron the Retail Studio Principal for the architecture and design firm Little (https://www.littleonline.com). He is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe.

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels.

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies.

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace.

David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation’s Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.

He has held teaching positions at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production is by Kano Sound.

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

EP.86 THE TRANSFORMATION ECONOMY with Joe Pine, Author, Founder of Strategic Horizons, LLP

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 01:24:52 +0000

ABOUT JOE PINE:

Joe’s LinkedIn profile; linkedin.com/in/joepine

Websites:

strategichorizons.com (Blog)

StrategicHorizons.com (Company)

strategichorizons.com (Personal)

SHOW INTRO:

Today, EPISODE 86… I talk with Joe Pine Joe Pine, an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike...

* * * *

I’ve been in the world of retail place-making for a few decades. 3 would qualify as ‘a few’ I guess. I took a detour for a few years in the late 20-teens, shifting from retail design into the play space of hospitality – a wonderful diversion.

The transition was transformative to be sure. I got to re-imagine what I knew about customer experience place making in terms of retail stores and turn my lens towards another fascination – hotels.

The interesting thing that emerged was the recognition that in the world of retail everyone, brands, and retail designers and architects alike, were all going on about experience.

Now this in and of itself was curious because I’d been designing stores for a couple decades, and I couldn’t recall one client who had ever come to the game and said – ‘hey lets create a really miserable experience for our customers…’ ‘…Let’s make it hard to understand the assortment, hard to read the labels, bathe the product in bad lighting, have people walk the store not being able to find the thing they came in for, etc…’

Not one.

Ironically though, while many clients never asked for that, we have all had the experience of that exactly being the case in many stores we go to.

So no,… creating a bad experience was never the strategy. We retail designers always sought to create places where positive experience was key. The stuff was important to be sure, but the experience - the emotional residue of the retail interaction - was what was critically important.

The stuff was supposed to deliver on what it purported to do, fit well, wear well, not break down, taste good, make you feel better, whatever… it was supposed to work. Otherwise why buy it?

In some cases, the stuff just had to deliver on its practical, functional level, it didn’t need to give you more than that. It was a commodity that lived up to its promise.

In other cases the stuff delivered on function but gave you oh so much more on an emotional, socio-cultural, psychological, spiritual, level… and all of that is about brand relevance and emotional impact of owning the thing – what it says about you.

It’s like looking at the difference between a paper bag which you could get for about 5 cents and a Birkin bag for which you’d drop $50,000. They both provide the same functional use – they carry other stuff – I think we could make a pretty sound argument that that is true. But now the Birkin bag, well… it is supposed to offer you so much more about who you are, and what tribe you run with and a host of other non-tangibles that deeply connect us to a brand. Things way beyond function.

And if the paper bag got wet and fell apart, well… you could be confident that for the price of the Birkin bag you could literally get a million replacements.

The interesting thing about the stuff, or services, in retail places whether a commodity or something altogether magnificent and magical was that in either case we had to wrap it in positive experience. Mess up the experience and you’ve damaged the relationship. And repairing that rupture can take some time.

So, experience matters because the overt and subtle messaging that accompanies a shopping trip is important in fostering the long-term connection between a customer, product (or service) and the brand.

The value proposition that determines my choice of one brand or retailer over another can’t just be they have lots of whatever it is at low prices. Price point and SKU count are not differentiators in an economy where you can get virtually anything on Amazon and have it delivered to your door and, as a brand or retailer, you are hoping to engage an emerging cohort of customers who craves more than getting a good deal.

Now... the interesting thing about hospitality is that industry never really sold stuff. You didn’t take home the hotel room (at least not until more recently). You took in, and took home, experience - the body memory and emotional residue of being there. Your stuff, as it were, was a camera full of images and tchotchkes bought along the way during the trip that serve as a conduit or a link to, or a trigger of memories and emotional responses to experiences previously lived.

You don’t bring home the hotel room, though you can now buy the Westin Heavenly bed and all of the linens – I have often wondered why, if I love the room décor, I can’t just walk around with my phone and point it at QR codes on everything and in a flash have the whole thing purchased and sent off to my home or apartment to redo the guest room – or my own bedroom for that matter?

So…in the end retail sells stuff and wraps it in experience and hotels only sells experience though the industry is starting to get it that selling stuff may extend the brand experience beyond the hotel stay into your home….

Another interesting distinction between hospitality and retail is time.

In the hospitality world you spend an overnight or maybe a few days immersed in the brand experience. In a retail store dwell time is often measured in seconds or minutes. This matters because it suggests that retail has to come on strong and be impactful quickly, capturing interest and trying to hold it. Everyone in retail knows the longer the stay the more conversion – larger basket size. Get customers to linger longer and their consideration of other things that were not on their primary shopping list begin to be a little more interesting.

There are environments that sell spectacle, the digitally immersive environments that we see emerging into the market like Moment Factory Lumina walks, meow wolf, the Monet digital experiences and things like Artechouse. While they are visual captivating, what is being sold is time in the form of 20-minute shows and 2 hour walks in a midnight forest.

Time is the currency of experiences, and more companies should figure out how to charge for it. The both challenge and opportunity here is that in an economy that seems to be time starved because our attention is so fractured into micro moments, time and attention are intricately intertwined.

And the rules of basic economics are at play suggesting that the more scarce something is the more expensive it becomes to acquire it. Customer acquisition when pedaling time becomes a costly endeavor. But then time seems to pass by without notice when experience is built on a good story. All good experiences engage the imagination in narrative. We are built for story more than logic though we have believed the at later is the dominant prowess of our species.

And stories directly effect our neurobiology in remarkable ways that allow the narrative to come alive in us. Remember, that we came to understand the world through dance, rhythm and stories told around fires for millenia - even before language became a prime vehicle for expression. Our affinity for story is deeply woven into our very beings. So, all great experiences are built on great stories.

Narrative manifest become brand experience places.

These places for selling goods and services are like stage sets for stories to unfold.

I love the theatre and have always felt that retailers and brands should instruct their sales associates to act out their parts in the brand narrative and embrace the idea of theater as a customer interaction strategy.

I’ve always thought of the theatre as something into which I dove for a time, becoming full emersed in the story and emerged somehow changed. I learned something I didn’t know previously, saw the world from a different point of view, I would become one of the characters in the story and was, may be, in some way transformed.

Certainly during the performance, I was definitely in and out of body state – no longer me. The world beyond the story unfolding in front of me disappeared for a time.

And so great experiences can also be transformative...

EP. 85 THE ART AND ZENGENIUS OF VISUAL MERCHANDISING with Joe Baer, CEO / Creative Director, ZenGenius Inc.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 6 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000

ABOUT JOE BAER:

Joe’s LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/joe-baer-4479385

Websites:

zengenius.com

visual911.com

Email: jbaer@zengenius.com

BIO:

Joe is the Co-Founder, Creative Director, and CEO of ZenGenius, Inc., an experiential design firm specializing in visual merchandising and event design. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Joe brings over three decades of mastery in innovative leadership and creative direction to the design, visual merchandising and special events industries.

He has extensive knowledge of the customer journey from working in stores for decades and is a seasoned public speaker who has traveled the world to inspire and educate others through the art of visual merchandising, design and special events.

Additionally, Joe has contributed his retail know-how to multiple publications, authored The Art of Visual Merchandising: Short North, and created one of my favorite events in the retail industry the Iron Merchant Challenge, a popular interactive visual merchandising competition held annually at the International Retail Design Conference.

Joe’s passion for the world of design is evident in his role as President of the PAVE Global leadership board - a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation with the mission to support, connect, and inspire the next generation of professionals in the retail design, visual merchandising, and consumer environments industry.

He also holds Advisory Board roles at Columbus College of Art and Design and VMSD Magazine.

SHOW INTRO

Welcome to Episode 85! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…

In every episode we follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.”

And as we continue on this journey, we’ll have guests that are thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.

If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Today, EPISODE 85… I talk with Joe Baer of Zen Genius an experiential design firm specializing in visual merchandising and event design. Joe had spent more than 3 decades working the in the retail industry bringing visual merchandising know-how to the creation of emotionally resonant branded places. Visual merchandising is allot more than simply making things look good in a store. It’s very much about 3D storytelling, sensory experiences, emotions and making places sing as Joe explains.

We’ll get there in a minute but... first a few thoughts…

* * * *

Monique worked in the visual merchandising department

she was the director there and I was the director in the interior design department

our two programs ran concurrently we shared some students across our programs but we seldom actually shared lunch

And so it was slightly strange but intriguing that she invited me to have lunch with her across the street from the college at a little Thai place

We sat down, talked about students and then - more as a throw away - she said “they want me to go to Singapore…”

And I waited for the next sentence.

“But I don't really want to go to Singapore.” she said. “I'd have to leave here. I'd have to leave my son who's thinking about collage a few years and I'd really just prefer to stay in Montreal.”

And then there was a silence.

“Singapore?!” I said.

“I don't even know where Singapore is. That's in Southeast Asia, right? “

“yeah, it's like on the other side of the world.” she said.

“Sounds exotic. I'd go for sure. Besides, I love Chinese food. I could eat it every day.”

“Really?” she said .

“Sure, why not? I'd love to go. I love the whole idea of adventure.”

“Well anyway,” she said, “I don’t know what they are going to do if I don’t go. It’s to be the Director of the visual merchandising program in an international fashion school and they’ve got no one else who could do it.”

“No seriously, I’d go. I mean I have no idea about what you do and… I’m a guy and that means genetically I actually don’t like shopping and I’ve only ever designed the escalator and fountain at the Eaton center.

But let them know that I’d do it.”

We finished lunch, climbed over the snowbank of freshly plowed snow, crossed the street to get back for afternoon classes and a few weeks later I was walking down the stairs of a plane in the stultifying humidity at Changi airport.

Monday morning, I was the program Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School … in Singapore… and… I had no idea what I was doing but knew my career had taken a significant and abrupt turn.

The world of retail design had found me, and I never looked back for the next 20 years.

Over those 20 plus years I learned from some masters in retail design and visual merchandising. I arrived in New York after a year, spent an afternoon with Gene Moore, was introduced to Peter Glenn and ended up working with Joe Weishar New Vision Studios. I spent the next four years listening to and watching Joe talk about visual merchandising practice as both art and retail strategy.

For Joe Weishar visual merchandising wasn't just a display tactic but was a creative discipline that blended art, design and retail psychology.

He merged visual perception and design principles and he would layout a store or a wall with the same mechanics of laying out a composition of a painting – proportions, scale, focal points. He celebrated Visual merchandising as an art form that shaped memorable experiences rather than simply placing products on the shelves

All of those basic art principles were things that I was deeply familiar with. I had been in private art studios that my parents put me in at the age of nine because they recognized my passion for painting.

I had gone to architecture school and spent the first eight years of my career doing traditional architectural projects – museums, libraries, houses, schools… that sort of thing and I taught the design same principles of scale proportion, balance, color, harmony and how you could use those things ultimately to tell a story to students in a College’s interior design program in Montreal.

Even in those early years of my career in the late 90s, I was learning that retail stores needed to be engaging the senses, and we should be thinking about creatively implementing textures, variations in lighting as well as sound and scent and not just focusing on what customers would experience with their eyes.

I was learning that the senses were conduits for emotion and memory - that if you implemented design principles and thoughtful sensory-based visual merchandising elements correctly, that they would help to fill shopping baskets and engage customers in long-term relationships with a brand.

These sorts of environments that engaged the senses would increase loyalty and invite return visits because, in the end, the store was simply a backdrop, a theater set for the full-bodied experience of a brand where main feature was the merchandise.

If you thought of merchandise as elements in a composition and wrapped them in memorable display moments, it could make stores sing.

This sort of thinking positioned retail as experience design rather than a purely commercial layout. The goods were a necessary part of the equation to be sure, but as I working through the foundational years of a retail design career, I saw that great retail places were more than a depository for stuff to be consumed, they had a palpable emotional resonance, they had soul.

It was remarkable to me then, as a young retail architect, that we were designing with the purpose of selling…but it was more than that. Great stores fulfilled basic needs, desires and dreams. They were places for relationship building, with people as well as brands.

They were story telling places that helped to message group belonging, wellbeing, connection and status. They were places where displays weren’t random; they were meant to guide customers through a narrative journey. Every element was intentional, geared towards telling a brand story that invited the customer to participate in the story’s unfolding.

All of the effort that the designers, merchants and visual teams put into making the store wasn’t just about “making it look good,” but making it work well.

The design and visual strategy had to be grounded in retail metrics and customer behavior. In the end, our job as co-authors of this retail experience script was to move product.

We would calculate merchandising units per square foot. We thought about how product would flow through a department from delivery to markdown and how adjacencies were critical – why groups of products were located next to what other products.

We knew how many units had to sell in a department to make the financials work. There was business behind the beauty. Visual merchandising was a silent seller as author Judy Bell would say.

In my early years, we didn’t think too much about what happened to all the stuff after the store had aged or the season had changed. Graphics, fixtures and display items shifted along with the seasonal changes, holidays or special promotions. And a lot of it just got trashed.

We began to think more deeply about the sustainability factor of our work and the impact of retail place making on our environment. It was no longer acceptable that the disposable economy would direct the design of store without any consideration for how it was eventually ending up in landfill sites.

Lighting, manufacturing processes, materials, and lifecycles came under more scrutiny. These days, thinking about the sustainable nature of how we design and build stores is very much at the forefront of our thinking from the get-go. Design firms are becoming B-Corporations whose mission is to be better stewards of our little blue dot.

Along the way, teaching - both our clients as well as students in design programs - was something that never left the radar. What had been the precipitating moment - going from teacher to running a visual merchandising program at an international school in Singapore - would remain key to my professional experience.

And this is where we can bring in my guest Joe Baer into the story. Joe’s story is so familiar because it is so similar. While we came to the retail world from different angles, our paths have many parallels and similarity in purpose – despite being from different orientations in the retail place-making paradigm.

Joe is the Co-Founder, Creative Director, and CEO of ZenGenius, Inc., an experiential design firm specializing in visual merchandising and event design.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Joe brings over three decades of mastery in innovative leadership and creative direction to the design, visual merchandising and special events industries.

He also holds Advisory Board roles at Columbus College of Art and Design and VMSD Magazine.

Joe leads with passion, purpose, pure joy and believes in celebration so I see our conversation as a celebration of Joe Baer’s commitment to his retail industry involvement.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

I caught up with Bryan at the SHOP Marketplace event in Charlotte and chatted about his focus on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design.

EP.84 BEAUTY, BRAINS, BIOPHILIA AND BUILDING BETTER BUILDINGS with Jennifer Walsh, Founder & Creative Director, Lost Art of Being Human

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:19:19 +0000

ABOUT JENNIFER:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejenniferwalsh/

Websites:

https://www.walkwithwalsh.com

Bio:

For nearly 30 years, Jennifer has been at the forefront of transformative movements in beauty, retail, & biophilic design. As a consummate innovator, she has been dedicated to reimagining the human experience, whether through pioneering retail concepts, creating immersive outdoor experiences, or driving biophilic design solutions across industries.

In the 1990s, Jennifer founded Beauty Bar, the first experiential omni-channel beauty brand in the U.S., introducing open-sell environments, curbside service, and men’s skincare departments, concepts that reshaped how people shop for beauty. This trailblazing work integrated biophilic principles long before they became mainstream, earning recognition as an industry innovator. After selling Beauty Bar ultimately purchased by Amazon in 2011, she continued to build groundbreaking businesses and brands, always staying ahead of the curve. Another first was created in 2014 with Pride & Glory, a collegiate beauty brand.

Today, she guides large and small scale biophilic design projects to create spaces that promote human flourishing. From Recharge Rooms to retail spaces, homes, schools, and urban landscapes, her work transforms environments into ecosystems of opportunity. All inspired from lived experiences. Jennifer helps organizations leverage the neuroscience of nature to enhance experiences, foster resilience, and build deeper connections within their organizations.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to Episode 84! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…

In every episode we follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.”

We’ll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.

If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Today, EPISODE 84… I talk with Jennifer Walsh who for nearly 30 years, has been at the forefront of transformative movements in beauty, retail, & biophilic design.

Jennifer is an innovator, and has been dedicated to reimagining the human experience, whether through pioneering retail concepts, creating immersive outdoor experiences, or driving biophilic design solutions across industries.

Talking about biophilic design isn’t new on the podcast, this time though we bolt on retailing, neuroscience and experience.

This conversation is more introspective and looks at one’s motivation to change to considering our environments and biophilic design from the point of view of sense of well-being and personal growth.

We’ll get there in a minute but... first a few thoughts…

* * * *

If you go back to the early episodes of the podcast, you’ll come across Bill Browning. Bill and I connected while I was working the hospitality industry and focusing my efforts on the redesign of the Westin guestroom and lobby design strategy.

Bill’s world is Biophilic – both literally and philosophically, may be even existentially. He literally wrote the book on Biophilic Design’s 14 principles, which now includes a 15th with the addition of ‘Awe,’ and he has written a more recent publication with Katie Ryan called “Nature Inside,” it is a terrific handbook to implementing Biophilic design principles in built environments.

I think a lot about the design of places where nature has been completely eliminated - think major downtown cities in any corner of the world.

It is also not lost on me that when I sit working in my Home Office I have the extraordinarily good fortune to lookout on 2 1/2 acres of green space with a rolling hill down towards a creek that when it rains particularly hard overflows and becomes a small river in my backyard.

But this point of view to my backyard and the way I feel sitting on my deck having a morning coffee is not just about the warm feeling of my cup in my hands but that there are key principles of biophilic design at play - namely refuge and prospect. Being exposed daily to these perspectives towards a forest at the back of my property I have an immediate body sense of calm, wonder and awe.

I see sun rises to the left of my property and sun sets to the right. The re are Canada geese that, like clockwork, fly over my backyard every fall as they migrate South. I’m attuned to the textures and colors of the sky and the varying degrees of light intensity - bright and brilliant and dreary and diffused.

All of these features of a natural world have the effect of putting me at ease.

In the past few years, I've begun to connect that mind body experience, the somatic experience of natural places, with what I understand about neuroscience and our long evolutionary history of living the largest proportion of our human development among trees - in a real jungle versus the concrete ones that we have now built all around us.

It's no surprise that the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku – forest bathing – is actually therapeutic.

When we immerse ourselves in a forest atmosphere, using all five senses to connect with nature, we are promoting stress reduction and well-being. Slowing down, and taking mindful walks, appreciating sights, sounds, and smells is so good for us and yet many of us, especially those who are city dwellers, rush from place to place making sure to stay on the clock moving from one appointment to the next and filling our schedules every day with a mind-numbing number of things to check off on our To Do List

Taking a moment to disconnect from technology calms the mind and body and has proven benefits like lower stress hormones and boosting immunity.

The multi layered, highly textured and colored natural environments that we have evolved from, are often being replaced by environments of banality that actually have deep psychological effects when we are continually exposed to boring buildings.

Bringing this intuitive sense, that natural environments support well-being, into the design of built environments, and intentionally creating places that reference biophilic principles, often proves very hard to do in a world where efficiency and productivity leading to increased profitability are what we are taught to drive towards as a reflection of success.

Many times, adding plants to a space is an afterthought, like decoration, to make things look better - but they are not really being incorporated as a strategy for building environments to enhance well-being. Interestingly though, when people learn more about how to apply biophilic principles, beyond simply introducing plants as a nod to creating more nature-based experiences, they begin to also understand that their assumptions about adding additional cost may not be well founded.

If you consider designing with nature in mind from the get-go, incorporating principles of biophilic design in the places we build as part of the strategy, then managing the costs is totally achievable.

Anthropologie stores are a great example of introducing living green walls to their stores. Too be sure, these are not without expense both in their implementation and maintenance but the effect of walking up the grand staircase with this green wall rising from floor to ceiling across multiple levels feels wonderful. I still remember one of my first experiences in the Anthropologie store on Regent Street in London and have since sought to find similar experiences in other retail stores around the world.

Design ideas like the green walls in Anthropologie stores is a conscious, intentional, move that enhances experience as well as environmental air quality. We simply feel better when we were places like this and if that turns into reduced absenteeism of associates or increased customer visits then… all the better.

There's no question that being under a wash of fluorescent light standing on hard surfaces or sitting in cubicles is perhaps one of the worst ways to be productive and happy in our workplaces. I would imagine that sales associates in Anthropologie stores generally feel better than in big boxes with uniform high intensity lighting, relentless aisles of merchandise, hard surfaces and stale air with no natural sunlight.

Full disclosure, when I look back over my career of designing retail places, very infrequently has the design team spent time considering what it would be like to be a sales associate in one of these places. Standing for hours on end in environments that are depleting leads to poor interactions between sales teams and customers.

Seems kind of obvious but when people feel better in their workplaces, they're more likely to translate that to positive interactions with guests. More positive interactions with guests could naturally lead to larger basket size and increased number of return visits. All good if you're a retailer

And yet, we seldom see retail places that fully embrace ideas that support well-being through the strategic introduction of biophilic design principles.

New disciplines in the world of neuroscience like neuroaesthetics are beginning to be more widely accepted in the design community and there is a broader recognition about the positive effects of creating environments that apply principles of biophilia that enhance a sense of well-being. And while there is a growing trend of wider adoption of neuroaesthetics we need to keep on beating the drum about environments that are actually good for us.

This is where the story leads to my guest Jennifer Walsh.

In the 1990s, Jennifer founded Beauty Bar, the first experiential omni-channel beauty brand in the U.S., introducing open-sell environments, curbside service, and men’s skincare departments - concepts that reshaped how people shop for beauty.

Jennifer says that she just wanted people to feel good when they came into her store and she somehow intuitively knew that introducing elements of biophilia, though I'm not sure that we actually even had a name for it back then, into her store, would attract people, have them stay longer and return more often.

Jennifer’s integration of biophilic principles, long before they became mainstream, earned her recognition as an industry innovator.

After Beauty Bar was ultimately purchased by Amazon in 2011, she continued to build groundbreaking businesses and brands, always staying ahead of the curve.

Today, she guides large and small scale biophilic design projects to create spaces that promote human flourishing.

In retail spaces, homes, schools, and urban landscapes, her work transforms environments into ecosystems of opportunity. All inspired from lived experiences. Jennifer helps organizations leverage the neuroscience of nature to enhance experiences, foster resilience, and build deeper connections within their organizations.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

I caught up with Bryan at the SHOP Marketplace event in Charlotte and chatted about his focus on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design.

EP.83 Al & MAKING RETAIL PLACES VISUALLY DYNAMIC & FLEXIBLE, With Bryan Meszaros, Founder, OpenEye Global

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 5 Dec 2025 22:35:33 +0000

ABOUT BRYAN:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/bryanmeszaros

Websites:

openeyeglobal.com (Company)
marketscale.com/industries/podcast-network/experience-by-design/ (Experience By Design Podcast)
experienceunitedsocialclub.com (Experience United Social Club)

email: bmeszaros@openeyeglobal.com

Bio:

Bryan Meszaros is a 25-year veteran of the digital signage and experience design industry, known for blending innovation with measurable impact. As the founder of OpenEye Global, he proved that a small, focused team can deliver big results and helped shape the early evolution of digital engagement.

He later made history as the youngest President of SEGD and the first with a digital centric background, while also contributing to the Digital Signage Federation and Shop! Association to advance industry standards.

Bryan is also the founder of the Experience United Social Club (XUSC), an international networking series all about bringing together creative minds from the AV, digital signage, and design industries to share ideas and collaborate. With global experience across Europe and APAC, he has spoken at major events including EuroShop, ISE, InfoComm, and DSE, and regularly contributes to leading industry publications.

Dedicated to pushing boundaries, Bryan remains focused on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to Episode 83! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…

In every episode we continue to follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” And as we continue on this journey there will be thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.

We’ll talk with authors and people focused on wellness and sustainable design practices as well as neuroscientists who will continue to help us look at the built environment and the connections between our mind-body and the built world around us. We’ll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.

If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine. VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. I think the IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing us to keep on talking about what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience. SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.org

Today, EPISODE 83… I talk with Bryan Meszaros founder of EpenEye Global. Bryan is a 25-year veteran of the digital signage and experience design industry, known for blending innovation with measurable impact.

Naturally, in a world that is increasingly digitally mediated, Bryan’s business is significantly focused on the emergence of Artificial Intelligence as a tool in his experience place-making toolbox.

We’ll get to more of how Bryan sees the use of AI in digital applications in brand experience places in a minute but... first a few thoughts…

* * * *

I grew up on Star Trek. They original version with Shatner as Captain James T Kirk. These were the sightly campy years in black and white but wonderfully prescient in foretelling what was to come.

I used to say that my father, who lived to the ripe old age of 97 was so into it that was holding out until he could just beam up through the transporter to the next phase of his existence. We all watched, my 4 brothers and I every week, my mom? Well not so much…

I got used to thinking about digital communication, robots, space travel and technology integrated into our lives facilitating everything from washing dishes to extending lifespans.

There isn’t a day that goes by now where my media consumption doesn’t include something on the evolution of Artificial Intelligence. Both the amazing and the alarming.

How it will make workplaces completely different replacing much of what we now do with human brain and brawn with algorithms and computer chips that can fit 1000 computers from the old Star Trek days on your fingertip.

How it is changing the way human brains are wired, though when it comes to our neural networks that trundle along at a speed ridiculously slow compared to the digital pace of change that is exponential and moving at the speed of light.

How as a visualization tool it is becoming indistinguishable from real life people and places. Creating deep fakes that are so good at impersonating humans that avatars are no longer cartoonish but facsimiles of us that are, well, exactly like us - but whose knowledge base is the compendium of all human knowledge that can be accessed on the internet and provide cogent answers to well-crafted prompts and have them served up in a few seconds.

‘The times they are a changin’ but at a pace that even Dillan couldn’t have imagined. Don’t even get me started about when we finally, and I don’t think it is going to take too long, get to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and what that portends for humankind.

I am often concerned for my sons and the world they are growing into as young adults. I wish sometimes that they’d have had the experience of growing up in the 60’s and 70’s when times were simpler – but of course they weren’t really. Every decade has it’s messes – sometime beautiful sometimes not and sometimes each of these ends of the human experience spectrum were happening at the same time.

What we are experiencing now is evolution at a revolutionary pace. A slow simmering flame has exploded into a blast furn ace of change propelling us all, whether we like it or not, on a path that at times seems to be heading towards the edger of a cliff.

Concerned? Well you’d have good reason to be.

But then again, if you accept the Ray Bradburry adage of sometimes while standing at the edge of the cliff ‘you need to jump and build your wings on the way down’, may we all then transform in midflight into some sort of lemmings with wings.

The subject of AI has surfaced a number of times on this podcast notably with data visualization artists like Refik Anadol and architect artist Samar Younes, spatial computing specialist and near futurist Neil Redding and Synchronicity Architect Justin Bolognino. Each of these creators and theorists shape the AI narrative to their own ends, each of them proclaiming the virtues and vices of the technology.

Uses of AI in design and architecture, as well as other industries, is multifarious and, I would admit, well beyond my more general appreciation for using it as an ideation tool and writing assistant in my everyday work.

In the world of experience design there are at least 2 ways - although I would guess many more - to look at it:

- on a very basic level there is the physical integration of digital media facilitated by Ai and then there is actual content that ends up on the digital interface – be it a touch screen kiosk, a display array in a sports bar or an enormous multi-story wall in Times Square.

Getting these screens to work with the environment is always a challenge. Mainly I believe because they come as an afterthought rather than an integrated design solution and part of a digital experience strategy.

In the second case of content, one size does not fit all.

Places and people are different. The same content being played on those screens all day are visual noise detracting from overall experience rather than enhancing it. These days, every minute of every day things are changing. Why should digital content on screen of any size and shape be any different?

If purveyors of brand experiences are not changing content to adapt to customers everchanging needs across the journey, digital content simply becomes part of the visual texture of the environment slipping into irrelevancy and lending nothing to the embodied memory of a place.

This is one area Ai is able to change the game – creating content to meet customer needs more directly.

Now it would be difficult, if not impossible to change digital content in Times Square to continually meet the needs of the thousands of people in that digital epicenter in New York. But then we all carry cell phones – person digital devices.

All of those phones are geolocated. Each of those those has an address – a personal identifier about who it belongs to and bunch of other information about you – personal, financial, home address, etc.

Are a bunch of guys at google looking at you individually as you make your way across Times Square – not really – but your Hazel and Gretel trail of ones and zeros from purchases, GPS searches, app use, etc., etc., tell a lot about you should anyone want to do a little digital forensics.

The idea here is that we are giving up this information every time we turn our phones on. That information isn’t snatched from us without our consent (generally) it’s in our service agreement terms and conditions – that impossibly long text that most of us scroll through to the end and click “agree.”

But that information could be used to make your path across Times Square more relevant to you. Perhaps your device communicates with other devices or screens and changes the content that you see.

This isn’t quite Minority Report yet, where Tom Cruise courses through a store and the displays are talking to him because they recognize his retinas – but it is possible to create messaging that is more personalized to you, specifically, as a customer.

Digital signage can change either on the wall of as shelf signage.

It is about recognizing your customer and understanding that they are used to creating experience narratives that are more relevant to them because they, in part, have contributed to their making. Want to stay relevant to your customers, new or old? Support their collaboration in the shopping journey offering up opportunities for them to write themselves into the narrative. Story and strategy must be connected. Doing good by your customer is about building a relationship and Ai can support that effort but including engaging digital content that recognizes them as individuals, with relatable and relevant messaging.

But the whole enterprise needs to be seamless. Sometime I think that the best tech is the tech you don’t see, but it think it is also perfectly OK to see it if there are no disconnects in journey. Signature moments in the customer journey have to link up so the customer follows the bouncing ball from their first connection point through the purchase moment and then beyond.

And this is where this episode’s guest comes into the picture.

Bryan Meszaros is a 25-year veteran of the digital signage and experience design industry, known for blending innovation with measurable impact.

As the founder of OpenEye Global, he proved that a small, focused team can deliver big results and helped shape the early evolution of digital engagement.

Bryan was the youngest President of SEGD and the first with a digital centric background, while also contributing to the Digital Signage Federation and Shop! Association to advance industry standards.

He is also the founder of the Experience United Social Club (XUSC), an international networking series all about bringing together creative minds from the AV, digital signage, and design industries to share ideas and collaborate.

With global experience across Europe and APAC, he has spoken at major events including EuroShop, ISE, InfoComm, and DSE, and regularly contributes to leading industry publications.

Bryan likes the idea of staying dedicated to pushing boundaries, so he is a natural fit for the show.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe.

I caught up with Bryan at the SHOP Marketplace event in Charlotte and chatted about his focus on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design.

EP.82 "MOMS, RETAIL MEDIA NETWORKS AND MAMAVA" with Dina Townsend Chief Sales Officer, Mamava

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 23:25:27 +0000

ABOUT DINA TOWNSEND

Dina's Linkedin Profile: linkedin.com/in/dinatownsend

DINA TOWNSEND BIO

As Chief Sales Officer at Mamava, Dina leads the Sales Organization with energy, optimism, and a genuine passion for building connections. She is rooted in the belief that strong business acumen and a meaningful mission can be seamlessly intertwined. After a purpose-driven career pivot from Digital Signage Technology to Mamava, she channels her expertise into propelling sales for this mission-centric company. Beyond her professional endeavors, Dina is a former skydiver, a hobby homesteader, an avid college football fan, and a well-intentioned, albeit average, golfer.

email: dinat@mamava.com | 802.347.2111 (o)

Website: www.mamava.com

Say yes to dignified lactation spaces! Be a hero—here's how you can help.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to Episode 82! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…

We’ll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.

If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Today, EPISODE 82… I talk with Dina Townsend Chief Sales Officer at Mamava a company whose mission is to create a healthier society through infrastructure and support for breastfeeding.

And, along with partners who share in in their purpose of celebrating and supporting breastfeeding, Mamava is moving closer to creating a future where there is a dignified lactation space anywhere a parent may go.

We’ll get to my discussion with Dina in a minute, first though a few thoughts…

* * * *

A few episodes back I had Claire Coder founder and CEO if Aunt Flow on the show. That was an interesting conversation since we crossed what I think were a few boundaries (at least for me) and we talked quite candidly about menstruation. Not just about the biology of women’s monthly cycle but about the fact that there are many women who have faced the scenario of getting their period unexpectedly and not have pads or tampons to meet them in their moment of need.

Enter the company Aunt Flow who provides free feminine hygiene products in public restrooms, schools and other public buildings and to Fortune 500 corporate headquarters - for which tens of thousands of women are eternally grateful.

This conversation with Dina Townsend, I guess you could say, falls in the Aunt Flow camp of subjects.

Breast feeding moms was not a subject that I had on the list of things to address on the podcast. But here we are nevertheless with a subject that piqued my curiosity because the company Dina works for, Mamava, checks most of the boxes in our Dialogues on DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and he Arts” catch phrase.

First off…I did not know there was something called the “Pump Act”. For the curious out there, a little internet searching comes up with this:

“…The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, enacted in December 2022, expands workplace protections for nursing employees by requiring employers to provide reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space for pumping breast milk for up to one year after a child's birth.

This law allows for legal action if employers fail to comply…”

Now… Dina will contend that many employers do in fact provide such a space and also that a janitors closet with a folding chair would be in line with the requirements.

Sure, a closet meets the description of a ‘private space’ but it wholly underserves the needs of a nursing mother in terms of experience.

I am aware that there are widely divergent views on the whole subject of breast feeding – we are not going to go there – except that I’ll say that I fully line up behind my wife who breastfed our two sons.

My discussion with Dina moves from the necessity to provide environments for nursing mothers to breastfeed their infants while in public places to the buying power of mothers who statistics indicate make an enormous amount of the buying decisions in households to how tying Retail Media Networks - RMNs – to Mamava pods serve a triple bottom line serving People, Planet and Profit. It’s a way of shifting our thinking about business from “How much money did we make?” to: “Did we make money in a way that benefits society and the environment too?”

Nielsen, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Harvard Business Review research tells us that Women drive 70–80% of consumer purchasing decisions in the U.S. and that is even for products they don’t personally use. And that their annual global consumer spending, is $20 trillionwhich, by the way, is a number projected to rise to $28 trillion. In many households, women make or heavily influence91% of new home purchases, 92% of vacation decisions, and 80% of healthcare choices says research by the Yankelovich Monitor, Marketing to Women Conference data.

And Millennial and Gen Z mothers are even more influential: they control about $1 trillion in direct annual spendingand are primary decision-makers for food, home goods, education, and entertainment – says research by the Pew Research Center.

So, women and moms are a force to be reconned with in terms of buying power and why Mamava pods are more than an economic discussion. The behavioral and psychographic aspects of them is important as well.

Women increasingly valuebrands that support family life, caregiving, and inclusivity and so features like Mamava pods in retail locations or corporate HQs or parental-leave policies have brand-equity impact.

We have known for some time that brands that are considered authentic exhibiting genuine empathic concern for their customer and employeesare major drivers in establishing brand affinity and purchase decisions.

The BabyCenter “State of Modern Motherhood” report says that “ 9 in 10 mothers say they are more loyal to brands that “understand the challenges of motherhood.”

And then there is mom’s digital influence. Pew Internet studies explains that“80% of moms research products online before buying and that 60% follow parenting or lifestyle influencers for purchase guidance.”

When you combine these factors with the emergence of Retail Media Networks, RMNs, you have a value add to placing Mamava pods in places that do not actually take up any more space on the sales floors of a store than is already being occupied with stuff that does support the brand experience or selling anything.

Use to be that when digital screens came into the retail world, we had kiosks as wayfinding devices.

Then a proliferation of screens emerged in the market where walls were more digital wallpaper crowding the environment with content and, in my opinion adding little to experience, arguably creating a shopping experience with more visual distraction and diminishing the overall experience. Painting the environment with the broad-brush stroke of digital media is often ineffective in capturing and retaining attention and doesn’t lead to the positive results we think it does.

That said, well considered application of digital media like those found on Mamava pods creates an opportunity to provide messaging to customers that could be more like a public service announcement, like ‘get your flu shot here today,’ or a focused marketing piece that invites customers to consider a particular product that they may not have thought of prior to arriving at the store.

So, you might ask why this matters to retail design

Women and mothers aren’t just your average everyday consumers, they’re key decision-makers shaping the social expectations of brands and spaces.

Retailers, airports, and workplaces that provide amenities like Mamava pods, family restrooms, or flexible shopping experiences are responding directly to data-driven insights like:

Increased dwell time and spending when caregivers feel accommodated.
Higher brand loyalty and word-of-mouth among mothers.
Positive CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility - and inclusivity signaling which is important for both consumer and employee attraction.

If you have recently traveled through an airport, you may have already come upon a Mamava pod or maybe you have seen their “bench” version in a retail store.

Fed up with pumping in bathrooms and borrowed spaces—Mamava’s co-founders, Sascha Mayer and Christine Dodson, applied their decades of expertise in design and brand strategy to solve a problem that was largely invisible: the lack of lactation spaces in workplaces and public spaces and as a result, the Mamava pod was born.

Tying together the Mamava pod, and its various incarnations, and retail media needed some savvy about how to create an effective in-store media application that wouldn’t end up as just another screen in an already overwhelming environment.

Enter Dina Townsend.

As Chief Sales Officer at Mamava, Dina leads the Sales Organization with energy, optimism, and a genuine passion for building connections.

She is rooted in the belief that strong business acumen and a meaningful mission like the Mamava brand platform can be seamlessly intertwined.

After a purpose-driven career pivot from the world of Digital Signage Technology to Mamava, Dina channels her expertise into propelling sales for this mission-centric company.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP.81 EXPERIENCE DESIGN IN AN ENTROPIC FUTURE with Christian Davies, Chief Strategy Officer, Bergmeyer

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 12:01:13 +0000

ABOUT CHRISTIAN DAVIES:

Christian's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/christian-davies-fcsd-3728a513

Websites: https://www.bergmeyer.com

email: cdavies@bergmeyer.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christianthdavies/

Christian Davies Bio:

Davies brings 30+ years' experience as a creative leader, working with brands across the globe, from disruptive startups to the very top Fortune 500 contenders in retail, experiential, beauty, fashion, hospitality, technology, luxury, and more. His veteran status includes over 100 national and international design awards (15 of which earned top honors for Store of the Year Awards), including a five-time winner of design:retail’s Retail Design Influencer as well as a coveted Retail Design Luminary award.

As a Chief Strategy Officer for Bergmeyer, strategic innovation and design leadership define Davies role, stemming from a robust background in creative direction and design thinking. His approach harnesses the power of diverse, interdisciplinary teams, developed through hands-on experience in various roles across a wide variety of companies throughout his career. As Chief Strategy Officer, steering the business strategy and our passion for innovation encapsulates my daily mission.

Prior to Bergmeyer, Davies served as Managing Director of the Creative Marketing Group at Verizon, Creative Vice President of Global Design and Innovation for Starbucks, Executive Creative Director of the Americas at Fitch, and Vice President/Managing Creative Director at FRCH Design Worldwide.

Also See: https://www.bergmeyer.com/people/christian-davies

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to Episode 81! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…

What started at a pivotal moment during the COVID pandemic in early 2020 has continued for seven seasons and now 81 episodes.

This season we continue to follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts. In the coming weeks we have some terrific conversations that are both fun and inspiring.

They are going to include thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.

We talk with authors and people focused on wellness and sustainable design practices as well as neuroscientists who will continue to help us look at the built environment and the connections between our mind-body and the built world around us.

We’ll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing us to keep on talking about what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Today, EPISODE 81… I talk with Christian Davies. We actually recorded this discussion months ago and Christian wondered if publishing it now was still relevant.

I assured him it was, since Christian tends to unearth issues that are future forward - things to be mindful about should we want to address the issues we all face as individuals or societies or as architects and designers making places and things as we serve as our clients creative sherpa guides bringing ideas into the built world.

Now… Christian has been sitting atop the heap of 80 conversations as the most listened to episode since we recorded our first talk a couple years ago. So, I thought, well why not do Christian Davies 2.0?

Christian does not disappoint - never has – over a couple of decades, Christian has consistently drawn audiences and colleagues into conversation, sometimes challenging, and always brilliant and things that drive design thinking. His matter-of-fact English attitude to the world of design is sometimes a ‘no holds barred’ reality check that makes you think twice about the truths you have held dear.

His drive towards excellence is irrepressible. That makes him, some may say, demanding because I think he expects that we all give a damn about what we are brining into the world. And why not? We all share space on this little blue dot and, we had better get it, and soon, that we are part of a vast ecosystem of interdependencies.

We cover a lot of ground in this open-ended conversation – I’d not expect less from Christian - And here is a few thoughts on subject areas we touch on…

1. Entropy:

Entropy is a scientific measure of disorder, randomness.

Astrophysicist and other cosmologists have postulated that our universe is continuing to expand to a maximum state of entropy from a moment in time, the beginning of the Universe that they have called The Big Bang.

There's lots of great content that you can certainly dig up on what happens when the universe finally expands to maximum entropy and all particles are spread out evenly within the unimaginably large space of the universe. It's suggested that of course this maximun expansion will take something like 10 to the 36 or 37 power years in other words trillions and trillions of years. A very very long time….

But for now, the way I try to think of it is things will expand and eventually slow down as they all spread out to be evenly distributed throughout the universe… seems reasonable…

It's kind of like imagining the initial moments after a massive explosion. Things spread out pretty quickly from the epicenter of the explosion and as they're flung far and wide, particles eventually slow and if you think of it in terms of entropy they all reach maximum randomness.

I kind of think that right now, today, considering that the scientists think that the universe has only been around for 14 1/2 billion years or so, that we're kind of right at that very beginning stage of the explosion and things are moving faster and faster away from the epicenter of The Big Bang.

This is interesting if you think that the universe will continue to be expanding for a few trillion years so right now yeah, we're kind of sort of in the one second after the explosion time frame. Anyway I am not an astrophysicist and some of these enormous ideas still leave me scratching my head…

If we look at today, and everything around us, it certainly seems that things are speeding up and becoming more distributed, more random.

I know I've talked about the whole idea of the pace of change in a number of episodes but I find this really interesting because, as I discussed with Christian, it's really hard to design into a future state when you consider that the sands beneath your feet are always shifting.

How do we know which step is the right one? How do you know when we step on solid ground or drop forever into a bottomless void…

I think the challenge here for designers is that, at least for a time, we need to have a sense of stability and order. The challenge is, I think, is that we're moving to an increasing rate of change where stability and order might be elusive to say the least.

2. Moments of human connection make experiences great:

I think as we speed along and never ending sea of change perhaps one of the things that we can hang on to, a stake in the ground if you will, will continue to be our ability to maintain our relationships.

Change has a funny way of, well… changing people. And, one of our jobs will be to keep up with changing expectations of brands and their customers. One thing is sure, as we scream along this ever changing path, relationships will remain as one of the fundamental qualities of great experiences.

Both brand experience architecture and the means with which we engage with brands will change to meet evolving expecations but, my expectation, (or maybe it's just my hope) is that humans still stay at the center of it all - Since at least for this short little time that humans have been in existence, we have relied on the empathic connection between individuals to help create meaning and connection to the world around us as well as the things well as the things we simply buy.

And I, like Christian, believe that in the end, when you look at successful projects in our long design careers, the good ones, I mean the really good ones, we're not just because we received a great brief with an inspired client who had a vision of changing up the world,

but that the teams we were connected to both on the consultant and client sides were also great. There was something that clicked.

There was a gel in communication, respect and collaboration that drove these projects forward.

Some may have heard me say before projects will come and go but the relationships are really what make the work great. I'd rather lose a project than trash the relationships…

3. Three things that facilitate success stories in the world of retail place-making:

So, if you're going to look at success stories over a career full of projects, when you look back at what really made them great was, of course that they were successful from a financial point of view, that they drove increase customers and deeper brand relationships and better revenues all those things are important indicators of success but that there are things that are required to make all of that happen. One would be that there's a big idea someone at the helm of a brand or business that has a thought about doing something different breaking out of a traditional way of bringing goods or services to market, of serving a customer in a different way and technology is often being a facilitator of that.

There was coffee long before Starbucks. There was getting from A to B lby horse, camel, richshaw, long before Uber. There were places to stay along the Silk Road before Airbnb. And if you had a shaman in your village you could likely find out where you ame from and where your future was going to be long before there were anything like 23&Me or ancestry.com.

In some ways the goods or services have not really changed. How we get them in the hands of customers has changed and that has often been facilitated with new technologies.

4. AI – as a new tool for ideation and the ‘why’ behind design:

One of those technological advances of course that everybody is talking about these days is artificial intelligence.

AI it's both causing a lot of excitement about what it sees has to offer in the short term, becoming a new tool in the architect and designers toolbox for ideation as well as causing a lot of concern about what happens to humankind when we finally get to general AI or super artificial intelligence.

I am both excited and increasingly aware of influences that it will have on the job market, delivery of goods and services and other parts of the ecosystem like education and manufacturing etcetera etcetera.

But if we just for a moment set some of the anxieties aside and simply look at as a tool for imagination and engagement with clients fostering the collaborative process of ideation, it has extraordinary potential to change the game of how we designers and architects work with our clients and create ideas about bringing their goods and services to market.

There's a lot of opportunity and uncertainty about what happens when you turbocharge the creative process with AI tools.

In the end though, at least for now, the question remains - is that there is a human at the helm of prompt curation?

The output is only as good as the input that I'm able to suggest as a prompt. If not… garbage in – garbage out.

This of course is interesting because it puts the initial burden still on people to be able to articulate their vision in language and use AI tools to refine the visualizations and other content that emerges from using them.

As we use these tools they make things faster but I also sometimes wonder about whether they simply make us lazy and remove our thinking from the process.

So Christian does talk about the idea of the drawings or images being very compelling but also needing to ask, and answer, the question of ‘why this particular approach or output is relevant and connected to the brand or customer that we're trying to serve?

In the end it’s not about the ‘what’ of things that make solutions to design challenges great but more and more about the ‘why’ you're doing certain things.

It’s about the process by which you got to the solution rather than simply the solution itself.

Don't get me wrong the solutions to the challenges are sometimes very satisfying but what I'm ultimately interested in is the thinking process that led you to along this pathway… it's the journey not just the destination that's important in the creative process….

And I think it's ever more important to our clients in the design world that they're looking for people who are not just production oriented but who are also focused on guiding them through an uncertain future

5. B-Corporations:

And this in a way leads us to the part of our my discussion with Christian about how his company Bergmeyer has recently become a B-Corp.

A B-Corporation is a for profit company, but it is certified by the non-profit B Lab Global and the whole idea is that it seeks to meet high standards for social and environmental performance and accountability and even more so transparency in the ways that they are doing business in support of being good stewards of our environment.

In the changing sands that we're all standing on, as entropy increases and uncertainty continues to unfold in front of us, there is certainty that our planet is also in peril as climate change continues to wreak havoc on environmental systems.

These B-corporations are seen as a force for good who work to balance profit with a commitment to both people and our planet. What differentiates them from other traditional companies is that they prioritize the social and environmental impacts of their business while at the same time not discounting the fact that they still are in business - that they are accountable to stakeholders as well as shareholders.

The stakeholders can be considered as all of us because as companies continue to pull resources out of the ground and push the byproducts of industrialization into landfills and oceans all of our lives are at stake.

All right then that's a not so brief summary of some of the ideas that Christian and I riff on in our conversation…

Let's dig into some of the details…

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP.80 FACING THE FUTURE WITH A FLUX MINDSET - with April Rinne, Author of FLUX: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 3 Oct 2025 22:26:56 +0000

ABOUT APRIL RINNE:

BIO:

My North Star: Helping people and organizations understand what's on the horizon – and how they fit into it.

I decipher signals of change, help leaders and teams improve their tolerance for uncertainty, and scout new insights and opportunities in a world in flux.

Over 25+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve been exposed to a wide range of companies, cultures, business models, leadership styles, and norms. And I’ve seen time and time again: Every organization, every team, and every individual struggles with change and uncertainty in some way. Even before the pandemic, and especially today. We’ve all had different experiences of change, and we could all use some help with the unknown. Leveling up our relationships to change and uncertainty is the opportunity of our lifetimes.

My career portfolio includes futurist, speaker, author, advisor, global development executive, microfinance lawyer, investor, mental health advocate, certified yoga teacher, globetrotter, insatiable handstander, and ambassador of joy. Along the way I've been named one of the 50 Leading Female Futurists in the world, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a member of Thinkers50 Radar and the Silicon Guild, and one of the earliest Estonian e-Residents. I'm also the author of the international bestseller Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change.

My journey to Flux has been deeply personal. It began with the death of both of my parents in a car crash when I was 20. My entire life flipped upside-down. And today, there is nothing I enjoy more than sharing with others how I learned to see differently, find meaning, and strengthen my Flux Superpowers -- and how you can do so, too.

April’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilrinne/

Websites: https://aprilrinne.com

BUY THE BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Flux-Superpowers-Thriving-Constant-Change/dp/1523093595

email: april@aprilrinne.com

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to Season 7 of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast – Episode 80!

What started at a pivotal moment during the COVID pandemic in early 2020 has continued for seven seasons and now 80 episodes.

They are going to include thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.

We’ll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.

And I don't know, maybe there will be a couple of mystery guests that will just shake things up and give us a perspective on things that we've never thought about before.

As in the past couple of seasons, we are grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

So, fasten your seat belt we’re in for some good times…

Today, EPISODE 80… I talk with April Rinne whose North Star is helping people and organizations understand what's on the horizon – and how they fit into it.

April deciphers signals of change, helps leaders and teams improve their tolerance for uncertainty, and scouts new insights and opportunities in a world in flux.

As well as being an excellent hand stander, (check out pics of her doing handstands in places all over the world on her website), she is also the author of the international bestseller “Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change.”

We will get to her book, some of the key ideas and so much more in a minute but first a few thoughts…

It seems to me that over the past few seasons I've tended to talk about the idea of ‘the pace of change’ a lot.

I'm beginning to think it's a little like my unnatural fear of sharks (thank you Steven Spielberg) and that I keep on talking about them and seeking out images of them on Instagram as some sort of cognitive behavioral therapy to get me better with the idea that I can actually go swimming in the ocean and not feel afraid of Spielberg’s Bruce sneaking up on me.

I seem to talk about change a lot for a few reasons…maybe because, I will confess, that I don't think that I was actually good with change for years. I was pretty set in my ways about having a plan and making sure the plan was followed.

I got significantly bent out of shape if the plan didn't go as, well… planned.

If we were off on our timing, if something was late or if some spontaneous moment interrupted the calendar and I was going to have to re-adjust, it took me sometimes quite a while to recalibrate and get with the ‘new’ program.

And then there was the spring of 2020 where, well…everything changed.

No doubt for someone who wasn't so good with the idea that things could change on a dime and a path you had so expertly crafted into the near future would just disappear in front of you,

I came to understand that there were three types of change:

the change that's innate - you know built into the system of everything the seasons the sun rising in the east and setting in the West and that kind of change that if it didn't happen you would think something was significantly wrong with the universe
there was the change that we choose that gives us a sense of agency the kind of change we actually like more than others because we get to determine where it's going and what it actually means for us
and then there's a kind of change like the COVID pandemic that is thrust upon you and in those moments shifting circumstances open a door to uncertainty that sense of clarity and purpose dissipates into a swell of unknowns and deep discomfort settles in making everything seem tenuous.

That kind of change, I would hazard a guess, not many of us are fond of.

That sort of change demands an openness to confront the necessity of things we have often held so dear or the veracity of things we've believed in about ourselves and others.

This type of change asks us to embrace the unknown and find an opportunity for transformation in the ambiguity.

This kind of change is the kind of change that requires you to stare long into the face of hard questions, discover inconvenient answers and make challenging decisions.

That kind of change, turns out, is where all the growth is.

That kind of change is embracing the Robert frost poem of the ‘path not travelled…’

The thing is… as I think I’ve said before… it's easy for us to fall for nostalgia.

It's cozy. It's welcoming and reassuring because it's familiar and it's easy to continue to keep doing the same thing that we have always done because, for some, there's security in choosing the familiar in preference for going on an adventure.

I love that one scene from The Hobbit where Bilbo Baggins, after refusing to go on the trip with the dwarves, finally gets it that maybe there's something in it for him, a growth opportunity, and he runs after the company exclaiming to neighbors, when asked where he was going, that he was ‘going on an adventure.’

But there's a strange paradox in all of this and that is; we both avoid the perceived danger of the unknown because the unfamiliar signals potential dangers and our neurobiology is geared to sounding the alarms when the unfamiliar lurks near…

while at the same time being driven towards novel and the unexpected because that's where our brain ultimately finds learning opportunities (should we care to pay attention).

There's no point in continuing to pull a covers over your head and hope that the uncertainty will pass because it's quite likely that when you reemerge whatever the challenge was it will still be there

and you'll open up your eyes and feel a like Dorothy and you not being in Kansas anymore,

because while you were conveniently not paying attention, the world was swept up tossed upside down and blown into a new reality in the context of the ever-increasing pace of change that we are all now exposed to.

Of course, all of the speed that we're exposed to these days is forcing cultural shifts to happen, some of which we are not neurobiologically or evolutionarily adequately adapted to. Remember, it's taken a few billion years to get where we are. We can't expect that we'll be able to keep up with the mental machinery we now have. (Another challenge to talk about another time.)

As we move into a new experience paradigm of continual change, failing fast and continual iteration may become ‘de rigeur’ because constant change will demand it and make it mainstream. In order to remain in sync with change, we will have to find a way to get right with the idea of change.

This presents a particular problem for leaders of all sorts who have been traditionally looked upon to be able to divine the future and help lead their teams with certainty into a near ordistant future state.

How do leaders maintain a sense of trust and engender followership from their teams when they may legitimately be unsure of where their businesses might need to go as the ground shifts beneath their feet?

All of this suggests a need for extraordinary flexibility when trying to plan a pathway through a period of unprecedented change.

That flexibility in large part comes not from our ability to develop some sort of control over the pace of change in the outer world - those things that are happening around us - but trying to find a sense of calm and flexibility within our inner world - to adjust and find a way to be in relationship with change rather than imposing our will on and resisting change as it comes to us.

This is where I get to introduce April Rennie, author of the book “Flux: 8 Superpowers For Thriving In Constant Change.”

April's highly readable book landed on my desk during the COVID pandemic when I was struggling with trying to adapt to the unknown.

Her idea of flux is looked at as a noun and a verb;

in the case of a noun, FLUX could be considered as “constant change”
as a verb FLUX can mean “to learn to become fluid”

What April really focuses on however is 8 Superpowers that help you to develop what she calls the “FLUX Mindset”

- ‘the state of mind that allows you to see all change whatever it is, the good the bad, the things that you have control over and the things you can't control, the expected and the unexpected, and see all of it as an opportunity to learn to grow and improve.’

For April Rinne, the idea of change and living within a world in flux, as about seeing it as a space of emergent possibility.

That has a lot to do with feeling OK with being lost, being comfortable with not knowing.

This may mean letting go of old scripts, narratives that just don't fit anymore but that you've come to rely on as a way of explaining, or explaining away, circumstances of your life.

Perhaps we need to embrace a mindset of change that is closer to indigenous wisdom than perhaps other more wired cultures on our planet.

It's not that we control nothing, but that we shift our view to be in relationship with change.

April suggests that when we can be in relationship with uncertainty there's a kind of a dance, a push and pull, and that indigenous cultures seemed to have a keener sense of relationship - a relationship with themselves, with one another and with Mother Nature.

Our conversation leads to the invitation to see the value in our interdependence to each other and the world around us ( even if the world is in a state of FLUX ) and that we work on growing our appreciation for and prioritization of fostering a positive relationship with change.

If we can, the healthier we will be, both individually and collectively….

EP.79 BRAND THERAPY AND BEYOND with Jaime Schwarz, MRKD.dj Founder and Creator of Brand Therapy

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 7 Jun 2025 03:01:32 +0000

ABOUT JAIME SCHWARZ:

BIO:

Jaime Schwarz is an award-winning copywriter and creative director, having worked with over 100 brands at NYC agencies before starting his entrepreneurial journey.

In 2017 he authored the world's first NFT-focused patent and launched BrandTherapy.coach, a product market fit-focused consultancy built on the technique of letting the brand speak for itself.

After co-founding seven startups and consulting for dozens more, in 2022, Jaime pivoted into the web3 world by using AI to literally teach brands to speak for themselves and co-founding The TeamFlow.Institute using team intelligence to maximize the momentum of decentralized teams to create the Company Betterment Industry.

He also co-founded ParallelWorlds.us and positioned it as the world's first spatial transformation company. Since then, once his patent was granted, he has been building MRKD as an IP-founded venture focused on empowering the IP economy through co-creationism.

He serves on the board of Wayfinders on the Hudson, is an advisor to XRSI.org, and lives in Hastings on Hudson with his wife and two boys.

Jaime’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/jaimeschwarz

Websites:

brandtherapy.coach (Company)
jaimeschwarz.com (Portfolio)
calendly.com/getbrandtherapy/30min (Other)

Email: jaimeschwarz@gmail.com

SHOW INTRO
Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast EPISODE 79 … and my conversation with Jaime Schwarz an award-winning copywriter and creative director, founder of Brand Therapy and a number of other ventures.

On the podcast our dynamic dialogues based on our acronym DATA - design, architecture, technology, and the arts crosses over disciplines but maintains a common thread of people who are passionate about the world we live in and human’s influence on it, the ways we craft the built environment to maximize human experience, increasing our understanding of human behavior and searching for the New Possible.

he NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Jaime Schwarz spent years work in the fast-paced world of New York advertising agencies where he came to deeply understand brands. Since then, his entrepreneurial journey has led to patent awards, and a few business ventures that truly bring things to the NXTLVL.

We’ll get to all of that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…

* * *

OK so where to start on this one...

You know… I try to lead teams by being authentic and transparent. Candid when it matters to get to the heart of the matter and circumspect when sharing the whole story it might not be appropriate.

But thinking about my interview with Jamie Schwarz makes me sit back in my chair and consider what I think I know.

I think I know a little about a lot and I say that not lacking humility, but I've been always compulsively curious about stuff. All kinds of stuff.

I like to know why things work the way they work, how people got to the places they got to in their careers, how history unfolds and the story of culture is our told and retold. And all sorts of other stuff.

I like reading about quantum physics but will confess I still get confused about how traveling at the speed of light and coming back to your origin will mean that you come back years in the future while the passage of time for you may only be a few moments.

I loved the movie interstellar.

I don't know things like that just sort of confused me, but they fascinate me nevertheless.

I digress.

I think I probably know a little bit about enough and in some cases it just might be that I know enough to be dangerous as the saying goes.

One of the motivations to doing the podcast is that I get to speak to lots people who are just way smarter and tuned in than me…and I generally add here that the bar is actually set pretty low because there are so many really smart people in the world.

I like studying about the things that I try to engage in conversations about. I'll read books, watch hours of online content – presentations, speeches and interviews. I'll dig up articles and make sure that I show up ready to go for a conversation.

Early on in the podcast series I had someone thank me for showing up well prepared. I just sort of thought that that was my responsibility to make sure that if someone was offering their time to have a discussion that I would have done my necessary background preparation to make it worth their while.

Some interviews I sort of set as stretch goals - people who I want to talk to because they have deep insight on areas that I am interested in but in which I may not have more than an intermediate or novice education.

My wife, a veteran of print and television journalism, a multi-book author, strong advocate of radical listening and who also has the uncanny ability to see way beyond the immediate conversation would always say to me that when in discussion you need to leave the interview questioning whether you know more about the person at the close of the conversation than you did when it started.

That's an interesting starting point when entering a conversation because it sets the basic premise for who's doing the talking - how much listening is going on and how you listen not to simply add your own opinions, solve the problem or give advice, but to dig deeper in your understanding, resulting in better attunement.

I will confess that sometimes I am fully aware that my enthusiasm for subject matter leads to jumping in, offering personal experiences and contributing ideas. Conversations can chase multiple ideas, but I also think that's a result of what I consider as associative thinking - one idea connects to another and sets off a cascade of related or interdependent subjects. And then a whole array of rabbit holes lay before us. Each one leading to a delightful journey. Oh now which one to choose – why not all – let’s go!

I have come to use these introductions to podcast interviews as replacements of a sort for a blog I used to write for VMSD magazine called “Brain Food.”

I take the time to consider what the conversation with my guest is about and set to musing on ideas that emerged in the conversation. Some of them are personal, stories that resonate deeply with personal or professional experiences. Others are thought bubbles that I offer up for further investigation.

I think that most of this episode is like thought bubbles. It covers the nature of branding and relationships with consumers, trust in marketing and storytelling, NFTs and creating derivative works and related IP legal issues, Web 3.0, Deconstructivism, co-creation in a digital mediated world, Ai and collective intelligence, the pace of change, art and digital twinning and the inherent value of co-creative works, quantum computers and hacking bitcoin, object permanence in the digital space… and, and, and you get the idea.

There is so much here that you might say it lacks focus, but I think it actually offers up the idea of complexity in our fast-paced digitally mediated world where interdependencies reign, everything is connected to everything in one multi-dimensional system and to what end it is sweeping us along.

We can come to these various rabbit holes of conversation because Jaime Schwarzis an award-winning copywriter and creative director, having worked with over 100 brands at NYC agencies before starting his entrepreneurial journey.

In 2017 he authored the world's first NFT-focused patent and launched BrandTherapy.coach, a “product market fit-focused” consultancy (about which he speaks in our talk) that is built on the technique of letting the brand speak for itself.

