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CAPTN OffScript

CAPTN OffScript

Written by: CAPTN OffScript
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 There's a version of the creative career conversation that almost never gets recorded. Not the award acceptance. Not the process breakdown. Not the polished origin story where every setback was secretly a setup. That version exists everywhere. This isn't that. CAPTN OffScript is where designers, founders, illustrators, and makers sit down and talk about what's actually going on — the fear before the pivot, the year where the work dried up, the identity crisis that came with success, the moment they almost stopped, and what kept them moving. The messy, honest, deeply human side of building a creative life. I'm Alen. I run a one-person type foundry called SilverStag Type, and I've been working in and around the design industry long enough to know what gets edited out of most interviews. I started this show because I was tired of highlight reels dressed up as conversations. I wanted to hear what creative people actually think — about money and meaning, about burnout and reinvention, about imposter syndrome and identity and the thousand invisible decisions that quietly add up to a career. So that's what we do here. We go long. We go deep. We don't rush to the takeaway. And because I'm not just a host — I'm a working designer who's navigated a lot of the same terrain — the conversations tend to go places most interviews don't reach. Guests have included Jessica Hische, Elliot Jay Stocks, Sophia Yeshi, Kieron Anthony Lewis, Philipp Louven, and Sergio del Puerto. What they share isn't a follower count or a famous client list. It's that they showed up willing to say something real — something I hadn't heard them say before, in any interview, anywhere. That's the bar. The show runs in two formats. The long-form Conversations are the main event — unscripted, one-on-one, unhurried. The kind of interview where we're still discovering things an hour in. Then there are the Monday Break(Through) episodes: shorter solo pieces from me, working through ideas and observations as a creative founder. Less polished. More honest. No five-step frameworks. No sponsor reads dressed up as advice. No artificial urgency. Just two people taking creativity seriously, and seeing where that leads. CAPTN OffScript started as The Type Convo — a typography-focused show — and evolved into something bigger when I realised the conversations I most needed to hear weren't about fonts. They were about what it actually costs to build something on your own terms, and what it means to keep going when the path stops being clear. If the "official" version of a creative career has never quite matched the one you're actually living — the doubt, the detours, the days when you're not sure what you're building or why — this show was made for you. New episodes drop regularly. Come in anywhere. Stay for the honesty.2025 - 2026 CAPTN OffScript Art Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Self-Help Success
Episodes
  • S02/E29 - Luis Mendo on Finding Your Value, Mundo Mendo & Why Social Media Is Dry Disgusting Bread

    S02/E29 - Luis Mendo on Finding Your Value, Mundo Mendo & Why Social Media Is Dry Disgusting Bread
    Apr 28 2026

    He grew up in Salamanca. Spent 20 years as an art director in Amsterdam. His father died. He boarded a plane to Japan for a sabbatical — and 14 years later, he's still there.

    Luis Mendo is a Spanish illustrator and the founder of Mundo Mendo — a personal membership project built on illustrated stories, shipped directly to readers with no algorithm in between. This is a conversation about finding your value, choosing happiness, and refusing to make salami for Zuckerberg.

    What we cover:

    • His father's death and why it led him to Japan
    • 20 years in Amsterdam — and why he finally chose to leave
    • Almost Perfect — six years of welcoming artists into his Tokyo home
    • Why social media is dry disgusting bread — and the salami analogy
    • Building Mundo Mendo on Ghost, the anti-Substack platform
    • Biking numbered, signed books to the post office himself
    • Why he's building something that survives him
    • Finding the value in your work — advice for young illustrators
    • Japan's exploding independent print and zine scene
    • AI is for laundry — and what he actually uses it for
    • What he wrote in a letter to his daughter growing up in Japan

    Connect with Luis Mendo:

    Website: https://www.luismendo.com/

    Mundo Mendo: https://www.mundomendo.com/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luismendo

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luismendo/

    Listen and subscribe:

    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/captn-offscript/id1837469433

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nJ5dKTP2dQN5OwICKjTY5

    More from Captn OffScript:

    Website: https://captnoffscript.com/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CAPTNOffScript

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript

    Newsletter: https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter

    If you liked this episode, listen to: Elliot Jay Stocks (S02/E25) — on building a direct relationship with your audience through newsletters, why human connection matters more than algorithms, and creating work that lasts.

