Radim Malinic, Designer / Author / Keynote Speaker
💭 Thoughts on inventing your own dream future, Marshall products, and how we consume content in a hyper-overloaded world.
Radim Malinic is a designer, author and keynote speaker. Living and working in South West London, he runs Brand Nu Studio, an award winning branding and creative studio + Brand Nu Books an independent publishing imprint. He’s also the founder of Lux Coffee Co. Before finding his calling in the creative industry, Czech born Malinic was an ice hockey player, a bassist in death metal bands, an indie DJ, music journalist and student of Economics and Business management. He’s also known for wearing odd colourful socks, so much that he gets upset when he can only find a pair of socks that match!
🎯 Current focus
A few weeks ago, I launched my latest venture Lux Coffee Co. A coffee start up for creative people, inspired by creative people. I’ve managed to tap into some of the most exquisite specialty grade coffee beans from around the world, all in the celebration of the moment we share with our creativity and one another. In my written and creative work, I put focus on elements of mindful creativity and living. So this coffee brand isn’t about chugging gallons of diner style coffee pots when the deadline is looming. My aim is to encourage creatives to take more meaningful breaks that actually can inspire creativity. It takes a long time to stop panicking about project deadlines. Creative is never meant to be easy, but it’s meant to be enjoyed. Time out gives us space to reflect. Also, I wanted to have an excuse to collaborate with other talent now and in the future. Our debut range was created in collaboration with Julie Solvstrom. I need to mention the kick ass merch we are shipping at the moment.
🔮 Inventing your own dream future
I think we live in a fantastic time where you no longer have to wait for opportunities to come and find you. We can invent our dream future, we can turn our wildest dreams into reality with the myriad of tools and networks that are available to us. To some, pursuing their dream can feel like the only option available. To others, you might not be able to find a scarier prospect. The magic happens when we push into the unknown. The world feels more open. We share more information than ever before.
🕉️ Mantra of the moment: No risk. No story.
The current motto that I am exploring is ‘No risk. No story’. It’s also the theme of my next book I’m working on at the moment. With the last two titles, Creativity for Sale and Mindful Creative, I’ve started building a toolkit for the 21st century creative.
📚 Three books, an album, and a podcast to dive into
For music, the latest album Dance While Falling by Quantic is simply incredible. Every year, I’m in awe that there’s a new album and they are all pretty top drawer! A true pursuit of artist dreams spanning more than two decades now. The next three books I’m going to start are The Songs of the Significance by Seth Godin and Big Magic by Elizabth Gilbert and The Courage to Be Disliked by Fumitake Koga & Ichiro Kishimi. Also, I always recommend The Career Blast in Half podcast with Loren Greif.
🎙️ Creativity for Sale the podcast
I run a podcast titled Creativity for Sale. It’s based on the theme of one of my latest books. It’s nice to have that extra buzzy element each week making sure new episodes are ready to ship every Monday morning with a bonus episode every Thursday. It took me a long time to find the right reason and angle for the show to bring value to listeners. It’s a great feeling knowing that you ship content that contains valuable takeaways regardless where the listener might be in the world.
🪞 How we consume content in a hyper-overloaded world
In terms of my favourite way to consume content these days, I’m split here in opinion. As an author who loves and publishes paperbacks – I find audiobook format extremely fitting in my daily schedule. As I always aim to create the most beautiful and engaging printed books, I find myself rushing here and there with one airpod in my ear listening to audiobooks and getting through them in record time, compared to finding time to sit down with a physical copy. I still buy at least a dozen new books every three months and find time to enjoy them. This is the true mirror on how we consume content in our hyper-overloaded world right now – we enjoy the convenience but still keep appreciating the physical attributes of printed media.
🔉 Marshall products
As a former musician, I will eternally love Marshall products. I love how the brand survived and even excelled with the transition to new products (like headphones and speakers) and solutions from being just brand making amps. As a current cycling obsessive, I really like MAAP and their clothing, too.
Follow Radim on Instagram & Linkedin check out his agency here.