I could have prompted Jaime with any of these subjects and just sat back and taken it all in.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP. 78 TURNING "NO" INTO AUNT FLOW with Claire Coder - Founder and CEO, Aunt Flow

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 16 May 2025 22:46:27 +0000

ABOUT CLAIRE CODER:

BIO:

Claire Coder (Forbes 30under30) is a 28-year-old Thiel Fellow and founder and CEO of Aunt Flow. On a mission to make the world better for people with periods, Aunt Flow stocks public bathrooms with freely accessible tampons and pads. Through Claire’s leadership, Aunt Flow launched patented tampon & pad dispensers in 60k+ bathrooms and raised $17m+ in venture capital.

Coder launched her first company at age 16, designed a bag for Vera Bradley that sold out in 24 hours, and has her own line of GIFs. After getting her period in public without the supplies she needed, at 18 years old, Claire dedicated her life to developing a solution to ensure businesses and schools can sustainably provide quality period products for free in public bathrooms.

Since 2016, Aunt Flow has worked with thousands of businesses and schools, including organizations like Google, Princeton University, Netflix, and 30+ professional sports stadiums, to offer freely accessible period product dispensers, filled with organic cotton tampons and pads.

Aunt Flow has donated over 7 million organic cotton tampons and pads to menstruators in need since 2021.

Claire’s ultimate goal in life is for any menstruator to walk into any bathroom and never need to worry if they start their period, because Aunt Flow period products are freely available!

Claire’s story has been featured in TeenVogue, Forbes, Fortune, and she starred in TLC’s Girl Starter Season 1. Claire speaks regularly surrounding her advocacy work, starting a social enterprise and journey as a female founder. For more information, please visit

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairecoder/

Websites:

clairecoder.com (Personal)
goauntflow.com (Company)

SHOW INTRO
Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

EPISODE 78 … and my conversation with Claire Coder the Founder and CEO of Aunt Flow.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

When Claire Coder was 18 years old she was at an event and she used a public restroom. While there, she discovered that she had unexpectedly started her period. And… she didn't have a quarter.

Why she would have needed a quarter and what happened as a result of not having one is the subject of an exceptional entrepreneurial trajectory that has changed woman's public bathrooms around the country.

We’ll get to all of that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…

* * *

What if you had an amazing idea that you knew was a no-brainer, an idea that provided something deeply necessary, but it seemed that everyone had overlooked it.

What if you had a moment of insight from a personal experience that chartered out a clear path for providing a product and service that seemed to satisfy the deeply under met needs of more than 50% of the population?

And what if when you took this moment of clear mental insight to a group of venture capitalists explaining that this was not just an idea that would not only satisfy a certain customer need but that could be an extraordinarily profitable business operation but when you asked for their involvement, they simply said… “NO”.

And what if you heard “NO” 86 times when trying to get people interested in supporting your idea. Would you give up? Would you have already given up after the 1st or 10th or 50th “NO”? And what if you happened to be an 18-year-old young woman with this vision and enthusiasm and the subject of your VC pitches dealt with menstruation and woman's public bathrooms... How far do you think that would have gotten you?

I could focus in on this intro by talking about the thing that we don't talk about, at least as a guy I can't imagine me and my guy friends would have ever talked about…as a teen, young man or frankly even today.

Which is to say… women and monthly periods.

I could focus in on this somewhat taboo subject of a naturally occurring bodily function that we somehow sweep under the social discourse carpet, despite that more than 50% of the population has one every single month.

Or I could talk about the strange discomfort that comes up because somehow, we've made this discussion something to be ashamed about or talked only about between mothers and grandmothers and their daughters.

The strange irony here is that the other 49.53% of the North American population will end up living with, perhaps marrying and having children with the 50+ percent of the population who has their period every single month and yet, we'd prefer not to talk about it…

But, if I did focus on those subjects, which by the way are not unimportant to talk about, it would potential we derail another story about a passion for entrepreneurship and the overwhelming need to address the needs of a population who are wholly unserved.

It takes a lot of guts to be an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is not easy. In fact, there are a lot of people who would say you’d simply have a few screws loose to actually want to be an entrepreneur.

It's highly risky and you carry an extraordinary amount of responsibility. Everything from fundraising and decision-making, planning operations, accepting both successes and failures.

When the entire enterprise is your baby, and relies on you as the key driver of the big idea, it can be incredibly emotionally taxing. The working hours can be extraordinary too. If we think that an average work week is neatly packed into 40 hours, an entrepreneur may end up spending twice or maybe even three times that amount in trying to get their business off the ground.

..and there's constant pressure to keep on pushing forward. One success does not necessarily guarantee the next and so there's this cycle of continuing to push and to make forward strides create product extensions and to expand the brand footprint that is unrelenting.

This is especially true if folks have lent you money to get your big idea off the ground.

There's also a great degree of isolation that can emerge on the entrepreneurial path. You, and often you alone, are focused on birthing your brainchild, developing it and bringing it to market. This ‘child rearing’, if you will, often happens in times of extraordinary uncertainty and ambiguity.

In the current state of the world we live in today, ambiguity is the name of the game. What with the pace of change exponentially increasing, government shifting the rules of the game with tariffs and regulations, funding cuts and banning more that 250 words that according to PEN AMERICA are no longer considered acceptable including:

advocacy, abortion, all-inclusive, biologically female, community equity, DEI, female, inclusive, sex, sexuality, vulnerable populations, and woman or women, just to name a few. So if your big idea is squarely focused on women, menstruation and period products, I would imagine it’s tricky.

So, this means that you have to be built for understanding the pace of change the ability to flex and move and be resilient when things don't happen to go your way. Like for example if you are launching a new product line and a COVID pandemic hits that effectively shuts your business down.

You could stop and pack up shop and be done or you could be resilient and change direction asking ‘what do people need right now?, and turn what you thought was going to be a business into a completely different thing that was not at all what you had planned in the 1st place.

As an entrepreneur, you also have to wear many hats. You are at the same time the company owner, marketing and sales rep. You're dealing with HR issues, product design and materials sourcing and assortment planning.

You're often doing customer service and trying to keep them satisfied while dealing with shipments that go missing or supply chains that get disrupted, because of say tariffs, for example, when your products were coming from out of the country and all of a sudden now they are more expensive than you had anticipated.

And you have to be good, I mean really good, at dealing with rejection and failure.

Most entrepreneurs face repeated setbacks, investor rejections, failed launches or people who just don't get what you're trying to deliver - or straight out don't like what you're trying to deliver - and reject your product and actively work against you to shut you down.

Resilience and a sense of purpose when faced with strong headwinds is an absolutely essential feature of being an entrepreneur.

You want to become an entrepreneur? Then you had better show up at the game with a load of mad skills so that you can weather the multiple impending storms.

Now… don't get me wrong, it's not all doom and gloom. It's not all uphill struggles like Sisyphus pushing a rock up a hill only to have it roll back down again.

Entrepreneurship can be incredibly rewarding. It can bring something that you are passionate about into the world. Maybe it's something that had never existed before. Maybe it satisfies the need that is self-evident but others just haven't seen it yet. But to play in the arena of entrepreneurship you need to be able to recover from failures and keep moving forward regardless of whatever the setbacks were.

Because they are inevitable.

No one skates happily through entrepreneurship and starting a company without stuff just going off the rails from time to time. And that requires an amazing amount of intrinsic motivation and drive. You’ve got to be able to get up every morning and go get it.

And you’ve got to be able to get up and do it without anyone behind you saying ‘go team go” pushing you to do it every single day.

You might need an accountability buddy. That would be good. But in the absence of that person or group, you need to be able to be incredibly disciplined and willing to get back in the ring every day.

You also have to have a certain level of risk tolerance. In fact, I would say you probably have to have a very high level of risk tolerance. No one in the entrepreneurial world makes it by being a wallflower; by being risk adverse and not wanting to step out into traffic and navigate all of the oncoming traffic.

And while dancing your way through the crosswalk in oncoming traffic, you have to be pretty flexible and be willing to pivot in an oftentimes volatile environment. You also have to believe in your vision and have a well-crafted strategy to get you to the top of the mountain.

Successful entrepreneurs can generally see a much bigger picture than other people. They see opportunities where others simply see closed doors and that often means when hearing “no” you don’t implode like the Wicked Witch of the West when water was thrown on her, but you ask questions.

Not just questions about ‘why?’ but also ‘why not?’.

You have to be conspicuously curious and have a compulsion to keep on asking questions, never being satisfied with the status quo.

Your interpersonal skills also have to be incredibly well honed. You have to be good at networking, slapping backs, shaking hands and making people feel like they're the only people in the room who matter to you. You've got to be good at networking and pitching and you have to be an incredibly good leader which suggests that you have to be an effective communicator and be emotionally tapped in. Your EQ, as well as your IQ, has to be highly tuned.

You have to carry a certain level of confidence without being arrogant.

You have to believe in your ideas while staying open to feedback; weeding out what is good commentary and bad commentary.

…what allows you to maintain a connection to your brand story and the products or services you believe need to be brought to market while at the same time always finding a balance between taking in what people say as constructive criticism and dismissing other commentary that doesn't seem to fit or takes you off track and away from your vision.

And all of this brings us to the story of Claire Coder who at 18 years old goes into a public bathroom at an event and discovers she started her period.

In an effort to have period products that met her in her moment of need, she goes to a dispenser on the wall and discovers that in order to get a tampon or pad she has to have quarter and who really carries quarters around in their pocket anymore? At that moment Claire is faced with accepting the only option available which is to go to the free roll of toilet paper on the bathroom stall and create a makeshift tampon.

At that moment Claire decides that if toilet paper and paper towel are offered at no cost in public bathrooms why should tampons and pads cost $0.25.? and why is it that the box on the wall, that has likely been there for decades and that may likely not work in any case, an acceptable solution?

Claire Coder was selected as one of Forbes 30under30 and is the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Aunt Flow.

On a mission to make the world better for people with periods, Aunt Flow stocks public bathrooms with freely accessible tampons and pads. Through Claire’s leadership, Aunt Flow launched patented tampon & pad dispensers in 60k+ bathrooms, 150 universities, 600 schools, 28 Fortune 500 company’s offices and raised $17m+ in venture capital.

After getting her period in public without the supplies she needed, at 18 years old, Claire dedicated her life to developing a solution to ensure businesses and schools can sustainably provide quality period products for free in public bathrooms.

Aunt Flow has donated over 7 million organic cotton tampons and pads to menstruators in need since 2021.

Claire’s ultimate goal in life is for any menstruator to walk into any bathroom and never need to worry if they start their period, because Aunt Flow period products are freely available!

Claire Coder was the opening keynote presenter at SHOP Marketplace 2025 and I caught up with her after her presentation to have a chat…

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP.77 UNCOVERING BUILDINGS’ STORIES THROUGH A WALK WITH A SKETCHBOOK with Charles Leon, Author, Illustrator, Publisher of Local London Sketch Journal

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 03:02:52 +0000

ABOUT CHARLES LEON:

CHARLES' LINKEDIN PAGE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chleon/

COMPANY WEBSITE: charlesleon.uk

CHARLES' BIO:

Writer and Illustrator of Sketch Journals, including The Kew Sketch Journal.
International Speaker and Trainer on the Creative Process and how Applied Innovation actually works.
With more than 30 years experience in design, and an extensive knowledge of neuroscience and the working of the creative mind, I bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to helping Organisations and Individuals overcome Innovation Stagnation and achieve Creative Breakthrough.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

EPISODE 77… and my conversation with Charles Leon.

On the podacast our dynamic dialogues based on our acronym DATA - design, architecture, technology, and the arts crosses over disciplines but maintains a common thread of people who are passionate about the world we live in and human’s influence on it, the ways we craft the built environment to maximize human experience, increasing our understanding of human behavior and searching for the New Possible.

he NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

On this episode I connect with Charles Leon who has 30 years experience in design, and an extensive knowledge of neuroscience and the working of the creative mind.

We’ll get to all of that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…

* * *

When I was nine years old my mom put me in a after school art program in a small little studio a few minutes walk from my school.

Every Thursday afternoon, after my regular school classes were done, I would walk down the street, sit in an art studio and learn how to paint in oils.

For the next 10 years this was a welcome change in my daily routine that became in some sense a safe place. A place where all the world's troubles or the typical challenges I was having as a teenager would disappear and I would spend a couple of hours focused on painting.

My mom had recognized early on that I was pretty handy with a pencil and very interested in creative expression. She did her very best to make sure that I was continually engaged in creative processes whether it was doing Ukrainian Easter eggs or sketching and drawing or baking creative Christmas cookies.

She was always there pushing the go button on creativity. As it turns out, she was actually a pretty good artist herself and later in her life she began doing decorative painting which she became exceptionally adept at and the house was full of wonderful pieces of her craftsmanship.

My interest in art followed me through the first few years of high school and finally landing in a place where it was just time to decide where I was going to university and to which program I would go.

My mom, recognized that I was firmly sitting on either side of the creative and scientific fence, 1 foot firmly in both worlds, and she suggested architecture since it seemed to combine both of my interests.

While I was studying to be an architect I took every single drawing and painting course that I could possibly take, whether they were weekly freehand drawing studios or evening classes or sketching schools.

These courses during my university years were a safe place there I had more confidence than in doing pretty much anything else.

But it really wasn't until those years in university under the tutelage of a great art teacher Gerry Tondino that I really began to understand drawing and painting.

It wasn't so much that I was learning technical aspects of drawing or painting but that I was more learning how to see rather than simply look at things.

Gerry would say, ‘once you learn to see and draw what you actually se, rather than what ou think you see, the drawing takes care of itself.’

I had deep respect for Gerry Tondino and I think I really finally learned how to deeply appreciate the world around me to see the color, texture and value relationships. To understand how objects exist within a context and it wasn't specifically the thing you looking at but everything around it that helped to define its edge.

In college I would continue to take afterschool watercolor courses thinking that it was more convenient than painting in oils since there was a technical challenge of oil painting taking much longer to dry.

There was something about the immediacy of watercolor that I liked. You had to think fast and plan. Watercolor was the process of painting in the shade and shadows leaving the white of the paper as the light and highlights. In oils, or now acrylic which I use almost exclusively, you are starting from the dark tones and building in layers to bring out the light.

In watercolor there was equally some unpredictability and a learned skill of being able to get certain effects like running a clean wash of graduated blue for a sky over a background or how some pigments we opaque and others transparent, or how colors would interact with each other as water spread across the paper.

I was taking workshops once and the teacher said to me “well it's clear you can draw and you've got, you know, a good hand, but I guess the question really is what do you want to say with the work that you create”

That was a whole different way of thinking that I'd never really spend time with prior to that moment. I painted and drew simply because it was fun.

What did I want to say?...

And so I began to think pretty significantly about what message I wanted to convey or rather what stories the things that I drew or painted I might want to share with other people.

It was interesting when I began to study architecture and think about design of places and things that I was drawn to the same question about what the architecture meant and what stories it would hold over the years that people would use it.

I was always fascinated with traveling and standing within old buildings and wondering what the people wore when they were visiting here hundreds of years ago.

What would they talk about. What was the news of the day or the politics what secrets were being not told as people visited and who came and went from within a building’s walls.

As I moved along my career, thinking about the stories that buildings would hold, it's perhaps not surprising that I somehow serendipitously end up in the world of brand experience place making,

that the places that I would create for retailers would be imbued with a brand narrative and that somehow the buildings, stores or hotels would need to be able to demonstrate that subplot about who the intended user was, what their story was and how the place was a physical expression of both the person and the brand.

Another experience while an architecture school was with a visiting professor and while I don't remember the exact project we were working on, I do remember her saying a phrase including the word “hodological”

Hodological refers to the study of pathways or connections. It's used in fields of neuroscience sometimes thinking about the pathway and connections between neurons and synapses how signals move from one place to the other how information is shared across brain functional areas –

In psychology it talks about things like paths in a person's life space

and in the world of philosophy it might be considered to take in things like the interconnection between ideas a pathway between thought exercises and where one thought leads to another and what conclusions we might draw from that that decision making tree

in terms of geography it’s really is about actual paths, walking paths for example, connection paths between geographic locations thing like trade route paths

The interesting thing about the word hodological is not just that all these years later I clearly recall that word but that it also seemed to me that the idea of ‘transition’ - moving from one place to the other - was very much a part of experience - that we don't stand still in buildings or public squares or on streets, we move and as we move, we naturally have a different experience at every moment.

Sure, there's a gestalt experience of being in Times Square for example but every time we take a step our perspectival view of the context around us ends up changing and every moment technically speaking is also new,

We're are clearly taking in some constants in sensory input but our point of view within that context ends up changing.

I love this idea of walking through space and experiencing it differently with every step. Every step is a different vantage point to learn something new to see something from a different angle.

In a broader sense, my fascination with the nature of change totally aligns with the idea the early -learned term – hodological.

Pathways of change.

Change through experience or experience through change.

We may think that buildings don’t change, but they do, albeit in some cases slowly. And over their lifetime they may be experienced be multitudes each one leaving and taking away a story.

Transitions are important. I might suggest that all the good stuff happens in the in betweenness of moments in time, places and things. Transitions are where learning lives.

Transitions become important as experience makers.

So, things like stairs become fascinating places for architectural study.

It's not surprising that many of the great architects also spend time designing stairways so that transitions between floors were less about a practical matter of moving your body up to a different level, but could be seen as an opportunity to experience new things along the way.

An experiential moment that requires the person’s commitment, to willingly give them self over to the idea of change.

Cities have memories and our bodies have memories of cities. Buildings have memories and our bodies have memories of buildings.

I have expressed before that I believe that there's very much a ‘give and make’ of experience - that we interact and share with the built environment around us and it affects us as well.

We and the environments we spend time in are deeply connected and our experience lives within us, within our bodies, not just within our heads. Our experience of building leaves within us a body memory, a narrative residue of how we felt while in one place or another.

If you look at buildings overtime and understand that they've been used for years, they too have held countless numbers of stories of people that used them. Where they came from. Where they would go back to. Maybe they were transitioning through for a moment. Maybe they were lost and ended up taking a wrong turn and discovering something new.

Those stories of buildings are interesting because it gives a life to architecture beyond stone, steel and glass.

And this is where my guest Charles Leon comes into the story.

Charles is a writer and illustrator of Sketch Journals, including The Kew Sketch Journal.
He is an international speaker and trainer on the Creative Process and how Applied Innovation actually works.
With more than 30 years experience in design, and an extensive knowledge of neuroscience and the working of the creative mind, Charles brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to helping organizations and individuals overcome Innovation Stagnation to achieve Creative Breakthrough.

During the COVID pandemic Charles had a challenge simply staying inside while all of us were held up in our homes for months.

With sketchb ook in hand, Charles saw London England as a hodological space – one to be experiences not in the scientific, objective and measurable sense of streets of a certain distance ad width, buildings of a certain height, pathways connecting purpose driven users or as seen from a 3d person sense

but more in the Jean-Paul Satre sense aptly described in Satre’s essay, "Sketch for a Theory of Emotions," where his city was to be experienced in a lived-existential subjective sense.

One in which he would travel daily, which sketchbook in hand, not always sure about the destination but certain that the path would be one of discovery, connection, and collecting through drawing and painting the memories of the buildings he encountered along the way.

The output of these wanderings yielded 5 volumes in drawings and paintings of learnings about the buildings, their architectural details as well as the stories they revealed from within their walls…

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 76 BUILDING A BRIDGE BETWEEN NEUROSCIENCE AND ARCHITECTURE with Natalia Olszewska Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer @ IMPRONTA

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 01:29:35 +0000

ABOUT NATALIA OLSZEWSKA:

NATALIA'S LINKEDIN PAGE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-olszewska/

COMPANY WEBSITE: improntaspace.com

EMAIL: gardener.natalia@gmail.com

NATALIA'S BIO:

Natalia is a versatile professional with a foundation in medicine and neuroscience, dedicated to applying neuroscientific principles to architectural design. She adeptly connects these two realms, striving to improve our built environment by making it more human-centered and conducive to well-being.
Furthermore, Natalia is an accomplished researcher and practitioner in the field of neuroscience applied to architecture, specializing in evidence-based and neuroscience-informed design. She garnered invaluable experience during her tenure at Hume, a pioneering architectural and urban planning firm founded by Itai Palti, where she led the 'Human Metrics Lab.' Natalia lent her expertise to design projects for prestigious clients such as Arup, Skanska, HKS Architects, EDGE, the Association of Children's Museums, the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, Google, as well as numerous individual clients.
Her interdisciplinary approach transcends boundaries, allowing her to craft built environments that foster individual well-being across various dimensions - social, psychological, and cognitive. Natalia's co-founding role at IMPRONTA, a consultancy specializing in health and well-being design, underscores her commitment to leveraging neuroscience and applied sciences in architecture. Since 2020, she has also been contributing to the NAAD (Neuroscience Applied to Architecture) course at IUAV University in Venice.
Natalia's educational journey is characterized by a distinctive blend of backgrounds, encompassing medicine from Jagiellonian University and Tor Vergata, neuroscience from UCL, ENS, Sorbonne, and neuroscience applied to architectural design from Università IUAV.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

EPISODE 76… and my conversation with Natalia Olszewska.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

On this episode I connect with Natalia Olszewska is a versatile professional with a foundation in medicine and neuroscience, dedicated to applying neuroscientific principles to architectural design.

We’ll get to all of that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…

* * *

For a while now I have had a fascination with the connection between buildings and brains.

While I loved psychology, and studied it before getting into architecture school, it occurred to me in the middle of the 20-teens that buildings, or the environments we design and build, have a direct effect on our psychology.

There are places in which we feel good or bad or uneasy or exhilarated, or a sense of awe or agitation. There are places where we feel calm, and others that make me feel ill at ease.

And all of those feelings have a body sense to them as well. Heart rises or decreases. I sweat more or less. My chest feels tight or relaxed. Cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and other neurochemicals and hormones are released and coursing through my body as I experience places. And many of these hormones and neurochemicals being released into my blood stream I have little control over. My brain-body reacts to environmental stimuli and biochemistry does its thing.

Buildings may make me feel certain way, induce certain emotions, that we may think are just about your thoughts, brain activity, but at the core, our body too is in a relationship with conditions in the environment.

We feel architecture with our bodies, we don’t just intellectually experience them in our heads.

The experience of buildings, and our emotional reactions to them, is as much a ‘bottom-up process’ - our body’s sensory processes taking in stimuli from the environment - as a ‘top-down’ process – our brains processing that sensory information and making decisions about who we should behave in response to them.

Our bodies and brains are in continual dialogue with the world around us. In fact, through a process of neuro plasticity, our brains are wired partly in response to our experiences. Yes we are hard wired through our millions of years of evolution to have what we consider innate responses to the environment and then there are those neuronal connections that area direct result of experiences in the here and now.

As you listen to this podcast, your brain is creating new wiring shaping the neural pathways that allow for learning and behaviors.

And as we repeatedly experience something, those pathways are reinforced facilitating understanding. Those pathways recognize patterns in our experiences, and they are codified so that when we experience them again our brains are not continually trying to decipher every element anew.

If it weren’t for our brain’s ability of recognize patterns and anomalies in them, we would live a life of extreme ground hog day and would likely be immobilized with the processing necessary to analyze every element we encounter every moment of every day. Over millions of years some of these patterns have become deeply ingrained in our neurobiology. They are part of our brain structures that allow us to react instinctually.

You might say that some of them operate ‘below the radar’ of our conscious awareness. But because they are not front row center in our awareness doesn’t mean that they don’t have an influence of our mindbody state.

Colors, lighting, materials, geometries, visual patterns and spatial arrangements, to name of few, have an effect on us. We might not necessarily pay attention to these elements of our environment as we move through it, but they have an effect on us.

We may not consciously feel the influence of these things, but the effects are there, nevertheless.

Acute angles, loud sounds, bright fluorescent lights, certain colors and texture patterns, repetitive and banal patterns, things devoid of detail and out of scale with our human body all have an effect on our sense of well-being.

University of Waterloo cognitive neuroscientist Colin Ellard has worked for more than three decades in the application of psychology and neuroscience to architectural and urban design. His work illustrates the impact of ‘boring buildings’ on how we feel and our sense health and well-being. We humans, it turns out, function and feel better in environments of physical and visual intricacy. We seek our variety and complexity, layered environments that pique our curiosity and sense of intrigue.

And yet…far too many of our built environments at simply banal.

Ellard says the - “The holy grail in urban design is to produce some kind of novelty or change every few seconds,” “Otherwise, we become cognitively disengaged.”

Imagine for a moment what is happening inside our mind-bodies when we live 8 + hours in a sea of detail-less white cubicles under a blanked of fluorescent lights. We might think this is an efficient office space, but we are creating brain numbing environments and at the same time asking people to reach optimal performance in the workplace.

We may wish hotels guests a good night sleep on a heavenly bed and then we fill the room with light that completely counteracts the production of melatonin telling our brain that it is still daytime and to stay alert.

And… we have built city block after city block of repetitive, banality. Efficient to build, very economical yes, but a boredom inducer for the brain.

Now this doesn’t mean that every environment needs to be a rollercoaster for the senses nor be pristine and bucolic. In fact, some environments are better because they are well…messier.

Charles Montgomery, author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design suggest that successful design is about “shaping emotional infrastructure.” Montgomery argues that some of the happier blocks in New York are “kind of ugly and messy.”

The energy of New York can be both energizing and exhausting.

It would be perhaps unfair to heap the responsibility for inhabitants’ psychological and physical well-being entirely on buildings but given that we now spend the overwhelming proportion of our days enclosed in them, it stands to reason that they have a clear effect on how we feel.

For whatever it’s worth, Aarhus, Denmark is the world’s happiest city, according to the London-based Institute for Quality of Life’s 2024 Happy City Index. The Institute for the Quality of Life identified five categories it believes have the most direct impact on happiness, including citizens, governance, economy, mobility and environment.

Based on these factors, Aarhus, Denmark, achieved the highest score, particularly excelling in governance and the environment. I think Copenhagen also held the title at some point I believe due to its building stock being human scale, detailed and varied engendering intrigue and visual delight.

And this is where this episode’s guest Natalia Olszewska comes into the story.

Natalia went to medical school but always had a fascination with architecture. When on a trip to the Venice Biennale it clicked for her that she could combine both of these interests considering that neuroscience could be linked to how buildings make us feel.

The rest as they say is history…

Natalia adeptly connects these two realms, striving to improve our built environment by making it more human-centered and conducive to well-being. Natalia is an accomplished researcher and practitioner in the field of neuroscience applied to architecture, specializing in evidence-based and neuroscience-informed design.

Her interdisciplinary approach transcends boundaries, allowing her to craft built environments that foster individual well-being across various dimensions - social, psychological, and cognitive. Natalia’s co-founding role at IMPRONTA, a consultancy specializing in health and well-being design, underscores her commitment to leveraging neuroscience and applied sciences in architecture.

Since 2020, she has also been contributing to the NAAD (Neuroscience Applied to Architecture) course at IUAV University in Venice a city that is most definitely not boring…

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound.

EP. 75 TIKTOK CONTENT CREATION AND ACCESSIBLE ARCHITECTURE CRITIQUE with Louisa Whitmore TikTok Content Creator and Documentary Host

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 23:03:13 +0000

ABOUT LOUISA WHITMORE:

TIK TOK:

LOUISA'S BIO:

Louisa Whitmore is an architecture content creator on TikTok with over 350K followers, as well as the host of the cable television documentary series “The Nature of Design.”

A former commentator for the USModernist podcast, Whitmore has also worked as a live radio host and PSA producer at CHMA 106.9FM, the local radio station at Mount Allison University, where she’s currently an honors student studying international relations and French.

She enjoys telling stories, and is passionate about sustainable design.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

EPISODE 75… and my conversation with Louisa Whitmore.

he NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Louisa Whitmore is a TikTok creator phenom whose content is about architecture. With almost 400 thousand followers her no holds-barred, straight from the heart and to the point commentary about the buildings she loves and loves to hate, brings a user experience point of view and accessible critique into the mainstream.

We’ll get to all of that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…

* * *

The great thing about doing this podcast is it gives me an opportunity to rethink some of the assertions that have held to be true and cross check whether in fact they are immutable or whether there is room for challenging myself and maybe digging into some subtleties and nuances… and seeing things a different way.

Like for example the idea of criticism – who does it and its value…

I have to admit I haven't been particularly fond of the idea of critics for a very long time. This would be generally true of the kind who dole out the negative kind of commentary.

Years ago when commenting on something, I think it was some art piece, and my son said to me “…dad why is it that you never really say you hate anything…”which I sort of thought was kind of funny then.

I think I responded “…well because I don't really hate anything… I try to always view things from the other side - a different point of view. I try to get beyond the visceral reaction and look to design principles and comment from a place of applying principles to the work and see how they line up…and then make a comment that is based yes on whether I simply like it, the colors, shapes, energy, feeling , may be a message it is trying to impart AND whether I can see the value in it based on principles determined to be generally accepted by experts in the domain…” so yeah I don’t really hate things…

If I apply the idea of casting judgement on art, music, architecture… it got me thinking… again…

What is the value of judgement? Is it to determine the appropriateness of something to a particular context or challenge?

I have my favorite architects and artists and musical performers, I like different styles and periods.

But I don’t listen to heavy metal (though my sons love it). I don’t know that I can say that I hate it. Perhaps I just don’t understand it and maybe if I did, it still wouldn’t jibe with me.

It just doesn’t go in my body well. It’s a sensory mismatch.

I don’t hate it – It makes me agitated. So, I just don’t listen to it.

And I guess you could say the same thing for certain genres of art.

For example… I'm not particularly crazy about a lot of contemporary art.

I have a hard time understanding a performance artist dipping her hair in paint and swinging aloft from a rope while her hair drags across a canvas and the painting while on lookers wrapped in dimly lit light bulbs stand slightly by selling for millions of dollars… it isn't something I quite get.

And I know that authorized replicas of the Marcel Duchamp sculpture called the “Fountain” - which is a urinal - sell for somewhere between 3 and $4 million each

and here's the kicker... apparently because the original has been lost the financial the value of the original piece is unknown and might be considered as being priceless.

I don't know… it sort of leaves me just trying too hard... knowing I'm falling profoundly short of ascending to the intellectualized rarefied air that somehow makes this sort of thing makes sense.

And I also suspect that if I'm voicing these concerns or questions that I am likely to get a lot of people commenting that my remarks point out my ignorance, that I just don't understand and I would …well…agree with them.

I’m ok with that. Really.

And I think I'm not alone in this category of not understanding contemporary art and the extraordinary prices that contemporary art paintings fetch at auctions

and then again maybe if I did, I still wouldn't spend $25 million on a Rothko painting.

The thing about critics, I think, is that we entrust these individuals with being in the know, of having deep insight, knowledge or experience into the making of the art.

That these are people who understand its value and relevancy to culture and somehow able to unfold the deep meaning in the work whatever format the creativity comes in and to bestow upon us their opinion as if it is fact.

The challenge of course is that I think there may be an ignorance in the public and that the deeper inner meaning of things is somehow held in reserve for the creators of the work or select few who follow it.

But I've always had a challenge with the idea that the critic seems to have the extraordinary power to completely destroy the creative work as well as raise it to high levels of adulation and praise.

I think that in some ways we have come to trust to the critic as certainly knowing more than we do and therefore what they say about a particular piece of art or architecture should be taken as truth and the presumed value of the creation lies in whether their commentary is positive or negative.

How many people have not gone to see a movie because it only got 2 stars… and who said it should only have two stars?

Maybe I would have found the comedy hilarious… but not the critic.

I often don't even check reviews by the masses on restaurant or hotel booking sites and if I do read the reviews, I do it very carefully.

I look to see what it was that these people did or didn't like. What it was that made their experience a must see or a definite red tomato.

Personally, I dig to see if there is anything at a lower level that suggests what was driving the positive or negative review? What it was in this message that this particular critic is trying to convey?

I've often thought that to be able to criticize art or other forms of creative invention you'd have to understand what it was the maker was intending to convey.

You'd have to understand the basic ideas, for example, of composition to be able to determine whether a Jackson Pollock or a Kandinsky or a Basquiat was worth all the fuss and on what basis you were making the comments about the work.

I guess it’s not all critics that I have a problem with but maybe more those who simply present negative opinions.

And it’s not like I should even care that critic X didn’t like thing Y. It was their opinion. Okay so they have an opinion.

The challenge is the uninformed may come to accept the opinion as fact and turn away from somethings simply because some one says its not good.

I guess the role of the professional critic is to study and assess the value of a creative work and pass judgment on the product based on facts and logical assertions. This is kind of like knowing a bit about composition before offering an opinion the write something off.

It seems to me that the idea of a critic is to connect ideas, arrive at reasonable conclusions and perhaps open avenues for discussing new directions and fostering an awareness of ideas and cultural trends.

It also seems to me that the role of the critic is to challenge our general assumptions about things to get us to look more deeply at our assertions and to get us to not simply accept things at face value but to continue to search for excellence, challenge the status quo, in all of the things that we bring into the world so that we don't fill it with the mundane or banal.

There's something about the critic as ‘educator’ - increasing our collective level of understanding of things, pointing out where things might likely be improved and offering positive commentary on what might be a series of next steps in order to develop the output and make it better - that I align with.

And I know that the idea of making it ‘better’ is full of all manner of subtext and necessity to consider contextual considerations… ‘better’ for whom, for what and why?

And maybe this is where I mostly land on the idea of the value of the critique is that of using constructive criticism for the value of enhancing people's understanding of a particular subject or giving the creator tools to go back to the drawing board, so to speak, and make it better.

Jazz master saxophonist David Liebman wrote a concise piece on his website called “The Critic Dilemma: Criticism vs. Review”. He describes many of the same ideas about who’s making he comments, are they objective facts or subjective opinions, and why should we trust one critic’s opinion over another? Liebman differentiates between critique and a review:

“…When the writer’s opinion and taste is the focal point, this constitutes a critique. On the other hand, a review should be the dissemination of information with the desired intention being elucidation. The idea is that with this information, the listener is equipped to form his own opinion…”.

And this is where this episode’s guest Louisa Whitmore begins to fit into the story.

When Louisa was 16 years old she began to share architecture commentary on Tik Tok. She blew up the social media sphere with posts that were personal and occasionally pointed.

She came at her critiques of buildings not from the expert or architectural practioner point of view but from that of the user, the general public mindset.

She didn’t profess to be a building expert, to have deep knowledge in construction but rather to simply be part of the general public who experienced the built environment every day but who had little to nothing to do with how buildings got there in the first place.

Her negative commentary on 432 Park Avenue - the luxury condo building designed by Rafael Viñoly and SLCE Architects – lit up the digisphere with 100s of thousands of followers lining up behind her to voice their impressions of this building.

Most of them not very good I might add. Which was actually ok since there was a ton of press – not particularly good I might add – about problems with the building. Now, Louisa didn’t know about these issues about the engineering, the building swaying (which would be natural by the way) and other problems but felt vindicated nevertheless with the press that effectively substantiated her intuitive feelings about this super-tall condo on the Central Park’s edge.

I see her posts more like David Leibman’s construct of the ‘Review’ – “…that with this information, the listener is equipped to form his own opinion…”.

And opinions her followers had. 1000’s of them.

In the spirit of “…the dissemination of information with the desired intention being elucidation…” Whitmore turned her attention to projects thatfocused on Biophilia and how buildings with ample integration of plants seemed to simply feel better.

Her noteriaty on Tik Tok, articulate whit, intuition and ability to articulate the ‘person on the street’s’ perception of the built environment, landed her the role as host of “the cable television documentary series “The Nature of Design”.

Over the course of a number of episodes Whitmore tours properties talking about biophilic principles and with the support of a variety of experts ranging from architects to neuroscientists she dives into the science of how buildings with a biophilic approach effect our well-being…

Whitmore is called a teenage architecture critic. While her rise on social media platforms may have been based on the building she loved to hate, it seems that she is using her notoriety to review and elucidate….

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 74 THE COMPLEX AND EVOLVING WORLD OF DESIGN EDUCATION with Trevor Bullen, Dean of the School of Design at Dunwoody College of Technology

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 9 Jan 2025 02:32:17 +0000

ABOUT TREVOR BULLEN:

LINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-bullen-6b55b615/

DUNWOODY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY: https://www.linkedin.com/school/dunwoody-college-of-technology/

TREVOR'S BIO:

Trevor is the Dean of the School of Design at Dunwoody College of Technology. He is an award-winning architect with over 25 years of professional experience. He has significant international experience; working on a wide range of architecture, landscape architecture and planning projects in Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. In addition to his role as Dean, Trevor has taught architectural design at the Boston Architectural College, the City College of New York as well as the University of Minnesota and is a frequent guest critic at schools of architecture nationwide.

Prior to joining Dunwoody, he was a Senior Associate and Director of Operations at Snow Kreilich Architects, the recipient of the 2018 AIA Architecture Firm Award. From 2000 to 2016, he co-founded and led an architecture and planning studio on the island of Grenada, completing more than 30 built projects. The work of his firm has been published extensively in journals and books as well as being exhibited at the 2021 Architecture Biennale in Venice.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

EPISODE 74… and my conversation with Trevor Bullen.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Trevor is the Dean of the School of Design at Dunwoody College of Technology. He is an award-winning architect with over 25 years of professional experience who believes that design and teaching architecture is synonymous with discernment.

We’ll get to all of that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…

* * *

When I think back to my architecture education, it seems like another universe to today’s practice. And then again, in some ways it is much the same.

Architecture school was 4 long years of hard work and all-nighters that, at the time, we wore as a badge of honor. It seemed that there was never enough time to do what we were being asked to accomplish. Or maybe I was trying to do more than was necessary to fulfill the learning objectives.

I certainly felt I had a lot to prove since it had taken me a couple of years to finally get accepted into the program after not doing particularly well at calculus and linear algebra in junior college. I also took extra math in fifth grade.

Yeah… math wasn’t my thing.

Or at least it wasn’t my thing until I had a good tutor in second year who helped me understand that I was visual spatial learner and if I could draw or make models of the problems they would all make sense.

Seeing algorithms… my eyes would roll back in my head.

Anyway…I stuck with it, took every drawing class I could, loved design studio and managed the engineering.

I was proud to graduate from the McGill School of Architecture school, go on to study for my licensing exams - another series of all-nighters – pass and be able to enter the profession of reserved title and call myself an “Architect.”

I was proud to wear the traditional pinky-finger white gold ring with 7 notches in it representing the 7 Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin. Ruskin was an English polymath – a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. The Seven Lamps were seven principles which Ruskin viewed should be reflected in a building: Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and Obedience.

The white gold ring was a tradition of McGill 4th year architecture graduates, as symbols of having legitimately put the time in, done the work on the design thesis and survived it.

In those days we drew our projects by hand and built models in the workshop. We got our hands dirty. There were 4 years of design studio projects that, in the real world, would take months or more, and we were trying to get them done in weeks.

Back in those days, the mid 80’s, Computer Aided Design was emerging as a new tool. I remember that we had to take a class in computer programming – I think it was Fortran or something – and we had dinosaur computers that some students were playing around with to create drawings.

In the mid-80’s email didn’t exist, or not to students in any case,

Cell phones had just arrived with the Morotrola DynaTec 8000 which was the size of a brick and weighed almost the same,

We used this thing called a fax machine that magically sent images across the telephone wires and could print it out on the other end on thermal paper (which you didn’t want to leave on the window sill, because it would fade away),

The blue print shop was an ammonia fumigated workplace where diazo prints, as they were technically called, were actually blue hence the term “blue prints.”

We used pencils or ink pens on paper or mylar, and if you screwed up you actually used an eraser to rub the error out and you drew it again.

I remember one of my first summer jobs in an architecture office, I was quickly assigned renderings due to my love of drawing. I had made some mistakes when plotting out a perspective using the Plan Projection Method, and I was erasing what I had drawn. One of the principals came by my desk, stopped, watched and then remarked “hey… we hired you to draw not erase…” and then walked away.

Nice…

Our go to reference books were by Francis D.K Ching – ah… the drawings and hand lettering in “Architecture Construction Illustrated”, or “Form Space and Order”

And… the social media, google, Ai and computer generated 3D modeling didn’t exist.

It wasn’t until around 2005 or so that Facebook became popular and the iPhone came out in 2007.

Then the world seemed to shift on it axis and life as we know it was on the path towards Artificial General Intelligence and all of the miraculous - and scary - things we are now so familiar with shaped our everyday lives.

The world sped up and the way I learned in university was both a thing of the past and then again it wasn’t.

Many of the ways architecture is taught are similar to my experience. Courses are taught as individual, disaggregated subjects, that graduates have to piece together in actual life experience. A wholistic approach to learning the discipline of architecture is not generally the norm.

Which when you consider all of the components of a building it is a challenge since everything is connected to everything and the amount of ‘everything’ in a building can indeed be overwhelming if you try to consider it all at the same time.

The number of professional and skilled labor disciplines is enormous. And most of us simply see buildings as ‘fait a complis’ – completed works - with no idea what actually had to be wrangled to go from concept to completed construction.

Going back to social media and the internet for a moment, students now have never known a time without ubiquitous access to the world’s information through the internet.

The tools for designing buildings have changed.

One could say it is easier to some degree now.

Computer programs manage all of the interrelationships between engineering, architecture, building systems, interior design elements, as well as the cost estimating, construction management and more.

It is also easier to rely on tools to think for you and disconnect you from discernment – one of the key features of the architects’ role in puting a building together.

And this is where my guest on this episode comes into the frame. Trevor Bullen is the Dean of the School of Design at Dunwoody College of Technology.

Trevor is an award-winning architect with over 25 years of professional experience.

He has significant international experience, working on a wide range of architecture, landscape architecture and planning projects in Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States.

In addition to his role as Dean, Trevor has taught architectural design at the Boston Architectural College, the City College of New York as well as the University of Minnesota and is a frequent guest critic at schools of architecture nationwide.

He believes in introducing real world problems into the architecture curriculum so that students begin to understand the relationships between theory and practice as well as that good projects are built on good relationships between architects and their clients.

He suggests to students that new tools should not supplant their discernment –

That key to their success as a professional will be their ability to consider the multitude of factors in building design, determine what matters and to not let the remarkable tools that are afforded us through the development of computer aided design relace their voice.

Trevor pushes the idea that great advances in visualization with Ai should not be and end in itself but a means to that end.

The tools should be a part of the process not the end point in the evolution of a concept and that their personal voice, point of view, vision should not be lost in the use of the app.

And in Trevor’s experience, oh what a voice students of today have.

Projects are influenced by subjects of racial equity, restorative justice, indigeneity, political orientations, sustainability and climate change and more.

And this, it seems to me, is what architecture has always been partly about – the 3-dimensional representation of cultural ideologies.

Architecture and ideas are inseparable.

Buildings stand as testaments to what we believe, want to influence and aspire to. They are much more than the materials that bring them into being or the space planning at accommodate human interactions. They are epicenters of human relationships imbued with stories and meaning.

That said, it brings to mind the famous quote by Marshal McLuhan - "The medium is the message."

McLuhan suggested that the way information or an idea is communicated, like in a television broadcast, newspaper, social media post or I dare say architecture, has as much impact on the message itself as the content of the message.

I think that this suggests that the form of communication, even if the form of architecture, significantly influences how the message is perceived by the audience.

In architecture parlance – I think Mies van der Rohe phrased it as “Form Follows Function.”

If beyond utility, architecture is made to convey ideas, then its Form, Space and Order are brought together as a 3-dimension embodiment of them.

Thinking back to my architecture education, the tools of today’s professional practice have drastically changed and some of my classmates when on to other careers other than being architects,

but the education we got then gave us a understating of the interconnectedness of things and the ability to solve multilayered challenges while wielding stone, steel, glass, light all forged into a unified whole by learned discernment.

Teaching discernment is not just in the service of good building design and construction, it is a life skill as emerging students navigate the volatile, unpredictable, complex and often ambiguous world that face them beyond their architecture degree.

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP.73 Creating Rhyme and Reason in Retail Design with Mardi Najafi, Principal, Chief Creative Officer, and Retail & Hospitality Practice Lead at SDI Design

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 18:50:57 +0000

ABOUT MARDI NAJAFI:

LINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mardi-najafi-rdi-idc-772b1328/

MARDI'S BIO:

Mardi Najafi is an award-winning, multidisciplinary designer with over 30 years of experience at the forefront of the design world. A visionary leader in the field, Mardi believes that design has the power to evoke emotion, create unforgettable experiences, and leave a lasting impact. His work spans a diverse range of high-profile retail environments, from intimate boutiques to large-scale, branded experiences for some of the world’s most iconic companies, including Coca-Cola, Adidas, Virgin Mobile, Telus, Loblaws, Penguin Random House, Keilhauer, and Versace. His global portfolio reflects his ability to blend innovation and cultural context, with projects across Paris, New York, Toronto, and beyond.

As the Principal, Chief Creative Officer, and Retail & Hospitality Practice Lead at SDI Design, Mardi is passionate about pushing the boundaries of design to craft immersive, transformative environments that captivate audiences. Known for his attention to detail and his ability to seamlessly merge art and commerce, he excels at creating spaces that are not only visually striking but also deeply meaningful and engaging. His work continues to redefine the retail landscape, setting new standards for brand experiences that resonate long after customers leave.

Beyond his design practice, Mardi is an active voice in the industry as an accomplished speaker, educator, and panelist. He is deeply committed to fostering innovation, sharing his expertise with the next generation of designers through mentorship and his involvement in various professional advisory committees. A lifelong advocate for education, Mardi has taught at prestigious design schools around the world, inspiring students and shaping the future of the design community.

In 2023, Mardi was honored as the first Canadian inductee into the Retail Design Institute's prestigious Legions of Honor, recognizing his exceptional contributions to the field. He is also currently serving as the President of the Retail Design Institute Canada, where he continues to shape industry standards and advocate for the advancement of design excellence.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

EPISODE 73… and my conversation with Mardi Najafi.

On the podcast, our dynamic dialogues based on our acronym DATA - design, architecture, technology, and the arts crosses over disciplines but maintains a common thread of people who are passionate about the world we live in and human’s influence on it, the ways we craft the built environment to maximize human experience, increasing our understanding of human behavior and searching for the New Possible.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Mardi Najafi is the Principal, Chief Creative Officer, and Retail & Hospitality Practice Lead at SDI Design.

We discuss his life of growing up the son of an Iranian diplomat, a professional path through the fashion, exhibit design and retail industries and how teaching is about giving back to young designers in their fledgling careers…

We’ll get to all of that in a moment but first, a few thoughts…

* * *

There are interviews that I have done over the past 73 episodes that have been specifically about a person’s work,

There have been those that have been about a brand or product category,

Or the study of neuroscience and its role in experience making,

We’ve delved into art and creativity, leadership, climate issues, and many other subjects.

And there are other interviews that I have done that focused in on a person’s career path, how their experiences brought them to where they are today. In these cases, I often find that my guest and I identify how serendipity stepped in front of them as they careened through a career, how taking the road less traveled lead them to creative professional journeys that were unexpected, and how a shift in their mindset resulted in profoundly rewarding roles at companies or with personal and professional relationships.

I love discussions about serendipity – how our life paths seem to be guided by novel circumstances that were unforeseen, yet when confronted with them, we found a moment to step aside from our pre-determined story, one that we might have created with specific objectives, a place to be at some future moment, and in the midst of new circumstances, a choice was to be made about what the next move would be without really knowing where it would lead.

There seems to be some magic in this process – a sense of wonder that keeps the creative spirit alive. There is also a good dose of courage needed at the nexus of ‘now and next, when a calling summons new thinking and a re-evaluation of our pre-suppositions about how things are supposed to be now, or in the future, need re-evaluation.

I think it is often the case with creative paths or projects.

To start out knowing where you are going would suggest that you have you have already been. To start out with the end in mind creates a path of production, of doing, rather than one of seminal discoveries along the way.

There is something in the unknowing that I believe maintains the creative path as an adventure, one where in the doing of the thing we are continuously discovering rather than just in production mode.

In the discovering, we remain engaged, learning, exploring and the path is laid out as we move along it. However… being in a place of unknowing, can be fear inducing since I think we so often like the assuredness of the pre-determined and predicable.

I have found this particularly true in teaching at universities in design fields. Students don’t like the unpredictable so much. Many prefer the determinism of knowing where their projects will eventually end up. But I think in taking this approach we short circuit the opportunity to discover something new – something we could not have predicted but when discovered, results in a sense of awe that shifts our perspective and maybe our purpose.

And I think it takes courage to follow a set of rules about designing something, call it strategy, and let the rules of the strategy guide the process. As we pursue the path of the work the rules help to guide decisions that make the next step self-evident. Then the next, and the next and so on, until a conclusion to the process meets the requirements of the design brief.

Assuming the strategy is well founded, you can rely on the rules to guide the process and decision-making. Along the design path, all decisions can be cross-referenced against the strategy and the outcomes that don’t align with the determined set of rules can be set aside in a preference for the ones that best exemplify them.

Then there is the emergence of circumstances that throw you a curve ball – conditions shift within which you have little control – and your path necessarily changes. The resilience and the flexible mindset that is required in these moments are factors that influence your ability to adjust – to find yourself in a place of positive transformation or maybe to simply survive.

I have found that the key to positive transformation is to keep saying yes to serendipity. To loosen the rigidity in my mindset and welcome the unexpected.

It can be a struggle because I have generally been geared to knowing where I’m going. I don’t mind saying that I have long preferred the predictable over the mercurial.

It is at times not easy, but these moments of re-alignment with new realities can be the success factor supporting our determination to keep going and to leverage the “new” for the purpose of re-making ourselves. I think that in this, there is a sense of agency. I think that we are, in fact, in little control of anything but for our own reactions to adversity or the everchanging circumstances of life.

Perhaps this is the proverbial ‘making lemonade out of lemons.’ When life gives you lemons… you know… make lemonade.

And this is where the life path of my guest in this episode comes in. Mardi Najafi has had a colorful host of experiences influencing his professional path.

Having grown up the son of an Iranian Diplomat, he was schooled in multiple countries including Iran, France and Russia.

He was conscripted into Iranian military service and made a friend with whom he, after his release from service, created a business bringing watches into Iran. That adventure eventually allowed him to earn enough money to buy his father’s release from prison and ironically lead to a career in design.

After a building a successful professional track record working in Europe, he landed in Canada where he fostered his interest in retail design.

In 2023, Mardi was honored as the first Canadian inductee into the Retail Design Institute's prestigious Legion of Honor, recognizing his exceptional contributions to the retail design field. He is also currently serving as the President of the Retail Design Institute Canada, where he continues to shape industry standards and advocate for the advancement of design excellence.

His work spans a diverse range of high-profile retail environments, from intimate boutiques to large-scale, branded experiences for some of the world’s most iconic companies, including Coca-Cola, Adidas, Virgin Mobile, Telus, Loblaws, Penguin Random House and Versace.

Mardi is deeply committed to fostering innovation, sharing his expertise with the next generation of designers through mentorship and his involvement in various professional advisory committees.

After having a few conversations with Mardi, I would say he lands squarely in the camp of actually following Robert Frost’s ‘Road Not Taken’ welcoming the discovery born of life’s moment of significant change - even when it is uncomfortable.

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.72 BUILDING BETTER BUYING EXPERIENCES BY USING BRAIN SCIENCE with Tara Haase Hieminga, Elevated Shopper Experience, Global Lead, Mondelez International

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:10:05 +0000

ABOUT TARA HAASE HIEMINGA:

LINKEDIN PROFILE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-haase-hieminga-48124621/

TARA'S BIO:

Tara Haase Hieminga is the Elevated Shopper Experience Global Lead at Mondelez International. With more than 12 years at Mondelez he has previously held roles such as Senior Manager Shopper Marketing & In-Store Merchandising, Sr. Manager Design & Digital Engagement. Prior to Mondelez, Tara was at Kraft Food Group as the Design Strategy Leader and before that, she worked for Mars as the Brand Manager, Candy and In-Store Marketing Manager for Snackfoods.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

EPISODE 72… and my conversation with Tara Haase Hieminga.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

Tara Haase Hiemanga who is the Global Lead for Elevated Shopper Experiences at Mondelez.

She is using an understanding of neuroscience to enhance customer experiences across a number of the Mondelez brands. What brands are those, well there is a pretty big list but let me just say a few of my favorites – OREO, Toblerone, Cadbury, Wheat Thins and I could go on…

We’ll get to all of that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…

* * *

Back around 2008, 9 and 10 my wife was studying interpersonal neurobiology with Dr. Dan Siegel.

I used to come downstairs and listen to her and all the videos she was watching and various conversations she was having and I was often saying ‘wow that really replies to the work that I'm doing in trying to create retail stores.’

As I listened it became clearer and clearer to me that I could perhaps rely on the lessons of understanding neuroscience as being the core driver to customer experience rather than simply thinking of it in terms of psychology, demographics and culture.

What fascinated me then and still continues today is the idea that – there was something beyond simple psychology that we would be able to use to design better stores something that would relate to almost all humans in terms of how they understood environments specifically how they would look through product assortments, identify key item presentations, understand graphics, and how color, pattern and texture would all come together to either hinder or help decision making in the shopping aisle.

Interestingly, back in the day, it took me a little while to get into architecture. I'd had a great time in junior college but my grades weren't great so I ended up enrolling in a Bachelor of Science in psychology which I was fascinated in anyway because I wanted to understand human dynamics but, I also had a sense that there was something deeply rooted and not just how buildings looked from the design point of view and but how they made people feel from an embodied / sensory point of view.

And so, when I finally got into architecture a lot of my thinking about design was about how these places that we were creating would have qualities about them that would make people feel a certain way.

I sometimes used to say that I didn't care whether you loved it or hated it (of course I hoped you loved it) but I wanted to make sure that you felt something as you were experiencing some place.

And that later in my retail design career that you were satisfied with the experiences as well as the things that you bought in the store.

In 2012 I did a presentation at global shop that was ostensibly about emotions and how we had to begin to understand that creating stores was about building emotional relationships and long term connections and then the awareness of how empathy played into this equation.

This single presentation was a turning point in my career because someone came up to me at the end of it and said “…that idea should be a book.”

And so, taking that as a sign…I was on my way to immersing myself for the next couple of years in writing “Retail (r)Evolution: why creating right brain stores will shape the future of shopping in the digitally driven world. “

In the book I really dug into the nature of shopping as a cultural phenomena; it's power across the ages to tie together ideas and commerce

the growth of shopping places around the world from the intersections of silk trade routes to the mega malls of North America and I also dug into brain science.

In fact over a third of the book deals with understanding functional areas of the brain and how if we we're able to appreciate more how our gift in perception through our body was directly tied to our emotional connections and long term memory could be used - that all shoppers and retailers would be better off.

I tried to explain it this way: imagine you're in your car - what I'd like you to do is write down 5 things that make the engine of your car run now if you're actually in your car while listening to this, do not start to write down these five things but hold them in your head as an idea what are the five things that make your car engine run? OK got 5 of them?

Now, I want you to think about your brain and think of five things that make you run - through your engine - in other words your brain.

The strange thing is and I've done this at multiple presentations around the world people are more apt to be able to describe 5 things that make the engine of their car run where they might spend 2 hours a day in rather than being able to identify more than two things that make themselves run ( the functional areas of their brain) that they spend 24hrs a day in.

I also put forward the following proposition:

- if we understood that all of our behaviors, thoughts and feelings are run by our brain-body connection, how is it possible that we could be designing stores and not have any clue about the very thing that is so influential in making decisions in the shopping aisle and our willingness to maintain relationships with the brands we love?

So, it became a little bit of a career mission to bring the understanding of neuroscience to the retail design masses hoping that they would understand the power of the brain-body and design and creating effective selling spaces.

Now, the other influence here was the emergence of digital technologies and how that was fundamentally changing the way our brains were being wired.

With the idea that the more you use a functional area of your brain the more you maintain its wiring between neurons and the less used something is the more though the brain goes on a wonderful topiary garden creating extravaganza trimming away neural pathways that are not being used.

This whole subject is referred to as “synaptic pruning” and fits together neatly with an idea around “neuroplasticity” - how your brain changes over time in relation to the things that you're exposed to in the patterns of behavior you engage in.

So my premise then was: - if you are increasingly not using certain areas of your brain related to the exercise of empathy in face to face embodied interactions with other people like we continually do by communicating through our digital devices, what does that mean for the pathways for empathy in our brains and how we communicate with others?

If stores were about empathic engagement, we might have a significant challenge ahead of us.

In other words, if we are communicating less and less in embodied, face-to-face ways, what happens to the neural pathways built for empathic connection if we are using them less?

Does synaptic pruning play a role here eventually diminishing our ability to engage in empathic extension?

This became particularly interesting when you began to look at an entire cohort of emerging customers whose lives were very much directed by their interaction through social media that works and the digital devices they held in their hands.

That is the subject of a bigger and equally interesting conversation which I'll save for another podcast but for now let’s continue to focus on trying to understand what actually motivates people in the shopping aisle there have been fantastic studies that I came across the work of Baba Shiv and how decision making was made in the shopping aisle in relation to the potential for customers cognitive overload how they decided to choose one thing or another or the work of Sheena Iyengar who did a famous study of jams and the idea that a huge selection did not infact increase more purchases and satisfaction in the products chosen.

There are now a heft of studies that are available that continue to reinforce the fact that people's behavior in the shopping aisle is not fully conscious. Much of it happens below the conscious awareness radar.

We are driven by our emotions and our collective history of hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution that gear our brains, regardless of culture, religious or sexual orientation political affiliation or where you live in the world, that we all to some degree are reacting from the same baseline of brain activity in the brain’s functional areas that we all have.

Over the past 10 years there have been a number of organizations that have emerged focusing on the relationship between neuroscience and the built environment.

The ANFA - the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture would be one of them.

Another would be the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association whose conferences around the world bring together neuroscientists, designers, architects, retailers and brands to talk about the influence that neuroscience could play in creating more effective shopping places.

So, I am a huge advocate for trying to understand how we work and the neural mechanisms that influence our behavior beyond our psychology.

The whole idea here is that if we knew a little bit more about how your brain worked, you might likely not do some of the things you do as an architect or designer creating retail or brand experience places thinking it matters when in fact it's completely off of the awareness radar and probably has little influence on how people react while in stores.

And so we come now to my interview with Tara Haase Hiemanga who is the Global Lead for Elevated Shopper Experiences at Mondelez.

So… when I say Mondelez you may not know the parent brand but I'm quite sure that you know some, if not all, of these brands and products that might be in your diet every single week.

The Mondelez brands include: Cadbury chocolate and Dairy Milk, Chips Ahoy cookies, Clorets, Halls, the famous Oreo cookie, Philadelphia cream cheese, Ritz crackers, Tang apparently the drink that the astronauts used to have back in the day, Wheat Thins and Toblerone.

Do you know some of those brands?

Yeah I thought you probably did.

Last spring I was attending the SHOP Marketplace event and onto the stage comes Tara Haase Hieminga and a consultant from the company Sellcheck.

They proceeded to talk about how they were using neuroscience to enhance shopper experiences across their assortment of products.

Now if you've ever walked down the snack aisle at your local grocery store, I am quite sure that you are familiar with the sea of merchandise that exists there.

Hundreds of brands all selling within the same category and the question is how does a brand stand out or how do you as a consumer, if you don't already know your brand that you want to buy, decide to buy anything?

If you follow the neuroscience, it can be quite a challenge for the brain to unpack most of what's in that shopping aisle.

On the other hand, if you consider neuroscience you can begin to understand how people make decisions about what they want to buy and be able to do things in terms of your packaging, your product positioning, shelf graphics, the language you use on your packaging to enhance the likelihood that customers will give you deeper consideration and maybe buy more than they anticipated.

And that's exactly what Tara, Sellcheck and Mondelez is doing across their portfolio brands. They have begun to see the incredible impact of implementing neuroscience principles to the design of their packaging, point of purchase presentations and shelf displays so that the customers that they have, or ones they hope to acquire, will be attracted to their product, understand the messaging and end up with more than one bag of snacks in their shopping cart.

I wish that Tara and I would have had hours to discuss the intricacies of neuroscience and shopping behavior and how it relates to the design of products and in store presentations.

This is a subject that I believe all of us should have intimate knowledge.

Since I have never met a retailer who wanted to have a bad experience for their customers, I would suggest that implementing a deep understanding of our innate neurobiological hardware is critical.

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.71 RETAIL PRIDE: MOVING THE RETAIL MINDSET FROM ACCIDENTAL TO PROUDLY INTENTIONAL with Ron Thurston, Co-Founder OSSY, Best selling author of “Retail Pride”

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 3 Oct 2024 16:43:57 +0000

ABOUT RON THURSTON:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rthurston/

Websites:

Retail Pride book: https://www.amazon.com/Retail-Pride-Celebrating-Accidental-Career/dp/1544515928

OSSY: https://www.useossy.com

Retail In America podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/retail-in-america/id1618323713

Ron Thurston's Bio:

Ron Thurston's life mission is to celebrate, elevate, and empower the people and spirit of the retail industry.
With over three decades of leading retail stores and operations for top American brands like Gap, West Elm, Apple, Tory Burch, Bonobos, and Saint Laurent, Ron has honed an extensive skill set in retail strategy, management, and innovation.

In January 2024, Ron co-founded OSSY, a forward-thinking retail recruiting agency. This venture is dedicated to addressing the biggest hiring and recruiting challenges in retail, reinforcing Ron’s unwavering commitment to the industry.

As the best-selling author of RETAIL PRIDE, Ron inspires retail professionals to embrace their unique career paths. He also hosted the RETAIL IN AMERICA podcast and tour, journeying across the nation in an Airstream trailer during 2022/2023 to uncover and highlight the remarkable stories and individuals in retail.

