Meet Elliot Strunk Todd Coats

 

We recently connected with Elliot Strunk Todd Coats and have shared our conversation below.

Elliot Strunk, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

We have been friends for over 25 years. Near the beginning, we worked together designing branded materials for a giant corporation. Todd was the design manager and hired Elliot, a just-graduated spitfire of design talent and knowledge. We became fast friends through our love of pop culture and making each other crack up, mostly during inappropriate situations inside and outside work.

Flash forward a couple of decades. The world was neck-deep in the COVID pause, and we discussed the recent death of legendary MAD magazine cartoonist Mort Drucker. As with most of our conversations, this one ranged from deep thought to juvenile humor (we have range). So we thought, “Why deprive the rest of the world of this wellspring of pop culture and comedic genius?” and the Two Designers Walk Into a Bar podcast was born. Today, we are over 80 episodes into producing our podcast about pop culture and iconic design. We still have a long list of future topics and love doing it.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

We are both inspired by so much when it comes to pop culture and, well, life. Design is an applied art where you have to connect with people to deliver a meaningful story. That can be told editorially, visually or in some combination of the two.

We decided to challenge ourselves by creating a podcast, a medium that’s incredibly rich for storytelling but without a visual component. The result has been that the origin stories (and often the characters) behind pop culture artifacts we all know and love are often just as – if not more – interesting than the objects themselves.

We’ve talked about crazy topics like hobo alphabets, a cancelled Olympic Games, product flops and more than a few legal skirmishes behind some very common pop culture items. Who knew so much drama and legal tug-of-wars could be found outside of hip-hop beefs and celebrity romances?

We’ve also recently been part of crossover episodes to share our audience with other podcasts and have more diverse conversations. It’s been fun and we’ve enjoyed other people helping us stay on our toes.

We also enjoy virtual and in-person speaking gigs. Let us know if we can be a source of inspiration for your employees, clients or students.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The first quality for us is chemistry. The fact that we work well together means we trust one another and can take a “yes, and” approach when having our conversations. We know one person will help get the other one over the finish line while both of us are having fun doing it.

The second quality is passion. Love what you’re digging into. For us that’s pop culture and the design artifacts that have come out of it. We both enjoy research and doing the work when it comes to prepping for episodes. If Wikipedia and Google ever crash, it’s because we’ve worn them out.

And last, be curious. Don’t accept that things are just the way they are. Think about how we got to now. Just because something is newer doesn’t mean it’s always better. If there’s one thing we can all agree on with pop culture, it’s that it is constantly being reimagined and reinvented. There’s always more to unpack.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Great question.

As we mentioned earlier, we’re looking for more speaking gigs. That means we can speak to leaders of creative departments looking to inspire their team, lead an inspiration workshop for a group of clients or a room full of students.

We’d also like to figure out a way to get onto a college or internet radio station. If you know someone in that space, send them our way.

And last but not least, more guest spots and crossover episodes when it makes sense. If you think that’s you or someone you know, let’s talk.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

All images courtesy of Two Designers Walk Into a Bar

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