Pop culture inspires some serious fun.Join hosts Todd Coats and Elliot Strunk, two creatively curious pals living between the bookends of grand museums and dive bars, the sweet spot where highbrow and lowbrow become drinking buddies. They talk influential work and uncover stories of how the familiar became iconic. Think Behind the Music for the stuff we love.-----Visit https://www.twodesignerswalkintoabar.com/ for images, links, episode extras and more.-----Two Designers Walk Into a Bar is part of the Evergreen Podcasts network.
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The late '80s and the '90s were a golden age for magazines. With the World Wide Web a few years away, advertising dollars were being pumped into print and art directors and publishers did not disappoint with their offerings. In this episode we talk about Raygun, Wired, Rolling Stone and Vibe and the approaches of David Carson, Plunkett + Kuhr, Fred Woodward and Gary Koepke. Elliot also tells the story of trying to get an internship at one of these lauded publications.
Flip to your favorite liquor ad and show it to your nearest mixologist. It's...
Episode 87 • 28 August 2024 • 58m and 9s
The late '80s and the '90s were a golden age for Gen X music, even well beyond the long shadow of Nirvana's Nevermind. We flipped through the crates to prep for this episode. With sore fingers and tired eyes we walk through iconic albums by Bjork, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Pixies.
Grab your favorite concert t-shirt and a cool PBR. It's time once again to join us in the bar.
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Episode 86 • 14 August 2024 • 59m and 3s
Gen X was coming of age during cynicism and ironic detachment. A DIY attitude rooted in authenticity coupled with increasing access to personal tech and an explosion of choices in alternative media. And most importantly, lack of trust in corporations. Companies (and their marketing departments) had to think of ways to sell to those who didn’t want to be sold to... Advertisers like Benetton, the Gap and and Diesel Jeans undertook this task with some interesting results.
Grab a cold growler of your DIY homebrew and join us back in the bar.
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Episode 85 • 31 July 2024 • 54m and 17s
We’re revisiting one of our classic episodes.
Bum-bum-ba-bum-bummm…Nothing brings the world together every couple of years like the Olympic Games. With such a large stage and a chance to influence audiences around the globe, designers jump at the chance to create something great. In this episode we discuss what did (or didn’t) happen in Denver in 1976 and the Technicolor vibrancy of Los Angeles in 1984.
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Visit our full episode page for show notes, the visual examples we discuss, additional links and more!
https://www.twodes...
Episode 84 • 26 July 2024 • 57m and
Let’s plop down on the couch in your favorite record store or skate shop for a few minutes. It’s time to relive the end of the 1980s and begin a new decade of cultural change.
In this episode we discuss what was in the news, the invention of the "slacker" character, the mood of skepticism, irony and emotional detachment that grew out of the glossy 80s, culture jamming and not selling out even as personal technology began to take hold. We also try to get to the bottom of whatever the term "alternative" actually meant.
Episode 83 • 17 July 2024 • 41m and 19s
Record albums. You know 'em. You love 'em. But do your favorites fall short when art overshadows music (or vice versa)? We invited a couple of buddies to the bar — Joe Watson and Toby Brazwell from the Riffs on Riffs podcast — for a conversation about a handful of desert island-level albums: how they sound, what they look like and if, ultimately, the combination works. We talk earworms, visual puns, the classic and the obscure, leveraging their expertise to make us look smart and their wallets to cover our tab.
Crack open a beverage, find a seat and see...
Episode 82 • 3 July 2024 • 1h, 11m and 58s
History repeats itself... There are no new ideas… Everything old is new again…
Sure, we get excited when we have custom meal kits delivered to our homes or when we see amazing food in farmer’s markets and grocery stores near our homes. But food marketing has been around for a really long time. Today we discuss a couple of popular approaches from yesterday that continue to reappear in pop culture today: Charles Chips and fruit crate labels.
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Visit our full episode page for show notes, the visual exampl...
Episode 81 • 19 June 2024 • 51m and 39s
Did you ever look at a building with a business inside and think, “Yeah…that totally used to be something else” and wonder how you knew that? You know, the jewelry store that used to be a pizza parlor or the drive-up coffee shop that was once a spot to drop off film are peppered in towns all across the country. Today we’re talking about a couple of businesses that, in their respective heydays, could be found in shopping centers and strip malls everywhere.
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Episode 80 • 5 June 2024 • 51m and 55s
There are visual icons that have symbolized professions for so long their origin stories are unknown to the very customers served by them. These independent businesses are owned by all kinds of people serving millions on a daily basis throughout the world, all using these same basic signs outside their establishments. We're discussing barber poles and pawnbroker balls, two icons that, unless you’re truly in the middle of nowhere, you can find within minutes of where you live, work or both.
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Episode 79 • 22 May 2024 • 46m and 7s
We were lucky enough to have Donovan Beery of the long-running design podcast The Reflex Blue Show pull up a stool next to us.
We talk about some of our shared pop culture influences, listening to vinyl (and the creative opportunities record albums afford) and where we go to find inspiration (hint: Wikipedia addictions). We also found out Reflex Blue was inspired by bar conversations as well!
Bottoms up!
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Visit our full episode page for show notes, the visual examples we discuss, additional links and more!<...
Episode 78 • 8 May 2024 • 43m and 30s
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