Ron also serves on the Advisory Boards of several rapidly growing retail tech companies, including Ometria, Butterfly, and YOOBIC, lending his expertise to drive their success.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

EPISODE 71… and my conversation with Ron Thurston, retail veteran, best-selling author, podcast host and man on a mission to celebrate, elevate, and empower the people and spirit of the retail industry.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this 70th episode I talk with Samar Younes is a Beirut-born hybrid artist, futurist, and creative catalyst whose work embodies a transcultural approach.

Ron Thurston has spent years opening stores for major internationally recognized brands and knows a thing or two about a career in retail. In our talk we dig into the shifting the mindset of retail being an accidental career to one of choice, about with you should be proud.

We’ll get to all that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…

* * *

Throughout my career in the retail design world I have often heard this statement “I never planned to be in retail”.

And it's often said with some slight lilt of apology, that in a way somehow as an architect it was somehow not taken quite as seriously as the design of public buildings or housing or other things that architects with a capital “A” do.

What's more, when I entered into the retail design world, quite by serendipity I might add, I came into the design of stores by way of visual merchandising. I was the resident architect of a small 4 personn design and visual merchandising consulting firm on 36th street just east of Park.

Working with a couple of seasoned pros, I learned that visual merchandisers were often regarded simply as window trimmers and I don't think quite got the respect that they were due for the power they had in shaping the retail experience for customers.

Often seen as the silent seller, visual merchandising was a key component to how the customer journey unfolded in a shopping experience. Mannequins and other displays in the store added that extra flavor to the store as a stage set in which the merchandise was the principal actor.

Architecture wasn’t unimportant, but it wasn’t the be all and end all of the in-store experience. You could have terrific architecture but if you couldn't get your assortment planning right department layouts an in store messaging you were likely not to perform quite as well.

It was through my first employer and mentor Joe Weishar of New Vision Studios in New York that I began to really understand the power of visual merchandising in the store designers toolbox

and that it couldn't be simply left to be an afterthought but had to be integral to the initial strategic design thinking of how a store would be laid out.

Where those special moments of surprise and delight would occur often had little to do with architecture but a lot to do with theatrics, art, marketing, graphics – in short, storytelling.

Going back to that comment a moment ago about serendipity finding me and putting me firmly in the world of retail design, it does very much align with the often heard message that “I didn't plan to be in retail.” It is in fact true, that one now is an architecture I had no awareness and probably no interest in designing stores for a living.

But, that said, I actually had no shame about being in retail.

Retail combined all the things that I loved:

stage set design, industrial design architecture, marketing, consumer behavior, trend analysis, fashion and advertising - all of these disciplines came together in the experience that a brand or retailer would provide for their customers.

The fact of the matter is, that the exchange of goods and services otherwise know as ‘retail,’ is one of the key cornerstones of cultures around the world.

Exchange has always been tied with ideas and that makes it extremely powerful. And, these ideas change over time influenced by the comings and goings of merchants and trends and technologies.

It seems to me, and this comes from someone who was educated trained and licensed as an architect, that retail locations are probably more frequented by the general population than are the major civic buildings that would have been typically called “architecture” in the past.

Think about it, when was the last time that you went to a post office, a library, an Opera House, a government building, a church, synagogue, or mosque or a courthouse?

When did you last walk the campus of a university or visit a museum?

And I am sure that there are some of you who will say well I did all of those yesterday but I'd also hazard a guess that they would be in the minority.

now, when was the last time you went to a store a shopping mall a department store or used your phone to buy something from Amazon or some other online company?

The point here is that shopping is so deeply ingrained in our everyday lives that it's inextricably tied to how we come to understand the world around us.

Shopping places therefore are important and even though many people who work in the retail space find their way there as a transition between the end of one semester and the beginning of another.

Students or younger members of our society are not the only people who find meaningful work in retail and who ultimately end up building their entire careers around working for retailer or brand or some company in the design and construction industry who's connected to designing and building stores.

And somehow our society has often placed a judgment on what type of retail you might likely be engaged in.

I have often heard the position that price point of product is somehow equated to pride in a sales associate’s work or price of products being a precursor to better service but this should not be the case. Experiences in retail stores should not be better if the products it sells are expensive.

Service should be excellent across the product price spectrum of retail experiences.

In fact we've all probably had experiences where being in high priced stores did not render necessarily better service.

The point is that you need to strip away what you sell and deliver high levels of experience regardless of the product or the service that you're providing to your customers.

Providing great service often has to do with how people connect to others and the level of emotional intelligence that sales associates bring to their job every day. Which also suggests that the way we train sales associates in customer interaction protocols might likely be less about the rubric of sequential steps on how to connect – first you do this, say that, then do this, and say that – but might likely be more effective if you train on why we all need emotionally resonant, empathic connection – how empathy is built into our collective DNA.

And this is where my guest, Ron Thurston comes into the story.

Ron suggests that empathy, curiosity and focus translate into every job in retail. He believes that we need to teach human connection rather than sales training. I would bet that most of us can spot the ‘sales pitch’ a mile away. We could almost speak the script because we have been exposed to it too many times.

Ron Thurston's life mission is to celebrate, elevate, and empower the people and spirit of the retail industry.

Core to his philosophy is to stop referring to your career in retail as “accidental” because you diminish you own power. Its ok to say “I choose to be the best sales associate, leader or stock person and I am proud of my role in the world of retail.”

With over three decades of leading retail stores and operations for top American brands like Gap, West Elm, Apple, Tory Burch, Bonobos, and Saint Laurent, Ron has honed an extensive skill set in retail strategy, management, and innovation.

I was happy to catch up with Ron Thurston after his key note presentation at the SHOP Marketplace event and sit down for a great talk…

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP. 70 AI AND THE NEW DATA CANVAS OF CREATIVE COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE with Samar Younes, Founder SAMARITUAL

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 22:53:35 +0000

ABOUT SAMAR YOUNES:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samaryounes/

Websites:

bio.site/samaritual
www.samaritual.com

Bio:

Samar Younes is a Beirut-born hybrid artist, futurist, and creative catalyst whose work embodies a transcultural approach. As the visionary behind SAMARITUAL, a multidisciplinary creative studio, she weaves multidimensional narratives at the intersection of humanity, technology, and nature. With over 20 years of experience as an artistic director and brand strategist, Samar blends generative AI with artisanal craftsmanship and ancestral wisdom to create immersive experiences that challenge stereotypes and envision nuanced futures.

A Central Saint Martins alumna, Samar's work explores global south futures, otherworldly narratives, and interspecies harmonies through three interconnected spheres: Creator, Catalyst, and Cultivator. As a Creator, she crafts visionary artworks and installations that blur the lines between art, fashion, and architecture. In her Catalyst role, she provides strategic foresight and cultural alchemy for organizations navigating our evolving world. As a Cultivator, she nurtures future creativity through her Imaginalogy hybrid future edu lab, empowering individuals with tools and perspectives to thrive in an ever-changing creative landscape in the age of AI.

Samar's transcultural perspective allows her to seamlessly integrate diverse cultural influences, creating a unique aesthetic and transcultural language symbiotic to her diasporic and third culture experience. Using a neuroaesthetic lens, she celebrates kaleidoscopic identities that resist binary categorizations. Through SAMARITUAL, Samar fosters interconnectedness, radical imagination, and visionary world-building, inviting us to participate in crafting inclusive, sustainable narratives that bridge ancestral wisdom with speculative futures.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

Well here we are…SEASON 6…our 70th episode. And we’ve had some great interactions in the first 69.

This season will be no less engaging.

In the coming weeks we’ll have artists, architects, authors and educators. We dig into tech issues with people who make crafting a digital future their lives work. Scientists who will expand our understand of the way we work and how the environments around us work on us.

These dynamic dialogues based on our acronym DATA - design, architecture, technology, and the arts crosses over disciplines but maintains a common thread of people who are passionate about the world we live in and human’s influence on it, the ways we craft the built environment to maximize human experience, increasing our understanding of human behavior and searching for the New Possible.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this 70th episode I talk with Samar Younes is a Beirut-born hybrid artist, futurist, and creative catalyst whose work embodies a transcultural approach.

Samar blends generative AI with artisanal craftsmanship and ancestral wisdom to create immersive experiences that challenge stereotypes and envision nuanced futures.

First though, a few thoughts…

* * *

At the core of this podcast is the idea of fostering “dynamic dialogues on data DATA” an acronym to include Architecture, Design, Technology and the Arts.

Of course, the idea of talking about DATA is that it's a double entendre that allows me to dive into subjects about the impact that a data-driven society has on a myriad aspects of our human experience.

Since writing my book “Retail Revolution: Why creating right brain stores will shape the future of shopping in a digitally driven world,” I've had a persistent interest in studying how technological advances are reshaping the way we interact with each other and the world around us.

The impact on various industries - commercial enterprises like the retail and hospitality worlds where I have built a 30 year career. And I've often chosen to discuss how artists and creators of all kinds can wield this amazing tool of data as a new medium for the creation of places where we can interact and connect in relevant ways.

At both a city level or small footprint retail store level, I've looked at how digital technologies have grown beyond touch screen interfaces and wayfinding devices to fully immersive environments that deeply affect the way we experience a brand, a product assortment, entertainment venues, a night out for dinner a hotel museums or libraries…the list could go on.

In many of my discussions with guests in previous seasons, when we've talked about the emergence of digital technologies, there have been the obvious concerns about how AI and super intelligence could begin to replace humankind.

While I don't discount the possibility of those dystopian views being possible, I've tended to land on the side of thinking about technology and its extraordinary capacity for creating and making - or for ‘making right,’ some of the things that design, even though some of the things that we have designed into the world have been extremely successful in supporting human advancement, have resulted in other challenges that we now face like the global climate crisis.

We've looked at how technologies have been used for pure entertainment as well as applying technology to new approaches in farming. We’ve had guests with whom I have talked about how technological advancements in neuroscience have allowed us to understand more about how the human brain's capacity to spontaneously create, as in a jazz improvisation, and how that is even possible.

Across the 70 episodes that we've published we've intentionally cut across a wide range of subjects. That has been intentional because I happen to believe that everything is connected to everything - that we live in a world of intricate interdependencies where nothing exists in a vacuum and everything in some way either directly, physically, or energetically impacts everything else.

And so, when we talk about things like artificial intelligence, we don't do that in a vacuum either. My guests tend to understand the interrelationship of these extraordinary advances in technologies and that they are derived from a human hand or a human brain.

This idea of the touch of a hand is important to me because I've always believed that there's something magical in making.

That one of the clear defining features of humankind is that we are makers - that we make things that make other things.

I've said this often before - birds make nests and so do the great apes but they don't make nests that create other nests on their own.

I think that when we look at AI, there's often this idea that artificial intelligence is this deep dark cold entity. Perhaps we tend to paint it that way in dystopian movies the capture our imagination and our strange propensity for thinking about destroying ourselves - but I'd rather talk about how artificial intelligence and the hand of the artisan can collaborate to make things that have never existed before and how that collaboration is a critical component to envisioning the new possible.

If you begin to interact with things like ChatGPT and Dall E or Mid Journey, creating visualizations of things that you initially write as prompts, you begin to see what is possible from machines hallucinating but the even those outputs don't exist entirely on their own. They require a human to start the ball rolling.

Sitting a the keyboard, I need to be able to initially imagine something and then write a text-based prompt that will effectively give instructions to the AI upon which it builds an imaginary reality.

And so, it's not exactly true that there is some robotic process at work entirely devoid of emotion and feeling when using Ai tools as way to generate inspiration.

We can introduce emotion - one of our foundational human qualities - into Ai created content and see what emerges from the machine when asked to represent the emotional experience of a place or things.

Ask Mid Journey to create a light blue box and it will do a spectacular job. Ask the ai to create a visual representation of the emotions felt when opening a gift from Tiffany and that‘s an entirely different output.

We can infuse the prompts with emotional content and when we do, the output can be really fascinating.

I think we've often turned to art and in its many forms as expressions of emotion. Sometimes the things that we can't put into words are somehow better expressed through dance, music, painting or other graphic visualizations. And yet when we think about places of human experience it seems that art is often considered decorative rather than part of the strategy.

Now… I know that that's not entirely true and cannot be used as a sweeping generalization because certainly there is architecture that in its detailing is considered high art and that the artful design of places it is very much part of the overall experience.

Think of places created for the purpose of the enactment of religious rituals or other public or cultural institutions.

Remember the Mies van der Rohe quote “God is in the details.”

I think there is something magical and mystical about the maker who take materials and transforms them into places and things that have not been before. And now we have new materials in our palette of things to use.

Data is a new medium, yet it doesn’t exist alone in the tool box. When we combine “hand intelligence” with artificial intelligence, the skill of the craftsman with the collective intelligence of the masses, we are in for some really interesting creative futures.

This is where my guest Samar Younes comes into the story…

Samar Younes is a Beirut-born hybrid artist, futurist, and creative catalyst whose work embodies a transcultural approach.

As the visionary behind SAMARITUAL, a multidisciplinary creative studio, she weaves together multidimensional narratives at the intersection of humanity, technology, and nature.

With over 20 years of experience as an artistic director and brand strategist, Samar blends generative AI with artisanal craftsmanship and ancestral wisdom to create immersive experiences that challenge stereotypes and envision nuanced futures.

Samar explains that her work explores otherworldly narratives, and interspecies harmonies through three interconnected spheres: Creator, Catalyst, and Cultivator.

As a Creator, she crafts visionary artworks and installations that blur the lines between art, fashion, and architecture.

In her Catalyst role, she provides strategic foresight and cultural alchemy for organizations navigating our evolving world.

As a Cultivator, she nurtures future creativity through her Imaginalogy hybrid future edu lab, empowering individuals with tools and perspectives to thrive in an ever-changing creative landscape in the age of AI.

When seeing Samar’s work, I am transported to a new place where imagination plays. She is a creativity maven who wields the tools and touch of an artisan and the deftness of a data scientist in making the new possible.

I was lucky to sit down with her at the SHOP Marketplace show to talk about the worlds of artisan craft and its new creative partner in artificial intelligence…

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP.69 Keeping Retail Relevant with Emotional Connections and Engaging Tech with Angela Gearhart, Founding Partner - Media Maxx Executive Practice Director - AAG Consulting Group

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 04:02:01 +0000

About Angela Gearhart:

Angela’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/angela-gearhart2024

Websites

ANGELA'S BIO:

Angela Gearhart, known for creating transformational brand experiences, tackles mission-critical challenges facing brands today. Where there is a gap between brands and their customers, they risk both revenue and relevance. Angela's deep understanding of consumer behavior and her ability to harness the synergy between marketing, sales, and technology, allow her to develop strategies that bridge the gap, igniting growth and fostering brand loyalty.

By optimizing the human-physical-digital experience, she enables brands to disrupt and connect across consumer touchpoints. During her tenure as VP of Connected Brand Experience at Sleep Number, disrupted the mattress category, driving the company's growth from $300M to over $2B, with her team earning over 30 retail design, innovation, and technology awards.

As a trusted advisor and influencer in the retail industry, Angela has earned accolades including recognition as a CSA Top Woman in Retail, Remodista Women2Watch in Business Disruption, Retail Innovator by Retail Touchpoints, and Design Influencer by design:retail Magazine.

Angela is a Founding Partner at Media Maxx, which specializes in accelerating brand growth through ecommerce partnership marketing and retail strategies. Additionally, she serves as Executive Practice Director at AAG Consulting Group, where Angela leverages her insights into buyer dynamics and retail technology landscapes to deliver effective positioning strategies for B2B retail tech firms. She also contributes her expertise to advisory boards for Retail Touchpoints, Goldstein Museum of Design, IRISCX, and Digital Signage Experience.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with Angela Gearhart a retail industry leader who spent 20 years at Sleep Number Corporation as the VP of Connected Brand Experience changing the way co nsumes shopped for beds by integrating relevant technologies to enhance the shopping experience and foster deeper relationships between the brand and its customers.

First though, a few thoughts…

* * *

Off the top of our discussion, this is the sentiment that my guest Angela Gearhart expressed as we dug into a conversation about the nature of retail what it is really about.

No doubt, when you think about retail there is indeed buying involved, but it is so much more than that. In the exchange of goods and services there is an intangible factor to long-term customer life-time value… a relationship.

Shopping is less about stuff than a deep interpersonal connection built on our need to be in social groups. The sense of belonging and that the relationship establishes context and meaning to our lives is key.

Is that too much to put on the back of a retail experience?

I don’t think so.

For millennia, shopping has been connected to the sharing of ideas as well as the exchange between parties, you give me something and I in return I give you something.

Shopping is ultimately more than getting stuff.

While I think it's certainly true that factors like price point and overwhelming product assortments and some logical sequence of getting people into the store moving them through departments exposing them to products and getting them to buy has been a prominent way to think about, retail I think that it's ultimately more than that.

In a world where shoppers don't have to go to the store because of the modern emergence of digital technologies allowing for convenience shopping from any place anytime from the palm of your hand, the question becomes what is it that drives people to go to the store?

I don't think it would be that just price or having lots of it whatever it is I want would be the only motivator.

I think what customers really want will be for their products and services to be imbued with both utility and significance.

The design of entire experiences will become a critical factor in making shopping places relevant in a world where you have ubiquitous access and abundant choice. But beyond providing products, services and experiences that are beautiful and maybe even transcendent, I think shoppers will desire, as they have for centuries, the feeling of connection, a relationship, being valued and that they can find meaning in the shopping aisles as well as the dry goods and sundries.

In the end we are social beings bound to an innate need to come together in community to cooperate, to share and to use our imaginations to create. Over millennia, these parts of us really haven't changed but the ways we satisfy these needs have been in continuous evolution.

Advances in technology have modified the speed of change moving it from a generational evolution and incremental steps to something more akin to revolution - something that happens very quickly. The pace of change these days is exponential.

So, the way we see technologies and its relationship to interaction and engagement in retail places will be a fundamental driver to how we now expect experiences to unfold.

We have these devices in the palm of our hand and we will likely continue to expect that what we do from the power of our palm - which gives us a sense of agency and control over a developing customer journey narrative - will be something that we also want to do while I'm in the store.

Emerging customers want to interact with technology in a way that is relevant to them - to engage in a way that changes the experiences so that it's focused on them.

Personalization and customization will be key drivers to how we end up creating meaningful retail places in the near future.

This is super important to understand because an entire generation of emerging shoppers who are digitally enabled and very savvy are interested in creating brand relationships that reflect their own personal ideologies.

It won't just be whether or not the things they can get will be inexpensive or easy to access. Ease and convenience will simply be table stakes.

Shopping or the idea of trade and commerce have been simply embedded in our evolution.

Over twisting trade routes across continents, through sprawling bazaars, across the counter at a general store, through the mail or making a purchase with your smartphone on a street corner, shopping has always given us away to make meaning of who we are, how we interact and how we live.

So yeah, I think shopping experiences have always been more than simply getting stuff. Shopping has at its core is an exchange forging trusting relationships and connecting to the world beyond us.

Shopping whether it was in the intersections of silk trade route, the Greek Agora or in today's mega shopping malls has given us a way to connect to our families, our communities, our nations and the world and in doing so we add ourselves to that intricate weaving of our personal and cultural human tapestry. Shopping is part of our cultural orientation.

I think we can look at places like the Greek agora as an ancient version of a social networking site.

When you were going down to the market to get eggs and bread you were likely passing people on the way and overhearing conversations about what was happening in your community. The town crier did not stand out in the middle of a field some distance from the city he was there on the proverbial soapbox informing people of the important information of the day in the town square - in the cultural epicenter of the town surrounded by…shopping.

Great retailers have it embedded in their corporate DNA that people drive their business and that their business is equally promote ideas and ideals.

I think more so than ever before it's become critical to understand that for brand to remain relevant it's not just about what you sell but it's about what you stand for that is most important.

So there's meaning attached to the stuff we buy it says a great deal about who you are and how do you feel about social or environmental policies. What we take away from the shopping experience is far more than the stuff but a profound and intangible element of interaction which we've come to call the ‘experience’…a body memory.

Stores have naturally become the three-dimensional embodiment of the brand and a venue for interacting and emotionally connecting with people.

So how people feel about the time they've committed to shopping in a retail place is a best indicator of whether or not they'll in fact make a purchase and be committed to come back over and over again. In the end it's not so much about the stuff they get but the positive feelings they hold about the people they interacted with and that helps to make shopping experiences more memorable.

I know that I have had, and I'm sure that you likely have had too, experiences where a great interaction with the sales associate has helped you either make a decision about buying something or making you feel fabulous in that new black dress or that outfit.

Positive memories of shopping also enhance the willingness to share that story with other people and become advocates for the brand.

In the recounting of the experience you share feelings about the people you interacted with - how kind they were - how they seemed to tune into what your needs were in the moment.

And in the best case scenario, it's more than just following a well crafted customer engagement protocol where a script is laid out about how to speak to a customer. There are some brands where the associates simply have it in them to know how to connect and make you feel great once you've arrived in the store.

And of course this is not a new idea in the creating a great shopping experiences but this intangible nourishment of their relational right brain through personal connections helps promote the likelihood that customers move from shopper to customer and it also fosters a willingness to keep on coming back.

If you're in the retail design space - for years we've used Apple as the example of it not necessarily being about this stuff.

The experience is not about an inexplicably broad assortment of products in Apple stores. They have very few products displayed on any of the iconic Parsons tables. The key driver to the Apple shopping experiences about the interaction you have when you walk through the door and you meet someone in a blue shirt who asks you how they can help and their then technology facilitates the relationship.

And that is a key part about the integration of technology and retail stores. Technology in retail stores needs to be in the service of something that I call “TECHNEMPATHY” - the use of technology in the service of empathic extension.

If you're not using technology to build the relationship then it's digital wallpaper and not really of much use.

Now… it is true that immersive digital experiences can be exceptionally captivating and I do think that we will eventually end up with stores that are somewhat like the holodeck using AR and VR.

I also think that digital experiences will somehow reflect back to us my personal emotional neuro-biological - inner mind-body state. But technology can't only be for wow factor. It has to be for engaging people in relevant ways where it facilitates a relationship between me, the product and the store and the brand.

And this brings me back to the beginning of this introduction to talk about my guest Angela Gearhart who spent 20 years with Sleep Number Corporation changing the entire paradigm for how we bought beds.

Sleep number doesn't just have great technology in the beds that they sell you shifting your purchase from some commodity that you spent eight or so hours a day on, but to selling the idea that sleep was geared towards health and well-being. The benefits of a good night sleep – and how their bed could provide it.

According to Angela Gearhart technology needs to have a purpose in a retail store.

That could be to simplify the process and reduce friction or to have a wow experience but in addition to that, technology needs to help retailers understand more about their customer and connect to them after the purchase so that there is a continuous cycle of exchange of information where the relationship continues on beyond the time you spent working out the details of how your bed needs to be custom made to you.

So for about for Angela, the value equation needs to include things like ease and convenience but it also has to have meaningful benefits. The experience also has to be meaningful in terms of how the environment and the product come together to sell you more than just the product.

She also agrees that affordability will never not be part of the equation but if you can move people to understanding the deep benefits of the product beyond its functionality you're driving towards a different kind of relationship

In my conversation we touch on a number of factors for what Angela believes are the critical components for retail innovation where technology is a key determinant of building the relationship.

Angela Gearhart, is known for creating transformational brand experiences and tackling mission-critical challenges facing brands today.

Her deep understanding of consumer behavior and her ability to harness the synergy between marketing, sales, and technology, has allowed her to develop strategies that bridge the gap, igniting growth and fostering brand loyalty.

By optimizing the human-physical-digital experience, she enables brands to disrupt and connect across consumer touchpoints.

During her tenure as VP of Connected Brand Experience at Sleep Number, her work changed the mattress category, driving the company's growth from $300M to over $2B.

Her team earned over 30 retail design, innovation, and technology awards.

Angela is a Founding Partner at Media Maxx, which specializes in accelerating brand growth through ecommerce partnership marketing and retail strategies.

And…adding to that already impressive list of retail activities and accolades, she serves as Executive Practice Director at AAG Consulting Group. In that role Angela leverages her insights into buyer dynamics and retail technology landscapes to deliver effective positioning strategies for B2B retail tech firms.

Let’s dig in…

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 68 Leading By Design: A Passionate And Principled Career in Retail Placemaking with James Damian - Consultant - Gap International Brand Strategist, Design Thinking Practice Leader

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 10 May 2024 18:12:11 +0000

About James Damian:

James’ Profile: linkedin.com/in/james-damian-3a54956

Website: james-damian.com (Company)

Email: james@james-damian.com

JAMES' BIO:

Senior Executive and Consummate Business Leader who drove major change across the consumer retail industry by leveraging the power of design thinking as a strategic advantage, delivering economic success. Trusted advisor committed to creating purpose, achieving profit through performance for sustainable growth. While at Best Buy James and his group led innovation and new concept stores making them the most profitable in the history of the company to date. During his time the Store count went to 1400 from 275 and the stock soared from $7 a share to $110.

James is a Design Thinking practitioner, Creative Strategist and Motivational Speaker at International CEO Summits, illustrating how to create a Customer Centric Culture through Design Thinking where Culture precedes Strategy, creating growth through an integrated, collaborative, interdisciplinary process.

BOARD LEADERSHIP
As Chairman of the Board for Buffalo Wild Wings from 2008 to 2017, helped to shift corporate focus to an employee and customer-centric culture with the goal to become the ultimate social experience for sports and gaming fans. This strategic shift accomplished through alignment of the board with management enabled an extraordinary run of top quartile performance delivering an 850% return to shareholders.

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP THROUGH CREATIVITY
Drove culture of innovation within Best Buy and consequently transformed the 'Big Box' consumer electronics retail format. Pioneered company’s “new store” experience by integrating creative visual merchandising and design into the overall corporate vision. Instrumental in expanding BestBuy from 275 to 2,500 stores. This experience based strategy was instrumental in driving revenue from 8 billion to 50 billion in a 12 year period, attaining status as a Fortune 50 company.

SHOW INTRO:
Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with James Damian a retail industry leader who was mentored in the fine art of visual merchandising and display by one of retail’s icons, Gene Moore of Tiffanys. James has had a brilliant career leading major transformations at Best Buy where he was SVP and Chief Design Officer of Experience Design Group, the Chairman of the Board of Buffalo Wild Wings and now shares his experience and passion for retail as a consultant with GAP international.

First though, a few thoughts…

* * *

In 1994 I was working in my hometown of Montréal as an architect and at the same time teaching was the director of the interior design program at College Interdec at LaSalle college.

One day my friend and colleague Monique Piroth invited me out to lunch across the street from the school for a sandwich we talked about the world of visual merchandising, the program that she was the director of and where our careers would take us.

She explained that the college wanted her to go to Singapore to step into the role of the director of the visual merchandising program at La Salle international Fashion School in Singapore, an affiliate of LaSalle College, because our friend and colleague Guy Lapointe had to return to Montréal to tend to his ailing father.

She effectively said that she didn't want to go and I immediately offered up the option that I would instead.

This was one of a series of fateful moments of serendipity that would shape my career for the next 30 years. I never planned to be in retail... It just happened.

I wasn't out looking for it, but it somehow found me.

And so, after that somewhat joking, off the cuff remark, I was on a plane for Singapore not much more than two weeks later.

At that point, my life shifted and instead of practicing architecture in the way that I thought that I would, I shifted into the world of visual merchandising and store design.

While running the Visual Merchandising program at LaSalle International Fashion School, I was asked to do a presentation on visual merchandising trends at a Retail Asia conference.

To be honest, I had very little insight what trends were shaping the retail world since the whole thing was new to me. I was reading everything I could in retail design magazines and trying to learn about who the voices were in the industry and what they were talking about.

I scoured the magazines trying to determine who were the thought leaders in the industry and compiled a short list of people who I thought had great insights and sent out invitations, by fax, for them to provide some insight on what they considered to be major trends in the industry.

One of those individuals was a gentleman named Tom Beebe who at the time was the visual merchandising director for a men's fashion store in New York called Paul Stewart.

Tom was an enthusiastic participant and when at the end of my one-year tenure in Singapore I arrived in New York I made sure to make a point of connecting with Tom.

Tom was gracious and enthusiastically set up meetings for me to meet people in Manhattan so that I could start off on the right foot in a new city and upon a path of the new career.

One of those individuals was Gene Moore.

Gene was the visual merchandising maven that shaped the visual display direction not just for Tiffany's, where he was the master of storytelling in the small windows on 5th Avenue, but he influenced an entire generation of what were then called window trimmers later being called visual merchandising and display people.

Genes work elevated the making of stories in store windows into an art form.

I was lucky enough to be invited to spend an afternoon with Gene Moore in the Tiffany display studio on 5th Avenue. It was truly a memorable moment of my career but I confess that at the time, I had very little idea about who Gene Moore was and why I might have otherwise treated him with extraordinary reverence.

I think the few hours that I spent there were kind of like when you meet someone who's famous but you actually have no idea who they are and so the conversation is casual and unpretentious, and you don't spend time worrying about what you're saying or trying to play to their preferences.

Gene didn’t have to take the meeting. But he did and shared his delight and passion for his profession with a total newbie with nothing but questions and awe for making magic in retail stores.

What an honor…

Another of the introductions that Tom Beebe made for me was to the late great Peter Glenn.

Peter invited me into his home on Sniffin Court on 36th St. east of Madison where he talked about the world of retail stores and customer experience – his specialty - over a freshly brewed pot of English tea.

I look back now at how fortunate that I was to meet these two luminaries in the most early days of my retail career and grateful I am to have had an industry friend like Tom Beebe who, out of the goodness of his heart and genuine love of retail and visual merchandising, shared his passion for the industry as well as his connections to some of the great influencers of the day.

Over the years my path has crossed with Tom.

His passion hasn’t waned neither for the world of creating compelling retail places with stunning and cleaver visuals nor his love of one of his mentors Gene Moore. Tom gave a compelling and impassioned retrospective presentation on Gene Moore, with another industry friend and colleague Eric Feigenbaum, at the International Retail Design Conference in 2023.

Both of them aficionados and ombudsmen for the world of visual presentation – Eric being the New York Editor for VMSD magazine and a standout writer and educator in the field.

In New York I settled in as the resident architect at a small 3-4 person consulting firm called New Vision Studios lead by another industry icon Joe Weishar. Another strange serendipitous occurrence since I had read Joes book “Design for Effective Selling Space’ while in Singapore and had canvassed Joe for a trends report for the Singapore presentation but… he was a non-responder.

Ironically I end up working for him.

Joe Weishar truly taught me what I know in the retail design and visual merchandising world bringing together the art and science of visual presentation in the making of great stores.

In the late 90’s, and into the next decade, the world of retail and visual merchandising was magical.

The Christmas season in New York meant the NADI show, showroom parties that were spectacular and windows on 5th Avenue were a must-see event.

During those years there were a number of people in the New York area who were making things happen in the retail design space. These were the people who were a few years ahead of me in their careers and unbeknownst to them, became my mentors from a distance. James Mansoor, Tom Beebe, Eric Feigenbaum, Linda Fargo, Judy Bell, Ellie Chute and Denny Gerdeman, Ken Walker…

A bit later, in the mid 2010’s there was Christian Davies, Harry Cunningham, Ray Esheid, Anne Kong and Elisabeth Jacobson, Bevan Bloomendaal, Ignas Gorischek, Linda Lombardi, Bill Goddu, Christine Belich, Tony Mancini - All who had begun to create a wave of new thinking about retail stores and how to design them.

And there was James Damian…

I knew James Damien more by name and for the fact that at that time he was the head of Design at Best Buy.

Things that were happening at Best Buy were extraordinary.

The creation of magnolia, the introduction of Apple shops - within an electronics mass merchant - and the complete rethinking of that category of Retail stores was about.

But more than that it was a presentation that I saw James giving at the International Retail Design Conference in Atlanta in 2005 or 2006 that completely left me awestruck.

I can't truly remember what James was talking about, but I distinctly remember him becoming emotional on stage and needing to take a moment to gather himself.

That moment of vulnerability began to change my thinking about being an impassioned, creative an emotional leader.

If a senior leader at a major electronics company could become ‘Verklempt’ on stage… I don't know… it just captured my imagination and I have not since forgotten it.

It turns out that, and maybe not so surprisingly, James Damien and Tom Beebe are deeply connected as long time industry friends and colleagues but also grew up in the retail industry under the mentorship of none other than... Gene Moore of Tiffany's.

Are you getting all these weird crossovers of interconnectedness?

I don't even think that there's 7° of separation here I think like there's this interconnected interwoven set of interdependencies and crossing paths that keep on surrounding my retail career.

In any case, James Damien was another one of those names, luminaries of the retail industry who I, from a distance, would admire and borderline stock over the years watching and following what he was doing in hopes that I would learn what the secret sauce of creating great retail spaces was.

And so, it may also not seem as a surprise that I would eventually find my way to getting James Damien as a guest on this podcast and that it would be a delightful conversation that unfolds with ease and mutual admiration.

Which to me, makes it all the more special.

I have held such great respect for James over the years and that unbeknownst to me he shared the same feelings. I'm not sure whether it's because I followed him, and the others I've mentioned so closely, that my ideas about great retail space, visual merchandising and leadership are so similar or that somehow, independent of each other, we both grew to believe in the same things.

In any case, the points of connection are plentiful.

James came up in the world of Retail in the windows. Really from the artistic side rather than the corporate leadership side and I think that gave him a different sensibility that is emotionally closer perhaps to what happens on the sales floor.

He took a risky step out of the windows into the machine of corporate retail in a somewhat unlikely segment – consumer electronics – with Best Buy. While at Best Buy, James and his group led innovation and new concept stores making them the most profitable in the history of the company to date.

James drove a culture of innovation within Best Buy and consequently transformed the 'Big Box' consumer electronics retail format. He pioneered the company’s “new store” experience by integrating creative visual merchandising and design into the overall corporate vision.

During his time the Store count went to 1400 from 275 and the stock soared from $7 a share to $110.

While there James, evolved into a Senior Executive and consummate business leader who drove major change across the consumer retail industry by leveraging the power of design thinking as a strategic advantage, delivering economic success.

Through his own moments of serendipity, James’ skills, experience and passions landed him the role as Chairman of the Board for Buffalo Wild Wings from 2008 to 2017.

While in this role, he helped to shift corporate focus to an employee and customer-centric culture with the goal to become the ultimate social experience for sports and gaming fans.

James Damian is a Design Thinking practitioner, Creative Strategist and Motivational Speaker at International CEO Summits. In his talks he illustrates how to create a Customer Centric Culture through Design Thinking where Culture precedes Strategy, creating growth through an integrated, collaborative, interdisciplinary process.

James knows the power of a good pause… he can tell a good story and he has had some remarkable experiences to share.

I have hung on every word in his presentations that I have had the good fortune to listen to and our talk was no exception.

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP.67 Harnessing Headwinds With a Mach 2 Mindset with Nicole Malachowski, F-15E Fighter Pilot (Colonel Ret.), The President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, Keynote Speaker

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 3 Apr 2024 21:57:55 +0000

About NICOLE MALACHOWSKI:

Nicole’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/realmalachowski

Websites:

linktr.ee/realmalachowski (Company)
damelionetwork.com (Other)

NICOLE'S BIO:

A 2019 National Women's Hall of Fame inductee and recent Presidential appointee, Colonel

Nicole M. E. Malachowski (USAF, Ret.) has over 21 years of experience as an officer, leader, and fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. Upon her commission into the military, she was competitively selected to fly combat aircraft and embarked on an adventure among the first group of women to fly modern fighter jets. Nicole served as a mission ready fighter pilot in three operational F-15E squadrons and accumulated over 2,300 flight hours, including 188 hours in combat. She has had the honor of commanding a fighter squadron, flying as a USAF Thunderbird pilot, serving as a White House Fellow and as an advisor to the First Lady of the United States. Nicole has forged a successful path through immense cultural changes in the military as well as significant adversity in her personal life. Following her medical retirement from the Air Force due to the severe impacts of late-stage Tick Borne Illness, Nicole reinvented herself as a highly successful entrepreneur, professional speaker, and leadership consultant. She’s been happily married to her husband Paul, an Air Force veteran, for over 22 years. When not hurriedly chasing their thirteen-year-old twins around, she finds immense meaning in traveling and advocating for those impacted by Tick Borne Illnesses. (©️2024 Nicole Malachowski & Associates, LLC-All Rights Reserved).

SHOW INTRO:
Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with Nicole Malachowski a retired Colonel of the United States Air Force, an F-15E fighter pilot, who commanded a fighter squadron, flew as a USAF Thunderbird pilot, serves as a White House Fellow and as was an advisor to the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama.

First though, a few thoughts…

* * *

It seems that I talk a lot about speed…

Its’ sort of a fascination…

…the pace of change and what it likely means for emerging markets, changing guest expectations, how we address new needs, how we transition through moments of uncertainty and ambiguity and how leaders shift their orientation from current, or past paradigms, that are no longer relevant or adaptable to the fast-paced world we are now living and working in

…and turn their attention to growing companies and workforces into flexible structures that are deeply embedded with the idea of change as a given - something not to be feared but seen as an emergent space of possibility.

And I gotta tell you, this change thing isn't easy.

It takes a persistence of thought and a modicum of courage to keep on looking into the void, unable to predict the distant future and maybe rely on shorter term gains in the near future.

Yeah, it's not easy.

Especially when you've spent most of your life believing that there was a path that you were supposed to follow. Something that was laid out and that you could rely on as being consistent. And predictable.

But it seems as though life keeps having its way of throwing a monkey wrench in that ideal and reminding me that very little is in our control.

And there is that old, I believe Hebrew, saying that “man made plans and God just laughed.”

Now I'm not sure who's exactly laughing at whom here but one fact remains… that uncertainty is a certainty. I think based on the speed at which our technology and societies are changing that uncertainty will be the name of the game for the future.

Of course, there are some inherent challenges in taking that position in leadership because generally speaking, no one wants a leader who seems to be uncertain about where to go next.

My hunch is though, that leaders who are able to say that they're not exactly sure where things will lead might likely be not only more realistic about possible future outcomes but more endearing to an emerging cohort of customers or employees.

This may seem to go totally counter to the idea that we like our structures and the paradigms that we build our emotional and business selves around…

…but it seems to me that we’re increasingly in need of strategic positions that plan for things being upended.

It's almost like having a ‘continuous contingency plan’ in place - if this then that and then if this then that and so on and so on.

Recently I took on a role advising a group of students who were given the design challenge in a competition to build the hotel of the future... For opening sometime in 2050.

It seemed to me that I was having trouble predicting the next five years rather than the next 25 years and I mused out loud that I don't know how they could predict anything that was that far ahead.

The strange thing is, that it's not actually that far ahead.

It is very much in front of us - right now - if you consider that we'll be moving towards that time much more quickly it than we'll have ever moved before.

And so, with the group of students, I suggested that maybe what we needed was to consider that we engage in scenario mapping - planning a strategic platform within which many potential options could play out.

In this exercise it seemed to me that what we needed to do was to be able to provide for all sorts of contingency plans while at the same time having a structure to allow for various outcomes to emerge based on a host of changing circumstances.

There are a couple of ideas here that I frequently find myself thinking about:

One would be…

…that if ‘you know where you're going, you've already gone’ as the saying goes and the delta between now and then is simply about production. There is a certain comfort in the knowing… I know where we are going.. the end point is predetermined, it is predictable and I feel reassured in knowing the end game.

In this case, I think that the joy of discovery that you have when taking the ‘road less traveled’ is diminished, or disappears, and the work becomes transactional and geared towards efficiently getting to the outputs.

Discovery falls away in preference for getting it done.

I think that way about design as well… that it is often more process than product.

It is during the making of something where a lot of the magic happens.

My hope is that in those moments we have the collision of memories, emotions, ideas, the challenges of solving programmatic requirements, meeting the needs of end users, etc., etc. Design is a journey where all these things come together in a process where discovery leads us to a place of awe and reverence for the creative act so that we stand back from the things we have made in bewilderment that we are even able to do these things.

There should be a moment where you stand back from the thing that you created and revel in how it was that you even got there.

The second thing that also occurs to me about navigating into the unknown is that, at a brain level, we may have a certain level of being ill-at-ease about the unknown, we actually love the idea of novelty.

I know I've talked about this before but, these moments of novelty and discovery where experience doesn't align with our expectations - or the predetermined schemas for how things should be - that we have in our in our brains are where, in a sense, our brains wake up and pay attention.

We have predicted something to be a certain way and it doesn't happen and so things emerge from unconscious awareness into our consciousness – into a front row center level of awareness…

… the new experience releases dopamine and other neurochemicals that make these experiences both desirable as well as potentially being full of trepidation.

This is a neurobiological imperative that has been embedded in our neurophysiology for millions of years.

Seeing and being able to determine the novel in our environments was a crucial factor to our very survival.

In a way, this makes me think about how we might try to operate in a fast paced, changing world where every day becomes a continuous flow of fluidly changing experiences.

How do we adapt to not having long periods of times of consolidating and understanding experiences when we're quickly on to the next thing?

It seems to me like that would be a heavy burden on the brain and our emotions …living in the ‘new now’ might be exhausting.

And so, we face periods of Headwinds - moments where the proverbial weather shifts and we might feel that we are unprepared having left our umbrella at home.

Or other times when we might be carrying the umbrella, and the winds shift direction and blow it backwards making it entirely unusable.

It's in those moments where we are confronted with whether we have planned well and are able to fight, or flow, with the wind in these moments of adversity.

In those moments we need to be able to turn to teammates, close allies people who have got your back, who know you so well that they know what your next move will be either because they've simply been with you for so long or you were all following the same playbook … and running in the same direction…

Sometimes these moments are like being in a crucible where significant change is going to happen and, often with the support of allies, family members, good friends, mentors… we come out the other side changed

…we don't just bounce back to what it was, but we bounce beyond into a new way of being where we're transformed beyond our expectations.

In that process of transformation there is a need for trust… trust in the process, and trust in the people who you are surrounded by - that they will be able to nurture you through these moments of significant change.

Seems to me that part of a leader’s role is to know themselves, and to lead the team through these moments of unpredictability knowing that on the other side – if they commit the to work of transformation (that is not easy) and you have the courage of your convictions, that you'll end up being better for it.

When I think about positive leadership, it's not about giving false hope or making promises that you can't keep…

… because in many cases we simply can't predict the outcomes of things as well as we believe we could.

It's about mastering your self-awareness – tuning into how you are feeling in the moment - mastering your self-control and being really good at balancing both of these things because losing one or the other can result in losing your team's confidence.

And at the same time, to be authentic and transparent in your communication and naturally vulnerable so that your team sees you as human and that maybe you don't have all of the answers. But together you will find the ones where your leadership vision is not 20-20.

And this is where this episode’s guest comes into the discussion.

Colonel Nicole Malachowski – now retired from the US Air Force, is a former F-15E fighter pilot who knows how to manage speed.

Nicole has flown at twice the speed of sound and as I understand it, traveling at that velocity requires not just extraordinary skill but also “staying ahead of the jet” as she says and working multiple contingency plans when things don't go as expected.

… and as far as I can tell from our conversation, things very rarely go as expected. Especially one someone has their sights trained on your multimillion dollar aircraft and wants to shoot you out of the air.

In Nicole’s mind, your speed and decision making should vary based on your context but that in the end “speed is always something that gives you options.”

When traveling at twice the speed of sound your saving grace may be having been well prepared and knowing what your contingency plans are as you face headwinds, whether that's changing weather or enemy fire.

In those moments of extreme adversity, teamwork and trust are vital to fast decision making and potentially your very survival.

Nicole gathers all of these lessons learned from a brilliant career in the military and applies them to coaching, mentoring and giving capitivating speeches on an international stage where she shares her experiences.

Nicole Malachowski is A 2019 National Women's Hall of Fame inductee and recent Presidential appointee.

She has over 21 years of experience as an officer, leader, and fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. She put on her country’s uniform at the age of 17 and upon her commission into the military, she was competitively selected to fly combat aircraft and embarked on an adventure among the first group of women to fly modern fighter jets - fulfilling a dream she had since the age of 5.

Nicole served as a mission ready fighter pilot in three operational F-15E squadrons and accumulated over 2,300 flight hours, including 188 hours in combat.

She has had the honor of commanding a fighter squadron, flying as the first female USAF Thunderbird pilot, serving as a White House Fellow and as an advisor to the First Lady of the United States – Michell Obama.

Nicole has forged a successful path through immense cultural changes in the military as well as significant adversity in her personal life.

In a poignant twist of ironic fate it wasn't enemy fire that retired her from active duty in the US Air Force. Instead, it was something that sat on the head of a pin.

In a “blink of a bite” as she says, her career at the stick of an F-15E fighter jet was shifted to struggling for her life with advanced tick-born illness, at times suffering from locked in syndrome unable to move or speak.

Following her medical retirement from the Air Force due to the severe impacts of late-stage tick borne illness, Nicole reinvented herself as a highly successful entrepreneur, professional speaker, and leadership consultant.

Nicole Malachowski knows speed, adversity and navigating the unknown. She is a captivating and inspiring speaker who I was honored to have a conversation with.

* * *

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 66 Responsibly Sustainable: The Only Way of Doing Business with Maya Colombani , Chief Sustainability and Human Rights Officer, L'Oréal Canada

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 20:22:16 +0000

About Maya Colombani:

Maya’s Profile

linkedin.com/in/maya-colombani-0a118369

Websites:

https://www.loreal.com/en/nordics/pages/commitments/l-oreal-for-the-future/

Email:

info@laurainserra.comLaura Inserra

MAYA'S BIO:

Maya Colombani - L’Oréal Canada - Chief Sustainability & Human Rights Officer
Maya Colombani has been appointed Chief Sustainability and Human Rights Officer of L'Oréal Canada in April 2022. With an international career of over 20 years at L'Oréal, Maya is distinguished by a rich and comprehensive professional background. She began her career in France, working for leading design and advertising agencies such as Dragon Rouge, Publicis, and Euro RSCG. She then joined L'Oréal's Professional Products division in 2001. There, she held positions in operational marketing and DMI (Direction Marketing International), for Kérastase and L'Oréal Professionnel. She carried out assignments in India and in the Western Europe zone, before moving to Brazil in June 2010 where she worked in marketing functions. Since the end of 2016, she has been Director of Sustainable Development for Brazil.

In this role, she profoundly transformed L’Oréal Brazil’s approach to sustainable development and human rights. She has implemented actions that inspired the L’Oréal Group and positioned L’Oréal Brazil as a national benchmark. L’Oréal Brazil is indeed regularly cited as an example and is used to fuel new reflections, both on environmental issues and on human rights issues, as well as with respect to the relations with the indigenous people of Brazil.

Her projects have been rewarded by the best rankings such as Guia Exame 2017/2018/2019; recognized as the best company in climate change as well as biodiversity management; and has received the WEP gold award 2021 on women empowerment supported by ONU Women and Compact Global.

In 2022, thanks to her strong inclusive social programs for indigenous and communities, the GLOBO recognized L’Oréal Brazil as “The company that makes the difference in term of inclusion and diversity.”

In Canada, Maya’s mission is to increase the positive footprint internally and externally in terms of sustainable development and human rights, and to accelerate the actions carried out within the framework of “L’Oréal For the Future.” Among her first projects, she has already focused, with the Canadian teams, on achieving the company’s full carbon neutrality on all its sites, as well as accelerating ambitious targets on water management and implementing cleantech partnership and eco-design business with committed brands.

Thanks to impactful projects in Canada, earned her the prestigious “Canada’s Clean 50” award that "recognized the most impactful 50 individual LEADERs that have demonstrated measurable leadership in fighting climate change and helping Canada transition to a low-carbon economy." Another important achievement for Maya is being named President of the “Positive Impact Club” of the French CCI in Canada, to have a positive impact on our society and reinforce the bond between France and Canada.

Maya graduated from Reims Business School and completed an MBA semester of International Business Strategy in Victoria University, Australia. She now lives in Montreal, Québec, Canada with her family.

SHOW INTRO:
Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.

VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with Maya Colombani Chief Sustainability and Human Rights Officer of L’Oréal Canada. Maya is one of the most passionate proponents of rethinking sustainable business practices and supporting human rights that I have ever met. Her energy is infectious and her passion is a positive push to do more in support of people and the planet.

First though, a few thoughts…

* * *

Certain themes keep on emerging in my discussions with my guests. Health, wellness, and sustainability frequently come into the conversation regardless of whether or not I'm speaking to a designer, a neuroscientist, an artist or obviously someone who's work life is focused on sustainable design Practice within their business.

We are more aware today of the influence of the built environment on our mind body state, our very psychology and neurophysiological makeup. I have often referred to this as ontological design - The fact that the things we design and bring into the world design us back.

The field of neuroaesthetics that have come up in previous conversations with Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross in the ir book Your Brain on Art or with Tasha Golden in my discussion with her and the work she does at the Arts and Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins have pointed out that the psychological effects of bad or simply banal buildings is part of our potential mental health crisis.

Advances in neuroscience driven by technologies is allowing us to see into the human brain and understand the interrelationships between its functional areas and it's and our connection to the environment in a way that we have not been able to do so before. And because of this new ability we are more able to determine, with a very high degree of confidence, what goes on in our inner world when we are immersed in our outer world.

We've talked about color and its influence on our mind body state with Valerie Corcias and we've talked about music and how the arts having a deeply resonant place in our collective experience of our social groups and culture.

Sustainability keeps on emerging as an obvious focus in the guests that I speak to whether it was with Bruce Mau and talking about his book MC24 or Martin Kingdon and his relationship to the store fixture manufacturing world in Europe and then there was Denise Naguib, of VP of Sustanability and Vendor Diversity at Marriott International, who I won't soon forget reminded me that the planet will be just fine without us and that we just have to decide whether or not we want to live here.

When I go to conferences and I listen to the subjects that are often talked about by keynote presenters, panelists and just the everyday conversations that happen outside of the lecture room, sustainable design practice quickly surfaces and becomes a focal point.

I think to most of us now, we are aware that we are facing an existential crisis that will shape the course of humanity in the near future. There are some that say we are already too late that reversing the effects of climate change maybe a losing battle.

There are others that soldier on believing that it is the responsible thing for us to do and that changing our approach to living, manufacturing, building and other human endeavours needs to be reconsidered so that we change to protecting the planet from ourselves, not so much for the planet itself but for the fact that if we want to live here we need to be able to preserve Mother Nature and be good stewards of the gift that we have been given.

When you consider the length of time that this little blue dot has been spinning around our sun, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.5 billion years, and you consider the amount of time that humans have been occupying the earth, it should be setting off alarm bells that in just a couple of centuries we've begun to destroy the ecosystem that was here long before we arrived.

And that frankly will be here a long time after we are gone.

The challenge is that I don't think we're going to be able to get off this planet and get on an interplanetary transport to Mars and build colonies there before this earth go through some significant changes that will affect all of humankind.

Is it too late?

It may be but one thing is for sure, if we don't change our practices and think about regenerating nature along with driving capitalism forward we will most definitely end up in a climate disaster. And so, this is why it is so important that the practices and policies that are being pushed forward by people like my guest on this episode, Maya Colombani, are so critical to the course of humanity.

One of the obvious things is that sustainable design practices are not just about saving the planet and providing a viable environment for humans but they also happen to be good for business. One of the opportunities here is to change our thinking about how we see innovation in the sustainable design space and make sure that we consider that it is something that brings value for business and societies.

Retailers and manufacturers have a responsibility with the power they wield to address innovating our way into a sustainable future that addresses directly the effects of climate change.

Part of this of course is going back to our roots - meaning engaging indigenous communities in understanding how to treat the planet better. A westernized mentality towards dominating the planet and its people have put us on a collision course with a disastrous future. If we could fully realized that indigenous communities can teach western societies a great deal about how to manage our resources we would ultimately be much better off.

One school of thought is that we have created this problem and we can therefore therefore fix it, but my hunch is that we are not going to be able to continue to be so arrogant as to believe that we can do it on our own.

Large corporations need to turn to the ancient wisdom of indigenous peoples and engage them in a collaborative process of sustainable and social responsibility which should be, in the end, at the center of all of the decisions that we make.

L’Oreal Canada along with Maya Colombani wants to be a laboratory for good and they want to reinvent retail and corporate manufacturing policies that are good for society with the added benefit of it being also good for their business. That involves engaging the corporate structure including suppliers in the process of rethinking how they bring goods to market.

Maya Colombani will say that it's not good enough just to fight climate change… what we have to do is regenerate nature and part of that is that sustainability is not about having good intentions it's about action and measurable outcomes.

This of course requires a significant shift in mindsets which is very difficult, kind of like changing the direction of the aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean because in the end the future belongs not in the hands of major companies but in those of the citizens of the world who have, through their buying power, the ability to vote for companies who are doing the right thing and to do so with their wallets.

Maya Colombani would say that in sustainable development there is never an individual victory but only great collective victories that push us to grow further every day. Having won a number of awards for her efforts she sees these recognitions as an invitation to work even harder and faster to face the unprecedented global humanitarian and climate crisis that we are currently embroiled in.

Maya Colombani was appointed Chief Sustainability and Human Rights Officer of L’Oreal Canada in April 2022.

In her more than 20 years with the company prior to her current role, she had carried out assignments in India and Western Europe and then moved to Brazil in 2010 where she worked in marketing functions.

In 2006 she was the director of sustainable development for Brazil. While in this role of she transformed L’Oreal Brazil into a national benchmark for how to rethink both environmental and human rights issue as well as our respect for relations with indigenous peoples.

She has received many distinguished awards being recognized for her passionate approach to people and the planet. In Canada, Maya's mission is to increase the positive footprint internally and externally in terms of sustainable development and human rights and to accelerate the actions carried out within the framework of “L’Oreal For The Future.”

She has been focused on achieving the company's full carbon neutrality on all of its sites as well as accelerating ambition targets on water management and implementing clean tech partnerships and eco design businesses with committed brands.

Thanks to the impactful projects in Canada she earned the prestigious Canada's “Clean 50” award that recognized the 50 most impactful individual leaders that have demonstrated measurable leadership in fighting climate change and helping Canada transition to a low carbon economy.

When I met Maya Colombani at the Bensadoun School of Retail Management Retail Summit in the fall of 2023, I was immediately struck by her energy and passion for this subject.

I think you'll discover in this episode that to say that Maya is passionate about people on the planet might be an understatement.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 65 A Structured Improvisation With A Sound Alchemist with Laura Inserra, Founder, CEO, Creative Director, Live Performer, Chambers of AWE, LLC

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 17:38:21 +0000

About Laura Inserra:

LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/laurainserra

Websites:

Email:

info@laurainserra.comLaura Inserra

Laura's Bio:

Laura Inserra is a world-renowned leader in sound healing - a sound alchemist, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and multimedia producer. She lives and creates at the confluence of global music, ancient wisdom traditions, and cutting-edge technology.

She grew up on the volcanic island of Sicily and has been exploring the power of sound since her youth. Her work is rooted in 30+ years of global cross-cultural studies and initiations in ancient traditions and modern schools of wisdom, as well as the direct observation of nature.

A world-renowned Hang musician, Laura plays hundreds of ancient and modern instruments from around the world, including many made by her. She utilizes cutting-edge technology to augment the natural sources of her instruments, creating Chambers of AWE - multimedia productions featuring ceremonial instruments and field-recordings, enhanced with 360o visuals andAI-generated content rooted in ancient wisdom.

In these settings music becomes experiential - the body and the mind merge with the sound, traveling beyond the fields of cognitive perceptions, to enhance profound shifts of consciousness, deepen our relationship with nature, and facilitate inner transformation and healing.

SHOW INTRO

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine.

VMSD is the publisher of VMSD magazine and brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience placemakers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode, I talk with “Sound Alchemist” Laura Inserra about the deep effect that music has on our sense of well-being, sound journeys and energy we share with each other and ancient musical instruments and shamanic practices. And, make sure you listen right through for a special treat… But first a few thoughts.

****************

I am increasingly convinced that I am moving away from the idea that ‘there are no accidents’ as simply a quaint phrase to it being a foundational principle in the nature of things.

In previous episodes I've probably described that most of the major life changes that have reshaped my career and life path on the planet have emerged through what I used to simply think was serendipity.

A career change that led me halfway around the world to live in Singapore, to a meeting at a conference that took me from 20 years designing retail stores to working in the hospitality industry and many other occurrences that seem to be unexplainable but nevertheless happen, it seems, purposefully.

And so, it also was with meeting my guest in this episode Laura Inserra whose path I crossed at the Intentional Spaces Summit in Washington DC in the fall of 2023. I'll get to talking about Laura in a moment.

But first I just gotta say, I love music.

I remember as a youngster being enthralled with musicians and watching variety shows on television where I imagined myself being one of the band. I have a clear memory of rewriting lyrics for a song to the 1968 tune of “Spinning Wheel” by the bandBlood, Sweat & Tears, written by Canadian lead vocalist David Clayton. I think my parents humored me at the time with ‘that’s nice sweetheart.’

In high school my best friend Jeff and I bought guitars, strummed our way through James Taylor and Eagles tunes. I bought a harmonica and thought I might be a Blues harp player. But Jeff became the better musician playing piano and performing at a piano bar in a local Italian restaurant.

In my early days of college when I met my now wife of 35 years, we were both interested in sports and being in the great outdoors, but it was music that brought us closer together. She was a Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music graduate and piano teacher in her late teens and early 20s and when she sang she sounded like Karen Carpenter.

When we played Neil Sedaka's “Laughter in The Rain” I fell hopelessly in love and I waited for the lyric “…after a while we run under a tree, I turned to her and she kisses me…” Because ya know, if the lyric says it, well…

Music was everywhere in our relationship.

She introduced me to jazz a genre where she really found her tempo (yes pun intended) as a musician in the high school jazz band. Where she incidentally always won awards for being a stand out pianist. Through her, I learned about Chic Corea, Coltrane, and the Canadian flutist Moe Kaufman’s “Jungle Woman” became signature tune of our relationship.

My wife wrote the music for our wedding ceremony that was sung by the FACE Highschool choir and “How do You keep the music playing” by James ingram and Patti Austin was our first dance as husband and wife. Oh and when James and Patti modulate about three quarters the way in…still today my chest fills with pleasure, pain, longing, hope, inspiration, love and the mysterious power of music taking me to another plain all together.

When our first son was born we listened to Debussey in the delivery room and then through his first few years turned to big band and danced around the column in the basement of our condo. When son number two was born his older brother came into the hospital room and exclaimed “hi baby brother! I’m going to teach you how to dance to jazz music!”

Our first son grew up to play with the inaugural National Youth Jazz orchestra as the drummer, opening a European tour by playing first at Carnegie Hall. Our second son was indeed taught by his big brother to love music and he has evolved into an exceptional jazz pianist, composer and he actually wrote, performed and engineered the theme music for this podcast.

They are both deeply connected to the music, composing, and playing every day. I hear music at home until 11pm most nights.

When I think back to it, almost every significant life event has been connected to music.

During the pandemic when uncertainty was all around us and I hadn't picked up my guitar in years, I instead picked up paintbrushes and began to do portraits of jazz musicians and other musical icons.

Listening to hours of music while painting has become a profound influence on my sense of well-being and managing the unknown but more than that, it simply gives me a deep sense of peace. There is a palpable joy that comes to me while painting and listening to hours of the music of the musician I am working on.

Music energizes, soothes, and transports us back to significant moments of our lives. Music releases energy locked in our bodies and unearths emotions - joy, sadness, fear, longing, anticipation…

Music has healing power in our own bodies and joins us together in sympathetic resonance between our collective bodies. Rudolph Steiner was quoted as saying “the science of the future will be based on sympathetic vibrations” and since all things vibrate, it seems like music is both art and science.

To prove the point about music being both art and science, there is a somewhat niche field within physics and acoustics call “cymatics.”

Cymatics explores the visualization of sound through the patterns and shapes created by vibrations in different mediums like salt or sand. But it also works on heart cells. Certain sound frequencies played through these mediums cause them to arrange into complex geometric patterns which as far as I am concerned are equally beautiful pieces of art.

Study of cymatics suggests that these patterns exist in us when we pay or listen to music. As Einstein once said, “everything in life is vibration” or as the more recent physicist Michio Kaku put it “everything is music.”

Our bodies are resonance chambers that oscillate to frequencies right down to our very cells. It is not surprising to me that we are so deeply connected to music since “all things are part of real and rhythmic whole…” as Tesla suggested in 1926 when describing wireless technology.

We are almost 100 years from time that Tesla was quoted in Harpers Bazar magazine. The wireless technology he was referring to in telecommunication is now also deeply influencing the music we create. But digital music is different than the tones played on ancient instruments.

Digital music filters out tones that may not be perceptible by the human ear but nevertheless may be felt by the body. And so, we have a different connection to the sounds of an ancient Mayan flute or ancestral aboriginal drum than we do to the top 40 hits we play through our wireless Apple Airpods that we insert into our ears.

The music goes in our bodies differently.

And this is where my guest Laura Inserra comes into our story about music and its weaving into the history of us.

Laura Inserra is a world-renowned leader in sound healing. She describes herself as a sound alchemist and a multi-instrumentalist, educator, and multimedia producer. She lives and creates at the confluence of global music, ancient wisdom traditions, and cutting-edge technology.

Laura grew up on the volcanic island of Sicily and has been exploring the power of sound since her youth. Her work is rooted in 30+ years of global cross-cultural studies and initiations in ancient traditions and modern schools of wisdom, as well as the direct observation of nature.

