Christian Solorzano [00:19]

Hey there, you're listening to Underscore, a podcast by the Chicago Graphic Design Club. I am your host, Christian Solorzano, and in today's episode, I speak with Candace and Rotimi of the multidisciplinary design studio Show Design. And together they bring forward a unique approach to brand and industrial design. And in this conversation, we dive deep into their collaborative process, approach, and origins of their studio.

Plus, we learn about the ways that they keep themselves inspired Throughout all that comes with running a design studio, producing work, managing a team, and so much more. I had the chance to see the both of them speak in late 2023 and was amazed by their craft, attention to detail, and combined creative spirits. So as always, I thank you so much for tuning in, for listening to this conversation. Thank you for the support. And we'll talk soon. Good morning.

Thank you so much for being on our show this morning.

Rotimi Solola [01:30]

How's it going?

Candace Solola [01:31]

Going good. Morning, blessed. Happy to be here.

Christian Solorzano [01:34]

And you're both matching. The listener can't see this, but here's the thing.

Rotimi Solola [01:39]

I put this on first.

Candace Solola [01:41]

No, I laid out my clothes on the bed first, and then Candace saw that and got inspired. So we didn't plan this. She just likes to match, I guess.

Christian Solorzano [01:51]

Is there a lot of unplanned planned things in your partnerships and collaborations?

Candace Solola [01:57]

I guess so. I think so, for sure, actually. Definitely a lot of unplanned outfits that end up coordinating. But also, yeah, even the fact that us doing business together was never planned from the beginning. We met and I knew she was a designer. She knew I was a designer, but we had no plans to go into business together. And it just worked out. I'm working out fairly well. I mean, we're still early in the, in the, in our journey. But yeah, it's been good.

Christian Solorzano [02:28]

We've interviewed other studios that are, that are run by like a partnership, both like a business partnership and like life partnership. And I'm always very curious about knowing the origin story of how people met. So can you share with the listener how, how'd you guys meet?

Candace Solola [02:47]

Yes, it's a long story, but I'll give you the Cliff Notes version. At the time I was interning, I believe, at Minimal here in Chicago, and Candace was working at an agency called Web Devlam, both in the West Loop area. And I think I had caught a glimpse of her a while back. We both commuted from the south suburbs of Chicago. And this one morning, I think I was running a little bit late.

I got on the— we had to take the Metra train, and then we get off on the Metra and then hop on the Green Line or something. And I hopped on the Green Line. I was on the platform waiting for my train, and I saw her. So I just decided to go up and talk to her. And so I asked her for directions.

Rotimi Solola [03:34]

To a place that he already knew where he was going to. That's kind of how we first met.

Candace Solola [03:40]

How we first met.

Rotimi Solola [03:43]

Yeah. And we just talked briefly, and then we kind of went our separate ways. We didn't exchange information, anything like that. And then a couple weeks later, he was in the lobby of my job.

Candace Solola [03:56]

Okay, there's the backstory.

Rotimi Solola [03:59]

There's a little bit of backstory there. Basically, my job had reached out to him wanting to interview him for a role because my role at the time had both graphic design and industrial design as well. So their industrial design team was reaching out to him because they were interested in, having an interview with him. So he ended up taking the interview and, yeah, showed up in the lobby one day of my building, and I was really shocked to see him.

But it was kind of like a really like pleasant surprise. And from there, that's kind of how we ended up exchanging information. And that's, yeah, it was the rest of kind of history.

Candace Solola [04:42]

Not at the office.

Rotimi Solola [04:43]

Not at the office. Bar afterwards. Everyone went out. But that's kind of how we first met. And then, yeah, that was back in, what, 2015? So it's been a, it's been a long journey, and we've dated and got married. We ended up getting married 2 years ago.

So that's kind of like a little bit of our backstory, but it's kind of a fun coincidence that we both happen to be designers working in the same, kind of in this, 2 blocks, 2 blocks from each other at that time. So it was really cool.

Christian Solorzano [05:14]

So going back even further, one of you is an industrial designer and a brand designer, and I want to hear about from the both of you, but what were some of the earliest memories of like products or like objects or anything that spoke to you within industrial design or just graphic design or just design in general?

