Dare to shift back to human - Elana Rudick
5/17/202654 min
Montreal-based creative director and founder of Design is Yummy, Elana Rudick, returns to the podcast for the first time since season one. With twenty years in the industry and a new talk on the horizon, Elana joins Radim to explore what it really means to make design human — from the studio floor to the stage.
They cover the rollercoaster of running a creative studio post-pandemic, why slowing down your thinking is the new competitive advantage in an age of rapid AI execution, and what happens when a chocolate bar becomes your CV.
Elana's new keynote, "The Shift to Human: Reconnecting with What Matters," gives this conversation its spine — a call to bring soft skills, relationship-building, and radical accountability back to the centre of creative work.
Takeaways
- Post-pandemic unpredictability has forced creative studios to diversify and pivot — and that pressure, uncomfortable as it is, makes you better
- Thinking and execution are separate skills; as AI speeds up making, the quality of your thinking matters more than ever, not less
- Sitting with work before presenting it — resisting the rush — is a discipline that consistently produces better outcomes and deeper client trust
- Accessible tools haven't removed the need for designers; they've changed the conversation that happens before a brief even arrives
- Soft skills — communication, empathy, relationship-building, curiosity — are the most transferable assets any creative can carry into an uncertain future
- Calling three people a day throughout the pandemic built some of Elana's most enduring and trusted professional relationships
- Daring doesn't need to be loud or gimmicky — it just means stepping outside your own comfort zone, whatever that looks like for you
- Showing up as your best self is the foundation; the work, in whatever form the future demands, will follow from that
Daring Creativity. Podcast with Radim Malinic
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsElana Rudick· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] The way you make things is really important, what your philosophy is, and for me, that is about people. And I always assume that things are gonna go wrong. I try and be optimistic. In a perfect world, everything goes right, but what is my plan B? What is my plan C? How am I gonna adjust when things don't go well? And I think when you work in a way that prioritizes people, they have your back. I wanna see anybody that I'm working with as a creative be at their best, so that's a question that I'm always asking, is, "What type of work do you wanna do? What lights you up, both inside and outside of the office? What matters to you? What do you care about?" Because that's what is important, I think, ultimately, as a leader, is to understand what makes people tick and how to work with them in the best that they feel their best, too.
Radim Malinic· Host0:56
[upbeat music] Welcome to the Daring Creative D podcast, the show about daring to forever explore creativity that isn't about chasing shiny perfection. It's about showing up with all your doubts and imperfections and making them count. It's about becoming more of who you already are. My name is Radim Malinic. I'm a designer, author, and eternally curious human being. I'm talking to a broad range of guests