A world-renowned Hang musician, Laura plays hundreds of ancient and modern instruments from around the world, including many made by her. She utilizes cutting-edge technology to augment the natural sources of her instruments, creating Chambers of AWE which are multimedia productions featuring ceremonial instruments and field-recordings, enhanced with visuals and AI-generated content rooted in ancient wisdom.

In these settings her music becomes experiential - the body and the mind merge with the sound, traveling beyond the fields of cognitive perceptions, to enhance profound shifts of consciousness, deepen our relationship with nature, and facilitate inner transformation and healing.

So… now going back to my lead-in to this episode about serendipity…

I attended the Intentional Spaces Summit in Washington DC last fall in 2023.

To start this two-day journey into the power of our built environment to influence human health and well being, a woman comes on the stage, places herself among a number of musical instruments and within minutes the audience is transported to another plain of being.

We collectively experienced a Laura Inserra Sound Journey.

I leave the auditorium after her performance, call home and describe what I just experienced to my wife, who exclaims that about 4 years earlier she had come across Chambers of Awe by Laura Inserra and had sent me the link to her website saying that this was something I had to listen to.

The universe had its own timing in mind when placing Laura and I in the same conference. We connected at a reception, and there was a sympathetic resonance leading to my invitation to be a guest. I am grateful that she said yes.

Laura Inserra refers to her work as “sound alchemy”… things coming together to make other things more precious than the original constituents and she describes her compositions as “structured improvisations.”

This conversation felt very much like that – we followed a structured baseline that allowed for the musical and mystical to create magical improvisational moments.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.64 Inside Autside: A Casual Conversation On A Creative Career with Jean-Paul Morresi, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Autside

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 1 Feb 2024 02:53:17 +0000

ABOUT JEAN-PAUL MORRESI:

Jean-Paul’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/autside

Website: thinkautside.com (Company)

Email: jpmorresi@thinkautside.com

BIO:

Jean-Paul Morresi is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Autside, a retail focused creative agency in Toronto, Canada. Over 3+ decades, Jean-Paul has worked across 5 continents, run offices in Toronto, Stockholm and Dubai, overseen a Shanghai based creative team, and led projects teams across the Americas and Europe.

An Architecture graduate of the University of Toronto, Jean-Paul’s unique background weaves marketing, merchandising, design and construction into an interdisciplinary approach where creative, strategic and executional acumen conspire, delivering customer focused, performance driven retail and brand experiences.

A regular contributor to industry publications and events, Jean-Paul currently sits on the Retail Touchpoints/design:retail Editorial Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of retail technology company Virtual Visions, and Curriculum Advisory Committees for Humber College’s Interior Design and the Sheridan College’s Visual Merchandising Programs.

Jean-Paul & the Autside team are currently collaborating on the design of projects spanning the retail spectrum, branded corporate interiors, showroom spaces and a variety of in-store digital marketing and engagement tools.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with Jean-Paul Morresi the the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Autside, a retail focused creative agency in Toronto, Canada about a creative career in the world of retail and design.

But first a few thoughts.

****************

It has seemed that during my career some of the really cool stuff, the things that change the path of my life, that took me to places around the world and introduced me to new ideas and people who challenged all the things that I believe to be true about myself and the world, came by way of serendipity.

I started a career as an architect in Montreal and got an invitation to go to Singapore and run an International School back in the mid 90s.

And that opportunity popped up at a lunch with a colleague of mine who said she was asked to do the job but really didn't want to go all that way.

I of course raised my hand saying yes I’ll do that and two weeks later I was living in Singapore and my life in the world of Retail Design started at that juncture.

I landed in New York a year later and spent four years working in the office of New Vision Studios with Joe Weishar.

We traveled the world teaching retailers how to merchandise their stores, how to use design principles and apply them to more effective selling spaces.

Those years were critical because I spent time on the sales floor moving fixtures around, stripping down shelving and re-stocking them at the same time as we were teaching various managers, department heads and sales associates the basic principles of visual merchandising.

Those years were foundational in my career because it gave me a different view on how to look at the world of retail design not from simply the point of view of the architect but as from someone who had worked the sales floor.

From the point of view of who had the sales floor experiences of about it was like to put merchandise on a table or shelf or a hanging rack

and how visual presentation and visual merchandising were critical components of the retail storytelling that happens inside stores.

When I think about having been pushing those store fixtures around on the sales floor I often wondered then what my parents, who had invested in my education as an architect, would be thinking that their son who was supposed to go off and build huge projects and save the world from itself through architecture was instead occasionally putting flower displays together and stripping down or merchandising store fixtures with baby booties, bras and panties, canoes, big ass TV's and rice steamers all on the same day.

My father wasn't particularly jazzed about the idea that I mostly truly interested in being a painter.

“Get a degree or get a trade that'll lead to you making a good job he used to tell me”

In the end he was probably right because the idea of being a starving artist was never particularly interesting to me.

I actually did end up in architecture having studied psychology beforehand and I oftner think about how interesting it is that a confluence of educational orientations and experiences all came together to study of architecture school at McGill University in Montreal.

I just about quit in second year, it was a tough , tough program, and almost applied into the Fine Arts department at another university.

But somehow I got myself a tutor who got me through the engineering courses and I ended up continuing my studies in architecture completing 4 year degree going on to getting in license to practice.

I’m proud of the fact that I'm an architect for the past 35 or 40 years of my professional career. It has served me well.

I also liked teaching a lot and was always in front of students whether it was as a ski school technical director teaching other teachers how to teach or being engaged in universities in both Montreal, Singapore, New York, Philadelphia and most recently teaching a course in cognitive science at the Columbus College of Art and design.

Teaching has always been part of what I've liked to do.

Teaching is a passion (as well as painting) and no matter where I've been at what phase of my career I've always included teaching in that process.

When I came back to New York from a year in Singapore, I didn't land in the big firm that I'd hoped to but in fact I ended up starting in a small firm.

In that basement office of a brownstone on 36th street just off of Park Aveneue, Joe Weishar, another merchandising pro by the name of George Homer, an interior designer and I were a four-person office with a big client list.

It was an amazing experience and I think it fundamentally changed the way I thought about store design.

I spent about 22 years designing stores and as another moment of serendipity crossed my path, or maybe I crossed its path, and I had an opportunity to shift away from retail, still staying in the world of brand experience placemaking, and joined Marriott as a vice president of global design strategies.

This was a pretty significant shift and people asked me how does retail affect the hospitality how are you gonna do that because I had never designed a hotel before in my life.

but I was confident in my design skills and that I had enough experience in understanding brands and people and making spaces for their interactions that hotel would be like painting with a different palette but I would never forget the rules of how to apply paint to the canvas. And so, for a number of years I was in the hospitality space which I have always loved and yet again, I began to forge a new path.

Often when I've had to describe my career to people when they've asked, as they usually do at a party or some event, what do you do? I sort of get stuck and say well I'm I'm not a one trick pony.

I have taken to describing myself as a hybrid professional which seems to fit because painting teaching podcasting architecting and working across multiple types of business segments has given me an amazing career with a wealth of different experiences.

I suppose you could say that they all fit into the world of design, architecture and placemaking but I've been able to exercise those passions in very different areas.

You could say that focusing on one thing and one thing only was not the way I decided to lead my career.

What I’ve really begun to understand that I was spending more time connecting the dots between all of the experiences that I had.

My fascinations gave me a broad mindset of multiple influences. I've often seen my job as finding the blank spaces between the notes and deciding how to fill them in.

The interesting thing about career path changes are that they're the ones that seem to present the most interesting opportunities for growth. For challenging the way you think about things and for giving you a different point of view. It's also allowed me to think about the idea of collaboration and how to do it well.

When working across multiple disciplines you end up having to put a number of different hats on each day. I suppose that is also true of designing multiple stores for different brands. I was never particularly interested in focusing on one type of retail design versus another.

For example, I never really thought that my world would be designing shopping malls or big box retailers or specialty jewelry stores.

I've always tried to find myself in an office where my curiosity and creative interests would allow for multiple expressions. I simply found that much more interesting than being singularly focused on one idea.

And this it brings me to a fundamental understanding about doing retail design that emerged out of my early years working in New York and that is:

…that ultimately, in the end, it's not about me as the designer it's about the product and about the brand and if I can get a little bit of me in there then I feel good about that.

I don't have to change the world like I thought at the onset of my career path but that it is often good enough to change a small thing that impacts many people in a small way and perhaps the compounding of those smaller individual experiences ends up creating something great.

But if it doesn't, that's OK too.

If it changes a single individual and gives them a better experience or allows them to see something a new way and learn , then I'm good with that.

Now in the world of advanced technology my passions for living a life in the time of Star Trek are coming to fruition.

AI, as well as all of the generative design tools and immersive digital technologies that we are now able to employ in the service of creating great experiences, are beginning to make real some of the things that a number of years ago I was always fantasizing about.

This brave new world we are entering into makes a career in brand experience placemaking super exciting.

Now, when I take a moment to think about each of these individual areas serendipity forging a path in retail - working the sales floor, thinking about art school versus architecture, teaching my whole life, working in the small firm and having opportunities to shift career paths to major corporations, developing an understanding about what makes good leadership built in trust, authenticity communication yada yada…

I end up bumping into an industry colleague at the SHOP Marketplace event a number of months ago. I had known Jean Paul Morresi from the industry though I have to admit we have never had time to sit down and talk. I recognized him at industry events. We would often say hello and we had industry friends and colleagues with whom we collaborated and against whom we often competed.

So, when I offered Jean Paul an opportunity to do an interview for the NXTLVL Experiences Design podcast, he eagerly accepted and we sat down to what became more like a fireside chat with a good Scotch in our hands sharing stories about how our careers evolved. And lo and behold, we discovered that in many ways our career paths had aligned with many, I mean many, of the same experiences, values and principles that led us from then to now.

Jean-Paul Morresi is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Autside, a retail focused creative agency in Toronto, Canada.

Over 3+ decades, Jean-Paul has worked across 5 continents, run offices in Toronto, Stockholm and Dubai, overseen a Shanghai based creative team, and led projects teams across the Americas and Europe.

A regular contributor to industry publications and events, Jean-Paul currently sits on the Retail Touchpoints/design:retail Editorial Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the retail technology company Virtual Visions, and Curriculum Advisory Committees for Humber College’s Interior Design and the Sheridan Colleges’s Visual Merchandising Programs.

This conversation with John Paul Morresi is a little bit different than the ones I've done in the past. Having met at the SHOP Marketplace tradeshow and decided to put a mic in front of each of us and have a conversation and record it, this talk didn't have a strong thematic orientation like in many of my other discussions.

Instead, I sort of let it unfold and what I discovered was a like-minded creative professional with whom I shared many life experiences on a parallel path.

It was kind of like getting to know an old friend all over again…

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 63 Color As An Emotional Thermometer with Valerie Corcias, Co-Founder, mycoocoon and Brainbo App

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 17:59:29 +0000

ABOUT VALERIE CRCIAS:

Valerie’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/valerie-corcias-218b5a13

Websites

mycoocoon.com (Company)
brainbo.co (Company)

BIO:

Husband and wife team Valerie Corcias (Argentina) and Dominique Kelly (Brasil) possess a unique southern hemisphere perspective on trends and knowledge related to international visions of culture, ideology, and technology.
Dominique has worked on architectural identity for Luxury Brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Baccarat… Valerie has worked on product design and development for many brands.
In 2000, they created the PANTONE UNIVERSE consumer brand and signed a worldwide license agreement with PANTONE for conception, distribution, and communication of the Brand.
In 2007, they established Contramundo, an incubator for sustainable projects involving women and children’s education in a Brazilian fishermen's village, generating content based on sustainable values and integrating processes which provide solutions through art and notions of equity, sharing, and exchange.
From their experience with color and commitment to creating social, technological, and human connections, they have created mycoocoon, a worldwide project to improve well-being by balancing energy through color experiences and natural elements that awaken the senses.
The emotive elements of color have been our field of expertise for more than 30 years and have become part of our DNA.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine.

VMSD is the publisher of VMSD magazine and brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with Valerie Corcias Co-founder, with her husband Doninique Kelly, of mycoocoon and the BrainBo App.

Based on chromotherapy, the Mycoocoon Color-Institute combines the ancestral beliefs about color with the aid of technology and immerses its users in a color bath that supports health and wellbeing.

First though, a few thoughts on color…

* * *

When I was young, my mom put me in a painting school.

She recognized that I loved to draw and every Thursday I would run down to a small painting studio about a mile from my home and immerse myself in the world of art.

For a lot of years, I did most of my early art experiences in black and white.

It seemed like the pencil felt comfortable in my hand and I loved exploring through drawings tonal value relationships, shades and shadows and creating textures.

But most of it was in black and white.

Drawing in black and white simply seemed to be easier and I always believed that color was a greater challenge.

I found color to be complex and to be honest, somewhat scary. I was often concerned that in mixing colors I would make mud rather than magic.

It wasn't until I got to architecture school and taking watercolor courses with a deeply influential person in my art life path - Jerry Tondino - that I began to understand color.

It seemed like a natural progression to understand light first and then move to color and color theory and how color could be leveraged to increase the impact and expressiveness of artwork.

Even now, with the paintings that I do all of my reference photos are in black and white. The color that I choose is of my own making.

I guess you could say I've become more comfortable with understanding how to use color.

That said, I think that my experiments are in still trying to understand colors – primaries and complementary colors - first or second or third order complementarities to the basic color hues that I'm trying to use in paintings.

I've also come to understand that I tend to gravitate towards a certain range of colors. Mostly in the fuchsias and purples and dark blues.

You don't often see many of my paintings in green for example. For some reason green just doesn't seem to go in my body well, even though I know that the color green has a relationship to emotions and well-being that are fundamental because we came from swinging through forests and living for much longer in a verdant green jungle than a concrete one.

When I'm using deep blues, purples and fuchsias I have a sense of calm. I'm not really sure why that exactly why that is but I appreciate that it is part of my color personality profile.

This doesn't necessarily mean that my entire clothing wardrobe for example is fuchsias and purples although I must admit those colors do pop up in patterns. There was a period of time where I was focused on buying shirts from designers like Robert Graham whose color and pattern were I believed extraordinary. I

'm also aware that many of the people in my industry, designers, architects and other creatives tend to wear black a lot.

I'm not sure where it is that black actually emerged as the uniform for creatives because it seems to be a color that is dead.

Or maybe it's the sum of a pigments combined together creating black. So, you could consider black as the sum of all color pigments as being ‘color inclusive.’

I know that color in light and color in pigments are different things but they still both are wavelengths.

Color pigments that we perceive in the world around us are wavelengths that are not absorbed by the molecules of whatever it is we are looking at and they are reflected back to us and then perceived as color.

Then there is color as light.

When you combine colored light you dont perceive them as black like those that are used in pigments but combined together to create white light.

Understanding the physics of light and color have been influential in terms of how I understand painting and reflected colors and how the colors of one object influence the surrounding objects.

A pink object in a white room necessarily makes part of that room pink, or some version of pink, as the wavelengths are reflected from the object and also influences its surroundings.

This brings me to the idea that color in our surroundings has a direct effect on how we feel.

If I happen to love fuchsia, purples and dark blues surrounding myself with these colors may also effect my emotional state.

It's often said that red for example stimulates love, hunger or aggression or it is a color that induces a sense of fear…

whereas oranges induces a sense of energy or happiness and vitality…

yellow also is a happy color with a sense of hope…

it also happens to be the color in the visual spectrum that is most easily perceived by the human eye. Think about it next time you're at a sporting event and look through the audience you'll likely be able to see the guy wearing a yellow shirt much more quickly than someone who might be wearing something like a deep purple or blue…

green has a sense of new beginnings or a sense of abundance and obviously nature…

and blue induces a sense of calm and perhaps often related to the idea of sadness…

hence the Blues as a music genre are connected to the lament of painful life circumstances as expressed through music…

purple has been related to creativity and royalty and creating the pigment purple was originally made from crushing seashells. It was so expensive to produce that it was often only available to aristocracies and royalty.

black connotes a sense of mystery to me and maybe even evil ..I was often not particularly fond and felt afraid of the dark…

but strangely, at the other end of the spectrum, it has a sense of elegance…

black tie events…

and not surprisingly, we often say that it's a gray and moody day when overcast and raining.

All of this leads to the idea that we have over time attributed certain values and emotions to different colors.

Therefore, it's not surprising that during the early goings of the COVID pandemic people were rushing out to renovate their homes, since they were spending more time in them, and changing the colors of their interiors some to be more uplifting by using brighter colors or variations on white…

there are hundreds of variations on white.

So this is where discussion of my guest on this episode comes in.

Valerie Corcias and her husband Dominic Kelly worked in the color industry for years with companies like Pantone and they developed a deep understanding about color and light and how these things affected our mood.

In recent years they've created a company called mycoocoon - spelled all in one word as my.. double C…double o …n and something called the Brainbo app.

Mycoocoon, has developed a color immersion relaxation pod, and has launched the Color-Institute App that features a simple test to determine a user’s personal color profile, which will then help them select a light immersion session to balance their energy needs.

The app can be used as a standalone application for color therapy combined with music, or as a remote control for the relaxation pod or Mycoocoon’s color walls.

Valerie Cocias explains in our talk that “…based on chromotherapy, the Mycoocoon Color-Institute combines the ancestral beliefs about color with the aid of technology.”

Ancestral beliefs about color combined with modern tech.

Mycoocoon taps into something that is deeply embedded in our ancestry.

You might even say that color is an emotion are just in our DNA.

For hundreds of thousands of years our visual system has been attuned to the world around us and all of its color. And those colors, as I mentioned, have come to represent certain emotional feelings.

It may be obvious that red for example would induce a sense of fear or anger because of say ancestral wars or the fact that a member of your ancient hominid tribe would have been carried away, bleeding, by a Saber toothed tiger.

And so these things are deeply embedded in us.

Mycoocoon’s product line includes the pods, which give clients a ‘light bath’ under biocompatible lamps.

And it turns out that the lamps are critically important in creating a visual environment where the mind the body is bathed in color.

One of the challenges with using modern technologies like LED lighting systems is that there is a flicker to the lamp we don't see. It’s happening so quickly that it blends into what we perceive as a as a persistent glow of a particular color from a lamp.

But if you use your cell phone and try to take a video of LED lights you will quickly see lights flickering. It also turns out that that flicker is disruptive in our brain and you can imagine why certain colored lamps in the LED technology world have a direct effect on compounding things like fatigue in workplaces and other potential emotional effects.

The lamps in the mycoocoon pod immerse the whole body in key colours, along with sounds to enhance the experience and can be used for meditation sessions.

The company also supplies Color Immersion Walls, which can be implemented in various room configurations and used with yoga, reflexology, or treatments for jet-lag, or can be installed in a relaxation room.

This idea of using color in rooms becomes an aha moment in my discussion with Valerie as I consider the implications of setting up office spaces and or meeting rooms with clients bathed in certain colors.

It could very well be that the color experience of a room prior to a meeting could set the meeting off on a good or bad foot. So next time you're thinking about having a meeting or maybe having to discuss a difficult issue with a client, friend or other significant relationship imagine what it would be like to be in a room where the color experience of that place is directly affecting our mind body state creating us more calm or enthusiastic and energetic and more willing to take risks and take on challenges.

The implications here are super important because we can begin to understand color as a mediator or activator of certain emotional states. And that has a direct effect on how we consider using color in the built environment.

One other consideration here would also be the proliferation of digital screens in our environments and the use of immersive digital experiences at an urban scale. Think about the color influence of standing in the middle of Times Square in New York and how that might elevate your sense of agitation or perhaps the fact that all of that visual stimulation and you were being blasted by color wavelengths from all angles also increases your sense of exhaustion.

Mycoocoon recently launched its products in Asia in partnership with VDL Cosmetics so consumers can select their makeup based on their colour moods after taking the Mycoocoon test and immerse themselves in the colour pods.

Another way to consider color would be to understand what people's color personality profile would be.

Meaning, I happen to like fuchsia purples and dark blues that says something about my personality. Now imagine you're also in a corporate meeting of some sort and or you have a company that has multiple brands. Often these different segments of businesses become siloed and also develop in a sense their own personalities.

It would be interesting to get members of different brands owned by the same parent company in workshops and begin to understand that even though they're working within different segments of the business their color personality profile actually makes them more connected to each other than they may think.

These are the sort of things that Valerie Corcias and mycoocoon actually do.

They speak at international conferences, run workshops for hotels and work with international brands to begin to teach people about the importance and influence of color has on our emotions and our sense of well being.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 62 How Retail Leaders Create Environmental, Social & Cultural Innovations with Ken Nisch - Chairman at JGA

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 20:18:40 +0000

ABOUT KEN NISCH:

Ken’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/ken-nisch-a1922325

BIO:

No one knows retail better than Ken. His resume includes brands big and small, local and global – with an award list to match. His consumer knowledge and entrepreneurial insights have been an integral part of the conceptual development and strategic image positioning for many retail operators, manufacturers and brand marketers in multiple verticals for more than 40 years.

Ken has been named a “Retail Luminary” and “Retail Influencer” by design:retail Magazine and currently serves on their Editorial Board. He was inducted into the Retail Design Institute Legion of Honor, recognizing his outstanding career achievement in the field of retail store design and also presented with the Asia Retail Leadership Award at the Asia Retail Congress in Mumbai, India.

Clients

Allen Edmonds, Blue Nile, Disney, El Palacio de Hierro, Five Below, Hershey’s, H&M, Mayo Clinic, Museum of Arts and Design, Paradies Lagardère, Signet, Sleep Number, Sundance, The North Face, Warner Bros., Whole Foods Market

Recognition

“Retail Luminary” and “Retail Influencer” by design:retail Magazine

Editorial Board for design:retail Magazine

Inducted into the Retail Design Institute Legion of Honor, recognizing his outstanding career achievement in the field of retail store design.

Asia Retail Leadership Award – Honored at the Asia Retail Congress in Mumbai, India.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine.

VMSD is the publisher of VMSD magazine and brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with Ken Nisch Chairman of JGA an internationally recognized design firm. Ken recently has also co-authored with Vilma barr a new book titled Sustainability for Retail: How Retail Leaders Create Environmental, Social, & Cultural Innovations.

It is a great global overview of retailers and brands who are leading the way on how sustainable deign practice will shape retail places in the new future.

Before we get into the talk with Ken a few thoughts on sustainability and retail place making.

***********

Over the past couple of seasons of the show I have had a handful of guests who have focused our discussion on sustainability –

the internationally acclaimed designer Bruce Mau, of Massive Change Network where we talked about his life and approaches to design and a number of the key ideas from his book “Massive Change”

Denise Naguib of Marriott International,

Christian Davies of Bergmeyer,

Martin Kingdon of Popai and how the sustainability issue is being addressed in the UK and Ireland,

architect Yasmine Mahmoudieh whose eco-centric mindset shapes her design approach with sustainable materials like mycelium

and a few seasons ago, Caspar Schols who created Cabin ANNA a truly innovative house design that literally transforms, opening up to the elements placing its inhabitants under the stars, should they want to be, while they sleep.

The conversations have covered a lot of ground ranging from talking about the impact of packaging covering the products we buy every time we visit a store. It doesn’t really matter what type, could be clothing, hardware or grocery, packaging figures prominently in all of them…

…to the footprint of a global hospitality behemoth with over 8000 hotels most of whom provide hotel guests with a couple bottles of water when they arrive – A nice amenity with a potentially huge ecological impact since, despite how much we may believe in recycling a lot of those bottles still end up in a landfill.

This by the way, is not simply a Marriott hotels issue, it applies to the hotel industry as a whole.

We’ve discussed the impact of the building industry at large with respect to its contribution to CO2 in the atmosphere and therefore th e global climate crisis. I

think that most of us who are connected to the building industry either as architects and designers, manufacturers, general contractors, installers and other suppliers to the built environment, are increasingly aware of the implications of putting millions of square feet of new buildings on good ‘ole ‘terra firma.’

It is estimated that about 40% of CO2 emissions are related, in some way, to the building construction industry.

When we think about being a good steward of this planet that we have been gifted, is not just about doing ‘less bad.’ It’s about a fundamental shift in the way we see ourselves in relation to this little blue dot.

I think it’s about appreciating that the planet has been here a long, long, time before we ever walked it and it will be here a long time after we are gone.

The irony is that when humankind leaves mother earth, as I suspect we will, evolving into an interplanetary species, she will be just fine without us. I don’t think she will pine like a parent after dropping her young adult off at college and eagerly await their return at the holidays.

There are some who say that it is already too late; that the current efforts to stem the effects of pumping toxins into the air and seas leading to climate change and the potential for an ecological catastrophe, are not going to reverse what is already well on its way.

But that would be to live without hope and so, there are those who hold to the idea that if we created this state of affairs, we can uncreate it.

That we have designed our way here and we can therefore design our way out.

And in that, I find the encouragement to continue on believing that design, while not the only contributing factor in solving the climate issue, is a fundamental piece in the solution.

Let’s assume we too will be here for a long, long time and that the cynical view of us leaving scorched earth behind as we rocket off to evolve into an inter planetary species, perhaps to do it again elsewhere, will not come to pass.

Suppose what is now a rumbling becomes a global cacophony of ‘hell no,’ we learn, and we collectively embrace the idea that our current path is unsustainable.

To get there, everyday people, governments, associations, brands and retailers need to do more and talk about what they are doing more. Policy and practice at the level of governing a nation, a business or your family needs to put the discussion at the head of the spear and keep it there.

Sustainability has become a defining feature of why a consumer will or will not align him or her self with a brand.

How the core ideological ideas around ESG and DEI that underpin a brand come to life in an experience place are critical determinants of engagement.

The principles on which a company stands related to sustainability can make or break the connection between a brand or retailer and a consumer. It’s not just what they say but what they do that makes a difference.

This is a two-way ‘putting your money where your mouth is.’

Businesses that invest in sustainability initiatives enhance the likelihood of consumers investing in them.

Emerging consumers want to know that companies align with their individual points of view on these issues for brand adoption to happen.

Consumes want to know if the brand promotes ideas, policies and practices that match theirpersonal positions rather than, as a consumer, they are attaching themselves to a brand to accrue a sense of identity or belonging to the brand’s platform.

This may seem like a subtle shift, but consumers show up already certain about their mindset on issues of sustainability and they quickly determine whether or not the brand is on their team – not the other way around.

And so, when you read a book like “Sustainability for Retail: How Retail Leaders Create Environmental, Social, & Cultural Innovations” by this episode’s guest Ken Nisch, you get an overview of how the sustainability issue is being highlighted by standouts in the retail industry around the world.

Ken and his co-author Vilma Barr provide a well-rounded summary of retail brands and companies who are ‘doing the right thing.’

Use to be that many of them didn’t wear their efforts on their sleave, they just planted trees or sustainably sourced materials or engaged in fare trade practices because they believed it was, well… the right thing to do. Seemed obvious to them.

As they pursued the sustainable path, not beating their chest, in self-congratulations, their efforts were certainly having positive impact on the planet but maybe not in heightening awareness and the urgency to act now.

Well… a lot of that has changed in recent years and customers want to know where brands stand on the issues. As awareness grows, change gets a foot hold and conscious awareness of the issues becomes increasing woven into how retailing is done.

When someone like Ken Nisch canvases the retail world to promote companies who are addressing the sustainability issue, he does it from a place of knowing who’s who.

His resume includes brands big and small, local and global – with an award list to match. His consumer knowledge and entrepreneurial insights have been an integral part of the conceptual development and strategic image positioning for many retail operators, manufacturers and brand marketers in multiple verticals for more than 40 years.

Ken has been named a “Retail Luminary” and “Retail Influencer” by design:retail Magazine and currently serves on their Editorial Board.

He was inducted into the Retail Design Institute’s Legion of Honor, recognizing his outstanding career achievement in the field of retail store design.

He was also presented with the Asia Retail Leadership Award at the Asia Retail Congress in Mumbai, India.

Ken Nisch has worked with Disney, Hershey’s, H&M, Mayo Clinic, Sleep Number, Sundance, The North Face, Warner Bros., Whole Foods Market and a host of other great brands.

In this discussion, Ken Nisch and I unpack a number of efforts being done on the sustainability front by companies in the retail industry.

There are certainly more than those I pull from Ken’s book for us to talk about.

What “Sustainability for Retail…”clearly establishes is the idea that the ground swell of initiatives that retailers and brands are taking on will likely grow changing the retail landscape.

Talking about these issues increases awareness.

The outgrowth of these concepts being at the forefront of our thinking as we create retail stores, is that places of customer engagement remain relevant as crucibles for more than simply the exchange of goods and services.

They are places where ideas and commerce are connected.

Stores are much more than a place to get something at a good price. They can be places where ideas that matter, that concern us all, come to life.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.61 The Art and Neuroaesthetic Science of Wellbeing with Tasha Golden - Director of Research, International Arts + Mind Lab, Johns Hopkins University

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 1 Dec 2023 19:02:03 +0000

ABOUT TASHA GOLDEN, PhD:
Tasha’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/tashagolden

Websites:

Twitter:

goldenthis

BIO:

Tasha Golden, PhD is Director of Research at the International Arts +Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University, and a national leader and consultant in arts + public health. Holding a PhD in Public Health Sciences, Tasha Golden has published extensively on the impacts of the arts, music, aesthetics, and social norms on health and well-being. She has served as an advisor on several nati onal and international health initiatives, is adjunct faculty for the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine, and recently led the pilot evaluation of CultureRx in Massachusetts: the first arts-on-prescription in the U.S.

Golden is also a career artist and entrepreneur. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured full-time in the US and abroad, and her songs appear in feature films and TV dramas (ABC, SHOWTIME, FOX, NETFLIX, etc). She is a published poet (Humanist Press) and founder of Project Uncaged: an arts-based health intervention for incarcerated teen women that amplifies their voices in justice reform.

Tasha’s diverse background drives her success as an international speaker and thought leader. She gives talks and facilitates workshops for artists, businesses, researchers, practitioners, and more—helping them enhance and reimagine their work. As a consultant, she helps leaders and organizations draw on the science of arts and health to further their goals.

This is one of those conversations that literally just scratches the surface of what is possible when considering how the arts influences our lives. It is an important conversation about why we need to put art back into our daily routines as a prescription to wellbeing.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to episode 61 of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

As usual, thanks go to VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media.

VMSD is the publisher of VMSD magazine and brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In a minute, we’ll dig into my discussion with Tasha Golden - Director of Research at the International Arts+Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

But first a few thoughts to set up our talk…

****************

Art and making is part of our human experience – it is part of who we are as a species.

I have had this feeling for a number of years, and probably expressed it on this podcast a number of times, that art and making are intrinsic to all of us.

There's something unique about the making of things that humans do that is different than other living creatures on the planet. Sure, some of the animals in our world make things too. Birds make nests and the great apes do as well, for some apes, new ones every night as I understand it.

But the defining feature between humans and the other creatures making things on the planet is that we make things that can make other things.

We are Homo Sapiens – “Man The Thinker” but we are also “Homo Faber” or Man The Maker. I think we're equally “Homo Ludens” – “Man The Player.”

I'm sure that there's some deep connection between the idea of the making of things and play that are also deeply connected in defining who we are and how we come to understand ourselves and navigate the world.

When I am deeply connected to the making of things, specifically when listening to music and painting, I am very aware of the fact that I am in a Flow state that feels like being deeply involved in play. Time disappears, dissipates… its otherworldly.

I think that making, whether objects, stories, music or other manifestations of our creative minds is part of who we all are. But I also think we have pushed it aside getting up in our rational heads believing that we could think our way through our lives rather than feeling, or maybe even creating our way through them.

Sir Ken Robinson had said something like ‘we are all born creative, and we have it educated out of us.’ That’s a tragedy with huge implications to our world when I think we really need super creative solutions to life’s pressing challenges.

It seems to me that creativity was a necessary skill to be developed as part of our evolutionary history. Being creative, a good problem solver, was an insurance policy for survival. This is also true of our ability to engage in empathic relationships in collaborative communities. When working together, we were much better able to survive. Millenia ago, being cast out of the group and having to go at on your own in the wild might have significantly reduced your chances of survival.

And so, making and creating close knit social communities and problem solving have been with us from time immemorial.

But beyond making tools, creating shelters and being creative in these ways so as to survive in an unpredictable and sometime brutal world, the arts, at least we call them now evolved as a way for us to express ourselves, our ideological orientations, our understanding of the world.

In some ways they were an attempt to understand and answer some of the existential questions of what it meant to be human and how we fit into the cosmological scheme of things.

The arts in its many forms; sculpture, dance, song, music, and later literature, brought communities together in shared understanding of the meaning of being individuals as well as members of a larger whole. The arts were a vehicle for the expression of ideas, the asking of questions and searching for answers.

In many ways the arts helped to express the ineffable.

The arts aligned with our penchant for using narratives to navigate through the world.

Stories put things into place, they described the why and how of things. Cognitive scientist Roger Schank has said “Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they’re ideally set up to understand stories.”

And many of the stories we tell are in the form of the arts. From the paintings on the walls of caves in Lascaux France 1700 years ago, to the contemporary dance of Martha Graham, to best-selling books (you pick the author) or immersive digital experiences of media artists like Refik Anadol, the arts have been, and continue to be, part of our lives.

Without the arts, life would be bereft of meaning.

I have often heard people say I can't draw or I've got no rhythm and can't dance or I can't hold a tune. These self-judgmental comments go completely contrary to what we know from science about the value of engaging in art or even doing simple things like humming your favorite tune and the positive effects it has on your mind-body state.

I find myself humming or singing to myself all the time – Christmas carols in the summer, old 70’s rock classics any day, doesn’t matter. Humming, an ancient artform, plays a key role in activating the parasympathetic nervous system – also known as your ‘rest and digest state’.

Because your vagus nerve, one of your neural superhighways connecting your brain to major organs in the rest of your body, runs through your larynx and pharynx in your throat, the vibrations that humming stimulates your vagus nerve and creates what's known as “vagal tone.”

Humming can also improve heart rate variability which is an important metric that shows how well you can recover from experiences of stress. So, when you hum you induce something called “parasympathetic dominance” which means that you move from a fight or flight state into one of increased relaxation.

The idea here is that bringing the arts into our lives even in the simplest of ways like humming, reconnects us to ourselves and helps support mind body health, an overall sense of well-being.

More and more research is pointing to the fact that engaging in the arts and having a sense of well-being can be directly connected.

In fact the whole emerging field in cognitive science called neuroaesthetics is geared towards the understanding of how the arts, in all of their incarnations, influences how we feel - not just when listening to a piece of music or staring at a painting on a wall in a museum - but how the overall built environment potentially influences our emotional state which may have a direct effect on our body systems potentially leading to disease.

So, there is a significant problem at hand when arts funding is slashed from school curricula thinking that it is less important than getting our school aged children ready to compete on the world stage by simply focusing on STEM based curricula only. Fully integrating the arts into the school, and even our workdays, increases learning and company performance.

As a personal example, I know I've described this in a number of the podcast episodes, and at the risk of being repetitive I'll do so now…

…during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022 and I poured myself into painting, writing and doing this podcast all of which would qualify as the arts.

I firmly believe that if it weren't for me finding a Flow state, a pseudo meditative experience, through painting and listening to music while doing it , that my experience of the pandemic may have been drastically different.

I think that in many ways, it might have actually been quite negative and that I might have been a very difficult person to live with.

Instead, art gave me a sense of agency to be able to navigate the ambiguity of an uncertain future. Engaging in the arts, if even on a small plain of my physical world in the form of a 36 by 48-inch canvas, gave me a certain sense of control.

I shifted the negative energy of anxiety and fear of the unknown into creativity in the form of a pandemic production of 25 canvases. I was directly exposed to the value and impact of how the arts could be harnessed to create a profound sense of well-being.

And this brings me to my guest Tasha Golden.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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EP. 60 Making Architecture Materially Different with Yasmine Mahmoudieh, Founder Principal Yasmine Mahmoudieh Design

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 19:38:05 +0000

ABOUT YASMINE MAHMOUDIEH:

Yasmine's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminemahmoudieh/

Websites

mahmoudieh.com (Company)
impactdesignnow.com (Company)

Email

design@mahmoudieh.com

Twitter

BIO:

Yasmine Mahmoudieh, an acclaimed architect, designer, and tech entrepreneur, is internationally recognized for groundbreaking designs and an unwavering commitment to sustainability. Her work has earned her numerous international design awards, including the prestigious Global Sustainability Award in 2022 for her contributions to architecture and design in hospitality. With an illustrious career spanning prestigious institutions, she serves as a visiting professor at renowned establishments such as EHL Hotel School and Institut Paul Bocuse, inspiring emerging talents in the field.

Additionally, Mahmoudieh is a sought-after speaker, lecturing around the world on hotel architecture, design, and development. She has even been invited to speak at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, focusing on the critical subject of sustainability in architecture and design.

Mahmoudieh seamlessly integrates modern technologies with traditional design principles, crafting captivating and immersive spaces that engage all senses.

As a prominent global ambassador for eco-conscious practices, she pioneers sustainable construction techniques, utilizing recycled plastics through 3D printing and exploring mycelium as a substitute for traditional building materials.

With an unwavering passion for harmonizing functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability, Mahmoudieh continues to shape the future of architecture and design with her profound influence and visionary approach.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to episode 60 of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

This season will be no different than the previous ones where we continue to have great discussions with visionary leaders from various industries and professions.

As usual, thanks go to VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media.

VMSD is the publisher of VMSD magazine and brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In a minute, we’ll dig into my discussion with Yasmine Mahmoudieh - architect, designer, and tech entrepreneur, who is internationally recognized for ground breaking designs and an unwavering commitment to sustainability.

But first a few thoughts to set up our talk…

****************

I remember back in 2009 going to see the movie Avatar.

The narrative followed a typical story of white man's colonization and subjugation of an indigenous peoples - this time on Pandora - a planet light years away from earth - because presumably we had succeeded in trashing our own planet and had gone off to exploit the natural resources of another.

There were multiple other themes written into the script but in principle it dealt with what I would characterize as corporate greed and the decimation of natural landscapes an indigenous peoples.

The singular motivation to mining the planet’s natural resources?... the billions of dollars of revenue for a large corporation who was mining a natural resource called “unobtanium.”

Naturally the corporation militarized their operations under the guise that the 10 foot tall blue-skinned sapient humanoid indigenous peoples called the Na’vi - as well as the flora a fauna were… lethal.

Another re-telling of big bad corporations exercising their power over a helpless people by flexing their military muscle with sociopathic leaders with a bent for murderous behavior.

And adding insult to narrative injury, there was the denial of science and the well intentioned initiatives of creating Avatars of the Na’vi where humans could transfer consciousness into alien bodies cultivated in an enormous incubation chamber, that would then animate and go out among the native beings and infiltrate their community with the intention of learning more about them.

OK... So this is a story that we're pretty familiar with.

Notwithstanding the re-telling of a narrative we all know, James Cameron the director, brough the theater-going public compelling visualizations of an imaginary verdant jungle-like environment. On the big screen of a movie theater it was immersive and realistic.

I’d say that for a while Avatar was a superb example of the use computer generated imagery that brought viewers into the experience of a distant world.

Ok, so as not to get bogged down with the nasty-self-serving-humans part of the story ...

…one of the key feature of this world was the Home Tree (which the humans eventually destroyed as well).

Ok sorry I had to add that in…

Home Tree - and all other tress for that matter - created an eco-system, an integrated network, that was connected underground.

For the Na’vi people, Eywa was the living deity but not in the physical form humans would have expected.

Eywa was a biological sentient guiding force of life and was physicalized through a network of plants, trees and other wildlife that stretched across Pandora. Eywa acted to maintain equilibrium among all things.

Now… the obvious connection to be drawn here is the idea that our earth is a massive ecosystem and that there is an urgent need for our collective understanding that everything in this ecosystem works as a complex set of interdependencies.

Everything is connected to everything.

Our life energy is intimately intertwined with the planet’s natural resources. We are from the earth. Though, I believe, many often see themselves as separated from it.

I seem to have been having an increasing number of conversation with people where one of the things we end up returning to is sustainability. What the building industry does in negative ways to the environment and by consequence us, emotionally and physically.

The conversation is encompassing straight up building practice, materials and finishes and what the CO2 contribution is to the planet when we build things, anything.

Not a good thing for the environment and by extension not a good thing for us.

and… what the effect of the building typologies has to do with our emotional well-being – a field called Neuroaesthetics – how he built environment affects us at a mind-body level.

The sea of sameness and a building stock of overwhelming banality can undermine a sense of well-being. We are born experience expectant and our brains love novelty. The brain isn’t fond of being bored.

And yet, many of our urban environments are monotonous.

So not only is the building industry responsible for about 40% of the CO2 in the atmosphere contributing to the global climate problem, the buildings we are putting into the environment are, from the neuroaesthetics point of view, often not contributing to our sense of wellbeing since they often create city blocks that area mundane.

This is where my guest Yasmine Mahmoudieh enters the scene.

Her work has earned her numerous international design awards, including the prestigious Global Sustainability Award in 2022 for her contributions to architecture and design in hospitality.

With an illustrious career spanning prestigious institutions, she serves as a visiting professor at renowned establishments such as EHL Hotel School and Institut Paul Bocuse, inspiring emerging talents in the field.

Mahmoudieh seamlessly integrates modern technologies with traditional design principles, crafting captivating and immersive spaces that engage all senses.

So why the whole description of the movie Avatar and undergound connections between trees and other forest plants?

Because that idea directly aligns with the emerging use of mycillium. What is mycelium?

Mycellium is tubular thread of cells that spread through the soil underground and connects the roots of plants to one another. It is like the earth’s natural internet. Everything is connected…

Why would understanding the portential use of Mycellium as a building material be important ?

Well… it is a naturally occurring substance and research suggests that it has a positive effect on enhancing immune strength.

As a prominent global ambassador for eco-conscious practices, Yasmine Mahmoudieh pioneers sustainable construction techniques, utilizing recycled plastics through 3D printing

and exploring mycelium as a substitute for traditional building materials.

The Na’vi and Eywa had something goin’ on. And humans just bulldozed it all in search for a rock in the ground. A familiar story with tragic outcomes.

I think that the more we turn to ancient indigenous traditions, understand them and perhaps augment them with modern science, the more we may find solutions to some of the more profound eco challenges we now face.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep. 59 Near Futurism and Spatial Computing with Neil Redding - Founder, Redding Futures

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 21:46:07 +0000

ABOUT NEIL REDDING:

Neil's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reddingneil/

Website:

https://www.neilredding.com/

Editor, Near Future of Retail

BIO:

Neil Redding is a keynote speaker, author, Innovation Architect and Near Futurist.
Neil has worked at the convergence of digital and physical for decades, and is an expert speaker and advisor in the realms of spatial computing, augmented reality (AR), AI, and convergent brand ecosystems. As a Near Futurist, Neil focuses on connecting what's possible with what's practical — pulling the future into the present through a digital experience lens.
Neil currently leads Redding Futures, a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to engage powerfully with the Near Future. Prior to founding Redding Futures, Neil held leadership roles at Mediacom, Proximity/BBDO, Gensler, ThoughtWorks and Lab49.
He has delivered for clients including Visa, Nike, Cadillac, Macy’s, NBA, Verizon, TED, The Economist, MoMA, Converse, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Oracle, Financial Times, and Fidelity Investments.
He has spoken at numerous conferences including SXSW, AWE, Immerse Global Summit, infoComm, Tech2025, CreateTech, SEGD XLab, A.R.E. Shoptalk, Creative Technology Week, Design+AI and VRevolution.
Neil is also editor of Near Future of Retail, author of the forthcoming book The Ecosystem Paradigm, and advises multiple startups at the leading edge of the digital-physical convergence.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with Neil Redding Founder of Redding Futures about Near Futurism and Spatial Computing.

But first a few thoughts.

****************

I grew up on Star Trek. And Walt Disney of course.

Sunday nights were special my brothers and I would gather together with my father watching captain James T Kirk careening around the universe and battle everything from klingons to tribbles.

It gave me a vision of the future and a world of possibility beyond what was known.

I think having had that experience, and my father's fascination with the possibility of beaming anywhere, set me on a path for being always curious about the expanse of the universe, the possibility of extraterrestrial life, what would happen when you traveled at the speed of light or entered the event horizon of a black hole.

Later on I began to be interested in string theory and tried hard to understand the math and physics of the general theory of relativity.

It's equally become important as a practice to hold future thinking in context with present realities.

The pandemic offered an opportunity to really understand what it meant to be present -where the future vision for my life that I had established weren't coming to pass - at least in the short term.

And so, it became interesting for me to think about the future not as some long far off vision of something that would happen 25 or 50 or 100 years from now but to think increasingly about the near future.

It also became clear that the distant future was becoming increasingly difficult to imagine.

When thinking about the exponential pace of change it became very clear to me that we were very definitely on the upswing of an exponential curve where moments of significant technological advances would become closer and closer together and therefore the deltas between one significant moment and the next would also become smaller putting us perhaps in the perpetual present, fluidly moving from now and next .

And of course, if you do any meditation or have a mind body practice, the whole idea is to find yourself in the present letting go of past and a longing for understanding future.

And that's great and I do have a meditation practice each day that helps me stay centered focused on the now, hopefully ridding me of my worries or my regrets from things that I might have done in the past or perpetually longing for a future to be a certain way.

But at the same time, there seems to be a paradox - we're not naturally good at staying in the perpetual present because we need to rely on past for learning and we often long for understanding our future perhaps because we want some sense of predictability in in otherwise largely unpredictable world.

And so I began to think a lot about this idea of near future - not lingering on the past, though hoping that I bring lessons learned from those experiences forward to make me smarter and help support the decision making in the present and not completely alienating myself from future.

I’ve come to think of this a matter of a proportioning of my daily brain power - how much time am I spending thinking about what was or has not yet come to pass.

And so when I reconnected with Neil Redding in an online conference that I see saw him speaking at, I was fascinated with his concept around near futurism end other subjects like spatial computing.

Things that has focused his profession professional path on over the past number of years since our first meeting in New York over a decade ago.

When we met then we shared a stage at a Society for Graphic Designers event and I had just published my book Retail (r)Evolution and was talking about the emergence of a new experience seeking cohort of shoppers focused in the digital world and what the emergence of digital media, as a medium for interacting with customers, would mean.

Then I was talking about Google Glass which had just come on to the market and I saw it as a potentially new way of engaging in experiences of our physical environment.

I explained to my sons that I was selected to be a beta tester and their remark to me then was “dad, you're not actually gonna put that thing on your face are you?”

Google Glass ended up not gaining traction and faded away. But that didn't mean that companies developing augmented reality headsets head disappeared they were just perhpas waiting for a time where general adoption of the tech would become more robust.

I happen to think that augmented reality is a better solution than virtual reality because augmented reality keeps us in the present it keeps us in a place where we are actively engaged in a mind body way with the environments that we're in.

Augmented reality offers us an opportunity to have a digital overlay on those experiences and it draws from our Hansel and Gretel trail of digital ones and zeros that suggest our preferences, our desires, our need for certain kinds of information so that products and places could be customized by us.

Augmented reality also offers us the opportunity to share in the expereicne of place.

Both myself and a friend or family member could visit a store, a museum or even a National Park standing side by side and through our augmented reality headsets or glasses, we could at the same time, share in the experience and also have it equally customized to our individual preferences.

The idea of augmented reality actually isn't new. L Frank Baum, who wrote the Wizard of Oz, actually described a headset in his 1901 book “THE MASTER KEY”.

There he previewed the invention of the Taser, a hand-held PDA with Google Glass-like capability, including live video /AR and a wireless phone.

The Master Key: An Electrical Fairy Tale, Founded Upon the Mysteries of Electricity and the Optimism of its Devotees, describes the adventures of a 15 year old boy who experiments with electricity.

The young lad accidentally touches "the Master Key of Electricity," and comes into contact with a Demon who bestows upon him various gifts.

One of these gifts is a "Character Marker" which is described on p. 94:

"It consists of this pair of spectacles. While you wear them everyone you meet will be marked upon the forehead with a letter indicating his or her character. The good will bear the letter 'G,' the evil the letter 'E.' The wise will be marked with a 'W' and the foolish with an 'F.' The kind will show a 'K' upon their foreheads and the cruel a letter 'C.’ Thus you may determine by a single look the true natures of all those you encounter."

Sometimes I think people like L Frank Baum and others like Nicola Tesla knew, long before they actually came into common usage, where our technology would finally bring us. It just seems like the actual evolution of digital technology was simply lagging behind our imagination.

Tesla for example was quoted in in 1926 Colliers magazine article as saying “when wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will become converted to a huge brain, which in fact it is. All things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole... and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared to our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket” and then he goes on to say that we'll be able to communicate with each other independent of geography.

About a decade ago there was a Time magazine article called “Never Offline” where they described wearables - meaning the digital interfaces that we would put on our bodies from smartwatches to things like Google Glass or augmented reality goggles.

In that article they suggested that “…wearables will make your physical self visible to the virtual world in the form of information, an indelible digital body print, and that information is going to behave like any other information behaves these days. It will be copied and circulated. It will go places you don't expect. People will use that information to track you and to market to you.”

Now I suppose one way of taking this view would be that it aligns with the often dystopian vision of a future where information is used without our knowing and perhaps to our detriment.

On the other hand, things like wearables and spatial computing devices can be used to augment experiences to the benefit of people.

One of them which seems to be Ground Zero for the application of augmented reality or spatial computing is in the retail world.

It's easy to imagine shopping experiences that are already difficult to navigate - because retailers cram their spaces with so many products that it makes choosing and navigation of the assortment difficult - could be alleviated through the use of smart devices like an augmented reality headset of some kind.

Signage could be clearer, information leading to better decision making could be better and navigation through a complex maze of products in any store could also be made more efficient.

Wearable technologies have not disappeared since Google Glass came on the market and then faded away. Compnaies have been spending time refining technologies allowing our ability to collect, parse and share data.

The introduction of artificial intelligence and natural language processing has also become more part of our everyday world. And this is where spatial computing becomes increasingly interesting.

What if we can talk to our devices as we navigate space what information could we call up that would help us make decisions or be better informed?

What visual clutter could we remove from our streets and highways? that instead of having large billboard structures lining highways that that information could simply be a visual virtual overlay that we see through our dashboard or through the glasses we're wearing on our face.

Or maybe it offers up the opportunity for things that are specifically related to me like what restaurant I'd like to go to and how far it is away because my personal preferences are already loaded into the algorithm.

Perhaps our actual 3D environment becomes less littered with this type of visual noise and the work of providing that kind of information is provided through a set of glasses and an augmented reality overlay.

So having this conversation with Neil was interesting because he's actually doing this sort of thing.

Neil Redding has worked at the convergence of digital and physical for decades, and is an expert speaker and advisor in the realms of spatial computing, augmented reality (AR), AI, and convergent brand ecosystems.

As a Near Futurist,Neilfocuses on connecting what's possible with what's practical — pulling the future into the present through a digital experience lens.

Neil currently leads ReddingFutures, a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to engage powerfully with the Near Future.

Prior to foundingReddingFutures,Neilheld leadership roles at Mediacom, Proximity/BBDO, Gensler, ThoughtWorks and Lab49.

He has worked for companies including Visa, Nike, Cadillac, Macy’s, NBA, Verizon, TED, The Economist, MoMA, Converse, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Oracle, Financial Times, and Fidelity Investments.

He has spoken at numerous conferences including SXSW, Immerse Global Summit, infoComm, Tech2025, CreateTech, SEGD XLab, A.R.E. Shoptalk, Creative Technology Week, Design+AI and VRevolution.

Neil is also editor of Near Future of Retail, author of the forthcoming book The Ecosystem Paradigm, and advises multiple startups at the leading edge of the digital-physical convergence.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep.58 Gravitas with Lisa Sun Founder and CEO, GRAVITAS

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 03:00:23 +0000

ABOUT Lisa Sun:

Lisa's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-sun-793777/

Websites:

To learn more about Lisa’s book: https://gravitasnewyork.com/pages/gravitas-book-the-8-strengths-that-redefine-confidence

Learn more about our forthcoming book, GRAVITAS: The 8 Strengths That Redefine Confidence

To discover your superpowers: www.MyConfidenceLanguage.com

www.GravitasNewYork.com

BIO:

Lisa Sun is the founder and CEO of GRAVITAS, a company on a mission to catalyze confidence.

GRAVITAS offers innovative size-inclusive apparel, styling solutions, and content designed to make over women from the inside out. Prior to founding GRAVITAS, Sun spent 11 years at McKinsey & Company, where she advised leading luxury fashion and beauty brands and retailers in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Latin America on strategic and operational issues.

Her first collection was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, People, and the Todays how in the same month.Sun and GRAVITAS have been featured on CNN and in Forbes, Fast Company, New York magazine, Elle, Marie Claire, InStyle, and more.

GRAVITAS includes among its activities a commitment to AAPI causes and New York City’s Garment District. Often called the “dress whisperer,” Lisa is also a highly sought-after public speaker who likes to impart her hard-won knowledge on gravitas and how to best harness it to other women.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD.

You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

In this episode I talk with Lisa Sun the Founder and CEO of the apparel brand Gravitas and the author of the recently published, runaway best seller titled - “Gravitas: The 8 Strengths That Redefine Confidence.”

But first a few thoughts.

****************

In the spring of 2022, I was in New York for the annual Vision Monday Leadership Summit. This event was being called “Discover & Recalibrate! Trends, Ideas and Tactics for Confronting Radical Change.” This 13th Annual gatherings brought into sharp focus the megatrends shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A lot of change has occurred in the world from the spring of 2020 up to this event. The COVID pandemic had shifted our worlds. The uncertainty and ambiguity brought about by the evolving circumstance of a global pandemic was a cause for pause. A time to re-evaluate and find strategies to address new challenges that faced us all.

My talk focused on navigating the fluid world of exponential change, facing down the unknown and looking for ways to remain buoyant in the sea of change all around us.

I suggested that cultural mindsets had been shifting over the past few years and that they had been hastened in the context of the global pandemic. When brands, their goods, services and experiences, are at odds with evolving culture, they can lose their value even if their legacy stays strong.

As cultural transformation happens, brands need to learn how to navigate cultural complexity and create a different future that is aligned with the pace of change.

In a post-pandemic, experience-seeking economy, health, safety and welfare are a baseline in the guest expectation set. But addressing evolving customer needs was now well beyond making sure customers were safe while shopping, visiting a hotel or simply being out in the community.

How do we keep up with the pace of change? As the pace of change speeds along how can we finding meaning in the in-between of the last and the next big thing?

I focused on how can changing your mindset about change allow us to see the ‘now’ as an emergent space of creative possibility?

Changing your mindset – reframing the context – seeing the interdependency of things – looking for opportunity in upheaval… these all seemed to be front-row-center how we needed to adjust to a new world order.

As I was in the speaker’s green room waiting for my time slot to come up, in bounds a woman with an air of openness, humility and eagerness to connect. There was an energy of confidence that emanated from her.

She seemed to stand her ground, command her conversations and did so while not imposing on you but welcoming you into a shared space of empathic connection. I thought to my self, that I had to make sure that is saw that presentation.

When Lisa Sun hit the stage, she was direct and vulnerable. She was hilarious with her impressions of her Taiwanese mother who she says was a Tiger Mom before it became a thing with publishing of Amy Chua’s book that popularized the term.

She shared her personal journey, living with her immigrant parents in Rancho Cucamonga who ran the only Chinese restaurant withing 40 miles of her home. Her first job out of college was working in a scrap metal yard, then worked for 11 years at McKinsey and Company where she spent on average 250 days a year on the road. She decided to take an 11 month sojourn to travel the world ending her trip with passing through Taiwan where her parents had retired.

Her mother tried convinced her to spend half of her life’s saving to create her own business rather than going back to the corporate consulting world. A fateful yearly performance review led to an epiphany and that in turn led her to her company Gravitas being born.

Today Lisa Sun is the founder and CEO of GRAVITAS, a company on a mission to catalyze confidence. GRAVITAS offers innovative size-inclusive apparel, styling solutions, and content designed to make over women from the inside out.

Her first collection was featured inO, The Oprah Magazine, People,and theToday show in the same month.

Lisa Sun and GRAVITAS have been featured on CNN and inForbes, Fast Company,New York magazine, Elle, Marie Claire,InStyle, and more.

Often called the “dress whisperer,” Lisa is also a highly sought-after public speaker who likes to impart her hard-won knowledge on having gravitas and how to best harness it in other people.

10 + years after starting Gravitas the company, “Gravitas: the book, subtitled “The 8 Strengths That Redefine Confidence” has been published.

In her book Lisa Sun shares her journey of self-discovery and combines it with proprietary research, real-world examples, and anecdotes from other successful women who have championed their own definition of self-worth.

When I think back to the Vision Monday Leadership Summit and it being called “Discover & Recalibrate! Trends, Ideas and Tactics for Confronting Radical Change” I was talking about the radical environmental contextual change all around us and how that would influence change in the way we re-thought the design of our companies, brand experience places and re-writing long-held narratives that were no longer suited to a world of rapid change.

I think Lisa’s talk was signaling the need for personal radical change. Seeking for a view of oneself that required a mindset shift to believing in a sense of self-empowerment - welcoming change as a vehicle for personal growth.

Gravitas, both the apparel company and the book, seek to “catalyze confidence.”

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep. 57 Your Brain On Art with Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross Co-Authors of Your Brain On Art: How the Arts Transform Us

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 05:02:58 +0000

ABOUT Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross:

Susan's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-magsamen-6345918/

Ivy’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/rossivy

Websites:

Website: www.yourbrainonart.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yourbrainonartbook/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-brain-on-art/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089357061217&mibextid=LQQJ4d

BIO - Susan Magsamen:

Susan Magsamen is the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab), Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics, a pioneering initiative from the Pedersen Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her body of work lies at the intersection of brain sciences and the arts—and how our unique response to aesthetic experiences can amplify human potential.

Magsamen is the author of the Impact Thinking model, an evidence-based research approach to accelerate how we use the arts to solve problems in health, well-being, and learning. In addition to her role at IAM Lab, she is an assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins and serves as co-director of the NeuroArts Blueprint project in partnership with the Aspen Institute.

Prior to founding IAM Lab, Magsamen worked in both the private and public sector, developing social impact programs and products addressing all stages of life—from early childhood to the senior years. Magsamen created Curiosityville, an online personalized learning world, acquired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2014 and Curiosity Kits, a hands-on multi-sensory company, acquired by Torstar in 1995.

An award-winning author, Magsamen has published eight books including The Classic Treasury of Childhood Wonder, The 10 Best of Everything Families, and Family Stories.

Magsamen is a Fellow at the Royal Society of the Arts and a strategic advisor to several innovative organizations and initiatives, including the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, the American Psychological Association, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Brain Futures, Learning Landscapes, and Creating Healthy Communities: Arts + Public Health in America.

BIO - Ivy Ross:

Ivy Ross is the Vice President of Design for the Hardware organization at Google.

Over the past six years, she and her team have launched 50+ products winning over 240 global design awards. This collection of hardware established a new Google design aesthetic that is tactile, colorful, and bold.

A winner of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Ivy’s innovative metal work in jewelry is in the permanent collections of 12 international museums.

Ivy has held executive positions ranging from head of product design and development to CMO and presidencies of several companies, including Calvin Klein, Swatch, Coach, Mattel, Bausch & Lomb, and Gap. Ninth on Fast Company’s list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business 2019, Ivy believes the intersection of arts and science is where the most engaging and creative ideas are found.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to season five of the next level experience design podcast.

It's kind of amazing when I think of it… now five seasons… wow.

This season will be no different than the previous ones where we continue to have great discussions with visionary leaders from various industries and professions.

As we jump into this new season thanks go to VMSD magazine. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL experience design podcast on VMSD.com.

Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience.

OK, let's dig in... With our first interview of the season with two remarkable women Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross whose recent book “Your Brain on Art has garnered huge attention since its recent release.

But first a few thoughts on art and making...

****************

When I was about 9 years old and my mom had me in an after school art program at a local painting studio near my childhood home.

Thursdays, as it would turn out, became the single time of the week where the outside world disappeared and I entered into a place of pure creativity and innovation which many years later I would discover was called “flow.”

Even to this day Thursdays seemed to hold a special body memory for me of calm and an internal sense of both peace and joy. Thursdays somehow carry a different energy from me that I think was implanted in my body all those years ago where my creative passion was fully expressed.

For years I would paint on Thursdays and that turned into a passion that became a profession as an architect.

I wasn't great at math or physics but I was pretty confident about my skills in art and I knew that there was something specific about the feeling that I had in going to this small art studio that was because of the things I was doing as well as the place that I was doing it in.

So studying architecture was always grounded in this idea for me of creating places that moved people emotionally.

It didn't matter to me too much whether you loved it or hated it, although I would have preferred you loved it. But my goal was always to connect to people on an emotional level to find the right combination of materials and finishes space volumes and textures and all those other things that we have in our architects toolbox and how we moved through and experience space from a mind – body emotional perspective.

I think early on I developed an aesthetic mindset.

I seemed to have a high level of curiosity, a love of play and open-ended exploration, a keen sensory awareness and a drive to engage in activities as a maker or beholder.

Through my architecture studies at McGill University I discovered principles of experience rooted in ritual and that there was a very different physical and emotional feeling connected to participating in ritual versus simply watching them.

I was always very interested in how people participated in space. How they participated in the making of their experiences because I always believed that in making we brought something unique to the world that humans were capable of doing better than any other creatures on the planet.

I developed a keen interest in ontological design - basically put - that the things we make return the favor by in part making us who we are. Our neurobiology reacts to the environment around us and so our mind body state is directly influenced by what we experience in the built environment. Our brains are in a feedback loop of making and being made by experience.