    If you enjoyed this episode, leaving a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify takes less than a minute and helps more people find the show. I'd be incredibly grateful. 🙏
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • S02/E28 - Temi Coker: Put the Work You Want to Be Hired For & Everything Else Follows

    S02/E28 - Temi Coker: Put the Work You Want to Be Hired For & Everything Else Follows
    Apr 21 2026

    He wakes up at 4:30am. Two kids under two. Three hours of work before the house comes alive. This is how one of the most sought-after artists in America currently operates.

    Temi Coker is a Nigerian-American artist and creative director based in Dallas, Texas. His work has appeared in campaigns for Adobe, Apple, ESPN, AT&T, and the Oscars. He launched a home collection with Walmart in 2025. And he will tell you, clearly and without drama, that none of it happened by accident — it happened because he kept making the work he wanted to be hired for, long before anyone asked him to.

    What we cover:

    • Growing up in Lagos — limitations, bottle-cap football, and a love of colour
    • Moving to Canada and then Texas at 12, navigating two Black identities at once
    • Leaving biomedical engineering to pursue design — and why he doesn't regret either
    • Seven years of head-down work before the Adobe Creative Residency changed everything
    • How a pillow he made for fun led to the Walmart home collection
    • Apple said no four or five times — he now has 20+ collaborations with them
    • Financial literacy for creatives — the conversation nobody is having
    • Running a photography studio, a clothing brand, and raising two kids under two
    • Learning to actually accept a compliment

    Connect with Temi Coker:

    Website: https://temicoker.co

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/temi.coker

    Listen and subscribe:

    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/captn-offscript/id1837469433

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nJ5dKTP2dQN5OwICKjTY5

    More from Captn OffScript:

    Website: https://captnoffscript.com/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CAPTNOffScript

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript

    Newsletter: https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 6 mins
  • S02/E27 — Ingrid Picanyol: I'm a Designer, But Other Things Too — Poetry, Punk & Philosophy

    S02/E27 — Ingrid Picanyol: I'm a Designer, But Other Things Too — Poetry, Punk & Philosophy
    Apr 14 2026

    She chose graphic design over photography because she couldn't afford a camera. She chose it over philosophy because her teacher said get work first, study ideas later. Now she runs a studio of exactly three people, plays guitar in an all-women punk band with no expectations, writes articles on the bus, and has just started her philosophy degree.

    Ingrid Picanyol is a Catalan graphic designer based in Barcelona — and one of the most quietly profound conversations of the season.

    What we cover:

    • Growing up in the "Catalan Liverpool" — small town, punk band, leaving home at 16
    • $12 a day in New York, sleeping on couches, investing in a career
    • Why she keeps her studio to exactly three people — and why that matters
    • How a developer noticed her design process is basically poetry
    • Writing articles on the bus — and the Set Margins book coming from it
    • Why design can't satisfy every creative need — and what to do about it
    • Sending voice messages to ChatGPT asking what Plato thinks about difficult clients
    • Studying philosophy in her forties — and why now is finally the right moment
    • What she'd say to her 8-year-old self, who always felt like a stranger

    Connect with Ingrid Picanyol:

    Website: https://ingridpicanyol.com/

    Instagram (personal): https://www.instagram.com/ingridpicanyol

    Instagram (studio): https://www.instagram.com/ingridpicanyolstudio/

    Listen and subscribe:

    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/captn-offscript/id1837469433

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nJ5dKTP2dQN5OwICKjTY5

    More from Captn OffScript:

    Website: https://captnoffscript.com/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CAPTNOffScript

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captnoffscript

    Newsletter: https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter

    If you liked this episode, listen to: Marta Cerdà Alimbau (S02/E26) — another deeply personal conversation with a Catalan designer about creative identity, surviving the hard years, and why the work is worth fighting for.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
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