Candace Solola [05:36]

No, for sure. I mean, for me on the industrial design side, I would say I tell people all the time, I'm doing what I used to do when I was 12. Now I'm just, getting paid to do it, so to speak. For me, earliest memories were— I don't know how— maybe not earliest memories, but, back to being 8, 9, 10. Obviously, there's the Legos. But my parents were very strict, so I didn't get all the toys I wanted.

There was a lot of things I really wanted I didn't get. And so that just forced me to be creative and, the one thing we had plenty of was paper. So I would actually draw out little gadgets and gizmos on paper, and I would cut them out and fold them and wear them. I was really into Spy Kids and gadgets and Inspector Gadget and all the Mission: Impossible, all those kind of spy movies.

And so I used to construct, night vision goggles and whatever you could think of out of paper. And so that was sort of my early Childhood, I played with that, and that was, that was good for me. And I found that the most fun part was making it after you, can't really play with a piece of paper for much longer until it, until it gets destroyed. But you could always make more.

Rotimi Solola [06:49]

And I guess for me, I kind of always had a bit of creativity. I used to draw a lot. My mom kind of showed me what— I think this was back in either grade school or high school. I can't remember exactly, but she kind of gave me some pointers or tips on drawing because she used to like— she used to take art classes and things. So she gave me some tips on how to draw, like draw certain things.

And then like from there I took some art classes and things like that in high school and just got really into drawing. I did some painting and other just like DIY arts and crafts sort of things. So I always knew that I wanted to do something creative. Didn't know it would manifest itself in like graphic design necessarily, but I think that just like creativity was always, has always sort of been with me.

Candace Solola [07:38]

After my internship, after we met, I went back to, well, I was finishing up my last semester at school, ended up working at Motorola for a little over 2 years as my first job out of school in their design department for mobile phones. And after, a couple of years, I decided, it's time for me to venture out. And actually, I wanted to— I was working on a little side project, I was developing a utility kind of multi-tool pen.

And I wanted to kind of see what it would be like to take something from start to finish, all the while also, freelancing. So I basically, resigned, put in my notice, and in 2017 started freelancing and working on this passion project on the side. Which eventually launched on Kickstarter and was, raised the money and got sold and all that type of stuff.

But basically, I did a few years of freelance, or a couple of years of freelance before officially forming Show Design as an LLC back in 2019. And from there, it was mostly a one-person operation, myself with the moral support of Candace.

And Every now and again, we might have a project, usually on her side. She might get a packaging project where she needed some help on the industrial design side. So I'll come in. And so we kind of did that casually for a while before Candace most recently joined. Yeah.

Rotimi Solola [09:13]

So when I came into this sort of full-time was back in 2022. So right around the time we got married. Was when I sort of left my full-time role and joined Rotimi full-time. So one of the things we had been in discussions about was just we both had this sort of ambition of— Rotimi had already sort of started and ventured off and doing his own thing, but I've always also had a similar ambition of owning my own studio one day.

And kind of, I've always had sort of that entrepreneurial mindset. And so knowing that I would eventually want to do something like that, we had been in talks about how we can kind of come together and do this thing together and thinking about how we can sort of expand show design from being more strictly focused around industrial design into kind of encompassing brand design as the sort of equal capability.

And so that's in 2022 was when I joined and brought my sort of brand building knowledge and expertise into our studio. And from there, we've just sort of been on this journey of like, Growing the business, acquiring a studio space, starting to build and expand the team, that sort of thing. So it's kind of been a pretty overall pretty seamless journey.

I mean, there's been some, definitely been some ups and downs and lots of learning along the way, but there, it's been kind of cool to see the fact that our, both of our passions can kind of come together and create something like this.

Candace Solola [10:44]

So.

Christian Solorzano [10:44]

Can you share any of like the growing pains that come with Starting something like this, I'm always interested in because obviously the work that the both of you are producing is like exceptional, and I think that's that that's very evident through like your websites and everything that is out in the public. But can you share any like behind the scenes? Like what was it like to get to this point? Listeners usually become really inspired by. Hearing those stories. So anything you could share about that?

Candace Solola [11:20]

Yeah, I mean, I will start it off since I started off the business and then Candace will join because Candace had a little bit of a different experience. For me, I will say because I kind of eased into things over a long period of time, which is kind of the best.