The Irish poet John O'Donoghue once said “art is the essence of awareness” and I find that particularly relevant to how we experience the places that we build and how we interact with them.

What I learned as a young artist on Thursday afternoons was that somehow in the making of things I became acutely aware of my mind body state as well as my surroundings.

As I started to create and design retail places it seemed that everywhere I walked the world around me became more relevant I was tuning in to everything that I could see and hear. When in the middle of trying to solve a design challenge, I seemed to tune into things that might not have otherwise been apparent to me.

What I found interesting was that this attunement to the environment around me also grew a connection between my sensory experiences and my appreciation of art. As I engaged more fully in the environment around me and the various kinds of arts I also learned more about myself.

During the recent pandemic I turned to painting to help navigate the uncertainty and ambiguity of a global crisis that had left everything that I had believed to be true and a path that I had created for myself professionally in flux. Art it seemed became the grounding mechanism that calmed my nervous system that brought joy amidst uncertainty.

Over the past few decades as a creative architect I've become acutely aware that the environment around us has a profound effect on our mind body state, our sense of well-being, our feelings of joy, community, connection, belonging, relevance.

Being exposed to the arts provided context and meaning, a way for me to understand where I stood in the grand scheme of things. And art also gave me a sense of agency of being able to have a sense of control and to bring things into the world that had never been there before.

And so, because of all of these understandings I have a deep appreciation for the book recently published by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross called “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.”

This book is wildly successful because I believe it is a writing whose time has come. It brings forward the ideas that the arts are fundamental to who we are as people and that long before we had written language we danced around fires sang songs, made drawings on walls and shared the meaning of our lives with each other by being in community, in relationships, participating in rituals and making.

And so, it's not surprising that the arts in all of its forms visual, literary, dance, sculpture and others are part of who we are as individuals and as members of a broader human whole.

When I bought this book I thought that it would help me understand the neuroscience of what was happening in my brain as I stood in front of a painting. But it did more than that. It helped to unpack why I was led to feel certain ways about my experience of art in general including paintings, dance, musical theater, poetry, a good movie and a great book.

It was chock full of examples and great research on how the arts are used in healing practices and health care industry to augment patient recovery.

It looked at how the arts are being used in education, though not nearly enough, to enhance learning.

Your brain on Art also brought me greater understanding about making music and how memories are tied to our experiences of hearing music. That's why it's likely you can clearly remember tunes from your childhood and tag them to early childhood experiences. Or why your playlists from your high school years probably are still able to be recalled with ease. And why I can remember the high school dance and my girlfriend at the time and the song Lucky Man by Emerson Lake and Palmer and that kiss.

The book dives into understanding arts and the neurodivergent brain and play and how these are critical to our development.

And if all of that wasn't quite enough it digs into the idea of how the arts support flourishing and asks the question - What constitutes a good life? I did not know that there is a burgeoning subfield of neuroscience and psychology now dedicated to identifying and understanding the neural mechanisms that contribute to a state of flourishing.

And Your Brain on Art brings to light some of the neuroscience related to creativity, awe and wonder.

Your Brain on Art is a collaborative effort between two remarkable women who together combine neuroscience and creative vision into a must-read book.

Susan Magsamen has over 35 years of experience in developing effective learning programs rooted in the science of learning and is an active member of the brain sciences research, arts, education and social impact communities.

She currently serves as Executive Director of the International Arts and Mind Lab, Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University where she is also a faculty member. She is also the senior advisor to the Science of Learning Institute at Johns Hopkins University. She works with both the public and private sectors using arts and culture evidence based approaches in areas including health, child development, workforce innovation, rehabilitation and social equity.

Ivy Ross is the Vice President of Design for the Hardware organization at Google. Over the past six years, she and her team have launched 50+ products winning over 240 global design awards. This collection of hardware established a new Google design aesthetic that is tactile, colorful, and bold.

She is a winner of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and her innovative metal work in jewelry is in the permanent collections of 12 international museums.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep. 56 Retail's Sustainability Re-Think with Martin Kingdon - Insights and Sustainability Director POPAI UK and Ireland

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 22:10:50 +0000

ABOUT MARTIN KINGDON:

Martin’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/martin-kingdon-121b693

Websites:

popai.co.uk/sustainability/ (Company)
popai.co.uk (Company)

Email: martin@popai.co.uk

BIO:

Martin has been involved with the display industry for twenty five years as a volunteer, board member and for twenty years Director geneneral

He has been responsible for Insight since 2010, Sustainability since 2019 and has defined POPAI’s offer including setting up the Sustainability council representing all sectors of the industry, the POPAI Sustainability Standard for corporate accreditation and the Sustain® global eco-design indicator tool now widely used in the UK and overseas.

He has spoken extensively around the world on many aspects of the display market, sustainability and shopper insight.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast. Over our 4 seasons we have focused on “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture, Technology and the Arts”.

NXTLVL features provocateurs for whom disruption and transformation are a way of engaging in work and play every day.

They include leading scientists, artists, musicians, architects, entertainers and story tellers whose research, exploration and built work brings new understanding of the impact and relevance of place-making to the world.

On the show, we focus on what’s now and what’s next.

On this episode we talk with Martin Kingdon Insight and Sustainability Director of POPAI UK and Ireland about the impact that retail stores, and all of their merchandising units and displays, have of on the environment.

First though, a few thoughts on retail, building sustainably and the carbon footprint of stores…

* * * * * * *

On your last shopping trip, to any retailer, what do you remember most?

Was it the crowd or the sales associates?

That you could, or couldn’t, find what you were looking for?

If you were walking the aisle of your favorite grocer, you might recall the product displays, how fantastically the apples were built into a pyramid, the water being misted across the fresh produce crisp keeping it crisp. The meat counters or the smell of bread being baked.

You might have even thought, why on earth they keep putting the milk at the far back corner, but then you’d probably be savvy enough to know that’s a ploy to exposed you to as much merchandise as they can as you go on your dairy search and rescue mission.

If you were shopping your favorite apparel store you might noticed that the mannequins were decked out in new outfits, that some new colorful tops were on the table just after you entered or that those big tables always seemed to be a constant state of disarray with sales associates busying over them putting things in neat stacks to be upended by customers a moment later.

You might notice signage, or the lack of it, when you are trying to find something.

You might remark about the lighting, paint colors, a pattern on the floor and perhaps some architectural element.

Chances are, that you probably don’t recall, in any detail, the things the stuff was sitting on, hanging from or enclosed in. Those things often slip into the background, receding away from your conscious awareness.

And that would also be by design.

My first boss in the retail world at New Vision Studios in New York, the late Joe Weishar, would remind be that the merchandise was the star of the show and all the rest of what was in the store were merely supporting actors or scenery.

Merchandise was king, or queen, or maybe prince or princess.

And, all of that scenery, all of those supporting actors come at a cost.

The architecture, store fixtures hanging racks, shelving, displays, refrigerated cases, signage, coat hooks in fitting rooms along with the chairs or benches, floor tiles, wallcoverings, lighting, checkout counters and cash registers…all of it…comes at a cost.

Not just the cost of designing, prototyping, manufacturing, shipping, installing, repairing or replacing in terms of dollars, but the cost of what all of it adds to our world in terms of carbon.

The amount of carbon generated and released into the environment from the making of that store you love to shop in, is staggering.

The built environment in general is a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore a major contributor to the global climate crisis.

By some reports, the built environment generates 40% of annual global CO2 emissions.

Of those total emissions, building operations are responsible for 27% annually, while building and infrastructure materials and construction (typically referred to as embodied carbon) are responsible for an additional 13% annually.

So, when you amble around in your favorite retailer, look again, beyond the stuff, at the environment, and all of those supporting actors, and try to imagine how much embodied carbon is in that one store.

Every element that allows you to shop for all the stuff you remove from the store, stays in the store and has contributed to the global climate crises.

According to Architecture2030.org, the global building stock is set to double by 2060.

And they say, “To accommodate the largest wave of building growth in human history, from 2020 to 2060, we expect to add about 2.6 trillion ft2(240 billion m2) of new floor area to the global building stock,the equivalent of adding an entire New York City to the world, every month, for 40 years.”

Now… if you have ever been to New York, think about how many stores are in that city. Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs of Staten Island, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn have a combined area of approximately 370 million square feet of retail stores. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1011185/total-retail-space-nyc-by-borough/)

According to the New York State Comptroller - “Before the pandemic, the retail sector in New York City accounted for32,600 establishments, 344,600 private sector jobs and $16 billion in total wages in 2019. Dec 31, 2020”

I’m not sure if you apply the “adding the equivalent of a New York City to the world every month for 40 years…” in terms of buildings, that it follows thatyou are also adding 370 million square feet of retail space to the world every month. I’d like someone to do that math…but …

See the thing here?

Retail is a huge component of the global building footprint and major contributor to the climate issue. And your favorite retailer doesn’t, in most case, have one store. They may have hundreds or maybe even thousands.

Where does all the stuff in stores come from?

Does it arrive in your local grocer or fashion store, sustainably sourced, manufactured and shipped?

How is all of it packaged?

What happens to all of those displays, shelving units, hanging racks and refrigerated cases when the retailer goes out of business or renovates every handful of years?

And what about all of the product that fills the shelves of retail stores? What is their impact on the environment in the total amount of CO2 that the store is responsible for producing every year?

Now… to be fair, according to Barron’s, of the top 100 most sustainable companies in the US right now, there are some retailers who have found themselves on the list.

Namely, # 7 Best Buy (Richfield, Minn.), # 21 Walmart (Bentonville, Ark.), # 27 Kroger (Cincinnati), # 30 Lowe’s (Mooresville, N.C.), # 49 Williams-Sonoma (San Francisco), # 67 Target (Minneapolis).

And… we can’t forget about companies like Patagonia whose commitment to saving the planet has been going on for years before it became either cool or politically correct to do so.

They just do it because, well… it’s the right thing to do and designing something, manufacturing it and putting it out there into the world in the thousands should be done with some accountability for its long-range impact on the global ecology.

And this is where my guest Martin Kingdon comes into retail’s sustainability story.

Martin has been involved with the display industry for twenty-five years as a volunteer and board member.

He is an expert in Shopper Behaviour research, particularly shopper engagement with retail store displays or layouts.

Martins has been the Director General of POPAI leading the UK division of the global trade association for companies involved in the Point of Purchase advertising market. POPAI’s members are drawn from retailers, brands, agencies, POP suppliers, installation companies and other support services.

Today he is the Insights and Sustainability Director for POPAI UK and Ireland. He has been responsible for Insight since 2010, Sustainability since 2019 and has defined POPAI’s offer including setting up the Sustainability council representing all sectors of the industry, the POPAI Sustainability Standard for corporate accreditation and something called Sustain® a global eco-design indicator tool now widely used in the UK and overseas.

I was able to speak with Martin Kingdon at the SHOP Marketplace event in Austin Texas about the impact of building store environments and somethings to consider curtailing retail’s effect on the global climate crisis.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep.55 The Healing Power of Design with Mirelle Phillips, Founder and CEO, Studio Elsewhere

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Tue, 30 May 2023 02:47:24 +0000

ABOUT MIRELLE PHILLIPS:

Mirelle’s LinkedIn Profile:

linkedin.com/in/mirelle-phillips-52077b29

Company Website: https://www.studioelsewhere.co

BIO:

Mirelle Phillips is the Founder and CEO of Studio Elsewhere, a design and technology company developing bio-experiential technology to promote behavioural, cognitive, and social health.

Studio Elsewhere uses evidence-based and data-driven practices to develop virtual and physical interventions that promote brain health. We are pioneers of bio-experiential design - interactive, immersive environmental design using technology and physical design toward a healthier brain-body connection. Our embedded emerging technology solutions support the needs of healthcare professionals, researchers, patients and caregivers.

We use software and hardware development, emerging technology, immersive game design, and biophilic design to reimagine the experience of health, wellness, and care. Our model allows us to develop a first-of-its-kind technology and design practice that leads with compassion, imagination, and inclusivity.

Studio Elsewhere was selected to represent the first ever New York City pavilion at the 2021 London Design Biennale and selected to design the United Nations Pavilion for the World Expo 2021. As a Latina Founder and innovator, Phillips is a passionate advocate for women in colour in STEM. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and previously led Experiential Design in the video game industry.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast. Over our 4 seasons we have focused on “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture, Technology and the Arts”.

NXTLVL features provocateurs for whom disruption and transformation are a way of engaging in work and play every day.

On the show, we focus on what’s now and what’s next.

* * * * * * *

In this episode we talk about the power of design and its influence on well-being with the Founder and CEO of Studio Elsewhere, Mirelle Phillips. Mirelle and her team collaborate with various medical institutions to create environments that support patients, their families and healthcare workers in the journey to recovery and well-being.

Most of us have had the experience of going to a doctor's office or dentist or hospital or some sort of medical facility and having to wait.

Some of us may even have spent a night in a temporary bed hooked up to a machine reading out our vital statistics and a team of nurses, doctors and specialists busying around us trying to understand what was wrong and how to make it right.

Some of us might have even spent time lying on that bed in a hallway before a room was available, staring up at a ceiling at a large rectangular fluorescent light, an acoustic tile ceiling and a rather drab overall interior.

Some of us might have even been a patient with a long term stay in a medical facility or had to return regularly for treatments for our particular condition.

Or some of us may have been caregivers or family members who accompanied our loved ones to the medical facility or care for them daily at home.

And then there are the health care workers themselves who over the past few years have caried an extraordinary burden as frontline workers during the COVID pandemic that, during the early phases, put crushing pressure on the medical system worldwide.

Whether we are a patient, a caregiver or healthcare worker, environments designed for supporting the care and recovery journey affect the experience along the path. The design of healthcare environments influence things like recovery time, they can mitigate stress, anxiety and fear and provide a sense of agency for those who feel like their bodies, and lives, are no longer in their control.

Our minds and bodies can be deeply affected by buildings.

Well maybe I need to refine that, not putting all the pressure on the built places.

The environments we inhabit, natural or human made, affect us.

A whole field of cognitive science has emerged that recognizes the influence hat the environment has on our mind-body state call neuroaesthetics.

Neuroesthetics is a term coined by Semir Zeki in 1999[3].

A more formal definition was arrived at in the early 2000’s as the scientific study of the neural bases for the contemplation and creation of a work of art.[4]

It doesn’t just apply to what is happening in the brain while looking at a piece of art. Among other things, it finds applications to music, dance, poetry, music, places and buildings.

What neuroesthetics does is it uses neuroscience to explain and understand the aesthetic experiences at the neurological level and helps us understand the relationship to how we feel and what we experience through the arts and architecture. Books like “Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives” by Sarah Williams Goldhagen and “Your Brain on Art” by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross are great examples of recent publications that help unpack how the environments we live in, and the art, music, dances, literature influences us.

On the show I have talked about ontological design – the idea that what we design designs us back. Neural connections in our brains are formed, reinforced or dismantled through a process of neuroplasticity by the experiences we have. Our environments shape us on a neurological level. Research is quite definitive about the idea that the environment has the capacity to help us recover from illness faster or make us perhaps diminish well-being.

And so the question arises…if we know that the environment has this profound effect on our minds and bodies, why is so much of what is built around us so banal?

This question goes beyond thinking about sustainability in design and building practice – though this is a critical consideration of addressing issues of global warming. Sustainable design practice should be a baseline for anything we build or manufacture.

What if places we built engaged the mind-body with a profound understanding of the impact of art, music, nature, and design, the study of neuroaesthetics?

If we did, we would have many more of the projects that Mirelle Phillips and Studio Elsewhere have created over the past few years.

Studio Elsewhere uses evidence-based and data-driven practices to develop virtual and physical interventions that promote brain health. They are pioneers of bio-experiential design - interactive, immersive environmental design using technology and physical design toward a healthier brain-body connection.

Their embedded emerging technology solutions support the needs of healthcare professionals, researchers, patients and caregivers using software and hardware development, emerging technology, immersive game design, and biophilic design to reimagine the experience of health, wellness, and care.

They have developed a model that allows for the development of a first-of-its-kind technology and design practice that leads with compassion, imagination, and inclusivity.

Mirelle Phillips is the Founder and CEO of Studio Elsewhere. She leads a team of designers and digital technology mavens developing bio-experiential technology to promote behavioural, cognitive, and social health.

While many of the application of Studio Elswhere’s work supports the well-being of patients, caregivers and healthcare workers, I can imagine a day when these big ideas find enormously impactful applications in the built environment across education, corporate interiors, retail, hospitality and almost every other place where brains and buildings connect.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep. 54 The Power of Story: An Emotional Narrative and Design Subtext with Joe Lanzisero former SVP Walt Disney Imagineering

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 13 May 2023 05:05:10 +0000

ABOUT JOE LANZISERO:

Joe’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/joelanzisero

Email: jlmonkeyfez@gmail.com

Twitter: joe_lanzisero

Website: lanziserocreative.com

Instagram: @joelanzisero

BIO:

JOE LANZISERO Former Creative Executive, Senior Vice President, Hong Kong Disneyland & Disney Cruise Line Portfolios Walt Disney Imagineering, Current Creative and UX Consultant, and Executive Vice President & Creative Director Zeitgeist Design and Production

Joe Lanzisero served as the senior creative executive in charge of projects for Walt Disney Imagineering across multiple platforms in the company’s cruise, theme park, hotel & resort, restaurant and retail business lines.

With more than three decades of Disney experience, Joe worked with teams of artists, writers, architects and engineers, he serves as the eyes and artistic conscience of a project from conception through completion.

Joe was responsible for the creative development of the two newest ships for the Disney Cruise Line, and oversaw the teams that designed these new state-of-the-art ships (Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy) which launched in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Many features such as the innovative dinner show “Animation Magic” and the inclusion of an onboard water coaster (the AquaDuck) are cruise industry firsts.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, Joe oversaw the expansion of the park by more than 20 percent over a three-year period. The additions of three new lands – Toy Story Land, Grizzly Gulch and most recently, Mystic Point, adds more excitement and fun for guests of all ages.

Lanzisero began his Disney career in 1979 in Feature Animation (now Walt Disney Animation Studios), working on the animation, special effects, storyboarding and story development of numerous features, shorts and special project.

He came to Imagineering in 1987 as a concept designer and was on the design teams for Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park at Walt Disney World, Critter Country at Disneyland, and Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris.

In 1991, Lanzisero was promoted to senior concept designer and immediately plunged into the development of Mickey’s Toontown, the wacky cartoon “community” that opened at Disneyland Park in 1993. He also developed the concept for Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, a wild and funny dark ride that opened in Mickey’s Toontown the following year. Lanzisero also supervised the concept design for the Tokyo Disneyland version of Toontown that opened in 1996.

Before joining the Tokyo Disneyland project team in 1999, he developed the concept for Fantasia Gardens and Winter Summerland, a pair of unique miniature golf courses at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

Another new venture, Disney Cruise Line, benefited from his work on children’s spaces and activities. And he was behind the 12/10/2013 conceptual design and development of DisneyFest, a unique Disney entertainment venue that traveled throughout the Far East and South America.

In 2001 Joe was promoted to creative vice president for Tokyo Disney Resort, charged with overseeing all design in Tokyo. For Tokyo Disney Resort, he worked on such attractions as Pooh's Hunny Hunt, Toontown, Critter Country and Splash Mountain. He did the concept development for Mermaid Lagoon and Arabian Coast in Tokyo DisneySea as well as many other projects. He directed the creative development of Tower of Terror attraction and Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek.

In March 2007, Joe was promoted to creative senior vice president with the added responsibilities of overseeing all design for Hong Kong Disneyland, including leading the design of a major three-land expansion of the park.

A member of the first graduating class of the Walt Disney Character Animation program at California Institute of the Arts in 1979, Lanzisero developed his artistic talents with old-time Disney professionals. He applied his education as a teacher at the Otis Art Institute and in the animation industry before joining The Walt Disney Company.

Currently Joe is a consultant to the Themed Entertainment, Cruise, Museum and Hospitality industries with a portfolio of ongoing international and domestic projects in various stages of design and production.

Joe is also actively involved in the UX world and is a sought after speaker in this sector. He has been the Keynote Speaker at the World Usability Congress in Graz Austria and has spoken and consulted on UX to major companies like Macys and Silicon Valley startups.

He is also currently Executive Vice President and Creative Director for Zeitgeist Design and Production. Zeitgeist currently has a roster of international and domestic projects. Domestically they are working on high profile museum projects. Internationally they are the creative development team exclusive to Chimelong Resorts in Guangzhou China.

Joe is full-time consultant working for visionary clients all over the world. He welcomes the chance to learn more about your big idea and explore ways he might serve you.

SHOW INTRO:

Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast. Over our 4 seasons we have focused on “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture, Technology and the Arts”.

NXTLVL features provocateurs for whom disruption and transformation are a way of engaging in work and play every day.Theyinclude thought leaders who are driven by curiosity, a passion to create the ‘New Possible’ and a mindset of promoting new paradigms of experiences.

On the show, we focus on what’s now and what’s next.

* * * * * * *

In this episode we talk about storytelling with a master, Joe Lanzisero former SVP at Walt Disney Imagineering.

We’ll get to our conversation in a minute but first a few thoughts on why I love this topic:

* * * * * * *

Stories are powerful.

They are among the engines of culture and we have relied on sharing them for millennia as part of our human socio-cultural and spiritual development. We stamped out narratives around tribal fires, shared them on trade routes and built public squares combining commerce and culture through the need to share life experiences with storytelling.

Stories are also crucial to our empathic development, as well as providing context to our lives.

And stories can also act as path to follow for designers that provides a reference point for design decisions guiding massing or volumes, layouts, use of materials, geometries and other aesthetic choices. Story can be used as a tool to determine the sequence of a brand’s signature moments and experiences along a customer journey.

The best stories are easy to remember because they paint pictures in our minds that tap into our deep feelings. Because they often create emotional responses and evoke strong visualizations, they play into our long history of communicating through pictures. In many ways, stories are the framework by which we remember things.

While the core components of good storytelling may be the same as they have been for years. In fact Joseph Campbell asserted in his book “A hero With A Thousand Faces,” that there was really only one story, a structure that was reinterpreted across time and cultures.

The super interesting feature of our brains and stories is that while reading, listening to or watching stories unfold on screen, we develop elaborate mental representations of the situations described in the text, lyrics or scenes.

Researchers have gathered evidence through fMRI scans of individuals reading narratives that “the neural responses to particular types of changes in the stories occurred in the vicinity of regions that increase in activity when viewing similar changes, or when carrying out similar activities in the real world.” (see: Reading Stories Activates Neural Representations of Visual and Motor Experiences, Nicole K. Speer, Jeremy R. Reynolds, Khena M. Swallow and M. Zacks, Psychological Science, Volume 20 – No.8, 2009).

In other words, as subjects read about characters in a story, their brains react in a manner that is similar to them personally experiencing those characters’ situations.

Studies by Brian Pulvermüller (see: Pulvermüller F. Brain Mechanisms Linking Language and Action. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2005;6:576–582) have demonstrated that brain regions involved in reading action words (verbs) are some of the same regions involved in performing analogous actions in the real world. So, if you read the word “throw” or “catch”, brain regions light up in fMRI scans that are activated when moving one’s arm or hands.

When engaging with story, our brains react to words as if we’re experiencing the story in the real world.

Cognitive scientist Roger C. Schank explains that - “Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they’re ideally set up to understand stories.”

I’ve been fascinated with story for years. Stories were a crucial part of bedtime rituals with my sons when they were young.

We were deeply connected to the value of story and their ability to communicate ideas, morals and values.

When my older son was very young, he loved stories and asked my wife to read two stories at the same time so that he could introduce the characters from one narrative to those in another book. “no mommy,” he explained “turn dis book towards de other so the characters can see each other too…”

So this is where my guest comes into the narrative…

JOE LANZISERO is the Former Creative Executive, Senior Vice President, Hong Kong Disneyland & Disney Cruise Line Portfolios Walt Disney Imagineering. He is currently the Creative and UX Consultant, and Executive Vice President & Creative Director Zeitgeist Design and Production.

After a number of years and promotions with in the Walt Disney organization Joe was promoted to creative vice president for Tokyo Disney Resort, charged with overseeing all design in Tokyo in 2001 and then again in March 2007 to creative senior vice president with the added responsibilities of overseeing all design for Hong Kong Disneyland, including leading the design of a major three-land expansion of the park.

Joe is currently Executive Vice President and Creative Director for Zeitgeist Design and Production and a consultant to the Themed Entertainment, Cruise, Museum and Hospitality industries with a portfolio of ongoing international and domestic projects in various stages of design and production.

As a note to the listener, I caught up with Joe Lanzisero, at the SHOP Marketplace event in Austin Texas. So, you going to hear the din of the tradeshow floor but the conversation is nonetheless engaging…

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep. 53 Lead, Speak and Inspire Into The Decade of Humanity with Bert Martin Ohnemüller, Founder, Neuromerchandising® Group.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 00:03:50 +0000

ABOUT BERT MARTIN OHNEMULLER:

Bert Martin’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/bert-martin-ohnemüller-bmo

Websites:

Personal: bmo.de

Company Website: www.neuromerchandising.com

Phone: +4915158780680 (Mobile)

Address: Kaiserstrasse 61 60329 Frankfurt

Email: bmo@bmo.de

Twitter: BertMartin

SHOW INTRO:

In 2015 I had finished writing my book Retail (r)Evolution and was the world of speaking engagements where I was out spreading the message.

Anyone who has written a book will tell you that getting the text published it's just the beginning. The next exciting, though occasionally somewhat tiring, step is to be out on the road speaking at conferences and engaging audiences in the ideas that you had spent the previous two or more years developing and putting to paper.

I had the good fortune to be invited to speak at the Shopper Brain Conference in Amsterdam presented by the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association.

Speaking at the Shopper Brain Conference was somewhat of a an acid test, a way to be able to gauge whether me - the non-neuroscientist but but the artist, architect, educator and now author, who happened to spend the last four years or so deep diving into the world of neuroscience and its interrelationship with customer behavior and emerging digital technologies, would survive in front of an audience full of scientists and neuromarketing practitioners.

My son who I had offered the opportunity to come along on the trip with me would be busy working on homework in the hotel lobby while he was dad was out in front of a few 100 conference attendees talking about the brain, the things you might just want to know about how it works if you're proposing to make engaging customer experiences and the influence that digital technologies was having on both the three pound organ inside your skull and the behavior of shoppers around the globe.

I had studied psychology before ente ring the school of architecture at McGill University in Montreal but digging into the world of neuroscience had totally captivated me.

I knew that at a base level there was more than just psychology at play in what people did when on a shopping trip. My original intuition was there had to be something, at a base level, that was driving behavior that was maybe crossed generationally, cross culturally, cross ethnically etc similar for all humans. And so, studying neuroscience, brain structures and how things worked inside our head became an area of deep study.

That fascination his not left me but only become deeper.

Seemed like the more I studied the more I felt I didn't fully understand. But then again that probably made some sense because the pace at which discoveries were being made in the neuroscience world were unfolding at a rapid pace where imaging technologies we're now allowing us to see into the brain in ways that we've never seen before.

And so there I was digging into subjects like the mind body connection, the power of stories and the release of neurochemicals, mirror neurons and understanding the brain as a pattern recognizing machine.

Understanding the brain began to suggest that what I might have understood as intuition based on experience and careful observation of how people reacted in places could be augmented with the heft of science that was quite definitive about what people might likely do or feel in spaces based on how the environment around them was designed and the interactions they were having with other people.

While at the conference I sat and watched scientists, marketing and advertising executives, thought leaders and design practitioners all talk about the power of understanding the brain.

One of the other speakers and I struck up a conversation while there and it seemed as though we both we're coming to this world with deep fascination about how the understanding of neuroscience would shape the interactions between people in the brand experience place.

Bert Ohnemuller and I seemed to connect immediately.

Bert seemed to have an air of approachable and transparent authenticity. He seems genuine and curious in his willingness to discover new ideas and to hear new insights and different points of views that challenged his preconceptions.

He was candid and attentive in our conversations sharing some of the challenges in understanding science behind the brain and other subjects such as creating places for relevant customer engagement and leadership.

In the past few years Bert and I both chased different professional paths and until recently Bert and I reconnected. His enthusiasm to learn and compassionate approaches to understanding how we as humans might optimize our lived experience had not left him. In fact to the contrary, it seemed like it had only become more profound. He’s a man on a mission.

Talking to Bert Ohnemuller is like opening a compendium of thought leadership seminars, that are founded in neuroscience and evolutionary biology.

Despite his deep understanding of neuroscience, he is someone that very much has decided to leave his head and lead with his heart.

It is perhaps because he is so deeply studied the science that he is able to look inward and understand his own behavior as being a function of where we have come as a species and how the mind body connection of our individual systems is just part of a larger more complex system where individuals resonate and influence the emotional states and behaviors of others.

Bert believes that leadership style starts with understanding the self, that leadership is first and foremost about self leadership.

In fact he takes this a step further and suggests that leaders should be required to deeply understand and lead themselves before they be put in positions of leading others.

He often talks about the EPS - Emotional Positioning System not a Global Positioning System.

However his emotional positioning system, that inner sense of who we are and what drives us in making our decisions and creating empathic and relevant relationships to others, is in fact a Global Positioning System of me within the context of the larger human whole.

He believes that in understanding ourselves we might then extend that self knowledge outwards towards others deepening our relationships through empathic extension.

Bert believes that we are in what he refers to as the Decade of Humanity. And unpacks these ideas in his book “

Lead- Speak- Inspire” which has now been translated into five languages. Ohnemuller’s principle key performance indicator for the decade of humanity is what he calls “ROK - Return on kindness.”

A core component of this premise his based on the idea of personal responsibility. That we have to develop response – ability; our ability to respond appropriately in circumstances that challenge our existing narratives.

After working for years in the fast-paced and high-pressured Consumer Packaged Goods industry with companies like Nestle, Bert now is a high performance business coach and the founder of the neuromerchandising group.

His mission he says is spreading knowledge and leadership philosophies in the decade of humanity - a world where people do what they do with passion, a world where companies are role models for the society. A truly value based world.

Bert Ohnemuller is a sought-after keynote speaker, author of several books positive psychology with more than three decades of entrepreneurial experiences.

For Ohnemueller says that “humanity is not a soft or romantic quality but the precondition for long term success and profitability. We need to have a much better understanding about human beings and about oneself in order to unlock the full potential of individual and corporations.”

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Show Less

Making the Invisible Visible: AI, Architecture & Data Paintings with Refik Anadol, Director-Refik Anadol Studio, Lecturer-UCLA

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 20:35:23 +0000

ABOUT REFIK ANADOL:
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/refikanadol/

LinkedIn page for Refik Anadol Studio: https://www.linkedin.com/company/refik-anadol-studio/

Website: https://refikanadol.com

Youtube Videos:

Disney Concert Hall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKfCrChDWpY

Melting Memories: https://refikanadol.com/works/melting-memories/

Machine Halucinations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OviC5RwpnvA

TED TALK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxQDG6WQT5s

SHOW INTRO:
Number of years ago, in 2014, when I was writing my book Retail (r)Evolution, I was looking at the interrelationship between brands, they're physical expression, cognitive science neuroscience and emerging digital technologies.

I was thinking a lot about the emergence of a new cohort of experience seeking consumers and their proclivity to use their digital devices not just us communication devices but as vehicles for self-expression through the use of media making.

Going out and capturing images and posting to Instagram or social media platforms wasn't just about pushing visual content into the world it was about storytelling, media making and creating narratives of one's life experience in a very different and hugely impactful way.

I was beginning to see that young emerging consumers would be extremely savvy in terms of marketing because pushing content into the digisphere required them to understand what their individual markets were interested in, in terms of content

their ability to stay in front of their viewers was a large part of their success.

True, I also felt that a lot of this was an otherated sense of validation that was driving a deep emotional connection to a sense of well-being and a sense of self in community but it nevertheless suggested that making stories and rewriting narratives of experience was becoming common place and was influencing expectations about how brand engagements should unfold.

Brands could no longer just assume that they would give their customers certain services or products and that they would be acceptable and if they didn't like them this season, well, they could come back and next season.

But that the ability to remain relevant was tied to the idea of engaging guests in the creation of part of the narrative, something that they could own, something that gave them a sense of agency and connection to the brand in a very different way.

I also began to think that what this likely meant was that, as we moved to a world of artificial intelligence and using data to help us understand decision making in in the shopping aisle or online, that it would likely also mean that places that we inhabited might also change based on the interchange of data between my personal devices and a set of algorithms that drove brand experience.

I then began to think about the opportunities here of a space that could change in real time to accommodate my individual needs perhaps even from data that was pulled from my smart devices that were reading body temperature, skin conductance, heart rate, breathing rate and even neural activity that was indicating maybe what parts of my brain were being more activated than others and how that might change the environment to align the physical space with my mind body space.

This then became a platform for me thinking about a future state where brand experience places were more like brand performance places

where the interaction between the performer in this narrative and the stage set on which the story unfolded were intimately tied together and transformed in ways that adapted to different need-states and expectations driven from both personal digital footprints, the places and manner that we used our digital devices and our bio data pulled from our personal digital device connected to our person.

There were certainly at certain some points where I believed that all I might need as an architect was it data set, an algorithm, a projection system and a white box. And into that white box we could project data images that were representation of my inner desires or inner mind body state.

Then along comes an exposure to something that was called a data sculpture in the Sales Force headquarters in San Francisco.

The extraordinary digital image moved across a large part of a wall surface was pulling data from the environment and changing in response to the weather, traffic flows to public sentiment about certain things.

This became my first exposure to the fact that someone out there was actually doing this thing I had imagined would be possible.

Subsequent to that, I stumbled across an exhibit called “Melting Memories” where Refik Anadol ,a Turkish data visualization artist, had been able to capture brain data of people's memories and made the invisible visible.

Refik Anadol’s data paintings, or data sculptures, were enormous high-definition fluid moving images that were like watching a campfire - ever changing and captivating.

I found them captivating more so because they were a physicalization of somebody’s most private moments - a memory.

This for me was a complete game changer.

Finally, the ideas that I had begun to think about but knew I was incapable of actually creating on my own were being done.

An artist in our midst who was tying together artificial intelligence, art and neuroscience was beginning to reshape the way we would come to experience public spaces and art itself.

Refik Anadol is an extraordinary example of a game changing artist who brings together these three core components in reshaping the world we live in.

Using architecture as a canvas, his data sculptures recontextualize the built work, or the inner life of significant cultural buildings, and externalizes them as a painting on the exterior skin giving these public buildings a new level of appreciation, perhaps, for an emerging cohort of digitally oriented consumers.

One of the main premises of my book Retail (r)Evolution was to try to get people who were creating brand experience places a little more connected to what happens at a brain-body level in terms of their experience of environments.

My whole premise was that if you knew a little bit more about how your brain actually worked you might not create some of the things that you believe are relevant which are completely off of the awareness radar and probably don't have the impact that you hope to have with people who are experience the place.

If we only understood a little bit what goes on inside your head we might be able to create more relevant and meaningful experiences for people because so much of what we experience is driven by our neurophysiology and our interpersonal neurobiology.

As I learned more about the work of Refik Anadol, I was intrigued and delighted by his thinking of what he's doing today and his relationship to early Renaissance art where, at that time artists were afforded materials by their patrons and they would use technologies to create advances in artistic expression.

In Anadol's world, his connection to massive data sets were akin to having the raw materials for creating great new digital pieces of artwork.

I once heard him explain that what he was effectively doing was taking his paintbrush and plunging it into the consciousness of the machine and painting with those algorithms and data sets.

What is even more fascinating about his work is the use of light as a building material, or maybe as a pigment, which he wields to create both paintings that may hung in a gallery as well as wrapping significant pieces of architecture like the Frank Gehry Disney Concert Hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the center of downtown LA.

The interesting thing about using existing architecture as a canvas onto which light as a substance is painted and moving pictures generated from massive data sets that are the memory of the building is that in a way it recontextualizes these buildings that are, generally speaking, time stamped,

meaning they're built in a period of time and represent a certain period of culture into which they were born. This work brings those buildings forward into a contemporary world of fluid experience where time and space seemed to collapse as we move rapidly from one significant change in our digitally mediated environment to the next.

Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is now an internationally renowned media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence.

He currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where he owns and operates Refik Anadol Studio and RAS LAB, the Studio’s research practice centered around discovering and developing trailblazing approaches to data narratives.

Anadol also teaches at UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts from which he obtained his Master of Fine Arts.

Anadol’s body of work addresses the challenges, and the possibilities, that ubiquitous computing has imposed on humanity, and what it means to be a human in the age of AI.

He explores how the perception and experience of time and space are radically changing now that machines dominate our everyday lives.

Anadol is intrigued by the ways in which the digital age and machine intelligence allow for a new aesthetic technique to create enriched immersive environments that offer a dynamic perception of space.

In some cases, entire buildings come to life, floors, walls, ceilings disappear into Infinity, breathtaking aesthetics take shape from large swaths of data, and what was once invisible to the human eye becomes visible, offering the audience a new perspective on and narrative of their worlds.

Refik anadol global projects have received a number of awards and prizes.

His studio comprises designers, architects, data scientists and researchers from diverse professional and personal backgrounds, embracing principles of inclusion and equity throughout every stage of the production. Studio members originate from 10 different countries and are collectively fluent in 14 different languages.

I don't often gush over having an opportunity to speak to a guest but in this case my enthusiasm for the work of Refik Anadol is unbounded. I truly believe that he is doing something extraordinarily in the world of art, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, urban planning and architecture.

And so I confess a certain fandom for Refik and was grateful to have him offer up time so that we could have this discussion.

To some degree, it is unfortunate that this podcast is a non-visual medium and so I encourage all who listen to visit refikanadol.com – R E F I K A N A D O l.com

There you will have an in-depth look at his work that is shifting the nature and our understanding of how art artificial intelligence, neuroscience and architecture are all merging in a way that is a paradigm shift for how we experience place.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep.51 Riding On The High Road: Leading With Resilience And Introspection with Ruth Zukerman Co-Founder of SoulCycle and Flywheel

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 25 Feb 2023 23:28:11 +0000

About Ruth Zukerman:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-zukerman-83678b3b/

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Riding-High-Ruth-Zukerman-audiobook/dp/B07HHC7HMM/ref=sr_1_5?crid=RV1R0WVHKRQA&keywords=riding+high+book&qid=1677367136&sprefix=riding+high%2Caps%2C735&sr=8-5

Bio:

Ruth Zukerman is the co-founder of Soul Cycle and Flywheel, both wildly successful companies that innovated the studio cycling movement. Ruth pioneered the boutique fitness industry by creating the “studio” with a pay per class structure, modeling them after the dance studios she would frequent when she was pursuing her dance career.

Over the last decade with these companies, she has come to realize that her passion is greater than simply cycling or fitness. Her mission is to connect people to each other as well as to their own inner strength, and empower them to carry the positive, powerful attitude they have on the bike on into their lives and their careers.

She speaks around the country, inspiring people to get unstuck and find new paths and new passion for a successful second, third or even fourth act in their careers.

Ruth is following her own advice and left Flywheel at the end of 2018 to pursue her next great adventure.

She lives in New York and is very close with her grown daughters.

Her memoir RIDING HIGH: How I Kissed SoulCycle Goodbye, Co-Founded Flywheel and Built the Life I Always Wanted, was published in October 2018.

SHOW INTRO:
I like riding a bike.

I think it’s a bit if a holdover from doing triathlons many years ago.

I didn’t like swimming too much – I tended to sink, and so I relied on the wet suit to give me some buoyancy. Still though, it didn’t make the swim that much more enjoyable.

Ah… but the bike… you could go fast and go far. You had something you could tinker with, a piece of equipment, something technical.

That was, and still is, cool…

These days, I get out on the road at the end of a long workday and ride through the Maryland countryside. A few miles from my home, the rolling hills and corn fields are a landscape that helps me unwind, breathe deeply and think.

A few years ago I took to the Peloton bike with a passion. I road the bike religiously having my favorite instructors call me out, inspire me like I was at church, and I found that they were connecting with meaningful messages while they also kicked my butt. I also liked to competitiveness of the leaderboard. Always wanting to ride in the top 10% of riders in the class. The goal kept me on it, in pursuit of fitness for sure, but it was more than that, it was a community.

And the instructors, Alex, Ally, and Jess became, unbeknownst to them, my friends and motivational mentors.

I remember that back in about 2014, or something, I took a spin class at the local Y. I was riding with a cycling team called Team Evesham, a group of sometimes a 100 or more weekend road warriors, who peddled through the pinelands of South Jersey.

They somehow got a deal to get a few free classes for each of us, if we were interested. I wasn’t totally convinced back then, I preferred to be outside, you know on a real bike, with the wind on my face and all that jazz.

…boy did that change in later years with my love affair with Peloton.

What I didn’t know then was there had been a growing spin cycling thing happening in New York for a few years. A place called SoulCycle had been attracting customers to in-door spin classes and it had been really catching on.

And it had grown into a brand with locations all over the place. Still though, I was riding outside. The purist in me was still winning out.

Leap forward a few years and I buy my Peloton bike in the fall of 2018.

Spinning had finally captured my interest and I was hooked. I was fully on board with team Peloton but friends and colleagues who were into spinning swore by SoulCycle and this other brand called Flywheel who had figured out the leaderboard and ride metrics, so the story goes, before Peloton became a player.

Leap forward again to fall 2022.

My Peloton ball cap, that had become a standard fashion accessory, was well worn and I am more familiar with SoulCycle, I can imagine the logo in my mind’s eye and picture the color yellow but still … I have never been.

I am at the International Retail Design Conference and the stories of spinning, SoulCycle, Flywheel and Peloton are about to all converge. I arrive late to the closing keynote being giving by Ruth Zukerman.

Now I don’t now Ruth Zukerman from Adam, but then… I actually do.

As I listen to a candid, heartfelt and inspiring presentation about leadership, resilience in the face of adversity and creating nationally recognized brands, I look at the session summary in the brochure and it turns out the Ruth Zukerman founded SoulCycle, left her brainchild and created Flywheel and was principally responsible for starting the spinning craze in a studio on the Upper West Side in New York.

It also turns out that, though this interview, I learn that Ruth turned down an opportunity to join John Foley the creator of Peloton to take what they had created at Flywheel and evolve it into the home cycling juggernaut that is Peloton.

They, Flywheel and their investors figured they could do their own at-home bike, but that never happened and Ruth Left Flywheel in 2018. Flywheel, like many other companies under the extraordinary pressure of the global COVID pandemic, filed for bankruptcy and closed in September of 2020.

So there I am listening, slightly dumbfounded, to Ruth Zukerman and thinking this is one remarkable woman.

What a life story.

What an approach to leading in the face of adversity.

So, as serendipity would have it, I connect with Ruth after her inspiring talk and invite her to share her professional path and story on the podcast.

Soul Cycle and Flywheel, were both wildly successful companies that innovated the studio cycling movement. Ruth pioneered the boutique fitness industry by creating the “studio” with a pay per class structure, modeling them after the dance studios she would frequent when she was pursuing her dance career.

Over the last decade with these companies, she came to realize that her passion is greater than simply cycling or fitness. Her mission is to connect people to each other as well as to their own inner strength, and empower them to carry the positive, powerful attitude they have on the bike into their lives and their careers.

She speaks around the country, inspiring people to get unstuck and find new paths and new passion for a successful second, third or even fourth act in their careers.

As I explained earlier, Ruth followed her own advice and left Flywheel at the end of 2018 to pursue her next great adventure.

In 2018 Ruth also published a memoir called “RIDING HIGH: How I Kissed SoulCycle Goodbye, Co-Founded Flywheel and Built the Life I Always Wanted.”

Ruth Zukerman still lives in New York, and she has taken what she learned from years as an aspiring professional dancer to build a life of resilience, business innovation and inspiration both on and off the bike.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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A House of Sport That Is A Home For Athletes with Toni Roeller SVP In-Store Environment, DICK'S Sporting Goods

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 9 Feb 2023 17:00:00 +0000

About Toni Roeller:

Toni’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/toni-roeller-3624676

Bio:

Toni Roeller currently serves as Senior Vice President, In-Store Environment, Visual Merchandising and House of Sport at DICK'S Sporting Goods. In this role, Toni is responsible for bringing the brand to life through the overall in-store experience, while ensuring the athlete is at the center of all merchandising strategies.

Toni joined the company in May 2014 as Vice President of Visual Merchandising. In 2019, she was named Vice President of In-Store environment and Visual Merchandising, overseeing all aspects of evolving the in-store environment and visual storytelling.

Prior to joining DICK's, she served as Vice President of In-Store Environment at The Home Depot. Throughout her career, she also has held increasing roles of responsibility at Best Buy, Levis Strauss and Maurices.

Toni earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Concord University.

SHOW INTRO:

I grew up one of five boys.

No sisters… just 5 rambunctious, energetic, physically active, sometime mischievous, food consuming boys.

Oh, and we had dogs and cats, birds, gerbils, Guinea pigs, turtles and I think at one point we even had a parrot… or was it a cockateel.

My mother, God bless your soul, somehow held this sometimes-unwieldy lot together and made sure, along with my father, that we were exposed to the great outdoors.

This, or course, was a time where there was no such thing as a home computer or a cell phone.

There was a TV, but for many years it was black and white with something like 3 or 4 channels and so outside we were most of the day at the park, the swimming pool, or playing in the street while the summertime the sun went down and the last round of kick the can was played before we were all called in for a bath.

Summer trips from Montreal to Winnipeg, where my father side of the family lived, brought us through Toronto and most of northern Ontario. We camped the entire way which was always a lot of fun. 5 boys in a station wagon, with the dog and a camper in tow. For days…

My father made sure that we were also well versed in the world of fishing which I can imagine must have tested his patience as toddlers undoubtedly got hooks stuck in themselves and each other more than they likely caught any fish.

Throughout high school there was no music or theater program at my high school. And so, my friends and I played every sport that there was able to be played starting in the fall with football, leading to volleyball and then basketball and then track and field and then rugby. There never was a time in school where I wasn't playing sports and I loved it. My high school football coach Chuck Poirier still stands as a significant and memorable figure through those years.

All of my brothers and I became ski school instructors which was one of the only ways to survive Montreal winters which could naturally get as cold as minus 20 or 30 below zero. No big deal really. My parents had us on skis as soon as we could stand, somewhere around the age of two or three. And so, we were used to being out in the cold.

In any case, my parents made sure that we played sports all the time and that we were always physically active.

In college, my mother would show up at all of my football games sitting in the stands, rain or shine, cheering me and the team on. She showed up at my baseball games too. And she was always there reminding me that playing team sports was important because it taught you cooperation, collaborating towards a common goal and teamwork and that you had to rely on others at times to reach your objectives.

The ‘all for one and one for all’ mantra of The Three Musketeers was something that she truly believed in.

My mother had no problem with us being team players, but she believed in leadership in fact she always encouraged her sons to lead the charge in whatever team they were playing.

As for sports stores to meet our needs, well, growing up in Montreal there was Canadian Tire and a store I remember called Le Baron. There was nothing like Eddie Bauer with indoor fishponds and taxidermy statues of giant bears or elk with enormous antlers. There wasn't anything like REI with rock climbing walls and there certainly wasn't anything like a two-story 100,000 square foot Dick's Sporting Goods that seemed to have merchandise for any sport you could possibly imagine.

My uncle Roy, one of my dad's older brothers, was the Wilson sporting goods distributor for Western Canada so we occasionally got a good set of golf clubs a few flats of balls and some tennis rackets. But again, nothing like you find at a Dick's Sporting Goods.

DICK'S Sporting Goods is an amazing story of a young man, Dick Stack, who worked in an Army Surplus shop who, when asked to come up with some ideas about what other products could be sold, was dismissed by his boss, the shop owner.

Upset about the interaction, he goes to his grandmother’s house and shares the story of the interaction with his boss. His grandmother literally took money out of a cookie jar on the kitchen shelf and gives him $300 to start his own company instead of staying an employee in someone else's store.

Dick Stack later on passes on a legacy to his son Ed Stack who turns Dick's Sporting Goods into a mega brand in the sporting goods industry with about 800 stores and a number of different brands.

DICK'S Sporting Goods also recognizes the profound impact that sports have on youth, community and culture. With their “Sports Matter” program they support little league teams as well as aspiring professional athletes. In fact they don't call people who shop at their stores customers or guests. To DICK'S Sporting Goods, their customers are all “Athletes.” And their sales associates are “Teammates.”

Enter Toni Roeller to the sporting goods story.

Toni Roeller is an ardent hockey fan, which is always strange for me because I grew up in Montreal during the reign of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, but it never seemed to catch with me because I was a skier. In any case, Toni is also the Senior Vice President of In-Store Environment for DICK'S Sporting Goods.

In the past couple of years Toni Roeller and the DICK'S team has launched a couple of extraordinary sporting goods store concepts including House of Sport and Public Lands. House of Sport is truly one of the most interactive sporting goods stores that there is today. Complete with batting cages, golf simulators and an outdoors practice field, the environment invites athletes to ‘try before they buy’ and to experience the feeling of sports while in the store.

Public Lands is capitalizing on an emerging trend towards hiking and climbing and boasts two to three story rock walls in the center of the store.

When Ed Stack was interested in creating the next evolution of a sporting goods store concept, he told his team that he wanted something that if it was built across the street from a DICK'S Sporting Goods store it would put them out of business. That was a challenge for any store designer who is sports oriented and has competitive mindset that couldn't be left unanswered.

Toni Roeller and the DICK'S team delivered the House of Sport concept.

Toni joined the DICK'S Sporting Goods in May 2014 as the Vice President of Visual Merchandising and in 2019 she was named SVP of In-Store Environment, Visual Merchandising and House of Sport. She is responsible for bringing the brand to life through the overall in store experience while ensuring that the athlete is at the center of all merchandising strategies. Tony has a deep history in retail design and store planning and prior to Dick’s she served as the VP of in-store environments at the Home Depot.

She is also held leadership roles at Best Buy, Levi Strauss and Maurice's.

While at the International Retail Design Conference in November of 2022, Toni was gracious in accepting an early morning conversation about sports as a cultural phenomenon, the growth of DICK'S Sporting Goods as a business and a brand, the evolution of the sporting goods store concept and why sports matter.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Timberland: More Than An Iconic Yellow Boot with Amber Bazdar, Director of Global Retail Design - Timberland

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000

ABOUT AMBER BAZDAR;

Amber’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/amberbazdar

AMBER'S BIO:

As a seasoned retail executive, Amber Bazdar’s sharp foresight, expertise, and ability to guide a traditional retailer into a new phygital generation has made her stand out in the competitive world of retail.

Amber’s diverse professional background includes retail design, visual merchandising, brand experience and fixture and lighting design. Throughout her career, Amber has excelled at developing and growing retail locations through innovative design and visual merchandising strategies, solving complex “back of house” problems with advanced solutions and attracting and developing high performing talent. A vibrant and proactive leader, Amber excels at propelling corporate visual standards and creative direction while developing innovative concepts to engage customers.

A life-long learner, Amber was recently an Adjunct Professor of Visual Merchandising at Lasell University, where she taught at the undergraduate level. She has been involved with curriculum development, student/industry design projects and design competitions.

Amber currently resides in the Seacoast of New Hampshire with her husband, three children and their GSP, Luna. She enjoys living near the mountains and sea, where she can enjoy nature frequently with her family.

Amber is also the recipient of the "2022 Retailer Innovator Award"

SHOW INTRO:

A of lot of brands have a story. A narrative that underpins the entire enterprise.

These stories are crucial since they establish a framework helps define the customer, their needs and how the brand’s products or services is going to satisfy them.

The brand story isn’t just about what the brand sells though, or who buys their stuff, it’s more a statement of what the brand is about, its essence, its raison d’etre.

It is what it means to be in business in the first place, why they do what they do and how they do it. It sets out a series of promises, that sort of act like a contract for engagement between the brand and its customers.

Let’s say you were single, you already felt pretty confident about who you were, you knew what you liked and knew what you needed in a relationship.

Let’s say there was a dating service… but it matched people like you with brands in an effort to create that special relationship. And let’s say that you thought that a relationship with a brand would make a great compliment to who you already were. It's not that you need something, or someone, to make you whole but that a good brand relationship would just make experience better, more fulfilling.

Well, if there was such a service existed then you’d probably also want to check out the brand’s online profile. You know…do some research.

If you did, you might find that the story they’d likely tell may be a little aspirational - for example a friend who is out on the dating circuit, tells me that everyone’s profile says that they are into hiking… and dogs… they may only climb up and own the stairs at home and have a dog calendar hanging on the wall, but for some that may qualify.

In any case, you’d hope that the narrative is authentic and is genuine.

You’re a little bit of a dreamer, you might even like the idea of hiking too, or maybe you area just optimistic, always looking for the thing that could augment your everyday.

If you moved along and you liked eachother then you maybe you’d accept an offer to get together.

What you hope is that on the first date, and everyone after that, that it delivered what you were expecting. It held the relationship in the highest regard. And the act of doing life together, yes, made it your personal experience better. But more than that, you feel that you and this new brand relationship became connected. You felt that on some level you didn’t become one, enmeshed, indistinguishable from each other, but became better, interdependent, and that the relationship was generative. It grew you.

Some brands make up that foundational, ‘who we are‘story. They see a market opportunity. Build a customer profile, brand platform, product or service assortment and go to market. Others have an authentic origin story, a real life narrative, that lays the foundation for how they show up, every day, everywhere with everything they do.

Timberland is one of those brands.

A Russian immigrant buys a shoe company, dedicates his ingenuity and craft of making quality boots to growing a company. He creates a boot that is built for the harsh New England climate and it catches on becoming a pop cultural icon whose name has become part of the lexicon of a generation of musicians with rappers like Notorious B.I.G., Jay Z and DMZ calling them out in lyrics.

My sons call them Timbs and the signature yellow leather boot is as much a recognizable brand character as a blue box is for Tiffany.

This dating service I was imagining earlier, well it exisits, it’s pretty much anywhere you might come in contact with a brand. And the place for the first date also exists. It’s called the store. The store is like the physical manifestation of the brand story. It’s where the narrative comes to life surrounding customers in all that the brand is.

And this is where Amber Bazdar comes into the brand dating game metaphor. Amber is the Director of Global Retail Design at Ztimberland. She is a seasoned retail executive with sharp foresight and expertise built on a professional life working in and understanding retail.

Her ability to guide a traditional retailer into a new phygital generation has made her stand out in the competitive world of retail. In fact, this past year she was awarded the 2022 Retail Innovator Award.

Amber’s diverse professional background includes retail design, visual merchandising, brand experience, store fixture and lighting design. Throughout her career, Amber has excelled at developing and growing retail locations through innovative design and visual merchandising strategies, solving complex “back of house” problems with advanced solutions and attracting and developing high performing talent. Amber excels at propelling corporate visual standards and creative direction while developing innovative concepts to engage customers.

I was able to catch up with Amber at the International Retail Design Conference where we had an early morning talk, well before my second cup of morning coffee.

To use some Timberland parlance, it was a ‘bold’ move to meet e breakfast and we got some ‘shit done’…

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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The Rituals of Home and Body Cosmetics with Richard Lems - Director Format and Design, Rituals Cosmetics

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 4 Jan 2023 18:52:35 +0000

ABOUT RICHARD LEMS:
Richard’s LinkedInProfile: linkedin.com/in/richard-lems-4235082a

Website: rituals.com (Company)

Email: richard.lems@rituals.com

SHOW INTRO

About 12 years ago, I was visiting Amsterdam and spent days wandering the city, eating stroop waffles, pancakes, drinking coffee and shopping along the Kalverstraat.

The Kalverstraat is one of the main shopping streets in the city center of Amsterdam. It’s more like an outdoor pedestrian mall jammed with the retail stores of well-known international and home-grown Dutch brands as well as independent retailers.

My preferred approach to exploring an unknown city is generally given to wander about, sometimes down alleys, looking through fences or over walls into hidden courtyards. It’s mostly about discovery. Looking for things that other tourists may not find and connecting to the local nature of a place.

I remember coming to a corner and an open door invited me into a store I was unfamiliar with.

Crossing the threshold, I stepped away from the rush of the crowd and entered into to another world.

It looked homey. Warm and cozy.

Perimeter wall units were illuminated with colorful frames, each identifying a specific category of merchandise.

And…it smelled great!

I didn’t know the Rituals brand but my first experience, 12 plus years ago, is easy to recall with a vivid sensory-based memory.

I liked the store’s name, since I have had a fascination with the idea of rituals, what they mean, how they are enacted, whether participating directly in them versus being an observer had any effect on their relevance.

I spent the next half hour sampling fragrances, learning about ancient rituals upon which the products were based, the products’ ingredients and how they had an effect on our body and mind.

And of course, I bought bags of products home.

The smell of spray bottles that stayed in a bathroom drawer for a while after they were emptied, brought me back to the street corner, the city of Amsterdam, the food and the friends I met while there.

From a neuroscientific point to view, scent is deeply connected to memories. Scents can quickly affect mood.

That’s why realtors suggest that baking cookies or bread when you are about to show your home is a good thing; because it activates emotions and nostalgic memories that make people feel more relaxed and draw a connection to a sense of comfort and security.

These are all good feelings to engender when trying to sell your home.

It’s an interesting connection – the body and the home. More interesting still that a company like Rituals has made the connection between the body, the home and cosmetics. And in doing so, they have tapped into the basic idea that good retailing isn’t just about the products, or services, but in the end about emotions.

“If you can get to the emotions,” says Richard Lems, the Director of Format and Design for Rituals, you create fans rather than just customers.

While everyone else was following the ‘pile ‘em high and watch ‘em fly’ mentality to retailing years ago, Rituals was working to sell emotion. Engendering feelings that were attached to ancient stories, the practices of ayruveda, or a hammam, or the rituals of Sakura have become the experiential foundation for Rituals stores.

Behind every product there is a deeper meaning, a deeper story based on ancient traditions and they are made contemporary with Western technologies.

For Lems, there is no disconnect between the home and the body.

You know that expression ‘Home is where your heart is”? Well, for Rituals, home, body, heart, soul are all connected. They are in a reciprocal feedback loop, interconnected and interdependent. One influences the other.

Like with my strategy of discovering a city, Rituals believes that the discovery process leads customer experiences in their stores. It may start from the street, lead to a cup of tea and hand washing to exploring their assortment.

Richard Lems explains that Rituals “innovation is on a very high level.” They are constantly innovating with new products and experiences like meditation chambers in their new flagship store in Amsterdam - built 100 meters away from the store I stumbled upon years ago.

And while the Rituals brand has a robust social platform on on-line store that fulfills orders all over the world, Lems believes that the only way to really feel them, smell them, and touch them is in store.

The Rituals store is the nexus of ancient stories and practices, products and people. It is the physical touchpoint where product presentation and the hospitality of store associates brings the narratives to life.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep.47 The Synchronicity Architect and The Art Of Being There with Justin Bolognino, Founder & CEO of META

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:40:19 +0000

ABOUT JUSTIN BOLOGNINO:

Justin "JB"’s LinkedIn Profile

linkedin.com/in/jbolognino

Websites

linktr.ee/metajb (Company)
metajb.com (Company)
meta.is (Personal)

Links:

Flatland: https://www.metajb.com/flatland-a-romance-of-many

Unreality: https://www.metajb.com/unreality-1

The Map of Realities: https://medium.com/@jbolognino/the-map-of-realities-4dc12875adbc

Twitter

jbolognino

Justin Bologninos' Bio:

Justin Bolognino is the original META.

His ground-breaking endeavors are threaded by technology, real-time design and evolutionary immersive experiences focused on revealing hidden human connections. The “Synchronicity Architect" is founder and CEO of META, an immersive experience studio that specializes in “The Art of Being There.” A new META spinoff, launching publicly in early 2022, Unreality is set to be the definitive professional ecosystem for the global “Immersive Media industry.” Taking their skills and touch to nature, Bolognino and wife Elizabeth founded Silent G Farms in North Branch, NY, a retreat compound designed for nourishing creativity and consciousness. JB also helped to develop and launch of Brooklyn Bowl (2009), serving as Creative and Media Director, as well as Arcadia Earth (2019) in NYC, the first artist-driven immersive experience dedicated to sustainability, where he also designed two of the installations.

With brand clients like Spotify, Twitter, HP, Samsung, Google, Vimeo, and artistic collaborations with St. Vincent, Dubfire, Skrillex, Phish, Porter Robinson, Troye Sivan, Tiesto and many more, META creates live, multi-sensory experiences that use technology, design and storytelling to ignite the human spirit. META was born originally as “the Meta Agency” in 2009 under Bolognino’s philosophy that the artists creating cutting-edge digital event designs and high-tech performance elements should be recognized, much like the celebrities and brands they create for.

An industry visionary, Bolognino is extremely forward-thinking when it comes to technology’s role in immersive experiences. Over the last 15 years, Bolognino has helped make Brooklyn Bowl a celebrated institution, redefined the SXSW experience through #FEED, produced multiple documentaries, led marketing campaigns, and created interactive art and live music for the sake of creation through his first company, Learned Evolution. His role as designer and curator of The Lab at Panorama, and Director of The Antarctic dome show at Coachella, “FLATLAND: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, has played an essential part in the evolution of the festival experience.

Bolognino currently lives at Silent G Farms with wife Elizabeth, daughters Chloe and Francesca, son Just, and puppy Billie Holiday.

SHOW INTRO:
For some time now I have been interested in the merging of design, AI, technology, neuroscience, and art. They all seem to be coalescing into the creation of a new form of place-making.

