Carl Rivera became Shopify’s Chief Design Officer in 2025, reinstating a design leadership position that was dormant at the company since the departure of its founding designer.

Earlier in his career, Carl co-founded Tictail, the Stockholm-based social shopping platform and marketplace known for its design. Shopify acquired Tictail in 2018, bringing Carl into the organization. He has since held product leadership positions at Shopify, where he led major initiatives serving millions.

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Books from the conversation

* The Bhagavad Gita

* The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

* The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by Carl G. Jung

* How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy

Carl on LinkedIn

Adrian Shaughnessy is a British graphic designer, writer, and educator, best known for bridging design practice with critical thought. A self-taught creative, he co-founded the influential studio Intro and later the publishing imprint Unit Editions, producing landmark works on design culture. His 2005 book How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul remains a favorite worldwide.

Adrian teaches at the Visual Communication program of the Royal College of Art in London as an associate lecturer. He has contributed essays, critiques and editorial work across major design publications, and under Unit Editions has published monographs on figures such as Herb Lubalin, Ken Garland, Lance Wyman, and Paula Scher.

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From the conversation:

* Graphic Design: A User’s Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

* Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer by Unit Editions

* How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy

* Manuals 2: Design & Identity Guidelines by Unit Editions

* Paula Scher: Works by Unit Editions

* Pentagram: Living by Design by Unit Editions

* Studio Culture Now by Unit Editions

* What is a Designer: Things, Places, Message by Norman Potter

uniteditions.com | x.com/AJWShaughnessy | shaughnessyworks-prints.com

Sari Azout is the founder of Sublime, the knowledge management tool designed to spark creativity. She was previously a partner at Level Ventures, head of strategy at Rokk3r Labs, and co-founder of Bib and Tuck, a curated community for pre-owned fashion.

Sari is an active thought leader in the spaces of creative work and AI productivity. She has spoken on how to be un-LLM-able at the Sana AI Summit in Stockholm; and written about about how creativity is the new currency of success, how storytelling is the most differentiating business skill of the 21st century, and how we can use AI to expand our creativity and our humanity.

Sublime’s latest release Whoa, Vol. 2: Conversations on AI × Creativity features in-depth conversations with original thinkers, including Seth Godin, David Perell, Venkatesh Rao, Seth Godin, and Substack’s head of design Mills Baker.

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* Framer: build websites, the easy way

* Rize: magically track everything you do

* Color AI: generate meaningful color palettes

* Sublime: turn ideas into worlds of inspiration

From the conversation:

* Being and Time by Martin Heidegger

* Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty

* Tom Ford by Tom Ford

* Ralph Lauren: A Way of Living by Ralph Lauren

* Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig

* The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing by Adam Moss

* God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning by Meghan O'Gieblyn

* The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present by Byung-Chul Han

sublime.app | x.com/sariazout