I’ve followed Mike Smith ever since he designed the Perplexity brand identity and quickly realized he’s one of the most creative designers I’ve ever seen. Turns out his wife Chara is a positioning mastermind too so it makes sense why Smith & Diction is one of the hottest agencies in the game today.
So this week’s episode is a deep dive into brand strategy and what it takes to stand out in 2025 and beyond. We get into:
- What it takes to stand out in an AI world
- Their hacks for cracking a brand strategy
- Why the best brands have lots of “moves”
- Mike’s #1 piece of advice for younger designers
- What people really mean when they say “timeless”
- Their experience using Visual Electric in brand design
- Positioning Smith & Diction in today’s agency landscape
- a lot more
- We talk about how they used Visual Electric for their latest project (Alma Food). ⭐ Don’t forget you can use the code DIVECLUB to get your first month free.
- You can also check out the episode with Colin Dunn (CEO of Visual Electric)
- Mike says to make sure you watch the episode with Phi from Perplexity
- We talk about Topo, Cotopaxi and Steady bags