I like most others have been calling it 'immersive experiences'

And while the places that are now being created to provide them are proliferating, I think that we are often seeing them only as spectacle. We pay a few dollars, get immersed in data paintings and surround sound, sometimes get corralled into a gift shop, and we’re done.

My guess is that we don’t often look beyond the use of light and data as building materials – which on it’s own is a fantastic and transformational tool in our designers tool box – to consider things like the interrelationship of the design of our environment and consciousness.

I’m a big advocate of ontological design, which in its most basic description can be frames as - the things we design design us back. Our brain/body/mind is in a reciprocal feedback loop in which the things we design and put into the world in turn influence our neuro-biochemistry and neuro-physiology so that we are literally made in the image of the environments we inhabit.

If we venture down the path of consciousness, we need to consider then that we are not singular entities in this world but that we are part of an integrated and interdependent rhythmic whole.

Nicola Tesla wrote an article for Colliers Magazine in 1926 where he penned …“When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted to a huge brain, which in fact it is. All things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole…”

He went on to explain that ‘the devices with which we would do this would fit in our breast packet and we would communicate with each other independent of geography…’

1926!

While written almost a hundred years ago Tesla was envisioning a future of digital communication where we would share information, enabled by software and hardware, and in doing so, we would augment our mindware.

Dr. Dan Siegal has a definition of mind that seems to work from me.

He explains the mind this way:

The Mind is an “emergent, self-organizing, embodied, and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information.”

Our minds are in constant reciprocal feedback loop with the environment including the people in it. We are not independent of it. Each of us as a constituent of a larger whole.

The environments we inhabit change us as do the other people that we share those environments with.

While we participate in our environments, digitally immersive or otherwise, our perceptions are our realities.

This too invites us to consider the various types of realities we now engage in. We are growing beyond what we would have only considered as the reality of immediate experience. The ‘as lived’ in ‘real-time’ reality of every day.

We now have Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. But it doesn’t stop there.

This is where Justin Bolognino helps created a framework for how we are coming to experience the world around us.

Justin’s ground-breaking endeavors are threaded by technology, real-time design and evolutionary immersive experiences that focus on revealing hidden human connections.

For Justin, our world of experiences include a number of realities can be mapped. Between the Universe – the analog realities and the Metaverse – the digital realities, he defines 6 realities including sonic, IRL, conscious, augmented, virtual and on-line realities.

All of these are interrelated and influence the others as well as how we create experiences. Justin’s Map of realities is complex and layered with an acute awareness of where each plays a role in our lives creating context meaning and levels of consciousness.

He calls himself a “Synchronicity Architect", which is a whole other realm of discussion that we get to in our conversation, and is the founder and CEO of META, an immersive experience studio that specializes in “The Art of Being There.”

His company was founded originally as “the Meta Agency” in 2009 under Bolognino’s philosophy that the artists creating cutting-edge digital event designs and high-tech performance elements should be recognized, much like the celebrities and brands they create for.

Bolognino is extremely forward-thinking when it comes to technology’s role in immersive experiences.

Over the last 15 years, Bolognino has helped make Brooklyn Bowl a celebrated institution, redefined the SXSW experience through #FEED, produced multiple documentaries, led marketing campaigns, and created interactive art and live music for the sake of creation through his first company, Learned Evolution.

He is a jazz musician and our conversation was woven with music theory, neuro and social science, digital media making, consciousness, branding, the influence of social networks on culture and more.

There’s a lot to Justin Bolognino, much more than I could ever hope to unpack in one podcast.

Furthermore, I got the deep impression that the simple auditory format of the show would not do justice to Justin.

I nevertheless take that limitation as a given and encourage all to visit his website and dive into his multilayered creative framework for creating live, multi-sensory experiences that use technology, design and storytelling to ignite the human spirit.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep. 46 Immersion And The Science of The Extraordinary with Dr. Paul Zak, Professor and Chief Immersion Officer - Immersion Neuroscience

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 7 Dec 2022 05:05:00 +0000

ABOUT DR. PAUL ZAK:

Dr. Paul Zak’s LinkedIn Profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-zak-91123510/

Websites:

Immersion book link: https://www.amazon.com/Immersion-Science-Extraordinary-Source-Happiness/dp/1544531974/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1669735115&sr=8-1
Twitter: @pauljzak
Website: https://pauljzak.com
Website: https://www.cgu.edu/people/paul-zak/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_J._Zak

Email

paul@immersionneuro.com

Dr. Paul Zak's Bio:

Dr. Paul J. Zak is a Professor at Claremont Graduate University and is ranked in the top 0.3% of most cited scientists with over 180 published papers and more than 19,000 citations to his research. Paul’s ten decades of research have taken him form the Pentagon to Fortune 50 boardrooms to the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. Along the way he helped start a number of interdisciplinary fields including neuroeconomics, neuromanagement, and neuromarketing. He has written three general audience books and is a regular TED speaker. His newest book is Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and Source of Happiness.

Paul is also a four-time tech entrepreneur; his current company, Immersion Neuroscience, is a software platform that allows anyone to measure what the brain loves in real-time to improve outcomes in entertainment, education and training, live events and to help people sustain emotional wellness.

He frequently appears in the media in such places as Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Fox & Friends, ABC Evening News, and his work has been reported in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, The Economist, Scientific American, Fast Company, Forbes, and various podcasts. Fun fact: he is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has created dialog for two movies.

SHOW INTRO:
For some time, I have been intrigued by experience making, especially those that we might qualify as ‘immersive.’

When I have imagined what these experiences might be like, I have mostly considered them as being in places that surround you with an environment that is all encompassing, enveloping you in multi-sensory input.

Immersive digital environments can do this.

I have a deep enthusiasm for the merger of digital technologies, especially in our nascent capacity to blend art, AI and neuroscience into data visualizations.

I have a fascination in the creation of places that make the invisible, data, visible.

The digitally immersive experiences we now see like the multiple Van Gogh exhibits - or those that bring the art of other famous artists like Picasso, and Degas to digital life - are beautiful and are part of a shift in the nature and relevancy of museums.

Venues are emerging like Artechouse whose immersive experiences have included the digital virtuosity of data visualization artist Refik Anadol. Companies like Moment Factory are transforming disquieting nighttime forests into delightful walks illuminated with stories projected on trees.

These are all captivating and visually rich experiences.

And yet, I have equally puzzled over the idea that ‘immersion’, as an idea, is more than data paintings filling museum spaces from floor to ceiling.

Immersion is more than a feast for the visual, and maybe auditory, systems of our brains.

On some level, I have felt that ‘Immersion’ is something more transformative. Something that activates areas of our brains that are responsible for feelings of arousal or pleasure as well as areas that give us the sense that what is happening has a resonant social value.

This is where Dr. Paul Zak steps into the narrative.

He has stood on the TED stage 5 times and speaks all over the world.

Immersion, he suggests, is driven by two factors:
the activation of areas of the brain that produce the neurochemicals dopamine and oxytocin.

Most of us will have heard that dopamine is the ‘pleasure’ neurochemical. It plays a role in the pleasure center of the brain and is tied to addiction. Dopamine is also tied to our brain’s ability to predict and prediction errors. It is connected to our ability to differentiate anomalies in complex patterns.

It sort of creates an alert system that something is worthy of our attention. It is part of how we learn.

When we hear the word ‘oxytocin,’ some may know it to be the “Love hormone.’ Among other life moments, it is present in childbirth, breastfeeding, sex, a good long hug…

Oxytocin is often linked towarm, cozy feelings. It has the ability to regulate our emotional responses and pro-social behaviors, including trust, empathy, positive memories, processing of bonding cues, and positive communication.

All of which are critical to having positive brand experiences.

Oxytocin has a connection to whether or not an experience has a level of emotional resonance and the brain’s ability to identify an experience as having some social value, some relational component.

When experiences combine the release of dopamine along with oxytocin, then according to Paul Zak, we have Immersion.

Immersion is contagious – the more we are immersed in an experience the more our brain says that it was amazing, creating value in the moment and it induces a craving to repeat it in the future.

And that is the essence of customer loyalty.

When a retailer/brand creates such an amazing experience that you want to repeat it.

Paul’s ten decades of research have taken him from the Pentagon to Fortune 50 boardrooms to the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. Along the way he helped start a number of interdisciplinary fields including neuroeconomics, neuromanagement, and neuromarketing.

His current company, Immersion Neuroscience, has developed a software platform that allows anyone to measure what the brain loves in real-time to improve outcomes in entertainment, education and training, live events and to help people sustain emotional wellness.

In Dr. Paul Zak’s new book “Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and Source of Happiness,” he offers a framework for transforming nearly any situation from ordinary to extraordinary. Based on 20 years of neuroscience research from his lab and innumerable client applications, Dr. Paul Zak explains why brains crave the extraordinary.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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Ep. 45 Color Archeology, Trends and Forecasts with Montaha Hidefi, Color Archeologist, Author and Public Speaker

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000

ABOUT MONTAHA HIDEFI:

Montaha’s LinkedIn Profile:

linkedin.com/in/montahahidefi

Website

Phone

+1-519-760-5910

Email

montaha.hidefi@yahoo.com

Twitter

colorfulmontaha

MONTAHA HIDEFI's Bio:

A world-renowned Color Archeologist™, Montaha Hidefi centers her consultancy services on developing color trends foresights and color forecast projections, portfolio ideation and customized color related insights to small, medium, and large organizations on a global basis.

In 2020, Montaha established the notion of Color Archaeology™, a trademark of her Color Landing Studio, to best define the practice of color forecasting and its intricacies. Color Archaeology incorporates the skills and expertise to track and observe societal trends, analyze how they are interpreted in current times, and predict how they will evolve into the future.

A public speaker, Montaha lectures and keynotes about color and trends virtually and in-person at international events and company settings. Her articles on the subject matter are published in countless trade publications.

Montaha serves at Color Marketing Group® (CMG) as Vice President of Color Forecasting, at the Executive Committee of the Colour Research Society of Canada (CRSC) and as Vice President of the Canadian Freelance Guild (CFG). She holds a comprehensive background in international marketing, color marketing and the coatings industry. Montaha was born and raised in South America, is an avid traveler and has lived and worked in the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

She is the author of Giving Voice to My Silence, Dando voz a mi silencio, and Groping for Truth, and the co-author of Colour Design: Theories and Applications.

SHOW INTRO:
On my first day of the freehand drawing studio at McGill University School of Architecture, the teacher, Gerry Tondino, explained that he would not teach us how to draw.

Instead, he said, we would learn how to see. To understand light. How without light nothing exists. How it created form, texture, and color.

I loved those classes where every week, for three hours, we would ‘learn to see.’ I took additional drawing classes in the evenings and Sketching School where we would travel to some location and spend a week drawing outdoors.

And learn to see I did.

Gerry Tondino fostered my love of drawing with his gentle teaching approach. He would walk the studio in his well-worn jean jacket saying “put a line at the top of the paper, now another one at the bottom, now draw the figure…” 30 seconds late he would say it again, and again, and again. The 3 hours studio seemed to go by in 30 second increments as we learned to see.

Mostly we worked in black and white. Charcoal on newsprint paper.

Color would come later. Color had its own challenges. Understanding color was tough.

Understanding color was a process that went on for years. Even now in my recent paintings, color is a challenge but one I take on with enthusiasm.

What color goes with what other color. How does one color seemingly change the hue of another simply because it is adjacent to or surrounding it? How is light reflected off of one object coloring another? Cool. Warm. Saturated. Transparent. Opaque.

I love color. Fuchsia particularly. To me, it is vibrant and signals enthusiasm and creative innovation.

And then there is understanding color from the neurobiological point of view. How our brain processes color is fascinating. The eyes take in wavelengths of light activating rods and cone in our eyes sending signals to the occipital lobe in the back of our head and the information is turned into our perception of color. And that is the simplest description that there ever likely was of how it works.

The other thing about color, especially when we think about objects ‘being colored’ is that isn’t actually what is happening.

Our human eyes are actually able to only see a very small portion of the full light wavelength spectrum. Some animals are actually better at seeing light in the infrared spectrum which we cannot see. These wavelengths still enter our eyes but our visual apparatus isn’t able to ‘see’ it.

So, when the full sunlight hits objects, a certain portion of the visual light spectrum is absorbed into the molecular structure of the object. The remaining wavelengths of light are reflected and are perceived by our eyes and decoded by our brain as color. What we see is the reflected wavelengths. So, if you looking at a red shirt, all wavelengths of light except those that are perceived as red are absorbed by the fabric and pigments and the red wavelengths are bouncing off and entering our eyes and voila… red shirt.

But it is oh so much more complex than that…

And what about how certain colors make us feel? Colors affect our mood. Our neurology and colors are interconnected and there’s a heft of science that describes the very real relationship of color to our emotional state. Colors activate our neurobiology and can be calming, activating, agitating, and directly affect the way we feel in places we inhabit.

Next time you are anywhere, outside, at home, in a store, driving on the highway take notice of all of the colors. Everything is colored. Most everything we buy is colored and the shade of red, or yellow or blue really matters to our perception of the product, our willingness to buy it and the brand or store that sells it. Colors have become so connected to our consumer environments that we have come to attribute certain colors to certain brands.

Tiffany … blue.

Red … Coke or Target

Yellow … McDonalds or Best Buy

And then there is the psychological connotations of colors. Red is a popular color in Chinese culture, symbolizing luck, joy, and happiness. Purple was been linked to royalty or the church.

What does color mean? What colors will be prevalent next year? How are colors tied to human experience, economics and political movements?

Color. More than we can unpack in this one podcast but worth understanding because so much of human experience is connected to it. To help us get there is Montaha Hidefi.

She is an internationally distinguished Color Archaeologist, who develops color trend concepts and color palettes for organizations around the world.

Montaha is the Vice President of Color Forecasting atColor Marketing Group® (CMG) and Vice President of theCanadian Freelance Guild(CFG).

By creating a color forecasts designed specifically to company’s target markets, Montaha Hidefi helps organizations optimize their product portfolio and create color stories that brand’s target audiences can relate to.

The ideation of your color direction is done by examining your past and current colors, understanding the present trends, and setting new parameters based on research and a scientific forecasting process.

She presented at conferences, color seminars, universities, and trade shows, all around the world.

She is the author of Groping For Truth - My Uphill Struggle for Respect, co-author of Color Design - Theories and Applications(1st and 2nd editions).

From a young age growing up in Venezuela Montaha has had a love affair with all things colored. She feels so interconnected with color that she explains that color and her are like talking about the same thing.

Welcome Montaha Hidefi….

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

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EP. 44 Design, Discovery and Dichotomies with Gabriele Chiave - VP GLOBAL, DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTION & INNOVATION The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 9 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000

ABOUT GABRIELE CHIAVE:
Gabriele’s LinkedIN Profile: linkedin.com/in/gabriele-chiave-b1959022

Bio:
Gabriele Chiave knows no boundaries.

As a lifelong observer of the world around him, Gabriele is driven by the comprehensive nature of design and a desire to ignite meaningful interaction between product and consumer. Born to diplomat parents in Metz in 1978, he has lived in France, Dakar, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Rome, Milano and now makes his home in Amsterdam. These diverse resident experiences enable him to bring a global perspective to design like no other.

Gabriele studied at the European Institute of Design in Milan, Industrial Design Academy, French Lycée Chateaubriand in Rome, French Lycée Emile Zola in Buenos Aires, Argentina and French Lycée Collegio Francia in Caracas, Venezuela. He holds a Baccalaureat in Economics and Society.

In addition to spending five years at Marc Sadler Studio / IS European Design Center, he won competitions for Emergency, Rotari, Epson, Toshiba and Pirelli, and worked with prestigious Italian brands such as Alessi (organization of 7 Workshops held by LPWK/Alessi), Dainese, Foscarini and Serralunga. These experiences helped Gabriele master the subtle nuances and delightful balance between form and function, industry and art, structure and experimentation.

Gabriele's ‘design upbringing’ was inspired by design masters Magistretti, Castiglioni, Branzi, Delucchi, Sotsass and Mari who made Italy the worldwide leader in industrial design. Gabriele exudes this foundation at Marcel Wanders, where he has worked
since 2007.
Evolving to become Creative Director, he now oversees all projects in product and interior design, and art direction for some of the most renowned international design brands such as Kartell, Poliform, Flos, Cappellini, B&B, Baccarat, KLM, Magis, MAC, Target, L&V, Alessi, Christofle, Marks&Spencer and many other international companies and hotels.
Gabriele whole heartedly embraces the challenge of combining industry and the arts, blending Marcel's emotion with Italianindustrial tradition.

His vision for the eclectic team at this ever-expanding creative hub is to freely make beauty and technical simplicity accessible to all in order to expand the human experience.

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The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound.

Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “dialogues on DATA: design architecture technology and the arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

And remember you'll always find more information with links to content that we've discussed, contact information to our guests and more in the show notes for each episode.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

************************************************************************************************************************************

The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound.

And remember you'll always find more information with links to content that we've discussed, contact information to our guests and more in the show notes for each episode.

Ep. 43 Design For Massive Change with Bruce Mau - Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Massive Change Network

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 19:11:11 +0000

ABOUT BRUCE MAU:

For press and event inquiries: info@massivechangenetwork.com

INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS:

Bruce Mau - https://www.instagram.com/realbrucemau/#

Aiyemobisi Williams - https://www.instagram.com/aiyemobisi/

Massive Change Network -https://www.instagram.com/massivechangenetwork/

LINKEDIN ACCOUNTS:

Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer Bruce Mau -https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-mau/

Co-founder, Chief Insights Officer Aiyemobisi “Bisi” Willia -https://www.linkedin.com/in/bisiwilliams/

Company Page Massive Change Network -https://www.linkedin.com/company/massive-change-network/about/

WEBSITES:

Massive Change Network -https://www.massivechangenetwork.com

Health 2049 Podcast -https://www.health2049.com

MAILING LIST:

https://massivechangeworkshops.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=edecf2a3075fbcc167f6019ec&id=592db25fb8

BRUCE'S BIO:

Bruce Mau is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Massive Change Network (MCN), a global design consultancy based in the Chicago area. Across more than thirty years of design innovation, Bruce has worked as a designer, innovator, educator, and author on a broad spectrum of projects in collaboration with the world’s leading brands, organizations, universities, governments, entrepreneurs, renowned artists, and fellow optimists.

To create value and positive impact across global ecosystems and economies, Mau evolved a unique toolkit of 24 massive change design principles — MC24 — that can be applied in any field or environment at every scale. The MC24 principles underpin all Bruce’s work — from designing carpets to cities, books to new media, global brands to cultural institutions, and social movements to business transformation – and they are the subject of his book,“Mau: MC24, Bruce Mau’s 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in Your Life and Work.”

Books are central to Bruce’s purpose of achieving and inspiring understanding, clarity, and alignment around visions of a better future. He is the author of“Massive Change”;“Life Style”; and“Mau: MC24: Bruce Mau’s 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in Your Life and Work”;– all published by Phaidon Press. Bruce’s“The Incomplete Manifesto for Growth,”a forty-three-point statement on sustaining a creative practice, has been translated into more than fifteen languages and has been shared widely on the Internet for nearly twenty-five years.

Bruce is also co-author of several books, including the landmark architecture book“S, M, L, XL”with Rem Koolhaas;“Nexus: Augmented Thinking for a Complex World – The New Convergence of Art, Technology, and Science,”with Julio Ottino, dean of Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering;“The Third Teacher”with OWP/P Architects and VS Furniture; and“Spectacle”with David Rockwell.

Bruce has collaborated with clients on the development and design of more than 200 books, including Art Gallery of Ontario, Claes Oldenburg, Douglas Gordon, Frank Gehry, Gagosian, Getty Research Institute, James Lahey, Mark Francis, and Zone Books.

In these times of complex, interrelated challenges that are unlike any we’ve faced before, Bruce believes life-centered design offers a clear path towards identifying the full context of our problems and developing innovative, sustainable, and holistic solutions.

Bruce’s work and life story are the subject of the feature-length documentary, “MAU,” scheduled for North American theatrical release in May 2022.

EP. 43 BRUCE MAU - SHOW INTRO

When I was a kid, my parents used to load my four brothers and I, along with our dog, into a station wagon, hook up a trailer and travel on summer vacation from Montreal to Winnipeg, effectively halfway across Canada, to visit my father's family.

The trek would take us along the Trans Canada highway following a route around Lake Superior and passing through cites like Wawa, which had an enormous Canada goose statue, Dryden with the monumental statue of Max the Moose, and Sudbury Ontario with the Big nickel.

The big nickel. It was enormous. This thing was a towering 30 feet tall and was said to be about 64 million times the size of the nickel you’d have in your pocket.

In a time when penny candy stores were a big thing for a youngster in the late 60’s, how much that nickel could buy at Ed’s market, the candy store a walk from my parent’s house, was beyond imagination.

Sudbury was also one of the largest nickel mining areas on the planet. My memory of Sudbury at that time was that it was desolate. For miles around the nickel mines, Sudbury was gray. The landscape was just gray.

There were no trees.

There was no grass.

It was the closest thing my young mind could have imagined when thinking about what the surface of the moon would have looked like.

In those seemingly dead zones, it was stark and infertile.

In 1971 and '72 NASA actually sent its astronauts to train there for the Apollo 16 and 17 missions, because it approximated what astronauts would encounter when they landed on the lunar surface.

While I passed through as a tourist on vacation, there was another boy who lived there in the house at the end of a street beyond which there was only 200 miles of Boreal Forest.

As an adult the boy who lived at the end of the street before the forest started would describe those years as ‘lawless’ and like walking a Vaseline greased edge on which a misplaced step would send you careening into a chasm from which you would never climb out.

Finding his way out of the Boreal Forest, it turns out, would also serve in later years as an apt metaphor for finding a way out of a childhood of adverse experiences to a career as one of the most successful designers of the last 50 years.

The house of the end of the street was not the end of the road for Bruce Mau. At a young age, he had other plans to not slip and fall into the chasm, but to find his way out of the forest. To follow a path with an entrepreneurial spirit, of exploration and discovery, continually scanning the world for opportunity.

Mau believes that “you need to be taught the entrepreneurial mindset of being lost in the forest and discovering a methodology for finding your way out. You need a compass. You need a way of actually navigating any forest not just the one in front of you.” That, he says, is a very different mindset and design is actually built to do it. That's what designers do…”

Looking back, Mau now deeply appreciates how those decisions that he made when he was twelve set that in motion and kind of created the space for him to do what he does and to be who he is.

Despite his extraordinary success, he understands that, whatever the kind of problem and no matter how right he believes his solution is, it is it's meaningless if he can't inspire people to do it.

He explains that “..I have to show them what that means. I have to show them the destination and I have to take them there in their imagination. I’ve got to say, ‘look I know we're here now but we're going to go over there. I'm telling you over there is awesome and here's what's going to happen…”

I was first exposed to Bruce’s creative thinking process through his landmark architectural book “S, M, L, XL”with the world renowned architect Rem Koolhaas. SML XL is not a book you read cover to cover. It is something that you live with, explore and reference over and over again.

Bruce is a lover of books and has collaborated with clients on the development and design of more than 200 titles. He says “I consider myself a ‘biblio-naire.’ I'm not a billionaire but I am a biblio-naire.”

One of these books, that I have read cover to cover, is MC24 “Mau: MC24, Bruce Mau’s 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in Your Life and Work.” This volume is more a manifesto or a unique toolkit of 24 massive change design principles that can be applied in any field or environment at every scale.

These 24 principles underpin all of Bruce’s work — from designing carpets to cities, books to new media, global brands to cultural institutions, and social movements to business transformation.

Today Bruce has navigated the slippery line of life a long way from his childhood years in the liminal space where the road ends and the forest begins. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Massive Change Network (MCN), a global design consultancy based in the Chicago area.

Across more than thirty years of design innovation, Bruce has worked as a designer, innovator, educator, and author on a broad spectrum of projects with some of world’s leading brands, organizations, universities, governments, entrepreneurs, renowned artists, and fellow optimists.

Bruce’s work and life story are the subject of the feature-length documentary, “MAU,” that was released to North American theatres in May 2022. It is a captivating and candid look into Bruce Mau’s life of ideas. I encourage all to see it.

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The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound.

And remember you'll always find more information with links to content that we've discussed, contact information to our guests and more in the show notes for each episode.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 42 Telling Architecture's Story In Film with Kyle Bergman, Founder - Architecture and Design Film Festival

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 11 May 2022 16:00:00 +0000

ABOUT Kyle Bergman:
Kyle’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-bergman-629809131/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ADFILMFEST

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adfilmfest/

Websites:

Architecture and Design Film Festival: https://www.adfilmfest.com/

Pacific Rim Parks: https://pacificrimpark.org/

Kyle Bergman's Bio:

Founder & Festival Director - Architecture & Design Film Festival / New York

Architect Kyle Bergman founded the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) in 2009 and serves as its festival director. He has always recognized the strong connection between architecture and film and ADFF provides a unique opportunity to educate, entertain and engage people who are passionate about the world of architecture and design. Now in its 14th season, ADFF has grown to become the largest film festival dedicated to the creative spirit of architecture and design.

Mr. Bergman also serves as president of Pacific Rim Park (PRP) whose mission is to use the process of designing and building parks as a tool to connect people and communities around the Pacific. Mr, Bergman has been involved with PRP since its first park built in Vladivostok, Russia in 1994.

Mr. Bergman has been involved with design/build education since 1992 when he created and moderated an architectural lecture series about the design/build process for the Smithsonian Institute. He has taught community design/build classes in the Dominican Republic for the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont, and served on their board of directors for 9 years.

An entrepreneur at heart, Mr. Bergman founded Alt Spec in 1999, a publishing company that produced a visual resource of unique and alternative products for architects and designers. He also produced a play, The Glass House, about the design and construction of two famous homes — Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and Phillip Johnson's Glass House.

SHOW INTRO:

When I was in college I took an elective in hypnosis and one of the few things that I learned during that course is that everyone can be hypnotized, to some degree. That degree has a lot to do with the individual’s ability to let themself go, to suspend disbelief, to have a strong imagination as well as the proclivity to get lost in story.

What I have always know about myself is that when I watch a movie, the outside world disappears. I am with Frodo on our way to Mordor, in a landing craft on the beach of Normandy on my way to Save Private Ryan, falling in love with the heroine, summiting the mountain… I could go on but you get the idea.

The same happens with great novels where I am fully in the narrative and I find portrayals of human excellence deeply moving.

Over the years, I have found myself using expressions of famous novelists, musicians, architects and filmmakers as truisms to live my life by.

I love documentaries because I learn things I did not know. I love discovering how things work in our world and how things we often take for granted in out built environment are not there by happenstance but have come to be through an intense, and usually lengthy, process of collaborative making.

I often stand in places and I'm amazed at the amount of decisions that had to be made to bring the thing that I'm experienced into the world.

This is no small thing and it's something that I think the general public is unaware of. I would hazard a guess that most walk through their environments blissfully unaware of the magnitude of human invention and hard work that it took to bring most buildings to the world.

There have been stories I have read - biographies, monographs and radio shows and podcasts that I have listened to that have described the lives of famous makers, builders, architects, artists, designers and musicians - these alchemists of human ingenuity bringing things to the world that are lasting expressions of what it means to be human - in a certain place - at a certain time.

And so, it's probably not so surprising that documentaries that focus on the work of architects or TV shows that show how things are made or how to make them better or how our built world has come to be I find particularly fascinating.

I think that if people better understood architecture and design, and the intricate set of interdependencies and decisions made to make the beautiful building or ice cream scoop, the world of design and architecture maybe experienced with more reverence.

I've often heard it also said that architects tend to make buildings for architects and the much of the subtlety and deep meaning of what architects and designers do is lost on the general public.

An this may be, in part , due to the fact that architects haven’t been too good at explaining what they do to the public.

In the past there were various guilds, associations of craftsmen or merchants that formed for mutual aid and protection and for the furtherance of their professional interests.And indeed, knowledge of the craft was often held in confidence among its members.

I've often heard it also said that architects tend to make buildings for architects and the much of the subtlety and deep meaning of what architects and designers do is lost on the general public. Maybe this is a hold-over from ancient guilds. If so, the consequence has been a poor understanding of the world of architecture and one that needs some revision.

This is just one of the mandates that Kyle Bergman and the architecture and design Film Festival have set out for themselves in bringing stories of architecture and design to the general public.

The architecture and design Film Festival attempts to write that story in a different way.

To bring the art and science of architecture and design, what it means, why we do it and how we do it, to the general public so they better understand the nature of the built world and what it means to be a participant in it.

ArchitectKyleBergman founded the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) in 2009 and serves as its festival director. He has always recognized the strong connection between architecture and film and how the ADFF can provide a unique opportunity to educate, entertain and engage people who are passionate about the world of architecture and design.

Now in its 14th season, ADFF has grown to become the largest film festival dedicated to the creative spirit of architecture and design.

Kyle Bergman has been involved with design/build education since 1992 when he created and moderated an architectural lecture series about the design/build process for the Smithsonian Institute.

He has taught community design/build classes in the Dominican Republic for the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont, and served on their board of directors for 9 years.

He is also the president of Pacific Rim Park (PRP) whose mission is to use the process of designing and building parks as a tool to connect people and communities around the Pacific.

The architecture and design Film Festival now screens about 300 documentary films every year. They curate the best of them and bring them to the public in major cities across the US and Canada as well as releasing them online.

Because of the work of Kyle Bergman, the general public continues to be invited into a deeper understanding of architects, designers and the nature of the built environment.

The architecture critic Paul Goldberger has said “Architecture begins to matter when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.”

For the past 13 or 14 years, the architecture and design Film Festival has brought together the story of architecture and design offering those who participate a felt sense of delight and sadness, a deeper appreciation for the complexity of the practice of design and architecture and a sense of awe about the magic and meaning of buildings.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP.41 Thriving And Sustainable Ecosystems with Denise Naguib VP, Sustainability and Supplier Diversity, Marriott International, Inc.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 02:02:06 +0000

ABOUT DENISE NAGUIB:
Denise’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/denisenaguib

Email: denise.naguib@marriott.com

Twitter: dnaguib

Bio:

Denise was born in Cairo, Egypt where she lived for half of her childhood before moving to Michigan, Minnesota, and finally Oregon. She attended the University of Oregon, earning a Bachelors of Science in Geography with an emphasis on biological and human impacts on the environment. After graduating, Denise became involved with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, implementing environmental education programs at various locations.

In 2005, Denise moved to the Cayman Islands to implement Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. Naguib moved to Washington, DC and led the environmental strategy for the brand, as well as supporting the growth of the Cousteau program within The Ritz-Carlton. In January 2010, Denise joined the Global Operations group at Marriott International and continued her work on sustainability strategy for all brands, as well as expansion of the Cousteau program.

In 2012, Denise was named Vice President of Sustainability and Supplier Diversity, integrating both of these important subjects in the company’s global operations. In 2017, Naguib launched the company’s new Sustainability and Social Impact platform, Serve 360, and accompanying goals. Denise is working on a variety of projects including responsible sourcing, food waste, carbon reporting and supporting efforts to increase spend with diverse businesses globally.

Denise currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board for WEConnect International, the global organization supporting women businesses around the world. She is also the Chair of the National LGBT Chamber’s Procurement Council, on the Board of The Conference Board’s Sustainability Center and serves on the boards of The Ocean Foundation and Arbor Day Foundation.

SHOW INTRO:

A few years ago, my family gave me a book that was full of amazing illustrations of planet earth… without humans.

The images it showed were both fantastic and tragic.

But as you looked through the images one thing became perfectly clear, that earth without humans was actually OK.

Now I'm not suggesting that we work hard to leave earth. On the contrary, I'm actually suggesting that we need to work harder at saving earth from ourselves.

When you think about it, in the grand scheme of things, the big universal timeline, humans have been around for a micro moment, not even a blink of an eye.

And to be sure, in the very short time that we've been around, we have done some pretty remarkable things. There isn't a day go by that I don't marvel at human ingenuity as well as the strange paradox that we equally seem to be working as hard at making this planet uninhabitable for ourselves well at the same time we're trying to save each other from devastating diseases to keep us alive for as long as we can.

Which I suppose points to the idea that despite our irresponsible treatment of mother earth we really love being here.

As an architect I am particularly tuned in to what our built environment costs, not in terms of materials or operating expenses, but in terms of what it does to the environment around us what natural resources we strip from the earth, the cost of shipping them to construction sites and the leftovers of the construction process that end up in landfill.

As a LEED certified architect I'm even more tuned in to the lifespan of buildings and the impact that they have on the environment.

Alan weismann’s book “The World Without US” brought to light some pretty interesting ideas regarding how the world would be if we simply retreated further into the background and let natural ecosystems take over.

We've seen some of these changes over the past two years in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

It's kept people inside, animals have had a chance to roam, our urban environments have become less raucous, the ozone layer has had a chance to mend and even the canals in Venice are running clear.

So, it does tend to make you want to question what would happen to our planet if for example we weren't here.

Now, having said that, I think most of us want to be here. We find this little blue dot spinning uncontrollably in the vast universe an astounding place to be with a wealth of natural resources flora and fauna, that if you look, just for a moment, you can be nothing but amazed at the complexity, beauty, detail and design of all things.

It's not surprising as well that during this pause imposed on us over the past couple of years, that people have begun to reconnect to the value of nature.

Biophilic design is rolling off the lips of more people these days than ever before and sustainable practices are being embraced and young GenZers, like Greta Thunberg, are being lauded for sailing across the ocean and bringing a global consciousness to the climate change issue.

I can tell you, my sons are quite concerned about the planet they've inherited. And what we need to do to make it right in the next few years so that the trajectory of climate change won't lead to a climate calamity.

I don't know, maybe it's quite likely that our influence on climate will likely be the demise of humans long before some asteroid hits us like in the movie Don't look up.”

I was also quite struck by the Salesforce commercial playing during the Winter Olympics with Matthew McConaughey who was suggesting that space is ‘a final frontier’ might be a misappropriation of our attention.

We might be better off connecting better and creating viable alternatives to the way that we've treated mother earth, a planet that we've been gifted and need to be better stewards of.

I liked the idea of SalesForce’s “Team Earth” commercial.

Bravo for bringing that into the social consciousness.

When I was at Marriott our chief engineer Terry Smith was on a mission to remove plastic bottles from hotels and implement water filtration systems that would remove millions of plastic bottles from landfill every year.

You know, there's a plastic island the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean and everything we can do every day to remove things like that from our planet the better off we all will be, humans and ocean life alike.

When I was at Marriott there was a woman who seemed to make it her life purpose to connect us to the consequences of our behavior on geography and the natural ecosystems.

Denise Naguib is an extraordinary person with a passion for education and growing our awareness of how to interact with a world around us that produces better human outcomes.

Denise was born in Cairo, Egypt where she lived for half of her childhood before moving to Michigan, Minnesota, and finally Oregon.

She was originally on an education track that would put her into medicine. But one day, when needing to take an elective for one of the courses to complete her Bachelors degree, she discovered the world of geography… and that changed everything.

She earned a Bachelors of Science in Geography degree from the University of Oregon with an emphasis on biological and human impacts on the environment.

After graduating, Denise was hired to be a snorkeling instructor at a summer camp on Catalina island off the coast of California. She had grown up snorkeling and this was a natural fit for her.

And, as fate would have it, one day she got a call that led to becoming involved with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, implementing environmental education programs.

In 2005, Denise moved to the Cayman Islands (not a bad gig) to implement Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman.

With the success of that program, Denise then moved to Washington, DC and led the environmental strategy for the brand, as well as supporting the growth of the Cousteau program within The Ritz-Carlton.

In January 2010, Denise joined the Global Operations group at Marriott International and continued her work on sustainability strategy for all brands, as well as expansion of the Cousteau program.

When I was at Marriott, I liked visiting Denise in her office as often as I could, because it was filled with plants and just smelled better.

Her little enclave of the building felt a little bit like a place that grown over after humans had left. Except that at Marriott Denise Naguib is very much there connecting a network of over 8000 hotels and the companies that supply them to the world of sustainable building practice.

She leads a team who spends there days connecting to hearts and minds to what we can learn from, and the value of, natural ecosystems helping to make sure that this little blue dot we live on… will not just be there for future generations but be one we can continue to thrive on.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.40 Jazz, Creativity And The Brain With Dr. Charles Limb, Chief of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery, UC San Francisco

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 18:13:50 +0000

ABOUT DR. CHARLES LIMB:

USSF Health:

https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-charles-limb

https://ohns.ucsf.edu/charles-limb

https://profiles.ucsf.edu/charles.limbWikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Limb

TED Profile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Limb

TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/charles_limb_your_brain_on_improv

Kennedy Center:

https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/l/la-ln/charles-limb/

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/center/discussionspoken-word/2017/jazz-creativity-and-the-brainsound-health-music-and-the-mind/

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/digital-stage/discussionspoken-word/2019/music-and-the-voice-brain-mechanisms-of-vocal-mastery-and-creativity--sound-health/

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/center/discussionspoken-word/2019/sound-health-inside-esperanza-spaldings-brain--the-kennedy-center/

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/center/classical-music/2018/music-and-the-mind-with-piano-prodigy-matthew-whitaker/

The Art of The Spark: Musical Creativity Explored with Dr. Charles Limb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQmGOVr8aJ0

Articles:

https://www.artsandmindlab.org/charles-limb-md-mapping-the-creative-minds-of-musicians/

On Creativity: mihaly csikszentmihalyi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

DR.CHARLES LIMB Bio:

Dr. Charles Limb is the Francis A. Sooy Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the Chief of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at UC San Francisco. He is the Director of the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center at UCSF and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery.

Dr. Limb received his undergraduate degree at Harvard University, medical training at Yale University School of Medicine, and surgical residency and fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in functional neuroimaging at the National Institutes of Health. He was a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Peabody Conservatory of Music and the School of Education between 1996 and 2015.

Dr. Limb joined the UCSF Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 2015.

Dr. Limb is the 2021-22 President of the American Auditory Society and the Co-Director of the Sound Health Network sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, NIH and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is the PI of an NEA Research Lab and Co-PI of an NIH R61/R33 grant.

He is the past Editor-in-Chief of Trends in Amplification (now Trends in Hearing), and an Editorial Board member of Otology and Neurotology. Dr. Limb was selected as the 2022 NIH Clinical Center Distinguished Clinical Research Scholar and Educator in Residence. He was also named in 2022 as one of the Kennedy Center’s Next 50, a group of fifty national cultural leaders who are “moving us toward a more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate world”.

His current areas of research focus on the study of the neural basis of musical creativity and the study of music perception in deaf individuals with cochlear implants.

His work has received international attention and has been featured by National Public Radio, TED, 60 Minutes, National Geographic, the New York Times, PBS, CNN, Scientific American, the British Broadcasting Company, the Smithsonian Institute, the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sundance Film Festival, Canadian Broadcasting Company, the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Discovery Channel, CBS Sunday Morning, and the American Museum of Natural History.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

A number of years ago I attended a series of lectures at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC that focus on music and the brain and as I sat and watched and listened to these presentations, I was absolutely amazed with the interrelationship between brain activity, spontaneous creativity, music, language meaning and all these things that we share as human beings.

For years I've been fascinated with the creative process.

It seems natural I suppose given that I'm an architect, an artist, an author and occasionally I might even consider myself a novice musician because I can bang out five chords of a James Taylor song on my guitar. I do however have the extraordinarily good fortune of living with three musicianS. MY sons who are jazz musician, a pianist and a drummer, and a wife who is also a pianist and composer/songwriter and have been surrounded by music and love it for years.

In fact, when I paint, and I happen to be focusing on a series of portraits of famous jazz musicians and other musical artists, I only listen to their music as I'm creating. Somehow I think I'm channeling John Coltrane or Miles Davis or Keith Richards or Janis Joplin or Prince.

But it helps, it really does. It gets me into a flow state and the world outside me just disappears.

For a long time now I have held that creativity is part of who we are. We are equally Homo Faber man the maker as we are Homo Sapiens man the wise.

I deeply believe that the creative process is something that is intrinsic to building community and connections with other people for years. We have danced around fires and stamped out meaning with our feet and sang songs and beat on drums and created extraordinary symphonies or rock concerts and in doing so we come together and better understand ourselves our community culture and, in some strange cosmological sense, our relation to the larger whole of humanity.

It seems to me that vocal utterances (not speech as we now know it) or producing melodic or rhythmic sounds, beating on drums etc., predated organized or syntactic speech.

Since adapting to changing circumstances in the environment around you required some degree of creativity, it seems that there would be a natural connection between the development of creative thinking processes as a matter of survival and what we now know as music as a way to exchange these ideas.

Music and music with language, lyrics, are extremely powerful mechanisms to evoke and share emotion and communicate with each other.

Building strong social groups and the use of communication tools like language and certainly music has been part of our evolutionary process. Our brains have evolved into these immensely complex systems of functional areas that provide us with the magic of music and art and creative invention. We humans have survived at the top of the food chain not because we have bigger brains than other creatures on the planet, but as I understand it, because our brains are wired differently.

And how all of this relates to creativity is particularly interesting.

When you see jazz improvisation happening, what has always amazed me is the speed with which the brain is making decisions and the amount of information it is processing:

…what note to hit next? – how does it related to the last? – where is the improv going? - is there a structure of any kind? – how the brain makes those decisions and then send signals to motor areas and then electrical impulses to muscle groups that produce fine motor movements in hands and /or other body parts to create sounds…

this is all happening with electricity and chemicals moving between cells…this is a bit overwhelming to figure out!

It’s like the brain is out ahead of the body in its thinking…

When I sat in the audience of those early Kennedy Center music and the brain sessions, there was one that was particularly interesting to me. Dr. Charles Limb had intriguing conversations with musicians including Jason Moran - the Artistic Director for Jazz at the Kennedy Center - and he described some of the work he was doing with trying to understand the neural correlates of creativity.

How was he doing that?

Well, he was taking some of the best jazz musicians on the planet and putting them into fMRI machines and observing their brain activity while they were in moments of spontaneous creation - jazz improvisation.

And what he's begun to discover is something pretty remarkable.

Certain areas of the brain are deactivated in these moments of spontaneous improvised creation while others are lit up.

From Dr. Limb studies, it seems that conscious self-monitoring, a function of the Prefrontal Cortex, is deactivated opening a gateway for spontaneous creation unencumbered by self-monitoring or concerns about inappropriate or maladaptive performances and areas that are connected to autobiographical narratives are more active.

“In jazz music, improvisation is considered to be a highly individual expression of an artist's own musical viewpoint. The association of the MPFC activity with the production of auto biographical narrative is germane in this context, and as such, one could argue that the improvisation is a way of expressing one's own musical voice or story.”

Dr. Limb’s own story is nothing less than remarkable.

From his early years as a young musician, to his study of medicine, he has become one of the preeminent scientists looking into music, the brain and the neural correlates of creativity.

His list of professional accomplishments and appointments to various medical institutions is extensive and include:

Being the Francis A. Sooy Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the Chief of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at UC San Francisco.

The Director of the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center at UCSF and he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery.

Dr. Limb received his undergraduate degree at Harvard University, medical training at Yale University School of Medicine, and surgical residency and fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

He was a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Peabody Conservatory of Music and the School of Education between 1996 and 2015.

He was also named in 2022 as one of the Kennedy Center’s Next 50, a group of fifty national cultural leaders who are “moving us toward a more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate world”.

His current areas of research focus on the study of the neural basis of musical creativity and the study of music perception in deaf individuals with cochlear implants.

His work has received international attention and has been featured by TED, 60 Minutes, National Geographic, the. New York Times, PBS, CNN, Scientific American, the Smithsonian Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sundance Film Festival, the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Discovery Channel, CBS Sunday Morning, and more.

It is my distinct honor to be able to talk with Dr. Limb about music, creativity and the brain.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 39 Unlocking Gen Z With Hannah Grady Williams - Speaker, Author, and Gen Z Business Consultant

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 17:42:13 +0000

About Hannah Grady Williams:

Hannah’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/hannah-williams-genz-ceo-advisor

Website: hannahgwilliams.com/ (Personal Website)

Phone: 828-490-7535 (Work)

Email: hannahnaomigrady@gmail.com

Bio:

As a 12-year-old middle schooler and the oldest daughter of seven children, Hannah Williams’s dad took her to work at his start-up one day per week. Usually, they would visit properties, collect rent, and file paperwork, but one afternoon was different. “Hey Hannah, the phone is ringing. There’s a guy on the other line with a house for sale and you’re going to close the deal.” Hannah took the phone and fumbled through the call, but sure enough, within weeks, they owned the property.

Before long, Hannah was religiously consuming business books. She enrolled in college at age 14 and graduated with a degree in international business by 18. Since then, Hannah has consulted Fortune 500 companies and boutique luxury brands and has had the pleasure of working with some of the best and brightest leaders across the globe. Hannah is now on a journey to help companies connect with her generation, and her first book will be published in the Summer of 2021. In a time when the world is increasingly divided, Hannah has made it her mission to foster #RadicalEmpathy in the workplace - helping both young and old gain a voice.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Since watching my son Ben create Instagram posts years ago when he was 12, I have had an intense interest in what Gen Z was doing with their phones beyond using it for a communication device.

As I have watched and seen the creativity pouring out of my sons in the making of digital content, I have become increasingly aware that what they are doing with their digital devices goes beyond texting, playing games and watching videos, they are imbibing content at a remarkable pace, learning more about the world than I knew about the world well into my early adulthood and… making stories.

They are content creators writing narratives of their own lives. They are bringing to life themselves, their own personas, as individual brands, with strong points of view on politics, media, identity, social issues, the economy, climate change and more.

As content creators they have a facility with media production not seen in generations before them. That power of connection into the digisphere lays in the palm of their hands and they come to the table with an expectation set that is very different that other consumers.

Contrary to popular belief, they don’t love digital technology. They aren’t amazed orconfounded by it. It just is. It is as if it is simply another appendage that they wouldn’t be able to navigate the world without.

And, this mindset has particular consequences in how brands and corporations will interact with them.

As they create media content whether on FB, Instagram, TickTock or myriad other platforms, they become their own brands with thousands of followers who align with the projection of their personal brand image - all before the age of fifteen.

They have become savvy marketers.

They have had to, because to be relevant in their sphere of influence, they have attached relevancy to the system of ‘likes’ that tells them what they are producing and pushing out on digital platform is valid – that they are valid – that they exist and matter.

As long as they are recognized for what they produce and validated for creating it, the Brand of Me counts. This is of course a real challenge, rife with psychological complexity and pitfalls that can lead to significant emotional issues.

Nevertheless, they have had little say in the matter since they were born into a system of digital platforms that promulgates the creation of content that is targeted directly at the base of the brain stem feeding primitive neurobiological processes.

But then, they are generally wise to that too.

However, conscious awareness of the slippery slope that digital content consumption has them careening along, does not necessarily supplant brain chemistry that has one going back for more. Even if you have an inkling that it’s likely not good for you.

Gen Z sees through inauthenticity and want straight talk and not BS.

They’ll jettison brands that speak out of both side of their mouths paying lip service to social causes while they sit on a historical heap of supporting institutionalized inequities.

They can smell a sales pitch a mile away and will dump a brand relationship in a minute, not necessarily because they don’t align with the company’s brand position, but that the company doesn’t align with their individual brand ideology.

As culture shifts in response to exponential change, this emerging generation of experience-seeking consumers may be less tied to tradition as a benchmark for their engagement with a brand.

They live in a series of nows.

The fluid nature of the digitally enabled world might suggest that what has worked in the past is simply no longer relevant today, tomorrow or in the next moment. This group seems to be more deeply connected to experiencing moments than they are to monuments.

Relying on the past to predict the future requires that something has survived the test of time.

As we move into a new experience paradigm of continual change, failing fast and continual iteration may become de rigeur because constant change will demand it and make it mainstream in order to remain in sync with change.

With attention spans shortened due to a constant flow in information to attend to, GEN Z is perfectly adept at moving fluidly between experiences.

They experience life in a strange state of ‘inbetweenness’ – between what is now and what is next. And, the delta between these states becomes smaller as the exponential rate of change continues bending upward, faster with every passing day.

Seems like we all may find ourselves living in a perpetual state of change – living in the presence of a future absence and the absence of a future presence.

Emily Dickenson said “Forever is composed of nows.” It seems that this is a truth that becomes more self-evident as we experience life in the fastlane.

And, for this new group of consumers now is simply more relevant than what has been.

This presents a particular challenge to brands who have relied on traditional narratives, like many luxury brands, because culture shifts swept by rapid change may not have them looking backwards when “back” fades quickly from a front row seat in a bullet train.

All of this poses particular challenges and opportunities for brands meaning to sell goods, services and experiences and for companies looking to hire and retain them.

This is where Hannah Grady Williams comes into picture.

Hannah consults with corporate CEOs who are often more than twice her age. She knows Gen Z – because she is one of them.

She can demystify this complex generation because she lives it every day and understands what makes her generation tick… or shall we say - click.

Hannah’s trajectory to being a consultant to corporate CEOs started at the age of twelve when she closed a real-estate deal for her father’s business and hopped on the fast track to finishing an International Business degree at the age of 18.

Since then, she has consulted Fortune 500 companies, boutique luxury brands, and has worked with some of the best and brightest leaders across the globe. Along the way, Hannah started two companies that failed, and says she’s proud of that.

Out of these failures Hannah embarked on a journey to help companies connect with her generation.

Why is this her passion you may ask?

Simply put, in a time when the world is increasingly divided, she exists to foster #RadicalEmpathy in the workplace - helping both young and older have a voice.

Hannah Grady Williams bridges the gap with insight that only come from direct lived experience.

She’s a straight forward, no nonsense communicator who is like a Sherpa guide helping corporate leaders find steady footing on the footpath to unlocking Gen Z.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 38 Projects Beyond Blair Witch with Michael Monello -Founder, Campfire

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 4 Mar 2022 22:47:12 +0000

ABOUT Michael Monello:

Michael’s Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemonello/

Bio:

Mike Monello is a true pioneer when it comes to immersive storytelling and innovative marketing.

In the late 1990s, Monello and his partners at Haxan Films created The Blair Witch Project, a story told across the burgeoning internet, a sci-fi channel pseudo-documentary, books, comics, games, and a feature film, which became a pop-culture touchstone and inspired legions of found-footage movies in its wake. It forever changed how fans engage with story and how marketers approach the internet.

Inspired by the possibilities for engaging connected fan cultures and communities online, Monello co-founded Campfire in 2005.

There, he leads an agency that has developed and created groundbreaking participatory stories and experiences for HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Cinemax, Discovery, National Geographic, Harley- Davidson, Infiniti, and more.

Campfire won Small Agency Campaign of the Year via AdAge in 2013 and Small Agency of the Year via Online Marketing Media and Advertising Awards in 2012, and has been awarded top honors at the Emmys, Cannes Lions Festival, Clios, One Show, and more.

Monello serves on the Peabody Board of Jurors, and regularly speaks at high-profile events.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

I am not a huge fan of the horror genre of movies.

As a kid I regularly covered my eyes when the Wicked Witch of the West showed up on screen in the Wizard of Oz.

I saw Amityville Horror as a 13 year old and late into my adult years, looking out of a darkened home window was slightly un-nerving thinking that there was certainly something evil looking back.

I saw Friday the 13th and growing up in Montreal during the reign of the Montreal Canadians and so I watched a good bit of hockey but never thought of goalie’s masks quite the same way.

I sat through episodes Night Gallery, the Wolfman and Frankenstein with childhood friends trying to not look at the screen all the while putting on an air of calm remaining cool.

As a 10-year-old, I scrambled under the flaps of circus show tent at a local fair when a man miraculously turned into a raging gorilla right in front of my eyes.

Oh… and thank you Mr. Spielberg for making me afraid of my closet, and that a portal to the netherworld could be in there, and believing that every house could possibly be built on and Indian burial ground

Oh and, of course, making sure I’d never look at open water the same way.

This may have all had to do with growing up with older brothers that thought it hilarious the wear a gorilla mask and jump out at my younger brother and me with the lights off in the basement. Except in that case, I brandished a big wooden shoe polishing brush and delivered a great whack to that nasty gorilla’s head.

Or it may be that I have a particularly active imagination and believe in the power of story’s ability to go deep into our neurobiology and create ‘as if’ experiences inside us. Story is so profoundly woven into our very beings that, without it, there would be a vacuum of basic understanding of our world and what to it means to part of it all.

So, with all of this in mind, it’s likely no surprise that I haven’t watched the Exorcist and have kept away from The Blair Witch Project.

But Blair Witch is something entirely different.

It didn’t just scare the crap out of millions of people, it shifted the film industry on its axis creating a new paradigm for storytelling where film and the burgeoning internet merged, blurring boundaries between these two vehicles for connecting fans to the profound power of a story.

It broke what was acceptable in terms of camera work replacing locked off cameras for a handheld approach where being all bumpy was perfectly OK. It was largely credited with creating the “found footage” technique that has become so common in years since its release.

The opening scenes left you questioning what was real, was this really found footage by a group of student film makers who ventured into the woods to capture a story of a reported witch but never came back?

When The Blair Witch Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999, it its promotional marketing campaign actually listed the actors as either "missing" or "deceased".

It grossed over $250 making it one of the most successful independent films of all time.

Michael Monello, and his partners at Haxan Films, were the creators of this paradigm shifting approach to film making, forever changing how fans engage with story and how marketers approach the internet.

Inspired by the possibilities for engaging connected fan cultures and communities online, Monello co-founded Campfire in 2005, and ever since, has built an impressive and exciting career in immersive storytelling and innovative marketing.

At Campfire, he leads an agency that has developed and created more groundbreaking participatory stories and experiences for HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Cinemax, Discovery, National Geographic, Harley- Davidson, Infiniti, and more.

Campfire won Small Agency Campaign of the Year by AdAge in 2013 and Small Agency of the Year by Online Marketing Media and Advertising Awards in 2012, and has been awarded top honors at the Emmys, Cannes Lions Festival, Clios, and more.

This is a talk that goes into Projects Beyond Blair Witch and dives into the power of story, engaging the internet in creating famdom, the meta-verse, NFT’s and more.

Michael Monello has a really interesting take on immersive experiences and believes that ‘its not really a thing until someone is experiencing it. He likens creating immersive experiences to architecture saying that you can build a really beautiful building, but is it really finished if it sits unoccupied and unused.’

That question is fundamentally at the core of this podcast where we focus on “DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.”

Michael Monello’s work crosses these disciplines with the same facility and passion that had him crossing boundaries since creating The Blair Witch Project over 20 years ago.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 37 Blazing Trails, Breaking Barriers with Gwendolyn Osborne - Actor, Model, Podcast Host

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 20:37:39 +0000

ABOUT Gwendolyn Osborne:

Gwendolyn’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/gwenosborne

Websites

gwen-osborne.com (Portfolio)

lomoliqueskin.com (Company Website)

soundcloud.com/tea_with_gwen (RSS Feed)

Email

hello@gwen-osborne.com

Bio:

Gwen is an involved mother to her 3 talented kids ages 9-25. Leading a successful career in the modeling industry on the runway, print, and commercials, Gwen transitioned into a spokesmodel on the television game show The Price Is Right, gaining the historical accolade of the longest-running woman of color to work on a daytime game show.

Continuing her acting career, she has played various roles such as an Amazonian in Wonder Woman 1984 toGeneral Hospital playing the fierce role Police Chief Vic.

Drawing from her acting talents, Gwen brings her most dynamic, comedic self as host of her podcast Tea with Gwen.Committed to bringing diverse stories of how real-life Wonder Women balance their own health, wellness, and beauty journeys.

When Gwen isn’t behind the microphone or filming on set, she’s promoting and building Lomolique, her revolutionary luxurious anti-aging facial oil - lovingly combining the names of her 3 children.

Gwen is a recent graduate of The Path and now a certified Meditation Teacher, under the renowned Dina Kaplan, bringing a new level of spiritual guidance to her audience.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Everybody faces adversity at some time in their life.

Some may seem to face them more than others.

Some collapse under the stress and others seems to have built in resilience to keep going despite what, at the time, may seem to be insurmountable odds. I have often wondered what it is that some have to keep them moving forward, building a life despite roadblocks.

I don’t know, maybe its ego strength – that ability to maintain their identity and sense of self in the face of pain, distress, and conflict. Maybe it’s a great support system of friends and family who prop you up when you need it most.

Maybe it’s a desire to not accept the status quo, to want more and believe you can craft a life in which the things you want you can make happen.

The American motivational author William Arthur Ward said “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”

Maybe today’s guest heard that somewhere along the line, but not likely prior to being ten years old, when she petitioned classmates and marched into the headmasters office to change the policy of school uniforms in her elementary school so that all girls could wear trousers.

That event was part of a trajectory of hurdling over roadblocks, or just believing that there was no barrier that would stop her forward motion.

As a single teen mother, Gwen focused her life energy on the performing arts, making a plan and then finding her way to Los Angeles where she wanted your young daughter to go to school. With passion for growth and perseverance she broke another barrier to be the longest running women of color on a daytime game show and the first to show pregnancy and return to work on the Price Is Right after her delivery of her son.

Strength of will and of character and saying yes to moments of serendipity lead to being one of the Featured Amazon Women in the Wonder Woman 1984 movie directed by Patty Jenkins.

The path was not straight. But then again, growth is not found on Easy Street but on the Slip ‘n Slide-bumper car-rollercoaster of occasionally scary life experiences, and Gwen Osborne has never been one to shy away from life’s ups and downs.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.36 Into The Woods With Cabin ANNA with Caspar Schols, Creator - Cabin ANNA

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 2 Feb 2022 18:54:52 +0000

ABOUT Caspar Schols:

Caspar's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/caspar-schols-12687470

Email: cs@casparschols.com

Websites: https://www.cabin-anna.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casparschols/

Articles:

Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2020/10/27/anna-stay-meet-caspar-schols/

Archdaily: https://www.archdaily.com/952580/cabin-anna-caspar-schols

A Home Is Not A House: https://socks-studio.com/2011/10/31/francois-dallegret-and-reyner-banham-a-home-is-not-a-house-1965/

Bio:

Cabin ANNA is created by Dutch designer Caspar Schols, who design and built the first cabin for his mother. Without any architectural education, but with a fascination for architecture and design, he was looking for a concept to bring people closer to nature.

Cabin ANNA won various awards, among which the prestigious Architizer A+ Project of the Year Award 2021, one of the world’s largest awards program for architecture and building-products. Cabin ANNA's mission now is to structurally connect every human being with nature once again.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Are Physics and nature different things?

I suppose they aren’t given that all things in nature, the universe, are bound by the laws of physics.

So maybe it’s not so surprising that a young physicist, who loved architecture - also bound by the laws of physics - should find himself in the position of a major career path change when asked by his mother to build a small cabin in her back yard so that she could be in nature.

Not a place to necessarily do something in nature but ‘be’ in nature, to experience it, connect with it, and get back to it, in a profoundly embodied way.

There is a Dutch term for what she wanted to do - Niksen “nik-suhn” – it’s a noun that means:

“…the practice of doing nothing as a means of relieving stress; idle activity, as staring into the trees or listening to music, with no purpose other than relaxation.”

She could spend all day in the backyard, relaxing but noticing all of the details – birds, sounds of wind and birds, shapes of leaves on tress, passing of the clouds, changes in the quality of light…

As a young boy he too felt deeply connected to nature. With his family, he had slept out under the stars, exposed the elements, but connected with the universe and protected by his family who slept beside him.

With a budget of 20,000 Euros, Caspar Schols set off to design and build Cabin ANNA. Which by the way takes its name from his mother.

Cabin Anna does more than just physically transform engaging the inhabitants to live different experiences in varying degrees of connectedness with nature. It expands as if taking a deep breath, opening up to the elements allowing the interior to become at one with the exterior. You can literally sleep under the stars as Caspar once did as a young boy.

It is both simple and impeccably detailed, everything counts.

It is beautiful and balanced so that nothing can be added or taken away but for the worse. And with a gentle but deliberate push its envelope slides open along beautifully engineered tracks like shedding your clothes to bathe in nature.

For Caspar, Cabin ANNA it is not really about increasing space, but about changing space, changing atmosphere, changing utility and always about bringing us back to nature and the laws of the universe and where we stand among the stars.

Cabin ANAA is Fallingwater, Phillip Johnson’s or Meis Van Der Rohe’s glass houses, Henry David Thoreau’s cabin in the woods and a Transformer all in one.

For many of us Caspar suggests, “… this requires a different attitude, you have to be willing to change your customs, how you live…” Being in, and with, nature is a way of living from which modern society has immerged.

Cabin ANNA is an invitation to remember where we have come from.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 35 Slow - A Daring Shift in Hospitality with Serdar Kutucu - CEO, Slow

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 18:33:47 +0000

ABOUT Serdar Kutucu:

Serdar's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/serdar-kutucu-0808021b

Websites: https://slowness.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slowness/

Bio:

Since April 2020, Serdar is Chief Executive Officer of Slow, a collective of people, places and projects around the world that reframe the ways we live, work and interact. Based in Berlin, Serdar oversees the strategic & brand development as well as all operational efforts. The portfolio of Slow currently includes a farmstead in Ibiza and a treehouse in Tulum and will soon add a creative campus in Berlin as well as a little palacio in Lisbon, providing not mere physical spaces but a journey to an altered state of being.

Previously, Serdar was Chief Operating Officer of Design Hotels, a global hospitality brand based in Berlin. He oversaw various business units, including business & portfolio development and brand management. Serdar had joined Design Hotel in 2008 as Director of Business Development and played a vital role in shaping the company’s collection of 350 independent and design-driven member hotels – in over 60 countries. An aesthete with a natural affinity for brand narrative, architecture, and design, Serdar soon assumed leadership of Design Hotels’ brand strategy and continuously developed the company’s business in alignment with its vision to create original hospitality experiences.

