Mike and Chara Smith - Designing for the love of the game

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