The Creative Condition podcast

Welcome to 'The Creative Condition' podcast: an ongoing exploration of human creativity to help you understand and maximise yours. The show is hosted by creativity coach, Founder of The Creative Condition, and The New York Times, Adidas, and Premier League illustrator Ben Tallon. Creativity is an often misunderstood pillar of human happiness, something far bigger than artistic talent and crucial for fulfilling lives and careers. Featuring exclusive interviews with experts and thought leaders, including illustrators, rock stars, artists, sensitivity experts, designers, emergency service workers, Olympic gold medal winners, comedians, microbiologists, photographers, fighters, and many others.Supported by founding sponsor illustrationx.com. Also supported by the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.ua

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Episodes

Wednesday Sep 18, 2024

The highlights episode is also out now!Professor Carlos Moreno, a specialist in the intelligent control of complex systems joins me to discuss the urgency to rethink the design of urban infrastructure in the face of the climate crisis among other collective problems.Author and pioneer of The 15-minute City, Carlos is a huge proponent of humancentric design, putting communities, creativity, and collective voices over capitalism-led planning.He explains his vision, why we have become so disconnected, and disaffected, and the role of the automotive industry in breaking up neighbourhoods, leading to marginalisation and inequality.One of the world's great minds brings some fantastic possibilities to The Creative Condition.https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-15-minute-city-a-solution-to-saving-our-time-and-our-planet-carlos-moreno/7627781https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?fetchDeterministicClustersOnly=true&heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAARSRwcBlT7inbfERe9iTxLLGhSfmB4TDCM&keywords=carlos%20moreno&origin=RICH_QUERY_SUGGESTION&position=0&searchId=dc31c44b-e817-4f25-93bd-68dd31a3568e&sid=h0O&spellCorrectionEnabled=falsehttps://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition book and the brand new 'Anatomy of Creativity' map.Sponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/@_TheCreativeCondition

Thursday Sep 12, 2024

You can listen to both the highlights and full-length episode with Erin now!There's a lot of fear out there. Pitching. Testing. Neurotesting. Data power. Nobody wants to fail and so nobody succeeds in the way those big, juicy, swaggering advertising campaigns can when the right balance of idea, risk, and attention to detail is struck.Erin Riley is moving up from U.S. CEO of TBWA/Chiat/Day, one of the world's biggest advertising agencies, to Global CEO of TBWA and we sit down right after the news to discuss why she wants to fight for creativity, to break through the algorithmic flattening of culture, and cultivate working environments that encourage risk and bold ideas.Erin worked client side under advertising legend Sir John Hegarty (Episode 75 for John), before taking a series of promotions. We get into her background, why her parents' encouragement to find her voice and build her identity was crucial, and what a CEO must do in a company with over 11,000 employees, trading on creativity.https://www.TBWA.com/https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition book and the brand new 'Anatomy of Creativity' map.Sponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/@_TheCreativeCondition

Wednesday Sep 11, 2024

The full length version of this episode is also out now! There's a lot of fear out there. Pitching. Testing. Neurotesting. Data power. Nobody wants to fail and so nobody succeeds in the way those big, juicy, swaggering advertising campaigns can when the right balance of idea, risk, and attention to detail is struck.Erin Riley is moving up from U.S. CEO of TBWA/Chiat/Day, one of the world's biggest advertising agencies, to Global CEO of TBWA and we sit down right after the news to discuss why she wants to fight for creativity, to break through the algorithmic flattening of culture, and cultivate working environments that encourage risk and bold ideas.Erin worked client side under advertising legend Sir John Hegarty (Episode 75 for John), before taking a series of promotions. We get into her background, why her parents' encouragement to find her voice and build her identity was crucial, and what a CEO must do in a company with over 11,000 employees, trading on creativity.https://www.TBWA.com/https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition book and the brand new 'Anatomy of Creativity' map.Sponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/@_TheCreativeConditio al