With his deep understanding of the travel industry, gastronomy and hospitality, paired with a wealth of experience in marketing, communications and business innovation, Serdar aims to strategically develop the Slow brand … Serdar holds a master’s degree in international business administration from the University of Vienna.

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

I have heard it said that travel changes us, mostly for the better. We go and return with a different view on things, new learnings and realizations. It draws us together and often can shed light on the differences of our human experience. Hopefully, a new awareness brings us all together in the shared meaning of being human.

We all expect good design in the hotels we visit but the experience of a hotel stay is more than the architecture. More often these days guests are looking for something deeper. A hotel stay that aligns with the search for meaning and a purpose driven approach to deciding to go out and go far.

What if we sought out hotel destinations where a stay was not only about a good night’s sleep – though that should be a given – but where the place was a collective of people, places and projects around the world that reframed the ways we live, work and interact.

Perhaps the place you would go to is a farmstead in Ibiza or a treehouse in Tulum or maybe it’s a creative campus in Berlin as well as a little palacio in Lisbon, and each of these provided not mere physical places but a journey to an altered state of being.

And then there is the hospitality company called SLOW who dares to be slow in the face of everything around us that seems to be speeding by. SLOW chooses to create places that not only creates memorable locations and does more than shift the velocity of experience, it seeks to alter a guests’ state of being. SLOW conscientiously defies conventions, and embraces the imperfect, the strange and the indigenous.

Serdar Kutucu is the Chief Executive Officer of Slow.

Based in Berlin, Serdar oversees the strategic & brand development as well as all operational efforts.

Serdar was Chief Operating Officer of Design Hotels, a global hospitality brand based in Berlin. He oversaw various business units, including business & portfolio development and brand management. Serdar had joined Design Hotel in 2008 as Director of Business Development and played a vital role in shaping the company’s collection of 350 independent and design-driven member hotels – in over 60 countries.

With his deep understanding of the travel industry, gastronomy and hospitality, paired with a wealth of experience in marketing, communications and business innovation, Serdar now aims to strategically develop the Slow brand by taking a localized, conscientious approach to every element in the creation of integrated aesthetic environments that are design to enrich wellbeing and provide a model for a more sustainable future.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.34 Change and The Power of Design with Christian Davies - Design Practice Lead, Bergmeyer

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 5 Jan 2022 22:38:16 +0000

ABOUT CHRISTIAN DAVIES:

Christian's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/christian-davies-fcsd-3728a513

Websites: https://www.bergmeyer.com

email: cdavies@bergmeyer.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christianthdavies/

Bio:

As a Design Practice Leader for Bergmeyer, Davies will bring a thoughtful and provocative approach to leading and inspiring its teams, projects, and clients through purposeful brand identity exploration and the shaping of meaningful and memorable physical environments.

Also See: https://www.bergmeyer.com/people/christian-davies

Also See: https://www.retaildive.com/press-release/20210506-from-corporate-to-collaborative-storied-industry-vet-christian-davies-join/

Articles:

https://www.bergmeyer.com/trending/the-shock-of-the-new

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/which-way-experience-design-time-chaos-christian-davies-fcsd/

Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

On Creativity:

See: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

See: "Creativity: Flow and The Psychology of Discovery and Invention" by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

SHOW INTRODUCTION:

Back in the early 2000’s the International Retail Design Conference came into being. The event sponsored by VMSD magazine and STMedia Group – now owned by SmartWork Media – wasn’t your typical tradeshow. They tried booths by vendors early on and then abandoned them for a fully educational event.

Retail industry leaders and some of the best retailers and visual merchandisers have since gathered every year – but for 2020 due to the COVID pandemic – to talk all things retail.

There were always great presentations about projects that pushed the boundaries of retail design, awards galas, the requisite cocktails and spontaneous conversation in the hallways where ideas flowed naturally.

As a member of the VMSD Editorial Advisory Board, I have attended all but 2.

And over the past 20+ years I recall a few speakers that simply captivated the audience. Christian Davies was a ‘standing room only’ presenter that drew crowds to hear insightful, thought provoking and slightly cheeky commentary that he seemed to get away with – perhaps because his English accent gave him some slack – but mostly because he was on target and freakishly smart.

Christian didn’t hold back. He went to the heart of the matter.

Sometimes critical, sometimes satirical and often emotional.

Too this day frequent attendees will recall a session he presented on Compassionate Capitalism where he and the audience shared a tear over the profoundly moving actions of some global retailers who stepped beyond the bottom line and reached out in support of people in need.

I was always one of the ‘standers’ – not because I needed an easy way out if the presentation was not meeting my expectations but because people had rushed the room to be creatively inspired and challenged in their thinking.

I have worked with and competed against Christian for design gigs with national and international retailers but mostly studied him as a retail design, brand experience place-making leader who has had a career working on both sides of the line – as a design consultant and big brand retailer. Honestly, I have been at times envious but mostly admiring of him.

Christian is a visionary creative leader with over 30 years working in the retail and experiential industry across the globe. He is Skilled in Strategy, Innovation, Design and Implementation.

He gets it done.

He has amassed over a 100 international design awards working for everything from disruptive startups to the very top of the Fortune 500.

And… he continues to be a keynote and session speaker at every major retail conference in the US.

Christian is now the Design Practice Lead for Bergmeyer – a Boston based design firm.

A recent favorite topic for his speaking sessions these days?

“Navigating the future in this time of seismic change.”

Love it…Right up my alley….

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP. 33 Mankind, Mother Earth and The Marketplace with Eric Schick, CEO Pantheon and Founder of CEED

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 23:35:21 +0000

Contact Info

Eric’s Profile

linkedin.com/in/eric-schick-73b72117

Email

eric@pantheontile.com

Bio:

Eric Schick is an entrepreneur and business strategist whose passion and enthusiasm for restoring the natural environment through the built environment are palpable when you meet him. Eric’s 23 year background as co-founder and CEO of Pantheon Floor Solutions, a popular commercial tile brand specified by the architect, engineer and design community, led him to discover a variety of innovative and futuristic building technologies he has helped co-found, fund and steward. Two of the most exciting technologies are Hover Energy and Eden Green, which have both recently hit commercialization stage.

Eric recently formed the company CEED with his wife of 25 years, Elizabeth Schick, who is his partner in marriage, business and all things important in his life. “CEED” is an acronym for Consumables, Energy, Environment and Design, and CEED’s mission is to deploy distributed infrastructure technologies that are good for mankind, mother earth and the marketplace.

Eric is also a reverend, and enjoys encouraging people with the gospel to find their purpose for their life so they can share it with the world and live the abundant life.

SHOW INTRO:
It’s not often that I talk to a business owner who lives by the simple rule of growing his business in service of “MANKIND – MOTHER EARTH - and the MARKETPLACE.” This is a “triple bottom line” that keeps on repeating, over and over in my head.

Perhaps it has become more front row center in my conscious awareness over the past couple of years because I have become more convinced that what we humans are doing to our planet, and each other, needs urgent attention.

My sons will tell me that they, at times, lose hope that what is happening now with climate change will mean that the planet is unsave-able. This was never a consideration when I was growing up. I grew up in a world where plastics were a savior – think the joy of Tupperware parties and how plastics would revolutionize almost everything.

Plastics, another use for the black gold buried deep in the core of our little blue dot spinning around one of the billions of stars in the universe. Plastics also form a floating island growing to be twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean. It is estimated that the mass of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) was estimated to be approximately 80,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to that of 500 Jumbo Jets.

Let that sit for a moment.

Our relationship with our planet is broken.

And we can’t simply do what has been on the rise for years in marriages and divorce it. As far as we know, and despite some brilliant thinking and creative and brilliant engineering and visionary leadership, we are still a number of years away from getting off Mother Earth and colonizing Mars.

And, what a tragedy to simply suck this planet dry of natural resources and leave the scorched earth to maybe do the same somewhere else. Divorcing our planet is not an option.

My guest on this episode of NXTLVL Experience Design believes that “Right now we are suffering from bad relationship” – with the earth, each other.”

Energy and food production are part of the complex system that is contributing to our planet literally being on fire. We have got to have our “Come to Jesus moment” with climate change and not rely on teenagers like Greta Thunberg (God bless her) to be ringing the alarm. Generations prior to Greta and my Sons’, have made the mess, and we can’t avoid the responsibility for cleaning it up. Corporations have to up their game in producing clean energy solutions, reducing waste to landfills and the food production industry must look for sustainable solutions to not pumping more carbon into the atmosphere.

I use the ‘come to Jesus’ phrase because it is time but also because my guest on this episode is a business owner, investor, philanthropist, and Reverend.

Erik Schick has a mission of “Restoring the environment through the built environment.” He knows that a good deal of the damage being done to our planet’s ecology is from the building industry. Building buildings, and operating them, puts a lot of carbon into the atmosphere. And so, Eric believes that “Wherever we create an economic impact we have to leave a social footprint.”

Eric’s 23-year history as founder and CEO of Pantheon Floor Solutions led him to discover a variety of innovative and futuristic building technologies he has helped co-found, fund and steward. Two of the most exciting technologies that we will talk about are Hover Energy and Eden Green, which have both recently hit commercialization stage.

CEED’s mission is to deploy distributed infrastructure technologies that are good for mankind, mother earth and the marketplace. There is the mantra: do good for - mankind- mother earth and the marketplace.

A note to our listeners about this episode:

This conversation with Eric Schick is powerful and inspiring.

It is also challenging at times because we talk about some of Eric’s work while on a medical mission trip to Romania during the revolution and El Salvador where atrocious acts of violence were being committed. So, I feel I need to let you know that some listeners may find this particular content during the episode disturbing.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

EP. 32 The Unknown - A Place of Creative Possibility with Vince Kadlubek Founder and Director, Meow Wolf

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 8 Dec 2021 22:18:21 +0000

Contact Info

Vince’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/vince-kadlubek

Email: vince@meowwolf.com

Website: https://meowwolf.com

Twitter: @VKadlubek

Vince Kadlubek Bio:

Vince Kadlubek is a Founder of Meow Wolf, an art collective that has transformed into an award winning Art and Entertainment Production Company that specializes in immersive, open-world walk through experiences. Vince acted as leader and CEO for Meow Wolf though its formidable years, having created the business plan for Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return and leading the team towards the project's completion in March of 2016. In January of 2017 Kadlubek formed Meow Wolf, Inc as a full fledged arts production company and creative studio positioned to create the largest, most innovative and audacious monumental art exhibits in the world. After raising series A funding he announced two new Meow Wolf exhibits in Las Vegas and Denver, opening in 2021. Kadlubek has been a force of vision in the realm of experiential art, and in 2020 launched a creative consulting agency called Spatial Activations as a platform to usher in a new era of experiential art in modern developments and everyday life. Vince is most passionate about co-creating fully-realized alternative realities that bring paradigm-shifting transformation and inspiration to the world.

Show Intro:

I have been fascinated with immersive experiences for years. Since studying architecture and sitting in on History Theory classes taught by Alberto Perez Gomez at Mc Gill University in the 80’s, I have deeply believed that there is a profound experiential difference between directly participating in ‘rituals’ rather than doing so at arm’s length, as a 3rd person observer.

I think we have lost the connection to significant rituals over the years.

We don’t dance around the fire, stamping out patterns that bring into being place through the markings of our feet in the dust.

The embodied enactment of rituals created context and meaning from our experiences. We came to better understand who we were in relationship to our community, culture, nation and cosmos through directly participating in the experience – the ritual enactment. Even now when we do go to church, synagogue or the mosque, to public events, musical productions, and movies, we observe more than we physically participate.

When we do participate in an embodied way, time and space collapse.

New constructs emerge. We create a crucible for experience, and we are changed, certainly for the duration of the ritual, but perhaps long afterwards as well.

We have become a culture of watchers – be it watchers of TV, social media feeds, sports, entertainment or standing behind a red velvet stanchion at the museum and being ushered along past the Mona Lisa. In many ways, art, and our experience of it, has become a thing to view, at a distance, not something to directly participate in, to make.

In making art we express our collective need for self-validation. Art is an expression of who we are, at a very profound level.

It provides a sense of agency and empowerment of bringing things into being that have not been there before.

We are Homo Faber – Man the Maker as well as we are Homo Sapiens – Man the Wise. We are not unique among the creatures of the planet in that we make things, but we are unique in that the things we make, make other things. And, the things we make are often done for the purpose of conveying concepts, ideologies and emotion – to make others feel something.

Another idea that we dig into in this episode about is it ‘the unknown’ and how we deal with the ambiguity and uncertainty of what has not yet come to pass.

Within the context of the recent global pandemic this issue has been particularly acute in my mind as pathways and strategies for moving into my future, that believed were thoughtfully crafted and reliable, became immaterial and largely uncertain.

What I thought was going to be course, changed and I found myself, over this past 20 months, looking into the idea of change, how we adapt to it, how it's transforming the world around us, our ability to remain resilient in the face of it and how we navigate this space of the unknown and consider it less foreboding and more an opportunity for creative possibility.

For many being in a constant state of change can be incredibly unnerving. We don't like it.

It makes us feel uncomfortable and often, we would rather it not happen, but here's the thing, change doesn't much care if you're uncomfortable. It keeps moving on, along an exponential path that is rocketing skyward.

The unfamiliar signals potential danger and our biology is geared to sounding the alarms when the unfamiliar lurks near the edge of uncertainty. The paradox is that we both seek to avoid the perceived danger of the unknown while being driven toward the novel and unexpected because that is where learning lives. And so we slip into nostalgia remembering the good old times because it delivers a cozy sense of familiarity. On the other hand, change and the unknown is at the root of our shared neurobiology - our brains are made for change. We are incredibly adept at picking up even the slightest changes in our environment relationships and experiences because it has been built into us as a survival mechanism. To quickly attend to that which is the unknown to determine friend or foe. Whether we would be lunch or have lunch.

Enter Vince Kadlubek and Meow Wolf.

Vince is undeterred by the unknown. In fact, he finds stepping into the unknown unnecessary component for understanding himself, his context and how art can be transformative.

Vince Kadlubek is a Founder of Meow Wolf, an art collective that has transformed into an award-winning Art and Entertainment Production Company that specializes in immersive, open-world walk through experiences.

Vince acted as leader and CEO for Meow Wolf though its formidable years, having created the business plan for Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return and leading the team towards the project's completion in March of 2016.

In January of 2017 Kadlubek formed Meow Wolf, Inc as a full-fledged arts production company and creative studio positioned to create the largest, most innovative and audacious monumental art exhibits in the world.

After raising series A funding he announced two new Meow Wolf exhibits in Las Vegas and Denver, opening in 2021.

Kadlubek has been a force of vision in the realm of experiential art, and in 2020 launched a creative consulting agency called Spatial Activations as a platform to usher in a new era of experiential art in modern developments and everyday life.

Vince is most passionate about co-creating fully-realized alternative realities that bring paradigm-shifting transformation and inspiration to the world.

Meow Wolf’s mission?

…TO INSPIRE CREATIVITY THROUGH ART, EXPLORATION, AND PLAY SO THAT IMAGINATION WILL TRANSFORM THE WORLD…

Vince Kadlubek likes the unknown and he sees Meow Wolf as a place of exploration where people can for an hour or two lose themselves and enter the world of creative imagination to perhaps find something that they've always been looking for.

And with that, I welcome Vince Kadlubek, Founder and Director to the show…

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

EP. 31 Breathing New Life Into Historic Hotels with Sara Duffy Principal - Stonehill Taylor

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 22:08:26 +0000

Sara’s Profile:

linkedin.com/in/sara-duffy-79b43617

website: https://stonehilltaylor.com

email: sduffy@stonehilltaylor.com

Bio:

Sara Duffy graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and received her Associate of Applied Science in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. With a background in art history and television, Sara crafts a unique, immersive narrative for each of her projects with a focus on thoughtful, classic design. Her impressive variety of projects includes the Nomad Hotel and Bar in New York and its re-iteration in Las Vegas, the J.W. Marriott Nashville, and the iconic TWA Hotel at JFK Airport’s historic TWA Flight Center. She has worked with renowned hospitality developers such as the Sydell Group, Eleven Madison Park’s Chef Daniel Humm and Will Guidara, Marriott International, Turnberry Associates, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and Hilton Hotels & Resorts.

Show Intro:

The Algonquin Hotel in New York was opened in 1902. Stories abound of the guests that stayed there and the fabled “Round Table” around which literary luminaries met daily to talk about all thing literature.

The TWA terminal designed by the masterful architect Eero Sarinen opened in 1962 and has a history of its own aside from the groundbreaking design that made it an icon of the era.

The Marriott Marquis in Time Square New York was the work of architect John Portman who created monumental interiors in concrete. The hotel's construction was first disclosed on November 3, 1972, and opened a little over ten years later.

These projects have stood the test of time but been reinvigorated with major renovations in the past couple of years to bring them into a new era of hospitality that caters to an evolving cohort of travelers.

It’s no small thing to take a building and breath new life into it while not diminishing their cultural significance. Making them more effective in meeting the new need of guests while also paying due respect to the architects and histories they have lived has a plethora of challenges.

Consultant teams can be as large as 100 different organizations, each with a specific mandate and areas of work. Building methodologies have changes, codes and regulations are stricter, materials and furniture options have proliferated. All of this adds to the challenge. And, when considering big design changes, board rooms are filled with questions like, “can we actually do that?”, “Should we do that”” “what message are we sending if we do that?”

Sara Duffy is a principal at the hospitality focused design firm of Stonehill Taylor. Sara Duffy graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and received her Associate of Applied Science in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. With a background in art history and television, Sara crafts a unique, immersive narrative for each of her projects with a focus on thoughtful, classic design.

It is perhaps not so surprising that she was charged with playing a prominent role in leading the Algonquin, TWA, and Marriott Marquis projects through their revitalization bringing their stories from the past to the present.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Culture Matters. Culture Works. with Yoram Roth Executive Chairman at Fotografiska | NeueHouse | CultureWorks

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 1 Sep 2021 20:05:17 +0000

ABOUT YORAM ROTH:

Yoram’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/yoramroth

websites:

yoramroth.com (Personal Website)

cultureworks.com (Company Website)

fotografiska.com (Company Website)

Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yoramroth

Instagram: yoram_roth

LinkedIn Article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/looming-arms-race-cultural-experience-economy-yoram-roth/?trackingId=awEYFGPlTHShS8wDRg1OqQ%3D%3D

Email: yoram.roth@cultureworks.com

BIO:

Executive Chairman: CultureWorks is the holding company, management and development platform for culture, experience and hospitality brands. Fotografiska is redefining the modern museum experience. NeueHouse is the place where culture works. Through Clärchens Ballhaus I am bringing a 19th century jewel with strong traditions into the 21st century. As a cultural investor I believe that community matters, and culture works. Artist on Sabbatical, father to three young men.

SHOW INTRO:

Art and culture are connected in an intimate dance. Art, it could be said, is an expression of culture, and it’s kaleidoscopic manifestations are emblematic of the subsets of ideologies adopted by likeminded members of communities.

Art, in its myriad forms, comes to represent the meaning of experience and the values communities share.

Art challenges us. It poses questions and it seeks answers.

Art and design is all around us.

As we shape the world through art, architecture and design, it shapes us back. We both make and are made by the things we create.

In a digitally enabled world, we are increasingly exposed to a plethora of images we both make and share that shape our experience and understanding of the world.

The ubiquity and democratization of the image equally suggests a need for greater visual literacy – a common lexicon for understanding and discussing the power of images and the relationship to culture and community building.

Museums have a role to play, and there has been a movement to providing cultural experiences beyond the white wall for the past 40 some years. Traditional museum formats face challenges with the emergence of more immersive experiences that can be extraordinary.

According to Yoram Roth – Executive Chairman of Fotografiska | NeueHouse and the newly formed Culture Works, “…Over the last ten years, there has been a substantial growth of “culture as an experience.” For Roth, “Culture Matters. And, Culture Works.”

He suggests that “…The most recent development is driven by artists and collectives creating site-specific immersive cultural experiences that reside on a spectrum between fine art and the spectacular…”

Yoram Roth is on a mission to build a global cultural business and reinvent the museum experience for the modern world. He takes on this challenge with the awareness that there is as he has recently outlined in an article posted to LinkedIn, a “Looming Arms Race in the Cultural Experience Economy.”

In this well referenced piece, Yoramoutlines some of the inherent complexities of building a global cultural business within the context of an experience-seeking-consumer-world that is deeply immersed in the making of digitally-based images.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.29 Process, Discovery And Inspiring Artfulness with Tracy Lee Stum - Creative Director & Principal, Inspire Artfulness, Inc.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 21:23:20 +0000

About Tracy,

Tracy Lee’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/tracyleestum

Website: tracyleestum.com

Email: info@tracyleestum.com

Twitter: tracyleestum

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyleestum/

Tracy's Bio:

Tracy Lee Stumis an American artist best known for her 3D street paintings orchalkdrawings.

She at one point held the Guinness World Record for the Largest Chalk Painting by an Individual.[1]

Tracy Lee Stum began drawing as soon as she could clutch a crayon. She studied privately as a child and earned a bachelor's degree at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She continued her studies in naturalism at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy.

A gregarious graffiti lover, Tracy began street painting in 1998 and is considered by Madonnari peers, festival directors and viewers alike as one of the finest street painters today. Known for splashing color in festivals and events in all corners and crevices of the globe, her paintings have won numerous awards & accolades – her only regret is that her masterpieces rarely fit on the fridge.

In 2006 Tracy added the Guinness World Record to her collection of vinyl for the largest street painting by an individual.

In 2013 she was honored to be a contributor on the Cannes Gold Lion award-winning team for their work in the now iconic Honda CRV commercial.

Experienced in multi-city campaigns for such clients as Cadillac, SoBe, and Dos Equis, Tracy is continually creating commissioned 3D and 4D works in chalk for advertising, public and private events, corporate PR and educational sectors.

Her international team building skills have been utilized in developing street painting festivals in China, Mexico, India, Russia and throughout the United States. Her art travels well and is always up to date on all of its shots.

Tracy has been privileged and honored to serve as the US State Department's 2012 cultural ambassador.

She's toured Tajikistan and India creating 3D street paintings and teaching workshops at distinguished universities and art colleges to promote education, awareness and positive cross-cultural communication.

In 2013 Tracy put on clean pants and stepped effortlessly into management as she curated the first annual DO/AC 3D Chalk Festival in Atlantic City, New Jersey, showcasing 14 renowned international 3D street art & chalk artists.

Tracy's chalk conversations speak to her vast audience with imagination, beauty and playfulness – often with a thick Italian accent.

Show Intro:

When was a kid, I loved going to the mall when they had artists exhibitions. I could watch for hours as artist of all stripes created magic in front of passersby. I was mesmerized as the sweep of a had could create a deep forest with a shaft of light cutting through the green, a galloping horse, or a crowded street scene.

When living in New York and the Philadelphia area I marveled at the graffiti artists whose mural paintings stretched the full height of buildings. Not only was I awestruck with the subject matter but the sheer size of these creations always left me wondering …How do they do that?

I remember going to a Bougereau exhibit in Montreal where the paintings were huge and seeing the Night’s Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and being transfixed as people jostled for position all around me.

A few years ago, I started tuning into street art where skilled painters would use chalk to create masterful illusions of 3 dimensions on the pavement. These works, when viewed from a specific place, seemed to magically transform the warped image into a 3D experience into which you could place yourself.

I have spent years teaching perspective drawing where the size of the image fits on a drafting table. This took perspective to a whole new level for me.

Tracy Lee Stum is an American artist best known for her 3D street paintings made with chalk. At one point, she held the Guinness World Record for the Largest Chalk Painting by an Individual.[1]

She began drawing as soon as she could clutch a crayon. She studied privately as a child and earned a bachelor's degree at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She continued her studies in naturalism at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy.

A gregarious graffiti lover, Tracy began street painting in 1998 and is considered by festival directors and viewers alike as one of the finest street painters today.

In 2013 she was honored to be a contributor on the Cannes Gold Lion award-winning team for work on the iconic Honda CRV commercial and is she continually creating commissioned 3D and 4D works in chalk for advertising, public and private events, corporate PR and educational sectors.

Tracy has travelled the world creating beautiful street art and been privileged and honored to serve as the US State Department's 2012 cultural ambassador teaching workshops at distinguished universities and art colleges to promote education, awareness and positive cross-cultural communication.

We share a love of art and making paintings, though mine are still on canvas resting on an easel, and I am delighted to have Tracy share her passion and craft with us.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.28 Building It Better with Danny Forster, Founder Danny Forster & Architecture

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 21:34:19 +0000

About Danny Forster:

Danny’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/danny-forster-4544b23

Email: danny@dannyforster.com

Twitter: dannyforster

Website: https://www.dannyforster.com

Bio:

Architect. TV host. Producer. Director. Speaker. Professor. Danny Forster is all these things, and through them all he has become a global advocate for architecture. The field of architecture may not appear to need much help: buildings surround us. But that very ubiquity has made it almost invisible; we move in and around buildings but barely notice them. Through his persistent and passionate advocacy, Danny gets people to notice, understand, and value the built environment.

This quest began when Danny was hired, while still pursuing his master’s in architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, to host a television show about impressive feats of construction and engineering. The show would become Build It Bigger, one of Discovery Channel’s most popular series, and run for nine seasons, during which Danny traveled to more than fifty countries, exploring everything from record-breaking skyscrapers to cutting-edge sports stadiums, from airports to tunnels to impossibly long bridges. Besides offering a matchless education for an aspiring architect, Build It Bigger taught Danny how to talk about architecture so an audience wouldn’t just understand how and why a building was designed a certain way, it would care. The key was inviting them inside the process–not just saying what’s important, but showing them in concrete and engaging ways.

For inquiries regarding film and television work, please contact Danny’s agent at William Morris Endeavor, Jim Ornstein: JOrnstein@WMEentertainment.com.

For domestic speaking engagements, contact Julie Leventhal: JLeventhal@wmeentertainment.com.

For international speaking engagements, contact Hugo Chittenden at The London Speaker Bureau: hugo@londonspeakerbureau.com.

To purchase Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero, click here. To purchase episodes on iTunes, click here.

To watch selected episodes of Build It Bigger, click here. To purchase episodes on Amazon, click here. To purchase episodes on iTunes, click here.

Show INTRO:

Architecture is pretty complex and despite the fact that we spend most of our days inside buildings, I would hazard a guess that not many people know how great architecture actually comes into being.

After a number of years in university programs and then internships, architects follow years of practice. It said that architecture one of those professions that takes a long time to really begin to flourish.

The great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim museum in New York late in his career and it opened six months before, Wright died at the age of 92.

With buildings all around us, some of which we pass by every day not paying them any concern, where do we go to find out what it really takes to make great buildings or why they should be particularly interesting in the first place?

Well, you could go to books, movies or even podcasts like this one. Or you might also tune into television shows whose purpose it is to bring some of the great buildings of the world into your living room.

By some way of unscripted serendipity, my guest on today's show did exactly that.

As a student in the Graduate School of architecture at Harvard University Danny Forster was exhausted and looking to, as he explains, “run away from architecture.” In a strange twist of fate, he landed a job as the host of one of Discovery Channel’s most successful shows.

Build It Bigger ran for nine seasons and became the highest rated show on the Science Channel, and won a 2010 Directors Guild of America Award.[8] The show took Forster and a camera crew around the world to investigate pioneering architectural and engineering projects, and put them in cultural, historical, and environmental context.

Through his persistent and passionate advocacy, Danny gets people to notice, understand, and value the built environment.

Besides offering a great education for an aspiring architect, Build It Bigger taught Danny how to talk about architecture so an audience wouldn’t just understand how and why a building was designed a certain way, it would care.

Danny Forster ‘ran away from architecture’ to find he could bring architecture home to all of us.

Today he wants us to care as much as he does about buildings and the effect it is having on our planet.

Danny has put a spotlight on modular building and has partnered with MiTek Inc., a construction company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, on something called the Modular Activation Platform, a system designed to clear away some of the obstacles to widespread modular construction.

Danny Forster is a multi-hyphenate creative spirit who believes that any modest progressive change to the building industry towards modular construction would be a paradigm shift for our planet.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.27 Emotional Stories and Immersive Art with Dorothy Di Stefano, Founder - Molten Immersive Art

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 19:54:02 +0000

About Dorothy Di Stefano:

Dorothy’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/immersivedigitalexperiencespecialist

Website: moltenimmersiveart.com (Digital Immersive Experiences)

Email: dorothy@moltenimmersiveart.com

Twitter: MoltenImmersive

Global thought leader, speaker, creative strategist, founder and director of Molten Immersive Art, Dorothy Di Stefano leads an international collective of experiential artists who create large-scale, site-specific, digital immersive experiences. As an ambassador for the arts, Dorothy sits on many cultural committees and is a Founding Circle Member of the World Experience Organization (UK) a Visual Arts Committee Member of the Della Leaders Club (NYC Chapter), Director of Research – Immersive Arts for the Digital Placemaking Institute and an International Partner on the Global Science, Technology and Innovation Committee for the World Business Angels Investment Forum (Istanbul).

She was the only Australian representative on the 'Experiential Design' judging panel for the prestigious ADC 99th Annual Awards in New York and was awarded LinkedIn's Top Voice for 2019.

Show Intro:

Art, be it analogue – created in the real 3d world - or digital - created in the virtual world of data and algorithms - is part of who we are. For millennia, art has told the stories of our lives. It has recorded our human condition and served as an expression of culture, of ideas and helped to give context and meaning to our often unpredictable lives in an seemingly chaotic world. We are equally Homo Faber – Man the maker as we are Homo Sapiens – Man the wise.

Art is powerful because it is empowering. In making things we share life energy with the objects of our creation. The lump of clay is just a lump of clay until the sculptor touches it transferring energy from the hand to the malleable mass.

Bringing things to life, as if by some form of alchemy, artists make magic and meaning. They become connected to world of their inner selves and the things of their creation which by bringing them into being also become part of who they are - a true expression of being relevant in this world.

Artforms have transformed over the ages with technologies changing the media used in artistic expression. We have moved from pigments to pixels and the way environments can now be created digitally is the way people experience art.

On this episode of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast my guest is Dorothy Di Stefano – Dorothy is a Global thought leader, speaker, creative strategist, founder and director of Molten Immersive Art where she leads an international collective of experiential artists who create large-scale, site-specific, digital immersive experiences.

As an ambassador for the arts, Dorothy sits on many cultural committees and is a Founding Circle Member of the World Experience Organization (UK), a Visual Arts Committee Member of the Della Leaders Club (NYC Chapter) and the Director of Research of Immersive Arts for the Digital Placemaking Institute.

She is extraordinarily active on social media platforms like LinkedIn – where she was selected as one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in 2019 - and on Instagram where she wields the power of the image in showcasing arts of all kinds from around the globe.

I have followed her for some time now and look forward to her content because I both learn about who’s doing amazing things in the art world and because I am inspired by the artistic magic-making of human kind. I look to Dorothy’s posts because they are an elixir to the mundane and provide hope in our human potential to change the world through the arts.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.26 Brands Bring Values To Life with Peter Dixon, Chief Creative Officer - Prophet

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 2 Jul 2021 00:40:36 +0000

About Peter Dixon:

Peter’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/peter-dixon-b73ba98

Website: prohpet.com (Company Website)

email: pdixon@prophet.com

Peter Dixon Bio:

Peter brings his clients a unique blend of perspectives as an architect, designer and brand consultant. It translates into an imaginative take on branding, customer experience and retail innovation, expressed in both high-level thinking and visual, verbal and spatial representations.

Peter’s award-winning programs have spanned all areas of the brand experience, ranging from brand strategy development to prototype design, customer experience concepts and merchandising approaches. He has worked for such notable clients as BMW, Citibank, ConocoPhillips, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Delta Airlines, Emart, Fiat Chrysler, Mayo Clinic, McDonalds, Nissan, Sprint, Samsung, United Airlines, United Health Group and Walmart.

Peter helped lead the consulting team on Walmart’s new brand strategy, including its new visual identity and store experience concepts. He also was instrumental in designing Nissan Motors' new dealership concept being implemented worldwide, and a new dealership design for its Infiniti brand. He led the team designing a new customer experience for Delta Airlines. And for McDonald’s, he directed the development of a revitalized restaurant concept being executed across the U.S. and many parts of the world.

Peter is a popular public speaker and has been tapped as a source by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, Newsweek, Visual Merchandising & Store Design, Convenience Store News and Advertising Age.

He serves on the editorial board of VM+SD magazine, and is a past national president of the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD). He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Texas.

Show Intro:

Do you have brands you love?

Do you always get the same detergent, toothpaste, only shop in a certain store. Do you choose on car, hotel, liquor or restaurant over another.

With so many options in the shopping world how do we choose?

Well…we adopt brands into our lives because they do what there are supposed to do. They clean your clothes, make your teeth whiter, make you feel safe and or powerful behind the wheel or they deliver impeccable service and they are reliable.

But more than that, they create a relationship with us.

For my guest on this episode of NXTLVL Experience Design the 'Brand' is about the relationship and 'Branding' is all of the stuff that you do like creating logos, store environments, digital experiences and more.
Brand-ing brings brands to life. In creating brands, you are bringing ideas and values to life.

Peter Dixon is the Chief Creative Officer at Prophet, a globally recognized branding agency that combines insight, creativity, data and technology to help their clients to unlock growth that is human centered, transformative and durable.

Peter brings his clients a unique blend of perspectives as an engineer, an architect, designer and brand consultant. It translates into an imaginative take on branding, customer experience and retail innovation, expressed in both high-level thinking and visual, verbal and spatial representations of places the brands want you to be in and buy from.

He has worked for such notable clients as BMW, Citibank, Delta Airlines, Fiat Chrysler, Mayo Clinic, McDonalds, Nissan, Sprint, Samsung, United Airlines, and Walmart.

He is is a popular public speaker and has been tapped as a source by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, Newsweek, Visual Merchandising & Store Design, Convenience Store News and Advertising Age to share his insight on what makes great brands.

He serves on the editorial board of VM+SD magazine, and is a past national president of the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD).

He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Texas.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 25 Design In The Visual Age with Royce Epstein A&D Design Director at Mohawk Group

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:16:57 +0000

About Royce Epstein:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/royceepstein

Instagram: @madame_duchamp

Instagram: @dissent_by_design

About Mohawk Group:

Website: www.mohawkgroup.com

Instagram: @mohawkgroup

Data Tide: https://www.mohawkgroup.com/carpet/collections/data-tide

Relaxing Floors: https://www.mohawkgroup.com/carpet/collections/relaxing-floors

Royce Epstein Bio:

A veteran materials and product specialist for interior design and architecture, Royce spent two decades working in A&D firms before working in product design and development. Specialties include: visioning, concepting, sourcing, design development, and marketing of materials, finishes, and products, in addition to interior design work focused on material palettes and FF&E. LEED AP. Trend hunter. Design strategist, writer, lecturer, teacher, juror, and thinker, always putting design in context. Interiors & Sources Designer of the Year 2015. Collab Board Member at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Textile instructor at Drexel University.

Show Intro:

For 1000s of years we have painted on cave walls, carved statues, woven tapestries, molded clay and drawn and painted our human experience. Images have depicted the sacred and the profane. Images created by the hand of the artist are like making magic - from nothing, something.

And that ‘something’ tells a story. It tells the story of who we are as individuals and a part of a community, culture a collective with shared vision.

Creating is the truest expression of who we are because when we make art, we truly put ourselves into it. Our life energy changes a lump of clay into a teapot and blank canvas into a masterpiece.

Color, form, geometry, texture, light – these are the base element of the image.

In the context of contemporary image making, almost everyone with a smartphone becomes and image capturer. Recording the moments of a life that races by. It seems that more now than ever the image is the language we use to share our life stories.

The ‘Instagramable moment’ has become a requirement in creating places. The image of that moment is the memory residue of something that mattered. A moment to express oneself, to say to the world that I mattered because I was there.

The egocentrism of the image changed in the Renaissance with the invention of perspective. Until that time, images were quite two dimensional. The perspective view positioned the observer of the scene at the center - everything was to be viewed form the singular position of the individual.

And so, our propensity to take selfies or Instargramable moments as first--person narratives of experience is really only a development along a trajectory of the image in the now digitally enabled visual age.

Images are becoming so ubiquitous that some fear the devolution of language in preference for pictures. Is the expression “a picture is worth a 1000 words more true now than ever before.” Will texting replace articulate spoken language or is is as the linguist John McWhorter says simply the development of a new language?

The design of these images is critical – overlays, filters, re-coloring, cropping, and all of the other image composing tools speak to the nature of design in a visual age. The image can be crafted to delight over dessert or stand as a symbol of dissent.

Everything is designed says my guest on this episode of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast. And when we listen to her talk about design we find that it is taking on new meaning and expression in the visual age.

Royce Epstein is a veteran materials and product specialist for interior design and architecture who spent two decades working in A&D firms before working in product design and development.

Royce is an art history major who has focused her attuned creative skills as a Trend hunter, Design strategist, writer, lecturer, teacher, juror, and thinker into always putting design in context.

She is a design activist, cares deeply about social causes and is the A&D Design Director for the Mohawk Group a company that creates some of the best flooring solutions on the planet.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

In September of 2020, he launched the “NXTLVL Experience Design” podcast which brings listeners dialogues about “DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” His guests include thought leaders who are driven by a passion to create the ‘New Possible’ and promote new paradigms of experiences into the mainstream.

Ep.24 The Nature Inside Biophilic Design with Bill Browning, Founder - Terrapin Brightgreen.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 4 Jun 2021 22:47:28 +0000

About Bill Browning:

Bill’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/bill-browning-a6b29227

Website: terrapinbrightgreen.com (Company Website)

Email: bill@terrapinbg.com

Bio:

Bill Browning is one of the green building and real estate industry’s foremost thinkers and strategists, and an advocate for sustainable design solutions at all levels of business, government, and civil society. His expertise has been sought out by organizations as diverse as Fortune 500 companies, leading universities, non-profit organizations, the U.S. military, and foreign governments.

Early in his career, Bill helped build Buckminster Fuller’s last experimental structure. In 1991, he founded Green Development Services at the Rocky Mountain Institute, an entrepreneurial, non-profit “think and do tank”. His consulting projects at RMI included new towns, resorts, building renovations, and high-profile demonstration projects including Wal-Mart’s Eco-mart, the Greening of the White House, the National Aquarium, Disney Hong Kong, the Pentagon, Lucas Film, Grand Canyon National Park and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Village. In 1999 Green Development Services was awarded the President’s Council for Sustainable Development/Renew America Prize.

Beginning in 2004, Bill was the Director of Design and Environment for Haymount, a New Urbanist community in Virginia. In this capacity he led the development’s site planning, authored a set of design guidelines, and guided development of innovative infrastructure systems. In 2005 he co-founded Browning+Bannon LLC, an independent real estate and consulting firm focused on environmentally responsive development.

Bill was a founding member of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Board of Directors, and served as Chair of USGBC’s Governance Committee. Over the years Bill has served on the Boards of Greening America, the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, RealEnergy, the Roaring Fork Conservancy, and ioby. He has also served on The Nature Conservancy Real Estate Advisory Council, ASTM Green Building Rating Committee, and the Department of Defense’s Science Board Energy Task Force, the AIA National Committee on the Environment, the Department of State’s Overseas Building Office Advisory Council, the Real Estate Advisory Council for the Trust for Public Land, the Interface “Green Dream Team.” He is a GSA national peer, and editorial advisor for Environmental Building News, Environmental Design & Construction Magazine, and Green @ Work.

In addition to consulting, Bill writes and lectures widely on sustainable design and building practices. He is a co-author of Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate; A Primer on Sustainable Building; Greening the Building and the Bottom Line; and Biophilic Design; The Economics of Biophilia and Midcentury (un)Modern. He has published articles in Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Urban Land, and AIA’s Environmental Resource Guide. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Elle and Popular Science, among others, and he has been interviewed by NPR, CNN, and PBS.

Bill received a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design from the University of Colorado, specializing in energy-conscious architecture and resource management. He holds a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the MIT Center for Real Estate’s 1991 Public-Sector Fellowship, and, in 1995, the Charles H. Spaulding Award. In 1998 Bill was named one of five people “Making a Difference” by Buildings magazine. In 2001 he was selected as an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects, and in 2004 he was honored with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership Award.

In 2006, Bill founded Terrapin with longtime partners Bob Fox, Rick Cook and Chris Garvin to craft high-performance environmental strategies for corporations, governments, and large-scale real estate developments. Our diverse clients include Cacique Resort in Costa Rica, Starwood’s Element hotel brand, NRDC, PNB Malaysia, New Songdo City in Korea, InterfaceFLOR, Bank of America and the National Geographic Society. Bill is based in Washington, D.C.

BIll Browning is the co-author, along with his colleague and Catie Ryan Balagtas, of the new book "Nature Inside - A Biophilic Design Guide, available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Inside-biophilic-design-guide/dp/1859469035

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep. 23 Let There Be Light with Mariana Figueiro - Professor and Head of the Light and Health Research Center at Mount Sinai

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 12 May 2021 18:44:52 +0000

About Mariana Figueiro:

LinkedIn Profile:

linkedin.com/in/mariana-figueiro-694632150

Bio:

Mariana G. Figueiro, PhD, was with the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY from 1998-2020, where she served as Director from 2017-2020. She was also a tenured Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 2006-2020. She was recently hired by the Department of Population Health Science and Policy at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to start and lead the Light and Health Research Center at Mount Sinai. She conducts research on the effect of light on human health, circadian photobiology, and lighting for older adults. She is the author of more than 120 scientific articles in her field of research. She is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society. She has brought attention to the significance of light and health as a topic of public interest through her recent TEDMED talk.

Show Intro:

What does Lingerie worn by French Women in the late 1800’s and Gothic cathedrals have in common?

You might say the remarkable detail, the silken lace spun in intricate patterns and the fine carved stone that was hewn by the hands a skilled mason.

You might say the forms - compounding curves and angles.

You might say that each was never really quite a good fit for human bodies – one too small and the other so soaring that it dwarfed human scale as if to make obvious the distance between man and the divine.

Or you may say none of these.

If you were a particularly hulking 6’2” 285 pound Frenchman living at that time, you say it had to do with light. Because for most of 1882, he stood in the window on the second floor of a building, about an hour north of Paris - a French Lingerie shop - where French women would try and buy the latest of French women’s underwear.

Very much out of place, he stood there amidst the delicate lace and ladies of the time, because it was the best place to view what captivated him from that vantage point.

The Cathedral of Rouen. A building stood across the road from the place where Claude Monet tried to understand light. With as many as ten canvases around him, he would move from image to image looking out of the second-floor window as light fell across the surfaces of the Rouen cathedral. From morning until dusk he worked until packing up his canvases and heading back to his home in Giverny in at the end of 1883.

In all, Monet painted more than 30 canvases. Each holding light in a suspended animation. Monet had painted multiple views of the same subject before. But the paintings of Rouen Cathedral were a master stoke at seeing how light changed our perception of our surroundings.

In 1894 Claude Monet finished his series of paintings. During the previous year he often fell into despair, telling his wife “‘Things don’t advance very steadily, primarily because each day I discover something I hadn’t seen the day before… In the end, I am trying to do the impossible.”

Years later, the famous French Architect Le Corbusier focused on a similar fascination with light and framed the issue of understanding it this way: “Space and Light and order are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.”

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

Ep.22 Turning The Tables - An 'AMA' with David Kepron Architect, Artist, Author, Educator

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 20:35:42 +0000

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/

NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/

Bio:

About Jonathan Cook:

Jonathan’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/jonathanccook

Email: jonathan@currentdepths.com

Twitter: JonathanCCook

website: https://ritualcommerce.com/

Ep. 21 The Power And Meaning In Rituals with Jonathan Cook - Researcher, Ethnographer, Questioner

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 22:58:51 +0000

About Jonathan Cook:

Jonathan’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/jonathanccook

Email: jonathan@currentdepths.com

Twitter: JonathanCCook

website: https://ritualcommerce.com/

Bio:

Herman Melville wrote, "Some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher, except to sell by the cartload." This vision of the world inspires the core of my professional mission - to help people understand the deeper meaning of the apparently ordinary objects that they work with, and bring their work into accord with that meaning.
Whether I'm working for non-profit organizations, political candidates, or corporate clients, my goal is the same: To explore the confluence of ideas that matter and tactics that work. I offer tools in research, strategic analysis and practical applications that lead to unexpected solutions to the most stubborn challenges.
My expertise is in qualitative methods in market research that break through the rational justifications for behavior, to explore the deeper motivations that drive people to defy the expectations of mechanistic models. Instead of merely asking for opinions, I use techniques of interviewing, observation and analysis that are designed to create an experience that reveals hidden barriers as well as areas of unexpected potential, leading people to articulate powerful ideas that they didn't know they had.
Gathering information is just the beginning of the research process. It's in the human interpretation of results that actionable opportunities are discovered. Using time-tested techniques of symbolic action, it is possible to overcome the dynamics of denial and to build sales through relationships that can transcend the trap of commoditization. To this end, I work with culturally-informed methods to help clients leverage the special characteristics of the threshold moments that move people from abstract interest into purchase and consumption.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Ep.20 Making Customers Experiential Partners with Marcos Terenzio - VP of Creative & Strategy for iGotcha Media

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 19:18:12 +0000

About Marcos:

Marcos’ LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/marcosterenzio

Website: igotchamedia.com

Phone Direct Line: 416.567.8957

Email: marcos.terenzio@igotchamedia.com

Twitter: marcosterenzio

Bio:
Marcos Terenzio is an executive, strategist, artist, creative director, graphic designer & digital visionary. He brings 25 years of award winning experience creating integrated brand experiences for international fortune 500 clients. Marcos is a proven leader with a long history of delivering strategic and creative solutions, winning new business, building client relationships and increasing revenue. He has been focused in the retail sector for the past 15 years, delivering brand experiences that emotionally connect, empowering my clients to own the moment of purchase and build meaningful relationships with their customers.

He oversees the integration of creative solutions that converge with technology, innovation, brand, and design. Marcos provides motivational and creatively conducive approaches to my teams that inspire and nurture ideation and artistic expression. He is able to balance this culture with business minded leadership that facilitates growth and increases profitability and utilize omni-channel approaches to effectively engage, communicate, captivate and deliver results on business objectives.

Marcos is Vice President of Creative & Strategy for iGotcha Media a leading digital experience agency. Prior to this he was Director of Digital Creative Experience at Shikatani Lacroix (SLD) one of Canada's leading branding and design agencies where he helped transform a traditional brand design firm into a fully integrated brand experience agency with digital as a new core service. Marcos was part owner and head of creative for a successful small boutique agency named Spot Digital and helped to launch a digital agency for one of Canada’s largest privately owned communications companies where he provided strategy, lead creative direction and design for omni-channel communications.

Notable Accounts:
Adidas, Reebok, Nike, MLB Toronto Blue Jays, Sportcheck, Bell, Rogers, AT&T, CWC, FLOW, Samsung, LG, Sharp, The Source, Glentel, Sony, TD Bank, U.S. Bank, Regions Bank, CZ Bank, National Bank, PC Financial, Thomson Reuters, Walmart, Loblaws, PC, Giant Tiger, Metro, Sobeys, Shoppers Drug Mart, Canon, BMW, Volvo, Acura, Nissan, Kraft, Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonalds, Burger King and more.

About David Kepron:

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Ep.19 The Noble Cause of Transformative Tech with Nichol Bradford CEO of the Willow Group, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Transformative Technology Lab

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 00:38:32 +0000

About Nichol Bradford :

Nichol’s Profile: linkedin.com/in/nicholbradford

Websites:

finderscourse.com (Company Website)

mskincorporated.com (Book Website)

transtechlab.org (Company Website)

Phone: 415-413-6521 (Work)

Email: nichol.bradford@gmail.com

Twitter: Nichol_Bradford

Title: Executive Director and co-founder of the Transformative Technology Lab, Conference

Bio: My purpose is to weave wellbeing, technology and science into new ground and practical possibilities for all of us. My mission is to empower humans to grow and expand by creating or curating new visions, opportunities, and tech enabled tools for all. I do this by investing in founders who build wellbeing tech through a global non-profit.

I co-founded and built Transformative Tech.org, a global ecosystem dedicated to educating, gathering, and activating wellbeing tech founders, investors, and innovators. Today, we have members in 72 countries and 450 cities and our tentpole events online or in person attract 1K+ attendees. We help founders leveraging exponential tech for mental and emotional wellbeing, social and emotional wellness, and human potential and performance find feedback, funding, and friends. We help investors find the best wellbeing tech founders and companies. I help corporate innovators understand and apply these powerful tools.

Prior to Transformative Tech, I served as senior interactive entertainment executive with responsibility for strategy, operations and marketing for major brands that include: Activision Blizzard, Disney, and Vivendi. Highlights included operating World of Warcraft and all of Blizzard Entertainment’s properties in China as well as holding a key role on the Vivendi Games team responsible for the Activision-Blizzard merger -- an $18B deal and an industry defining event. I believe these worlds will merge and one day games will become powerful tools of human transformation -- and I am working towards this goal today.

I speak extensively on Human Transformation, Transformative Tech, the Future of Health, Work, and Human Excellence, and Flourishing Cities. I am a lecturer at Stanford University, have an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, and attended Singularity University’s Global Solutions program. I am a novelist and have written The Sisterhood, a work of transformative Afro-futuristic fiction. Outside of work, my two favorite activities are meditation and combat sports.

Episode Intro:

When I was growing up, watching Star Trek was a weekly happening with my brothers and father.

From the early years of campy sci-fi tech to all of the years and iterations afterwards, Star Trek kept my believing in the power of technology and the opportunity, should we choose to embrace it, ‘to boldly go where no man has gone before.’

I love science fiction, and today science and technology is less fiction than a reality that is fundamentally shaping our human experience. What we can do today, what we have come to understand about our selves and the universe in the past decade, has been on an exponential growth curve that is reaching a near vertical trajectory.

Equally, I see the inherent challenges with humans who are not particularly well adapted to meet the circumstances of exponential rates of change. Our biology and neurophysiology weren’t made for the change of pressure we are now under. This has consequences on us personally and as a global community.

I’ve taken Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction courses, I meditate, create art to get into a flow space and have done emergency shavasana’s from time to time. And, I’ve used technology to help me along the way to transform.

Nichol Bradford Nichol Bradford is also fascinated by human potential and technology. She is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Transformative Technology Lab. Prior to becoming a leader in Transformative Technology, Bradford was a senior executive in video games with responsibility for strategy, operations and marketing for major brands including operating World of Warcraft China.

Nichol is a graduate of Singularity University GSP15, has an MBA from Wharton School of Business in Strategy, and a BBA in Marketing from the University of Houston.

She speaks regularly on Transformation, Exponential Technology, and Culture at conferences like Singularity University’s Global Summit, Exponential Medicine, Katapult Future Fest, Wisdom 2.0 and more.

I’ve invite Nichol to NXTLVL to share her extraordinary, and exponential, trajectory through the world of technology to now be one of the leaders in the industry. Someone who believes that “There is no nobler use of technology than to bring peace to the minds of mankind…”

And...With that I welcome Nichol Bradford...

About David Kepron: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Ep.18 Return On Experience with Tim Kobe Founder & CEO Eight Inc.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 3 Mar 2021 22:15:31 +0000

About Tim Kobe :

Tim’s LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/timkobe

Website: eightinc.com (Company Website)

Phone: 1 415 8501828 (Mobile)

Email: kobe@eightinc.com

Twitter: TimKobe

Bio:

Sometimes called “Apple’s best kept secret” Eight Inc. is one of the most progressive design firms working today. 8 is helping to transform organizations to be relevant in the worlds most highly competitive environments by looking at the design factors that drive successful human interactions. Tim Kobe is a design leader, Founder and CEO of Eight Inc. Eight Inc. employs leading designers and strategists working across 11 offices including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, Tokyo, Istanbul, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. 8 has received international design awards and has been published in Asia, Europe, and the United States.
Tim Kobe has lectured at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena; California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco; San Francisco Academy of Art; and at IDSA Awards Presentation, 1997. He has lectured on behalf of the US State Department focused on sustainability and architecture in Bangkok and Los Angeles. He has lectured at the prestigious Picnic in Amsterdam, an annual design conference merging business and technology and continues speaking internationally on a variety of design subjects.
In 2005 Kobe became a trustee at Art Center College of Design and currently serving as Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Grabhorn Institute in San Francisco California.
In 2006 Kobe received the top award for the professional competition “High Density on the High Ground.” sponsored by McGraw-Hill Companies’ Architectural Record magazine and Tulane University School of Architecture. 8 was selected to represent the United States at the Architecture Bienniale in Venice Italy and participated in a worldwide traveling exhibition on the project.Ongoing consulting relationships with leaders in business and innovation:
Apple, ANZ Bank, Citibank, Coach, Herman Miller, HP, Hyatt, Nissan, Nokia, Nike, Virgin Atlantic Airways

Episode Intro:

I remember standing on 5thAvenue in New York and looking at a glass cube.

This was a portal into a new world.

While Apple stores had been around for a few years, this was the big splash that quickly became on of the most photographed of New York’s landmarks.

Apple stores shifted the retail world on its access. No longer would a shopping journey be defined by SKU count – how many units you could cram on the floor - but how the experience connected you to the magic of a brand in truly innovative way. It elevated the product to fine art or fine jewelry, which was probably appropriate since is was competing for attention with some of the most recognized retailers on the planet, like Tiffany, just a block away.

That paradigm shift in retail store design was born our of a white paper on why Apple should have its own stores after entering the personal computer market and bringing their products to consumers through third party sellers.

After designing MacWorld events for Steve Jobs and Apple some years before, Tim Kobe and his Architecture and Design firm Eight Inc. was challenged with the task of creating the first Apple stores. They have held that relationship for the last 20+ years.

Tim Kobe is a design leader, Founder and CEO of Eight Inc. Eight Inc. employs leading designers and strategists working across 11 offices including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, Tokyo, Istanbul, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Among other honors and awards, 8 was selected to represent the United States at the 2006 Architecture Bienniale in Venice Italy and participated in a worldwide traveling exhibition on the project.

Now, Apple would be a pretty great client to have on the resume, but Tim Kobe has work with a list of major internationally recognized brands including Citibank, Coach, Herman Miller, HP, Westin, Hyatt, Nissan, Nokia, Nike and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Tim has just published a new book in collaboration with Roger Lehman, a psychoanalyst and senior lecture at the MIT Sloane School of Management, called “Return on Experience”.

And, I am excited to talk with Tim since he really exemplifies, in one guy, all of the categories in the “DATA” acronym for NXTLVL including Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.

Welcome Tim,

About David Kepron: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com

Twitter: DavidKepron

Ep.17 Pop-Up Stores: A Permanent Paradigm With Melissa Gonzalez Founder - The Lionesque Group

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 20:27:57 +0000

About Melissa Gonzalez:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/melissagonzalezlionesque

Websites:

lionesquegroup.com (Company Website)

melissagonzalez.com (Personal Website)

Email:

mg@lionesquegroup.com

Twitter:

MelsStyles

LionesqueGroup

Bio:

Melissa Gonzalez is a successful American entrepreneur, author and founder of The Lionesque Group, an award-winning creative strategy firm, and Clark, an interactive platform which empowers consumers to connect with digital and physical brand experiences.
She draws on her success as a former Wall Street Executive, advising high-level entrepreneurs on how to grow their businesses by leading with innovation and creativity.
Additionally, she shares her unique business insights in inspirational keynotes leaving audiences enlightened and energized.
Building bespoke brand experiences, Melissa advises businesses on how to build custom brand experiences, converting customers to clients and creating a better brand experience for their target audience. Based on her career as a creative strategist, entrepreneur and CEO, Melissa knows the nuances of building a successful business and growing it.
According to Melissa, a better brand begins with strategy. She helps businesses tell their most compelling stories through immersive experiences that both engage and elevate their brands and customers.
Melissa is an award-winning innovator and a seasoned visionary. In 2016, she was awarded Design:Retail’s 40 under 40, an award for the retail design industry’s top young professionals and up-and-coming future leaders. In addition, she was awarded the Innovator of the Year for pop-up retail experiences by Retail Touchpoints in 2015. Finally, she was honored with the CLIO Image Award for experiential engagement in 2014, and she was a finalist for the New York Design Award for marketing and branded experiences.
In 2019, The Lionesque Group was one of the finalists in One Show Awards for Experiential Design and Indoor Spaces. Additionally, it was shortlisted in The Glossy Awards for Best Pop-Up/New Concept Store in 2018.
The Lionesque Group is a firm consisting of award-winning retail strategists and pop up architects™ who have produced and strategized over 150 brick-and-motar experiences in the United States’ larger cities since 2009.
Clark is an interactive platform that empowers customers to connect their in-store and online shopping experiences using digital wireless personal shopping keys. Clark creates seamless shopping by making it possible for customers to review and purchase products they discovered in-store.
Melissa Gonzalez has worked with major brands and clients counting Amazon, Estee Lauder, YUM brands, COTY, Intel and others such as property groups, including Steiner & Associates and GGP Properties (now Brookfield).

Episode Intro:

Back in the early 2000s the world of digital online shopping was beginning to emerge and the.com craze was all around us.

Retailers were exploring new avenues into connecting with their customers including online shopping, outlet stores and looking to merge the world of digital and physical retailing.

New formats like pop-up shops were emerging into the market and I remember fashion designers like Isaac Mizrahi, who had a connection with Target, created one of the first pop-up stores in the Hamptons that set this idea on a path that continues to grow today as a viable way to bring clients new experiences.

Pop shops are great because they allow for experimentation, exploring new formats and creating great marketing buzz, they are emotionally connected to FOMO - the Fear Of Missing Out, and shown to increase both in store and online sales, and more than ever they’re short lifespan seems to perfectly aligned with an emerging market of consumers for whom ephemeral experiences seem to be part of their every day expectations about connecting to Brands.

While all this was going on in 2009 a Wall Street executive decides to take on some more creative endeavors and launch a company that focuses on the development of pop-up shops.

Melissa Gonzalez describes his departure from her role as the Vice President of Equity Sales at Merriman Capital as “a good accident.” Didn’t that has allowed her to grow an extremely successful company working with multiple international high-powered brands creating experience moments to engage guests.

Melissa Gonzalez, is now the founder and CEO of the Lion’esque Group an award-winning creative strategy firm, and Clark, an interactive platform which empowers consumers to connect with digital and physical brand experiences. She is also a successful author and public speaker.

Melissa has won a number of awards including Design:Retail’s 40 under 40 in 2016.

In addition, she was awarded the Innovator of the Year for pop-up retail experiences by Retail Touchpoints in 2015. Finally, she was honored with the CLIO Image Award for experiential engagement and she was a finalist for the New York Design Award for marketing and branded experiences.

Speaking on topics such as the future of retail strategy and living in a phygital world, she presents the latest trends impacting the future and thought-provoking ideas on how to integrate the digital landscape with physical improvements.

She is looking at today’s consumers and how they affect the market.

About David Kepron:

linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b

Websites:

retail-r-evolution.com (Company Website)

vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)

Email:

david.kepron@retail-r-evolution.com

Twitter:

DavidKepron

Ep.16 Area15: A Journey Space For Imagination with Winston Fisher CEO Area15

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:56:55 +0000

ABOUT Winston Fisher:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/winstonfisher/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Winston_Fisher1

Website: https://area15.com

SHOW INTRO:

If you’ve been to Las Vegas you’d think that everything happens on the strip.

Vegas is the gambling and entertainment meca of the US (maybe the world). With all of its glitz, showgirls, music and magic acts, hotels created to look like they were plucked from Venice or Paris or just some other planet, it would be easy to say that the strip is were its at.

But if you care to venture off the strip, you could go to say Hover dam an engineering marvel or maybe to Area 51 and try to get a glimpse of alien craft or some other secret military activity.

But then you cold go not so far to Area15 a new NEXT-Gen Experiential mall that opened this past fall. Trust me thought Area 15 and Area 51 are indeed curiosities worth seeing if you are into something new.

Developer Winston Fisher and a team of highly creative designers, architects, chefs, retailers, and digital experience makers transformed a 200,000 square foot lot into a playground that melds great restaurants -including a venue by Todd English, digital experiences, retail, performance spaces, a bar under a 23 foot high Japanese maple tree with dazzling LED lights woven into the canopy.

You can zip line through ceiling space overlooking the facility and book the venue for your own events. This place is magical and simply fun in a way that we have not often seen before.

Massive art installations are reminiscent of Burning Man and there are shows with performance artists that rival the strip. This, you could say, is the re-making of the mall experience. At Area15, retail is not dead, as is often said, it is very much alive in a whole new way.

Winston Fisher, the CEO of Area 15, joins us today to talk about a new approach to story telling in a space that is a cross over from traditional… anything. This just may be the beginning of the re-definition of place making for a cohort of emerging shoppers whose expectations about what branded relationships are all about have shifted.