I think Candace had a little bit more of a like jumping into, from— it's very different going from corporate or you weren't in corporate necessarily, but going from a larger established business to like then being, front and center. But for me, when I left Motorola, things slowed down a little bit. I didn't have a huge client list or anything like that. I had a few, a couple of clients and I was just able to ease into things.

And so it really just grew out of a necessity. I would say early on it was just yeah, just freelance. I think one of the learnings that I had to shift my mind in the first few years was like, client acquisition was a little tricky, still is. And, I've always told myself, we're not salespeople, right? When I launched my product and built the website and sold it, that was the first realization, okay, I'm really good at ID, I understand manufacturing, but I do not understand sales.

And that was evident when I tried to pay for ads and do all that stuff. And Got very little reaction from it. And so it taught me that, okay, there is value in collaboration and finding, people that can do those things, which is really when you start to dip into entrepreneurship, right? It's one thing to be a one-person business, but when you're trying to grow something, then you really become more of an entrepreneur. So that was one thing when it comes to the client acquisition side.

A couple of things I learned early on. One was that for me, at least right now, cold emails, cold phone calls, whatever you call them, they don't really work for me. And I would say, not that they don't work. I haven't cracked the code on how to be enticing in my email enough for someone to read it and then be like, sure, I want your services. I also know it's a volume game, right? You have to send so much of it out.

And I've never been that kind of person. I'm very much targeted, even when I applied for jobs, it was 1 or 2 jobs I applied for and I got it because I've always been very targeted and strategic in my approach. And so I think that was one thing that became clear is client acquisition is a little tricky and I should calm down with trying to work with everybody, which is one of the reasons I wanted to start a consulting practice.

But I should focus on my clients that I have right now and how do I deliver the best service to them? Even at my own expense sometimes, just so that they feel like they can come back again and again and again, and they feel like I've got their back. So—

Rotimi Solola [14:23]

Or that they want to recommend you.

Candace Solola [14:25]

Or that they want to recommend us. Yeah, exactly. And that definitely happened. So I would say that was, that was one thing that I learned as well as, yeah, understanding when to bring in help. Yeah. And I don't know what about you.

Rotimi Solola [14:42]

Yeah, I would say, for me, one of the biggest things was sort of shifting, or, and I'm still kind of in this, in this process, but like shifting from that sort of designer role into being more business-minded and thinking about all these aspects of the business that we really need to focus on to make this thing successful. So it's not only, creating and delivering like awesome design work. It's like, okay, how are we thinking about like the finance aspect of it?

Or like Rotimi said, the client service, or bringing in new business, or all these— there's so many different parts and pieces that you don't fully recognize or appreciate about that goes into this process of making a successful studio run. And so I think that was one of the big things for me is just okay, how do I wrap my head around all of this? How do I sort of efficiently be able to juggle all of these different pieces.

And I know that we're partners, and so we have a good way of sort of balancing each other and also kind of sharing the workload as well. So I think that's really helpful to have a partner in this. And the good— the things I'm good at and, that he might not be good at, I'll kind of take on, or vice versa. And so we kind of complement each other in really good ways. But I think that sort of business mindset was one of the big things.

And then I also think the last thing I'll say is just like team building has been a journey for us as well, which has been, again, it's just a different thing from going from, a more established company where you're not necessarily responsible for all of the hiring and all of the, keeping an eye on all the talent and surveying the, surveying industry and making sure you're kind of on top of all of that to sort of being in the middle of it, making sure you're looking for the right people or, you're constantly on top of like— Making sure you're on the lookout for the next, the next person you want to bring onto the team and making sure that it's the right fit.

And so we've kind of been on this journey of like figuring out like, how do we build out the right team? And, it's just, constant learnings that come along with that. So, yeah.

Candace Solola [16:48]

And I will say, that's a big one that's maybe more now where we are because we're in a position where we're growing, where, we have enough revenue to say, okay, we can hire. But, before that, I think one other challenge that I faced early on is, well, taxes. Let's just be real. I've always, my mom was—

Rotimi Solola [17:18]

Yeah, that gets you.

Candace Solola [17:18]

My mom had her own business and, my dad was an accountant. So I'm very aware of how the importance of that. And so fortunately for me, early on, I always knew, even when I was freelancing, how important it is to keep documentation, receipts and budgets and things like that.

