067: Utilizing Creative Approaches to Disrupt Business as Usual

Catalyst: A Creative Industries Podcast

Catalyst is a Creative Industries podcast, from Chapman University. Each episode features Chapman students who have completed a Podcasting course through the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries at the university. Students who had no podcasting experience or technical ability in the genre before taking the course were able to contribute all the segments to Catalyst this season with the goal being that they will take this ‘hands-on’ experience and carry it over to the launching of their very own series. Each episode of Season 8 will feature one to two different interviews conducted by CCI students, exploring different aspects of the Creative and Cultural Industries.

Our first interview features Melanie Phan speaking with Rachel Savord, a former event production assistant in the deep house and disco funk music industry, and now successful Etsy shop owner and artist. Melanie and Rachel delve into the cultural implications of Rachel’s work in the music industry, where they discuss the importance of learning the cultural roots of the music events she produced, and how Covid was the catalyst for the launch of Rachel’s Etsy shop, which she started as a way to shift her creative energy into starting her own small business. They touch on how all of Rachel’s experiences, from her International Relations studies in college, to work in the music festival industry to her current status as a small business owner and artist, relate and influence one another and how the philosophy of ‘remaining a learner’ as allowed Rachel to gain a balance of happiness and success in her career choices.

Charlie Molin wraps up our episode with his interview of Archie Lee Coates IV, the co-founder of multidisciplinary creative studio Playlab Inc. Playlab is a multidisciplinary creative studio founded in 2009 by Archie and Jeff Franklin. With “no particular focus”, they explore themes using art, architecture, and graphic design to initiate ideas for themselves and others. Charlie learns about Archie’s designing roots, which started in 6th grade via a summer program in Miami, and how he met his future co-founder, Jeff Franklin, studying Architecture at Virginia Tech. Archie relates how he and Franklin pursued what would eventual become Playlab Inc. over years of work and planning and the challenges of financial viability for a young studio and their efforts to keep it afloat in its early years. They end their talk with reflection on how Playlab Inc. realized they could sidestep traditional barriers to entry by having genuine conversations and building relationships instead of focusing only on the final product, noting for them, the studio is the project.