Welcome Winston…

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.15 Awakening From The Meaning Crisis with John Vervaeke, Professor - University of Toronto

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 1 Jan 2021 23:49:55 +0000

ABOUT JOHN VERVAEKE:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-vervaeke-a910992/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vervaeke_john

Website: http://johnvervaeke.com

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/johnvervaeke

JOHN VERVAEKE Bio:

Associate Professor at University of Toronto
John Vervaeke is an Assistant Professor in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto where he teaches courses in three areas:
1. Cognitive Psychology on thinking and reasoning, higher cognition, and cognitive development
2. Cognitive Science program on integrating the work done in psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguists, and philosophy to try and tackle central problems about the nature of cognition.
3. Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health programon the intersection between Buddhism and Cognitive Science, and on the scientific basis of mindfulness meditation.
Has 50 episode series called “Awakening From the Meaning Crisis” on YouTube
His work constructs a bridge between science and spirituality in order to understand the experience of meaningfulness and the cultivation of wisdom so as to afford awakening from the meaning crisis.”
He has won and been nominated for several teaching awards including:
the 2001 Students’ Administrative Council and Association of Part-timeUndergraduate Students Teaching Award for the Humanities
the2012Ranjini Ghosh Excellence in Teaching Award.
He has publishedarticles on relevance realization, general intelligence, mindfulness,metaphor, and wisdom.
His abiding passion is to address themeaning crisis that besets western culture.

SHOW INTRO:

"I’m sitting across the room from my son who is listening to a Ted talk. As I listen I’m struck by the discussion with subjects from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, ritual, cognitive science, Buddhism and the Meaning Crisis.

I stop what I’m doing and I ask “who is it that you’re listening to?”

Answer: ‘oh it’s this guy named John Veraeke. He’s killin,’ he’s really got it figured out.’

During my years as an architecture student at McGill University I became fascinated with the idea of a ritual by attending architecture history and theory lectures by Alberto Perez Gomez. Participation in ritual establishes a sense of context and through that context meaning, meaning about who we are in relation to ourselves, our culture, nation and where we stood in some cosmological relationship to the universe.

I have had a deep interest in psychology, cognitive science and in the past 10 years, as I was creating retail stores and hotels, neuroscience and why coming to understand more about the brain would lead me, and the brands I worked for, to create more effective and relevant brand experience places.

Recently, studying concepts around the pace of change, our ability to adapt, and an emerging cohort of experience seekers for whom digitally immersive experience was a key driver to the adoption of Brand have occupied brain space, been the subject of lectures and presentations and blog posts.

So, it is not so surprising that the work of my guest Jon Vervaeke has been so deeply resonant.

John Vervaeke is an Associate Professor at U of Toronto where he teaches courses for three programs including:

Cognitive Psychology on thinking and reasoning, higher cognition, and cognitive development,

the Cognitive Science program on integrating the work done in psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguists, and philosophy to try and tackle central problems about the nature of cognition,

And to round things out he teaches in the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health program on the intersection between Buddhism and Cognitive Science, and on the scientific basis of mindfulness meditation.

It is said that his work constructs a bridge between science and spirituality in order to understand the experience of meaningfulness and the cultivation of wisdom so as to afford awakening from the meaning crisis.”

Has 50 episode series called “Awakening From the Meaning Crisis” on YouTube which will blow your mind because of its depth and provocative assertions.

He has won and been nominated for several teaching awards and has published articles on relevance realization, general intelligence, mindfulness, metaphor, and wisdom.

His passion, is to address themeaning crisis that besets western culture.

Throughout the first season of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there has always been a subtext to the discussion that has been ‘what does it all mean?’

‘What will the component parts of emerging Brand experiences be to allow them to remain relevant to a new cohort of experience seekers who are holy different than anything that has come before them?’

So, I am both honored and delighted that John Vervaeke is a guest to help us unpack some of these concepts that underpin the world of making and creating meaningful relationships to our brands, communities, and each other."

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

EP. 14.2 The Mastery Of Digital Light - PART 2 With Amahl Hazelton - Strategy and Development, Moment Factory

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 21:30:11 +0000

ABOUT AMAHL HAZELTON:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amahl-hazelton/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amahl1

Website: https://momentfactory.com/home

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/MomentFactory

AMAHL HAZELTON Bio:

Placemaking Strategist. Proven leadership in the design, build & operations of public-space digital placemaking, infrastructure and interactive multimedia activations.

Looking to partner with Governments, DMO's, Cities, Business Alliances, Real Estate Developers, Architects, Event Producers & Curators to design visitor's favorite next-generation destinations and attractions.

Skilled in Placemaking, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Architecture, Art Direction, Management, and Leadership.

Strong business development professional with a Master's Degree in Urban Planning--specializing in Place Branding & Competitive Identity--from Montreal's McGill University.

BUSINESS INQUIRIES email: amahl@momentfactory.com
MEDIA REQUESTS email: media@momentfactory.com
FOLLOW US ON LINKEDIN: www.linkedin.com/company/moment-factory/

If we do not respond immediately, feel free to contact me here on LinkedIn ;-)
OR
Twitter: @Amahl1, @Moment_Factory #MomentFactory
Instagram: @MomentFactory #MomentFactory www.instagram.com/momentfactory/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MomentFactory/

Moment Factory is a multimedia studio with a full range of production expertise under one roof. Our team combines specializations in video, lighting, architecture, sound and special effects to create remarkable experiences. Headquartered in Montreal, the studio also has addresses in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Paris, New York City and Singapore.

Since its inception in 2001, Moment Factory has created more than 450 unique projects worldwide, including the Lumina Night Walk series. Productions span the globe and include such clients and collaborators as Changi Airport Group and LAWA (LAX); the City Barcelona and New York City; Fremont Street Experience and Atlantic City Alliance; Related Companies, Bedrock Detroit and Millennium Partners; Gensler and AECOM.

SHOW INTRO:

"A number of years ago I was working as a creative director in the brand experience studio in architecture firm based in Charlotte. We are a tightknit group and we were all fascinated with the future and the possibilities and opportunities that the world of immersive digital experiences would provide to retailers and brand experience places in general.

One day a colleague says to me you got a check these guys out moment factory and they’re from your hometown of Montreal.

We then spent the next few hours pouring over videos of video mapping on some of the most iconic churches in the world.

Video mapping was relatively new and it was transforming the idea of experience by bringing buildings literally to life with animations that were perfectly aligned with the architecture.

More than just spectacles, this signaled a shift in the way digital media, architecture, design and customer experience would coalesce, shifting the paradigm and how customers would engage with brand experience places in it digitally mediated future.

Since then, the world of immersive digital technologies has become more pervasive and digital visualization artists like Refik Anadol and companies like Moment Factory are changing the very meaning of experience.

Digital experiences are often criticized for being disengaging and promoting social isolation but in the world of Moment Factory, sensory-based but digitally-mediated experiences fully engage users, with their bodies andminds in profoundly memorable experiences.

Whether they are lighting up a bridge with social media data in Montreal or elevating the experience of the divine in the Basilica of Notre Dame in Montreal or reinventing queuing the Shangi in Singapore or LAX in Los Angeles, or lighting up our imagination on a nighttime forest walk, our guest Amahl Hazelton has been deeply involved.

Since its inception in 2001, Moment Factory has created more than 450 unique projects worldwide. A sign that the digital experience economy is here to stay.

Amahl is the Head of Strategy and Development of Moment Factory. He’s a strong business development professional with a Master's Degree in Urban Planning - specializing in Place Branding & Competitive Identity - from my alma mater Montreal's McGill University.

Amahl is a Place-making Strategist.

With a history of leadership in the design, build & operations of public-space digital placemaking, infrastructure and interactive multimedia activations I know he has a depth of knowledge on this subject that will make this a really interesting talk.

I invited Amahl to share the Keynote stage with me at the 2019 BDNY show in New York and I am guessing this is going to be an energetic continuation of that talk.

Welcome Amahl Hazelton…."

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep. 14.1 The Mastery Of Digital Light-PART 1 with Amahl Hazelton - Strategy and Development, Moment Factory

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 00:00:29 +0000

ABOUT AMAHL HAZELTON:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amahl-hazelton/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amahl1

Website: https://momentfactory.com/home

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/MomentFactory

AMAHL HAZELTON Bio:

Placemaking Strategist. Proven leadership in the design, build & operations of public-space digital placemaking, infrastructure and interactive multimedia activations.

Looking to partner with Governments, DMO's, Cities, Business Alliances, Real Estate Developers, Architects, Event Producers & Curators to design visitor's favorite next-generation destinations and attractions.

Skilled in Placemaking, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Architecture, Art Direction, Management, and Leadership.

Strong business development professional with a Master's Degree in Urban Planning--specializing in Place Branding & Competitive Identity--from Montreal's McGill University.

BUSINESS INQUIRIES email: amahl@momentfactory.com
MEDIA REQUESTS email: media@momentfactory.com
FOLLOW US ON LINKEDIN: www.linkedin.com/company/moment-factory/

If we do not respond immediately, feel free to contact me here on LinkedIn ;-)
OR
Twitter: @Amahl1, @Moment_Factory #MomentFactory
Instagram: @MomentFactory #MomentFactory www.instagram.com/momentfactory/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MomentFactory/

Moment Factory is a multimedia studio with a full range of production expertise under one roof. Our team combines specializations in video, lighting, architecture, sound and special effects to create remarkable experiences. Headquartered in Montreal, the studio also has addresses in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Paris, New York City and Singapore.

Since its inception in 2001, Moment Factory has created more than 450 unique projects worldwide, including the Lumina Night Walk series. Productions span the globe and include such clients and collaborators as Changi Airport Group and LAWA (LAX); the City Barcelona and New York City; Fremont Street Experience and Atlantic City Alliance; Related Companies, Bedrock Detroit and Millennium Partners; Gensler and AECOM.

SHOW INTRO:

One day a colleague says to me you got a check these guys out moment factory and they’re from your hometown of Montreal.

We then spent the next few hours pouring over videos of video mapping on some of the most iconic churches in the world.

Video mapping was relatively new and it was transforming the idea of experience by bringing buildings literally to life with animations that were perfectly aligned with the architecture.

Since its inception in 2001, Moment Factory has created more than 450 unique projects worldwide. A sign that the digital experience economy is here to stay.

Amahl is a Place-making Strategist.

I invited Amahl to share the Keynote stage with me at the 2019 BDNY show in New York and I am guessing this is going to be an energetic continuation of that talk.

Welcome Amahl Hazelton…."

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep. 13.2 The Tuscan Gun & The Renaissance Man - PART 2 with Gabriele Corcos, Celebrity Chef, Author and Food Futurist

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 9 Dec 2020 22:04:20 +0000

ABOUT GABRIELE CORCOS:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thetuscangun

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Corcos

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gcorcos/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheTuscanGun

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetuscangun/

Books:

"Super Tuscan": https://www.amazon.com/Super-Tuscan-Heritage-Recipes-Pleasures/dp/150114359X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&hvadid=77653071690874&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=tuscan+gun&qid=1607035612&sr=8-2&tag=mh0b-20

"Extra Virgin": https://www.amazon.com/Extra-Virgin-Recipes-Tuscan-Kitchen/dp/0385346050/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&hvadid=77653071690874&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=tuscan+gun&qid=1607035666&sr=8-3&tag=mh0b-20

Bio:

Italian celebrity chef, entrepreneur, TV personality
Creator and cohost of “Extra Virgin” on the Cooking Channel
New York Times best-selling book “Extra Virgin”
Raised in Tuscany outside of Florence Italy
Studied medicine at the Italian military academy for several years
Passion was music and decided to study drums so he left the military and travels to Brazil, Cuba and Morocco to study drums
Restaurant:
Owned the “Tuscan Gun Officine Alimentari” in Brooklyn
Met Debi Mazar in Florence – moved to LA - married in 2002
Starred with wife Debi Mazar in “Extra-Virgin Americana” on the Cooking Channel
They were asked to be hosts of the Cooking Channel’s first original cooking show
In 2019 Corcos was honored “Knight” by the Italian President of the Republic for work on behalf of Italian heritage in the US (this is the highest civilian honor for an Italian citizen)
Charity work:
While competing on the television show chopped he competed on behalf of the charity “Feeding America”
In 2014 he became a council member at the food bank for New York City
Extra Virgin Americana TV Show:
Premiered 2011 and had 5 seasons until 2015
Extra Virgin Book:
Released in 2014
Amazon’s #1 In Italian cooking ratings for 6 months and remained in top 10 until October 2015
June 2014 Makes NY Time best-sellers list
Crazy huge collection of knive, rides a Duccati and loves the power of technology

SHOW INTRO:

When I think “Renaissance man” I have images in my head of sculptors, painters, physicians, inventors… people like Leonardo, Brunelleschi and Michelangelo - all worked in Florence about 20 km away from my guest’s hometown.

I don’t often think of James Beard award winning celebrity chef and restaunteur, a multi book New York Times best-selling list author, An Italian Military Academy student who decided that studying medicine wasn’t for him and went off to Morocco, Brazil and Cuba to study drums, who also loves to ride Duccati’s, has some pretty serious leaves (as in tattoos), was also Knighted in 2019 and who you can now see often on Instagram doing ‘lives’ with his wife Debi Mazar cooking up a festival of food from the kitchen of their Brooklyn home.

That said, I do think about somebody who is on a continual search for the NXTLVL and not afraid of being reborn - in the true sense of the word “Renaissance.” Someone like Gabriele Corcos who seems to be in a continual search for filling his life with the adventure of the unknown.

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.13.1 The Tuscan Gun & The Renaissance Man - PART 1 with Gabriele Corcos, Celebrity Chef, Author and Food Futurist

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Fri, 4 Dec 2020 05:21:19 +0000

ABOUT GABRIELE CORCOS:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thetuscangun

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Corcos

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gcorcos/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheTuscanGun

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetuscangun/

Books:

Bio:

Italian celebrity chef, entrepreneur, TV personality
Creator and cohost of “Extra Virgin” on the Cooking Channel
New York Times best-selling book “Extra Virgin”
Raised in Tuscany outside of Florence Italy
Studied medicine at the Italian military academy for several years
Passion was music and decided to study drums so he left the military and travels to Brazil, Cuba and Morocco to study drums
Restaurant:
Owned the “Tuscan Gun Officine Alimentari” in Brooklyn
Met Debi Mazar in Florence – moved to LA - married in 2002
Starred with wife Debi Mazar in “Extra-Virgin Americana” on the Cooking Channel
They were asked to be hosts of the Cooking Channel’s first original cooking show
In 2019 Corcos was honored “Knight” by the Italian President of the Republic for work on behalf of Italian heritage in the US (this is the highest civilian honor for an Italian citizen)
Charity work:
While competing on the television show chopped he competed on behalf of the charity “Feeding America”
In 2014 he became a council member at the food bank for New York City
Extra Virgin Americana TV Show:
Premiered 2011 and had 5 seasons until 2015
Extra Virgin Book:
Released in 2014
Amazon’s #1 In Italian cooking ratings for 6 months and remained in top 10 until October 2015
June 2014 Makes NY Time best-sellers list
Crazy huge collection of knive, rides a Duccati and loves the power of technology

SHOW INTRO:

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.12 The Consumer Is the Brand with Jay Norris, Co-Founder & CEO - Guesst

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 20:19:03 +0000

ABOUT JAY NORRIS:

Website: https://guesst.co

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaynorris007/

Instgram: https://www.instagram.com/jaynorrisvision/

Bio:

The Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Guesst Software since 2017,
The Guesst software platform allows "Host" retailers to find and connect with complementary brands aka "Guesst" to display, merchandise and or sell their products or goods in their "Host" retail location. This simple process allows retailers to lower their monthly fixed cost, increase revenues and maximize both parties' brand awareness, return on investment and customer experience in a brick and mortar location.
Jay Norris is a true go-to-market strategist who utilizes his innovative marketing skillset, invaluable relationships and keen understanding of the retail landscape to curate partnerships and experiential activations between retailers, landlords, media partners and brands in all sectors of retail.
Mr. Norris found early success as a strategic marketing executive at Arista Records from 1994 to 1997, developing marketing strategies for Notorious BIG, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Deborah Cox, TLC, Pink, Alicia Keyes, and a long list of music artists who have scaled their careers through groundswell campaigns.
Before Arista Records, Mr. Norris worked in the promotions department of Sony Music Entertainment from 1993 to 1994.
Mr. Norris has further flourished as the co-founder of Detroitbuiltco.com since 2016. Norris and his partners vision was to curate a retail platform for Detroit makers and innovators.
Norris's Growth Business Incubator Lifestyle Equities is a management consultancy specializing in innovative solutions for small, and medium to large size companies who aspire to either expand, streamline or become re-imagined.
2015 to 2016 and both the founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Tastemakers Media from 1997 to 2007, which was a national and international guide highlighting the best lifestyle offerings in each market.
Constantly in the pursuit of helping other entrepreneurs get their ideas out into the world,Mr. Norris's favorite quote is "one's imagination is everything!! If one can use it wisely, it can become a brief snapshot of life's coming attractions."
In addition to his primary responsibilities, he dedicates his time to volunteer at his local soup kitchen and with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Mr. Norris holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Norris received a scholarship for swimming and in the 1980's Norris held city and state records in butterfly and freestyle from his high school, Cass Technical, in the state of Michigan.

SHOW INTRO:

My guest todaylaunched his multi-faceted career in the promotions department of Sony Music Entertainment (from 1993 to 1994).

He was then quick to succeed as a strategic marketing executive at Arista Records (from 1994 to 1997). While at Arista, he developed marketing strategies for Notorious BIG, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Deborah Cox, TLC, Pink, Alicia Keyes, and a long list of music artists who have grown their careers through some of the insight and strategies he created.

Given this, you might think that he fits neatly into the Arts part of the NXTLVL acronym DATA but that would mean we stop looking at his career in 1997.

With a vision to curate a retail platform for Detroit makers and innovators, He co-founded of Detroitbuiltco.com in 2016.

If that isn’t quite enough, his Growth Business Incubator Lifestyle Equities is a management consultancy specializing in innovative solutions for small, and medium to large size companies who aspire to expand, streamline or become re-imagined.

When not constantly in the pursuit of helping other entrepreneurs get their ideas out into the world, he dedicates his time to volunteer at his local soup kitchen and with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

He is a true go-to-market strategist who utilizes his innovative marketing skillset, invaluable relationships and keen understanding of the retail landscape to curate partnerships and experiential activations between retailers, landlords, media partners and brands in all sectors of retail.

I believe that with his new company GUESST we have the emergence of a new paradigm in retail experience making.

One of Jay Norris’ favorite quotes is "one's imagination is everything!! If one can use it wisely, it can become a brief snapshot of life's coming attractions."This discussion will be like sitting through the “coming soon” trailers at a blockbuster (retail) movie.

Jay Norris holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Howard University in Washington, D.C., received a scholarship for swimming and in the 1980's (Norris held city and state records in butterfly and freestyle from his high school, Cass Technical, in the state of Michigan.)

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.11 Restoring The Meaning Of Luxury with Martina Olbertova, CEO Meaning.Global

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 21:03:01 +0000

ABOUT MARTINA OLBERTOVA:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MartinaOlbertova

The Luxury Renaissance Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAybA0SjexNmAT_48S_0jUA/videos

The Luxury Report:https://www.meaning.global/the-luxury-report

Website: https://www.meaning.global

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinaolbertova/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MartinaOlb

Medium: https://martinaolbertova.medium.com/

Bio:

Dr Martina Olbertova is the world's leading expert on creating meaning and cultural relevance in business. She is a social scientist, brand advisor, cultural strategist and a semiotician on a mission to redefine the role of meaning in business. As a writer, speaker and cultural consultant, she educates brand and business leaders on how to be more culturally savvy and lead brands with meaning at the core.

Martina is most interested in social and cultural change. She focuses on how the shifts in society redefine the perception of meaning in our culture today. In her work, she helps brands navigate the quickly evolving symbolic meanings in the world around us to help her clients understand how to capitalize on culture change. She works with brands from across all sectors to restore or redefine their meaning, reconnect to their essence and create real value that resonates with people in the context of culture and their needs. Her goal is to bridge the gap of meaning between brands and society to restore real value, trust, integrity and long-term growth and offset the ongoing crisis of meaning.

With 15 years of international experience from the UK, Ireland, USA and Czechia, Martina has had a chance to work on diverse strategy, insight and innovation briefs for global brands, such as Kantar, Unilever, Vodafone, IBM, ICAEW, London Gatwick, British Land, KBC, Visa, Lloyds Bank, Bank of Ireland, Heineken or Pernod Ricard among many others.

She holds a doctorate in Media Studies from the Charles University in Prague and also studied at Georgetown University (USA) and University of Glamorgan (UK). As a visiting lecturer, she taught Semiotics and Cultural Branding at universities in Czechia, Trinity College Dublin and spoke at conferences in London, Paris, Toronto, Istanbul, Manila, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Prague, Berlin, Slovenia & Morocco.

Martina is a contributor to Branding Strategy Insider, a commentator for Forbes, WARC AdMap, Luxury Daily, Luxury Society, the author of The Luxury Report on Redefining The Future Meaning Of Luxury, and a fellow of the RSA.

She is passionate about seeing the invisible layers of reality and tapping into unseen opportunities to unlock new value and meaningful growth, about humanising business, social change, semiotics, anthropology, behavioural science and all things culture. She is based in Europe and available for strategy, consulting, speaking and workshops worldwide.

SHOW INTRO:

"I have often said that a $5 paper bag from Bloomingdale's and a $5000 bag from Louis Vuitton do the same thing.

They carry stuff.

And you could be pretty much guaranteed that at the bottom of each of those bags there's going be some loose change, an eyebrow pencil, maybe some folded Kleenexes and maybe even a breath mint, with the wrapper taken off, that’s stuck in the corner.

There’ll be keys, a wallet, and a number of other personal effects.

But when it comes to what these bags do in terms of providing meaning and assigning values, they are entirely different.

The goods and services that we buy should do the things that they’re purported to do - get your teeth whiter, get you from point A to point B in a comfortable and safe car, they should make you feel better, stronger, happier, safer.

But beyond all those functional things – these functions or qualities that are the baseline that these products or services should deliver on – they deliver much more than that.

They deliver meaning and context and they establish values and relationships with the cohort of like-minded consumers.

In the end. meaningis what is ultimately driving purchases and brand affiliation.

I buy the products or services of one brand over the other and not just because of what it does, but because of how I feelwhen I know that I’m connected to the ideologies of that brand.

What brand relationships give me is much deeper. It’s emotional and adds to our understanding of the world we live in in a way that cultural institutions, religion, political parties, or in the way that Shaman and dancing around fires for thousands of years in song told stories about us and the world and what it meant to be in it.

It’s something that is foundational and that establishes who we are in the greater context of our family, our culture, our nation and maybe even some cosmological relationship to the universe.

The work of my guest on today’s episode of NXTLVL Experience Design has spent years focusing on this very idea.

Meaning in the relationships that people have to brands and what value is in a quickly moving and dynamically shifting consumer-buying-ecosystem.

Dr. Martina Olbertova, and her company Meaning.Global, helps brands and businesses adapt to the shifting cultural context of the 21st century to create meaning, cultural relevance and real value for people in these rapidly changing times.

Martina Olbertova advises brands and organizations on how to maximize value creation and meaningful growth from the point of view of where the businesses, culture and society are going today.

And…where we’re going today is different than the place we were going six months ago before COVID -19 gripped the globe and it’s probably hard to fully envision where we will end up in the future.

She partners with brand and business leaders to restore their true meaning and core essence and deliver real value in people's lives.

Martina holds a Ph.D in Social Sciences and is th eFounder and CEO of Meaning.Global a consultancy that provides strategic intelligence for Meaning brands and businesses.

She ias a 'Meaning' expert,

A Cultural Strategist.

She is frequently published on Media, and other platforms as well as the author of the Luxury Report.

And now she is also the host of her own podcast "the Luxury Renaissance Show."

I think this is a fasten -your-seatbelt interview that'll challenge much of what we think we know both meaning, value, consumerism and the concept of luxury."

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep. 10 It's Not Just About Having Great Design with Peter Cole, CEO - Design Hotels

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 18:53:28 +0000

INFO ON PETER COLE & DESIGN HOTELS:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=design+hotels+original+experiences

Website: https://design-hotels.marriott.com/

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-cole-2877b76/

Instgram: https://www.instagram.com/design_hotels/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/designhotels

Bio:

Peter Cole joined Design Hotels™ as CEO in December 2018 with a commitment to future growth and the creation of long-term value for hoteliers and stakeholders.
In his previous role as Managing Director of Business Integration at Marriott International, Peter lead the company’s integration of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, overseeing a wide array of activities including hotel operations, organizational design, talent management, loyalty programs, system integration, financial management, and unit growth.
Peter was also Chief Financial Officer for the Americas for Marriott, as well as global CFO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC; both positions that attest to his erudition when it comes to steering the financial rudder of a large multinational.
Peter is also an ardent runner and swimmer and likes to ride his Peloton bike.
He holds a BBA in Real Estate Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the University of Maryland.
Peter carries out duties that matter to his heart and mind and sits on the Advisory Board of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and the National Board of Directors for Back on My Feet, an organization dedicated to helping change the lives of those experiencing homelessness.

EPISODE INTRO:

How do you define “Original”?

Is it the ‘first’? – maybe.

Is if the most ‘unique’ or ‘eccentric’? – perhaps that too.

Is it something to that serves as a model or basis for imitations or copies?

Well, it could be that, except for the fact that every one of the over 300 properties in the Design Hotels brand are completely different.

How do you copy ‘different?’

Since different could be a monastery in Eremito, Italy,a revived printing factory in Tiblisi Georgia, or a modern outcrop in Selfoss, Iceland.

Design Hotels are all of these things that you would define as “original” and their CEO Peter Cole has the extraordinary task of helping to provide leadership to a band of brothers, and sisters, who march to the beat of a different drum but hold a couple of traits in common…

Compulsive curiosity and a willingness to find comfort in change.

In fact they are challenged and expect to be presented with things they don’t expect or reference what they already know.

Peter Cole’s trajectory through the leadership of Marriott International includes holding positions as:

Chief Financial Officer for the Americas for Marriott, as well as global CFO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC;

Managing Director of Business Integration at Marriott International, Peter lead the company’s integration of Starwood Hotels & Resorts,

And in 2018 Peter joined Design Hotels™ as CEO with a commitment to future growth and the creation of long-term value for hoteliers and stakeholders.

He is a business minded leader who finds it equally engaging to be amongst some of the most creative hoteliers in the industry.

Welcome Peter…. Did you run this morning?

INFO ON DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.9 No Means Not Yet with Stacy Garcia, Founder & CINO, Stacy Garcia, Inc & CEO, LebaTex, Inc.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 18:39:22 +0000

ABOUT STACY GARCIA:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwuGSwfSFoMoc4iM6WWnu7A

Website: https://stacygarcia.com

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacygarcia/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/stacygarciainc

Instgram: https://www.instagram.com/stacygarciainc/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stacygarciainc/

Bio:

THE WOMAN

An established leader in the world of design, Stacy Garcia is a successful creative entrepreneur and founder of multiple business enterprises: LebaTex, Inc., a distinctive textile supplier and Stacy Garcia, Inc., a licensing firm and design house.
Stacy is an internationally renowned designer and forecasting expert has partnered with some of the world’s leading manufacturers to create products that span from floor to ceiling for resorts and homes all over the world.
She was voted one of the 10 leading voices in the hospitality industry and honored by the American Society of Interior Designers - ASID for Design Excellence.
Her work has been featured in Interior Design, Boutique Design, New York Spaces, LUXE, Rue Daily and Architectural Digest.
Stacy has an established reputation as a preeminent forecaster of color and design trends, and is a Chair-holder of Color Marketing Group, the premiere international color forecasting association.
Stacy is also a dynamic public speaker with experience hosting panels, workshops and keynotes.
Renowned for her distinct, lively and fashion-centric patterns and product designs, Stacy is the founder and creative force

THE COMPANY

Stacy Garcia is a leading licensing and design company with a collection of global lifestyle brands that add a well-traveled and sophisticated edge to the ever-evolving world of fashion and interiors.
With roots in hospitality design, they offer inspired product lines across a number of markets and in categories including textiles, carpet, wall-covering, furniture and lighting.
Our brands include:
Stacy Garcia Commercial,
Stacy Garcia | New York,
Stacy Garcia Home
Stay by Stacy Garcia.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York, the privately held company is led by Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer, Stacy Garcia

Ep.9 INTRODUCTION:

I'm an architect and of course I am always tuned into my physical environment. My home however has somehow never been the focus of my creative output at least until recently. Being more involved in the hospitality space, I've turned my bedroom into a nest that I would be delighted to spend any night number of nights in if it were a hotel and I’ve begun to focus more on the use of color and textures and furniture as a way to express myself.

I’m moving beyond my mid century modern black Mies Van der Rohe Barcelona chairs, le Corbusier chaise and Noguchi tables to considering textures and that are drawn from different cultures and geographies.

My guest today finds the world of travel a never-ending experience of inspiration from which she draws colors, patterns, and textures and turns them into textiles, furniture and home Décor. She describes her aesthetic as “global eclectic with a refinement to it.”

She is “…an authoritative, informational and entertaining speaker. She does her research, backing up her contentions with facts and figures. But she also knows how to connect the dots to give her audience the big picture. She’s organized, thorough and responsive—a pleasure to work with throughout the process.”Mary Scoviak, Executive Editor Boutique Design

Stacy Garcia is a successful creative entrepreneur and founder of multiple business enterprises: LebaTex, Inc., a distinctive textile supplier and Stacy Garcia, Inc., a licensing firm and design house.

Stacy is an internationally renowned designer and forecasting expert has partnered with some of the world’s leading manufacturers to create products that span from floor to ceiling for resorts and homes all over the world.

She was voted one of the 10 leading voices in the hospitality industry and honored by the American Society of Interior Designers - ASID for Design Excellence and she is the Chairperson for the Color Marketing Group.

INFO ON DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.8 Keeping Corporations From Digital Darwinism with Eugene Roman, Founder Design.ai, Ltd.

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 22:07:16 +0000

INFO ON EUGENE ROMAN:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugene-roman-45274410/

BIO:

Served on the board of the Ukrainian Credit Union limited for 20 years.
Canadian CIO of the year in 2015.
Helped Ukrainian credit union significantly grow base and adopt a new technology
Scholarship named after him “Ukrainian Credit Union Limited Eugene Roman Scholarship”
EVP Digital Excellence at Canadian Tire Canada
Currently the principle of “Design.ai, Ltd. focused on applying design intelligence to business opportunities
From 2012 to 2018 Eugene was the EVP of digital excellence and tech advisor for the Canadian Tire Corporation
Currently serves on the board of the The Stars Group Inc.
Currently serves on the board of EPM Systems Inc.
Owns Rosewood Estate Winery – a family winery with wife Renata and children Krystina (marketing) and William (production), a boutique production vineyard producing 5000 cases of wine and 1500 cases of meade a year.
Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Franc are the products of the vineyard.
2015 Canadian CIO of the year for creating a strategic plan to transform Canadian Tire into an innovator in digital marketing and overseeing the development of three digital centers including “Cloud 9 Digital Innovation Center” in Winnipeg and the “Digital Garage” in Kitchener Waterloo Ontario.
Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Monk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.
Responsible for integrating critical technology and business processes to better deliver innovative programs.
Has led efforts to increase productivity and improve performance in order to deliver current “next GEN” services more efficiently in large organizations.
Started career and telecom working for the Nortel Networks corporation and then went onto work with Bell Canada Enterprises Inc.
Eugene is a frequent speaker on the “hyper connected digital world.”
He is also on the board of governors at York University.
Today Eugene is the Executive in Residence for AI at the Schulich Business School.

SHOW INTRO:
When I grow up in Montreal there was Expo 67,

I still remember Moshe Safdia and his McGill architecture thesis project that became the incredible housing development called Habitat and the Yugoslavian pavilion which was a pyramid upended and standing on his point.

Ken Dryden, Guy La Fleur and Rocket Richard we’re all part of the Canadiens hockey team as they won the Stanley Cup after Stanley cup every year. We even got the day off school when the first Canada Russia hockey series was played.

There was the Olympics in 76 and I watched as Nadia Comaneci get the first ever perfect 10 in gymnastics.

And every weekend throughout the winter my four brothers and I along with my parents we drive north to Mont Tremblant and ski. And it seemed like every Friday night there was a stop at Canadian tire.

No if you don’t know Canadian tire it was a kind of a mix between REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods and AutoZone. I remember it had a very specific smell something like a mix between tires and travel. Canadian tire, next to Pascal’s the hardware store, was one of our favorite places.

My guest on today’s podcast grew up during the same time and went on to become the Canadian CIO of the year in 2015.

The Ukrainian credit union has a scholarship named after him and he sits on a number of boards of tech-based companies.

He’s also the owner of a vineyard and, by consequence of making meade, a beekeeper producing thousands of gallons of honey every year and is Executive in residence for AI at the Schulich business school.

And that CIO of the year award that Eugene Roman won in 2015 well, it was for creating a strategic plan to transform Canadian Tire into an innovator in digital marketing and overseeing the development of three digital centers including “Cloud 9 Digital Innovation Center” in Winnipeg and the “Digital Garage” in Kitchener Waterloo Ontario.

INFO ON DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram:davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter:@davidkepron

Ep.7 Creating The Sound Architecture Of A Brand with Tom Middleton, Sound Designer and Composer

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 15:42:13 +0000

INFO ON TOM MIDDLETON:

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Middleton

Website: http://www.tommiddleton.com

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommiddletonmusic/

Twitter: @djtommiddleton

Instgram: tommiddletonmusic

Facebook: tommiddletonmusic

BIO:
Tom Middleton is an award winning sound designer, creator of science-based functional music and soundscapes for wellbeing and wellness. To mitigate anxiety, aid relaxation and improve sleep, boost productivity, motivation and focus. Tracks featured in Calm the #1 meditation and sleep app.
Tom is a Co-Chair on the AFEM Health Group.

A pioneering Electronic musician (Global Communication / Cosmos) and former DJ, he has toured the world and performed to millions over 3 decades observing the positive affects of sound, and has shared the stage with Mark Ronson, Lady Gaga and Kanye West.

After a radical reassessment of his creative motivations he has embarked on a new mission to help rescore the soundtrack to life and positively benefit our wellbeing in a world of increasing anxiety, stress and burnout.

Applying principles of the neuroscience and psychology of sound, listening, breathwork and nature sounds to create impactful, transformational soundscapes, music and immersive experiences to help with focus, stress, anxiety and sleep deprivation.

Tom believes the science of sound can help us to be more happy, healthy and productive.

Certified in Mental Health First Aid sleep science coaching.
Delivers Sleep Better workshops on sleep science, health and hygiene best practices.

INFO ON DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram:davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter:@davidkepron

Ep.6 Facing Changing Paradigms With Open Eyes with Bruce Barteldt - CINO, Little

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 7 Oct 2020 18:16:55 +0000

INFO ON BRUCE BARTELDT:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-barteldt-b625b410/

Website: https://littleonline.com

Twitter: @BruceBarteldt

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bbarteldt/

Bruce Bartlett Bio:

Chief Innovation Officer – Little:

An experienced design thinker and senior leader for over 30 years, Bruce’s role as Chief Innovation Officer is aimed at maximizing the impact of Little’s diverse, multi-disciplined resources applied to their client’s deepest challenges.

While his role is to provide guidance and strategic input for the company’s centralized consulting specialties, Bruce will also impact all practices nationwide (Community, Healthcare, Retail & Workplace) with strategy, experience design, problem definition, brand strategy and business consulting services.

Senior Partner, Global Practice Leader - Retail

Bruce's leadership of Little’s retail management team results in lasting relationships with clients such as Capital One, Nautica, The Home Depot, CVS/Pharmacy, Rite Aid, Von’s (a Safeway Company), Lucky Brand Jeans., Concentra, Majestic Athletic (a VF Company), Publix, JC Penney, BB&T, Wells Fargo, Comerica, and Bank of America.

Recent speaking experience includes Retail Asia Expo & Omni-Channel Retail Conference/Hong Kong, the international Perakende Tasarim Konferansi retail conference/Istanbul, BrazilShop/Sao Paulo, NASFM’s GlobalShop, the EPA’s national Smart Growth conference, TREX Total Retail Experience, ICSC CenterBuild, the National Retail Federation Conference and the Retail Construction Expo.

He has also presented for the American Institute of Architects on facilities management strategies and served as a judge for Retail Traffic’s SADI awards and the Association for Retail Environments awards. Bruce is currently a member of the DDI editorial board, the Association for Retail Environments Board of Directors.

He has authored numerous expert articles for Retail Environments Magazine, Retail Traffic, Expanded Retail Solutions, ABA Banking Journal, Shopping Center World, Healthcare Design and many other national and international publications.

SHOW INTRO:
As an experienced architect, musician, documentary short-film maker, design thinker and retail industry leader for over 30 years, my guest’s role as Chief Innovation Officer is aimed at maximizing the impact of diverse, multi-disciplined resources applied to his client’s deepest challenges.

While his role is to provide guidance and strategic input for the company’s centralized consulting specialties, he also impacts all practices nationwide (Community, Healthcare, Retail & Workplace) with strategy, experience design, problem definition, brand strategy and business consulting services.

His leadership has resulted in lasting relationships with clients such as Capital One, Nautica, The Home Depot, CVS/Pharmacy, Rite Aid, Von’s (a Safeway Company), Lucky Brand Jeans., Concentra, Majestic Athletic (a VF Company), Publix, JC Penney, BB&T, Wells Fargo, Comerica, and Bank of America.

He has spoken all over the world at international retail conferences.

He is on a number of retail industry trade and magazine boards and has authored numerous expert articles focused on retail design and customer experience in general and there has never been a time where we have spoken and I have not been challenged and learned something new.

Bruce Barteldt inhabits three worlds he is a ‘futurist/future thinker’ - He’s a ‘pragmatist realist’ who lives in the present moment and understands the functionality of design in the current era as it’s always changing. And... his thinking is ‘rooted in old Socratic ancient Greek teachings - The School of Athens.’

When I talk with him he’s always operating from these 3 worlds - They are less three distinct worlds than functional parallel universes that are intertwined. Think Tesseract from Interstellar.

Because he is this kind of thinker who operates at the intersections of these temporal worlds of past present and future, He’s the ideal person to talk about where we stand right now and where he thinks we’re going and what we’re going to need as we navigate this journey.

INFO ON DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.5 Retail Is Not Dead - It's Right-Sizing with Jill Dvorak - VP Content and Retail Strategy, NRF

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 1 Oct 2020 05:59:50 +0000

INFO ON JILL DVORAK:

Website: https://nrf.com

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillsalomon/

Twitter: @JillDvorak

JILL'S BIO:

Jill Dvorak is Vice President of Content and Retail Strategy at the National Retail Federation.
In this role, she manages the strategic development and delivery of relevant content for all NRF platforms.
She oversees the team responsible for bringing the retail content to life.
She also leads the executive level NRF Digital and NRF Marketing Executives Councils.
Before joining NRF, Dvorak helped lead e-commerce at National Geographic where she consistently achieved revenue growth.
She was also responsible for partner relations with Fox TV Network and other groups to increase product sales.
Prior to that, Dvorak worked as a senior retail consultant at the consulting firm FitForCommerce.
Dvorak’s previous roles include leading North American consumer e-commerce for Encyclopedia Britannica.
Before joining Britannica, she worked at Discovery Channel in the commerce department.
In addition to merchandising for Discovery Channel online and retail stores, she also led the branded merchandise department.
She has significant expertise in e-commerce, mobile, merchandising, UX and marketing.
Dvorak holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland with specializations in strategy and marketing, and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University.

INTRO TO THE SHOW:
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the shut down of industries like the hotel and hospitality business including food and beverage - restaurants bars, entertainment – movie theaters – and sports venues, and of course one of Americas past-times – shopping at retail stores.

Mom and pop shops or international mega brands it doesn’t matter, they all closed their doors. They may now be slowly beginning to reopen depending on geography or the company’s position on how to maintain a safe shopping environment. In some cases only to shut down again as COVID cases surge.

With occupancy rates in the hotel industry still hovering around to 40% is equally true that shoppers are choosing to stay home and buy more online and limit, or simply forgo, trips to Main Street or the mall.

Some retailers like those whose businesses were fundamentally online have thrived some retailers have barely survived another large name brands have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

None of this is particularly good news if you are an organization like the National Retail Federation whose mission is: “to advance the interests of the retail industry through advocacy, communications, and education. “

For over a century the National Retail Federation has represented the retail sector ‘standing up for the people, policies and ideas that help retail thrive.”And within those more than 100 years, there has probably never been a time when standing up for retail in the face of an invisible foe - the COVID-19 virus - has been so difficult.

So for someone like Jill Dvorak - the Vice President ofContent and Retail Strategy at the National Retail Federation, “managing the strategic development and delivery of relevantcontent for all NRF platforms” has undoubtedly beenthe challenge of a career.

Jill oversees the team responsible for bringing the retail content to life – but in the current crisis it may just be keeping retail alive is a key focus.

She probably has had to develop some Wonder Women-like powers of the past few months. And so I have invited Jill to talk with us about retail – the COVID crisis and leading into a changed retail future... welcome Jill Dvorak…

INFO ON DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.4 Paying Homage To A Dream with Damon Lawrence-CEO, Homage Hospitality

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 18:17:41 +0000

INFO ON DAMON LAWRENCE:

Website: https://www.anewkindofhospitality.com

LinkedIn profile:https://www.linkedin.com/in/hauspitality/

Instagram: @hauspitality

Twitter: @hauspitality, @stayhomage

Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Well, the dream of Damon Lawrence is one of perseverance in the face of recurring challenges that would have made most simply decided to choose a simpler path. It is one of where the content of one’s character is evident.

Originally from Pasadena, CA, Damon has always had a passion for entrepreneurship. In high school Damon was voted most likely to become a CEO and his classmates proved to be prophetic as the currently helms as Chief Executive Officer of Homage Hospitality.

Like many hoteliers, he grew to love hospitality as he rose through the ranks. Damon began his hospitality journey as a front desk agent at the Donovan House Hotel in Washington, DC while attending Howard University. He then moved into management at companies such as The Ritz-Carlton, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Dusit International. After noticing a lack of African American brand ownership and leadership in higher management ranks, Damon created the Homage Hospitality brand in 2014 and currently oversees operations and creative direction.

In July of 2018 Homage Hospitality opened their first property “The Moor” in New Orleans, LA. The small property stands out with an emphasis on the culture of New Orleans and its relation to multicultural heritage of the North African Moors in its design and architecture. The nearly 100-year-old facade sports Spanish Colonial features, while inside, the four suites have rustic elements of exposed brick and hardwood floors softened with Moroccan patterned textiles.

Damon Lawrence's dream is impassioned, authentic and genuinely focused on providing a hotel experience that is geared towards creating like something you’ve never seen before. It will feel like a new kind of experience - a new kind of hospitality. FINALLY.

INFO ON DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.3 From Nothing Something with George Gottl - CCO, UXUS

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 02:05:56 +0000

INFO ON GEORGE GOTTL:

Website: https://uxus.com

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uxusdesign/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/george_gottl/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uxusbv

Video:

George Gottl was born in Los Angeles, California.
He is the Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder of UXUS, a leading global strategic design consultancy that re-imagines consumer experiences for the 21st century.
UXUS creates innovative consumer experience solutions for clients such as McDonald’s, NIKE, InterContinental Hotels Group, Tate Modern and Bloomingdale’s Dubai.
Prior to UXUS, George was the Creative Director of Apparel at Nike and the Global Creative Director at Mandarina Duck.
George is a Graduate of Parsons School of Design, winning the Silver Thimble Award for design excellence.
He has spoken at various prestigious locations including Harvard-sponsored DMI Conference in New York, Microsoft-sponsored DMI Conference in Helsinki, Amsterdam Fashion Institute and Willem de Kooning Academy.
at UXUS they design with a psychological and emotive approach, for example, looking at the role of social media as it affects brand experience. The creative market is driven by “shareable moments”, which UXUS nurtures in order to drive engagement and interaction from services to interiors.

INFO on David Kepron:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.2 Coming To Our Senses with Ari Peralta-CEO, Arigami

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 9 Sep 2020 17:02:13 +0000

INFO on Ari Peralta:

Peralta launched Arigami ( https://www.arigami.co.uk ) in 2019 an independent innovation consultancy dedicated to helping organizations design healthier and happier environments.
Today Peralta and his company is a Forbes recognized provider for wellness and sensory-based strategies within hospitality, mobility retail and healthcare.
Arigami powers holistic innovation programs for start ups, corporate and academic labs seeking to mitigate anxiety by developing transformative immersive and service design solutions for complex human problems within the wellness, sleep and human performance.
Peralta is a guest lecturer at universities, international conferences and volunteering for organizations that promote "STEAM" education for children
Peralta was involved in the explore Mars summit and a speaker at the 2020 human to Mars summit.
Multi sensory research and experimental design is one of Ari Peralta's core skills.
Peralta began his career at Nielsen media research leading the way in measuring millennial media consumption from TV to mobile
He now focuses on building the connection between multi sensory cues, emotions and memory.
Peralta’s niche agency works in the area of wellness with a focus on:

Intelligence – case studies, design, tech, science
Agency – design and architecture firms, IOT connections, evidence-based design
Ventures – research teams prototyping

INFO on David Kepron:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

Ep.1 Creating Legends with Bill Bensley-Founder, Bensley

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Wed, 2 Sep 2020 22:42:53 +0000

David Kepron website: https://www.davidkepron.com

David Kepron Instagram: davidkepron

NXTLVL Experience Design Instagram: NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

INFO ON BILL BENSLEY:

Bensley website: https://www.bensley.com/studio/bill-bensley

Shinta Mani Wild:

Bill’s passion points are sustainability, conservation, wildlife protection and education. His Shinta Mani Wild tented camp in Cambodia is a living case study of his recently launched white paper “Sensible Sustainable Solutions.”

Another upcoming project which hits all his passion points. Each of Bill’s designs tells a story and he is also doing a new project in Antigua. Upcoming properties in Asia scheduled to open this year are the Intercon in Khai Yao, Thailand, using upcycled train carriages from the 1930’s and the Capella Hanoi in Hanoi, Vietnam.

https://www.bensley.com/media/sensible-sustainable-solutions/

Capella Hanoi

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam
Number of Keys: 49
Proposed Opening: Late 2020 (exact month TBA)
Design Story:

Many decades ago, before the war and all that preceded it, this was a small boutique hotel - “une petite auberge”, for those passing through Hanoi to see the Opera. With the charming opera building only steps away, it was perfect. One guest (who brought with him a new courtesan at every visit) was so enamoured with the building, he decided to buy it. With the help of his favorite operetta and lady of the night, Anna Held, it turned into a Maison Close of the highest caliber.

The investor turned panderer was not a skilled gambler, and on a night of bad luck he lost his beloved house of ill-repute to an army man. During the war it became a depot, crates of dynamite shuffling in and out while dust gathered on velvet chaise longues and crystal chandeliers. After the war, the general sold his property to a wealthy Vietnamese man - a lover of Opera.

This gentleman began a vast renovation, returning the building to its former glory as a five star -miniscule- hotel of great taste and a little madness. This little palace, Le Petit Fairmont, tells the story of the actors, opera singers, composers, stage and costume designers, and spectators who have passed through Hanoi over the last 150 years. Each suite trumpets the wonderful stories of the mischievous high society which passed through its doors. The story is told with over a thousand pieces of original memorabilia, costumes, theatre programs, photographs, set, opera spectacles, and original portraiture art by the incredible Kate Spencer. All of this fanfare on display in what was Asia’s most gay, in the traditional sense, place to frolic, to carouse, and then, just before sunrise, to put one’s head down.

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Eco-Warrior Bill Bensley Re-affirms Strong Commitment to Daily Wildlife Alliance Patrols at Shinta Mani Wild Despite Temporary Closure

In line with its total commitment to the protection of the forest and wildlife in the South Cardamom National park, Bensley Collection – Shinta Mani Wild continues to fund the team of 8 Wildlife Alliance Rangers and the ranger station at the camp to support them in their important mission, despite the luxury tented camp being temporarily closed to guests.

Eco-warrior Bill Bensley and his business partner Sokoun Chanpreda, purchased the 350 hectare or 800acre piece of land at a logging auction – ironically to STOP the property being logged to build a mine, in order to protect the forest and its inhabitants. Shinta Mani Wild is a living and educational case study of the things he is deeply passionate about, conservation, sustainability, wildlife protection and unique design.

Wildlife Alliance was founded in 1996 by the amazing Suwanna Gauntlett who has dedicated her life to wildlife protection around the world. The partnership between Shinta Mani Wild and Wildlife Alliance is paramount to the camp’s ethos.

Sangjay Choegyal, the camp’s former General Manager joined the rangers as a volunteer and in a recent 4 day patrol deep inside the National Park, they confiscated 8 chainsaws, 2 mini tractors, dismantled 16 logging camps, found remains of numerous poached animals and confiscated nearly 20 cubic meters of luxury timber that was on it’s way to the black market.

Bensley and his team have worked tirelessly to support the Wildlife Alliance Rangers at Shinta Mani Wild and continue to raise funds to support their critical work at the front line. Last year Bensley created a range of trendy one-off bejewelled upcycled denim jackets which sell at USD500 each with all proceeds going to Wildlife Alliance. These pair nicely with the ‘trashion’ bracelets refashioned out of confiscated snares. He is currently working with an Australian designed jewellery designer and gemmologist who has an exquisite bespoke collection of jewellery inspired by the forest and nature at Shinta Mani Wild which will be launched soon. Bill is currently preparing for his first ever exhibition of his own artwork which will be sold with proceeds going to Wildlife Alliance to fund the rangers’ patrols.

A statistics board at the camp shows the number of various items confiscated and animals saved and is updated daily. To date it includes 1,819 snares removed, 10 fires put out, 80 chainsaws, 1,632 pieces of illegal timber and 4 guns confiscated, 298 illegal fences dismantled, 76 turtles and 7 civet cats rescued as well as several other species.

“Some of Cambodia’s, and the world’s most endangered species still call the Cardamom mountains home, including 54 animals on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. As the forest cover disappears, so does the wildlife. It will take major conservancy of the evergreen forest for these fabulous residents to thrive again, but that is the goal at Shinta Mani Wild,” said Bill. We cannot, must not and will not give up on this important work to protect the forest and wildlife,” he continued.

Media Contact

Lee Sutton

Dynamic PR & Events

Tel: +65 8323 1240

Email: lee.sutton@dynamicpr.com.sg

Web: www.dynamicpr.co

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INTRODUCING EXQUISITE ‘NATURE’S TREASURY’ COLLECTION

BY AUSTRALIAN BESPOKE JEWELLER KATE MCCOY

TO RAISE MONEY FOR WILDLIFE ALLIANCE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Addendum Information to Release on Bensley Collection Shinta Mani Wild’s New Boutique

Collections/Unique Pieces:

Bamboo Collection:

Earrings: USD 26,375 - protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 63 days

Pendant: USD 17,375 - protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 40 days

Ring: USD 4,875 - protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 49 days

– limited edition of 5

Diamond, Tourmaline, Demantoid Garnet

18 karat white gold, 18 karat yellow gold

Bamboo collection:

was created as a homage to the sustainable nature of bamboo, a fast growing, robust material that can be used in furniture, building and crafts in place of the virgin forests that are illegally logged in the areas surrounding Shinta Mani Wild. The earrings and pendant are set in a bold and elegant geometric formation, reminiscent of an art deco style. The refined and deliberate lines work beautifully with the natural selection of colours. I was struck by all the varied shades of green in the Cambodian wilderness. Tourmaline gems evoke the fresh, energizing and revitalizing nature of the jungle. To elicit the warm sun glinting through the trees I chose a radiant cut Demantoid Garnet for its high refractive indices, a nice burst to contrast the linear baguette shapes. The 18 karat yellow gold setting of the baguettes mimic the sections you see in the way bamboo naturally grows. The diamonds add a glistening effect as in light catching the morning dew, cutting a peak to the straight form of the design. With a distinctive 18 karat yellow gold chain at 42cm, the pendant sits front and center on the décolletage.

Jewel of the Jungle:

One of a kind Cocktail ring: USD 30,625 - Protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 70 days

–Natural Green Zircon, Diamond, Demantoid Garnet, 18 karat white gold, 18 karat yellow gold

Design available in other colours: Sapphire, Ruby, Tanzanite, Mandarine Garnet, Rubelite or Tourmaline on request. POA

Jewel of the Jungle

This exceptional and sizable green radiant cut ring features a large unrivaled natural green gemstone that is the oldest gemstone dated on the planet at 4.4 billion years old. Zircon is a gemstone found in Australia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Cambodia. Kate McCoy has aptly named this ring the Jewel of the Jungle for its incredible rare green tones. The famous Tiffany’s Gemologist and gem buyer George Kunz was an avid fan of Zircon and proposed to change its name to “Starlite” to counter the market perception created by the much later manmade diamond simulant - cubic zirconia. Natural Zircon is the only gemstone that has a refraction and sparkle that comes second to diamond. Natural Green Zircons with no heat treatment and with as much brilliance and blue green tones as this one are extremely rare, notably so in such sizeable specimens as secured in this classically set ring. Sided by two bright eye clean baguette diamonds and two radiant cut demantoid garnets, this is a ring that will invoke many conversations. The rich jungle green of this center stone is unrivaled by any other gem. It is a truly mesmerizing Jewel to mark the legacy of the Shinta Mani Wild Jungle.

Amaranthine Orchids: One of a kind earrings and men’s pocket or tie pin.

Earrings: USD 28,680 -Protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 66 days

Tie Pin/Pendant: USD 8750 - Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 81 days

Amaranth Garnet, Diamonds -18 karat rose gold, 18 karat white gold

Design available in other colours: Sapphire, Ruby, Tanzanite, Mandarine Garnet, Rubelite or Tourmaline on request. POA

Amaranthine Orchid

Amaranthine means everlasting. These stunning earrings were inspired by my first walk from Head Quarters to my luxurious accommodation at Shinta Mani Wild. Instantly immersed in the wilderness, thick jungle vines teaming with life all around, the crunching pathway under my feet, the sound of birds and the nearby stream. No sooner was I stopped in my tracks. There she was, a fine, elegant, luminous sight to behold, radiating from the green, gracefully extending in front of me the most delightful purple orchid.

What a breathtaking flower, what a delight. In this moment I knew I must make her an immortal jewel. After searching through hundreds of gem stocks of the world’s most reputable gem dealers, at last I came across a very special and rare garnet from Mozambique, called Amaranth Garnet. No other gemstone could match the intensity and luminosity of my encounter that day. With gem rough from this source and of this quality being issued finite, these Amaranthine Orchid earrings are truly one of a kind. Designer cut kite shapes combined with trilliant cuts and marquise cuts, bring the memory of her striking beauty to an everlasting sparkle. Created with utmost precision by hand, the petals of the earrings are exquisitely pave set with fine white diamonds in 18 karat white gold while the stems and center stones are set in a 18 karat rose gold bringing femininity to the edginess of the cuts. The tie pin or Pocket pin orchid is a more masculine paired back and simple version of the more extravagant earrings, designed to be worn as a couples set for a special event.

Prang pendant: Limited edition of 5.

Pendant: USD 18,575 - Protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 35 days

Black Diamond, White Diamond. 18 karat yellow gold.

Prang Pendant

This striking talisman spire like pendant design was inspired by Prang Architecture of The Khmer Empire. Set in 18 karat yellow gold are black and white diamonds in baguette, princess and round brilliant cuts. The pendant’s elongated spire like form is an elegant length with the geometric forms giving it a modern edge. This extraordinary piece hangs from a diamond cut black spinel beaded necklace. A unisex design we can see it styled elegantly for a glamourous evening or to give a rockstar edge to black jeans and a shirt on the daily.

Bensley Stripes Ring set: Limited edition of 5 sets of 5 rings.

Black Diamond, White Diamond - 18 karat yellow gold.

Bensely Stacking ring baguette stripes (top) USD 2125 Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 21 days

Bensley Stacking ring black diamond (2ndfrom top) USD 1700 Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 15 days

Bensley Stacking ring princess (3rdfrom top) USD 2450 Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 26 days

Bensley Stacing ring white diamond (2ndform bottom) USD 2125 Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 21 days

Bensley Stacing ring square stripes (bottom) USD 2125 Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 21 days

Bensley Stripes Ring set

We love Bill Bensley’s black and white stripe signature in his designs. We designed these black and white diamond and 18 karat yellow gold very fine rings as a homage to the Bensely Collection interiors. A fun and classic stacking set to be bought all together or separately. Pair them with your current rings or start your very own collection. We love them for their fine setting and simplicity.

Amaranthine Temple flowers: One of a kind ring an earring set – available in other colours on request.

Ring: USD 12,200 - Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 116 days

Earrings: USD 16,050 - Protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 33 days

Amaranth Garnet, Diamonds -18 karat rose gold, 18 karat white gold

Design available in other colours: Sapphire, Ruby, Tanzanite, Mandarine Garnet, Rubelite or Tourmaline on request. POA

Amaranthine temple flowers

This set of ring and earrings are inspired by the stone carved flower motifs seen in the temple walls at Angkor Wat. The petal halo of fine diamonds in marquise and princess shapes frame a stunning rare cushion shape amaranth garnet sourced from Mozambique.

Amarantine Geometry – limited edition of 5, Ring and Bracelet

Ring: USD 8,200 -Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 78 days

Bracelet: USD 15,800 - Protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 34 days

Amaranth Garnet, Diamonds - 18 karat rose gold

Design available in other colours: Sapphire, Ruby, Tanzanite, Mandarine Garnet, Rubelite or Tourmaline on request. POA

Amaranthine Geometry.

Repeating the same a geometric principle of the temple flower collection to form a beautiful pattern on the inside of this bangle and ring, this set is made from 18 karat rose gold, Amaranth garnet and diamonds. A simple yet luxurious jeweled design for everyday wear.

Emerald Vines – limited edition of 5, Ring and Bangle

Ring: USD 12,250 - Protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 28 days

Cuff: USD 20,500 - Protects 100% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (843 acres) for 48 days

Emerald and Diamond - 18 karat yellow gold

Design available in other colours: Sapphire, Ruby, Tanzanite, Mandarine Garnet, Rubelite or Tourmaline on request. POA

Emerald vines

Set in 18 karat yellow gold are beautiful oval shape Zambian emeralds and rose cut diamonds. The inside of this luxurious yet simple bangle and ring is a stunning vine motif, a memento of Shinta Mani Wild experience. What I particularly love about the Emerald vines and Amaranthine collections is that the details that are on the inside of the jewellery are for the wearers experience only. Many memories of travels have had a profound effect on me as a designer and in this way I wanted these pieces to be something that guests can wear on the daily after their stay, and that each time they put them on, that inner experience of the jewellery design marks the impression and the memory of Shinta Mani Wild in their hearts.

Zest Collection – One of a kind Cocktail set

Ring: USD 2950 - Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 23 days

Earrings: USD 3126 - Protects 25% of Shinta Mani Wild forest and its wildlife (210 acres) for 28 days

Lime Citrine - 18 karat yellow gold

Available in other colours upon request subject to gem availability.

Zest Collection

Zest collection is a fun cocktail set that was inspired by the cocktail bar at Shinta Mani Wild.

Vintage with its eclectic furniture, leather lounges and artifacts yet ultimately fun and loud with its colour and quirk.

If you have the pleasure of enjoying one or many of the amazing cocktails at Shinta Mani Wild. This collection will evoke for you the unqiue refreshing Cambodian Sombai liqueur, fresh fragrant kaffir lime and squeeze of zesty lemon.

This collection features lemon quartz designer cut gems, set in 18 karat yellow gold with fine antique filigree detailing in the metal work of the setting.

All pieces are customised to individual wrist and ring sizes.

Insured shipped by reputed international courier. Subject to taxes based on customer location.

Available Online September 1st 2020: www.naturestreasury.com.au

Image Link for Collection : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GHEisRHgZC5ULwu4Hf6VDpY219hypDis

For further information and reservations at Bensley Collection-Shinta Mani Wild visit www.bensleycollection.com/shintamani-wild, call tel: +855 63 969 123 or email: wild@shintamani.com.

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For press information or to discuss feature ideas, interview opportunities and press trips contact:

Lee Sutton, Dynamic PR & Events

Tel: +65 8323 1240

Email: lee.sutton@dynamicpr.com.sg

Website: www.dynamicpr.co

NXTLVL Experience Design - Highlight Reel-2

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 13:45:31 +0000

These quote share ideas form their individual interviews about how important the 'concept' is for hotels as a driver to experience, how the nature of the digital world has influence across the experience moment s of our day and how retails are now having to face the discussion about racial inequality in the US and how this message is being considered as a means of remaining relevant.

NXTLVL Experience Design - Highlight Reel-1

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 23:13:41 +0000

George Gottl is the Chief Creative Officer at UXUS, a multidisciplinary design agency specializing in strategic design solutions for: Retail & Marketing, Architecture & Brand Experience. Checkout the work and smart thinking about brand experience design that George Gottl and his team have created at: https://uxus.com

Ari Peralta is the Co-Founder and CEO of Origami International an award-winning strategic research consultancy dedicated to wellness. See more about the amazing work that Ari does bringing together neuroscience and experience design at: https://www.arigami.co.uk

Damon Lawrence is the CEO of Homage Hospitality - a new kind of hospitality that the industry has not seen before. Purpose-driven and geared toward celebrating the stories of African American experience through hotel design, Damon and his vision are an important new development in the hotel business. See more at: https://www.anewkindofhospitality.com

NXTLVL Trailer Ep 0.0

david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.com (David Kepron) — Tue, 4 Aug 2020 15:45:47 +0000

David Kepron explains that the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast will bring you daring and different dialogues about “DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.”

David Kepron establishes the nature of the show suggesting that he will have spirited conversations with some of his favorite creators of places and things.

You’ll hear from provocateurs for whom disruption and transformation are a way of engaging in work and play everyday.

Guests will include thought leaders who are driven by a passion to create the ‘new possible’ and promote new paradigms of experience into the mainstream.