Wednesday Sep 11, 2024

There's a lot of fear out there. Pitching. Testing. Neurotesting. Data power. Nobody wants to fail and so nobody succeeds in the way those big, juicy, swaggering advertising campaigns can when the right balance of idea, risk, and attention to detail is struck.Erin Riley is moving up from U.S. CEO of TBWA/Chiat/Day, one of the world's biggest advertising agencies, to Global CEO of TBWA and we sit down right after the news to discuss why she wants to fight for creativity, to break through the algorithmic flattening of culture, and cultivate working environments that encourage risk and bold ideas.Erin worked client side under advertising legend Sir John Hegarty (Episode 75 for John), before taking a series of promotions. We get into her background, why her parents' encouragement to find her voice and build her identity was crucial, and what a CEO must do in a company with over 11,000 employees, trading on creativity.https://www.TBWA.com/https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition book and the brand new 'Anatomy of Creativity' map.Sponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/@_TheCreativeCondition

Friday Sep 06, 2024

The brand new tool for better consciously understanding and commanding your creativity is here. 'The Anatomy of Creativity' is a universe of components that inform, modify, and impact our creativity on any given day. By working through, and gaining a sense of how the components affect you, and influence one another, you can identify blind spots, opportunities for growth, and strengths to lead with.This is an explainer, and the map is available in print, or as a digital file for the price of a pint at https://bentallonwriter.com/shop.Supported as ever by https://illustrationx.comTake a moment to help out the Ukrainian Institute by supporting their creative community during this time of war. https://ui.org.ua

Thursday Sep 05, 2024

What we learned about creativity from multidisciplinary artist Sara Prinsloo!You can listen to the highlights and the full-length episode now.Sara Prinsloo tells stories across many different mediums. She's an artist who draws upon her working-class roots and personality and is not afraid to use her flaws to blistering creative effect.From 'trashy Barbie' installations to sculpture and drawing, we discuss the links between her personality and this spectrum of work, and why pride in who you are and your people is a golden source of inspiration.Sara also balances full-time work in teaching, as a technician, and conducts workshops to help young people by helping them connect to their creativity.https://www.saraprinsloo.co.uk/https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition bookSponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/@_TheCreativeCondition

Wednesday Sep 04, 2024

The full-length version of episode 241 is also available now.Sara Prinsloo tells stories across many different mediums. She's an artist who draws upon her working-class roots and personality and is not afraid to use her flaws to blistering creative effect.From 'trashy Barbie' installations to sculpture and drawing, we discuss the links between her personality and this spectrum of work, and why pride in who you are and your people is a golden source of inspiration.Sara also balances full-time work in teaching, as a technician, and conducts workshops to help young people by helping them connect to their creativity.https://www.saraprinsloo.co.uk/https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition bookSponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/@_TheCreativeCondition

Wednesday Sep 04, 2024

Sara Prinsloo tells stories across many different mediums. She's an artist who draws upon her working-class roots and personality and is not afraid to use her flaws to blistering creative effect.From 'trashy Barbie' installations to sculpture and drawing, we discuss the links between her personality and this spectrum of work, and why pride in who you are and your people is a golden source of inspiration.Sara also balances full-time work in teaching, as a technician, and conducts workshops to help young people by helping them connect to their creativity.https://www.saraprinsloo.co.uk/https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition bookSponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/@_TheCreativeCondition

Ep 240 part 2: Dirty Energy

Thursday Aug 29, 2024

Thursday Aug 29, 2024

In the last episode, 'The Power of Naughty', I explored the benefits of chaos energy well channeled. But what do we do with the little f**kers? In this episode, I read the 'Dirty Energy' chapter of The Creative Condition book, in which several teachers, community workers, and professionals share thoughts on how we provide better tools for embattled young people to express themselves, and tap into a unique form of creativity.https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition bookSponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/@_TheCreativeCondition

Wednesday Aug 28, 2024

Following on from the brilliant historian Professor Carl Chinn, I wanted to paint a layered picture of what it means to be working class, and the challenges we face in the arts in 2024. It is not a new phenomenon, but it is a problem that has been exacerbated over the 14 years from 2010-2024 under a Conservative government that preferred to heighten police powers and cut away arts and youth funding during a mental health crisis.As we move toward a glimmer of hope with a new Labour government, I read the 'Power of Naughty' chapter from The Creative Condition book, which better illustrates the nature of this beast than I could in a rambled monologue.  Part 2, 'Dirty Energy' is coming next.https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition bookSponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.uaHosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s28rwnz18j4

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