But, it's also, doing projections and forecasting and it can be a risky game too because if your forecasts are too high and then you end up overspending, there's a lot of things that we had to learn how to balance. And one of the things was like, okay, build a, if your business is around long enough, you build sort of history and you can say, okay, the last 3 years, this is how we grew or this is what we did.

So presumably this is what we can expect this year or next year, right? But one of the challenges was we were getting there when it was a one-person business. And then when we scaled and fortunately, Candace brought in quite a few clients of her own and we pretty much doubled in revenue the year Candace came in. And that was great. But then we almost had to start over with our forecasting because like, okay, there was the pre-scaling business, which was just like a one-person show.

And then there was the post, or, the post one-person show where it's like we're actually building to grow to a certain extent, not like grow massively, but yeah. And then I think the other thing we're facing too, another challenge, there's a lot of challenges. I'll stop here after this. But I think the biggest challenge we're facing is the designer doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna be a great business, person or a great, finance individual, right?

And being a business, a good business person doesn't mean you're a great artist or designer. And one of the things we found is those things can often be at odds, right? Business is all about profitability, really. How do I build and maintain and sustain a profitable company over the long term? And when it comes to the art and design side, you're really trying to create your best work. And sometimes that could take—

Rotimi Solola [19:29]

Craft.

Candace Solola [19:30]

Time, right? And investment. And so, one of the things we face is like, how do we balance, doing our best work and giving everything we have all the time, but making sure that we're still within budget and we're still being profitable margin there, those types of things. And even finding time to do the work.

I mean, Candace mentioned All the aspects of the business and things that she had to, jump in and learn and, parts of just, we're financing our own future, so to speak, in a lot of ways. And so a lot of the work ends up being, how do we figure out when we can still be creative and do the design and manage the business side?

Christian Solorzano [20:15]

Yeah. And how much of your time right now is spent in the creative work itself, or is it at the point where both of you are sort of just overseeing things, or are you still on the computer designing?

Rotimi Solola [20:27]

No, we're still in it. Well, I'm, well, I would say I'm probably maybe a little bit more in it than Rotimi is. Rotimi's team is maybe a little bit more established than mine is at the moment. And so he's got a little bit more support, giving him a little bit more bandwidth to focus on other aspects of the business.

But I think I'm still fairly in it, from a day-to-day there, I think it's still a balance between, the time for creative work versus the time for more of, working on the business. But I'm trying to— it's still, it's a little bit of a— can be difficult sometimes because again, there's, deadlines and things you have to make sure, number one, you're delivering for the client.

But then also you have to make sure that you're there for your team or you're, again, doing those things that are going to help bring in the next, the next project or the, hire the right team member as the next person that's coming in. So there has to be a fair amount of balance that happens. But I actually still very much enjoy doing the creative work.

So as much time as I can carve out for that, I love to because that's where obviously that's where my love for design, started. So, and I think Rotimi, you probably say something similar where—

Candace Solola [21:42]

Yeah, I mean, I love doing the creative side. Candace is right. My team is a little bit more established. I have 2 other designers on my team and one of them has been with us for a couple of years now. So I don't have to do, which is great, which is actually one of my goals with building a team is I want to be able to want to do the work. I don't want to like have to do all the work all the time.

So now I'm in a position where I don't have to do all the work all the time. Candace is still building, figuring out the team. So she has to do a lot of the work most of the time. So my role has kind of and because I established a lot of the core foundations of the business in the early days, like from the, how do we, manage taxes, bringing on a CPA and things like that. I'm basically handling a lot of paperwork.

I, contracts, reviews, things like that. And just a lot of the hardcore, keeping our business in good standing with the state and all that type of stuff. So I end up doing a lot of reading and trying Fill out documents and stuff like that.

Christian Solorzano [22:45]

Yeah, that's the—

Rotimi Solola [22:46]

Sounds so fun, right?

Christian Solorzano [22:48]

Yeah. When you, when you met, when you brought up taxes, it like triggered me because I can't, I just—

Rotimi Solola [22:55]

Taxes.

Christian Solorzano [22:57]

Terrible.

Candace Solola [22:58]

Oh yeah. I mean, for a good year or 2 of the business as it was getting a little bit more established, I would get letters from the IRS constantly and it wasn't always a bad thing, but my heart would just drop every time I got a letter from the IRS and it was just what did I do wrong?

Rotimi Solola [23:13]

Yeah.

Candace Solola [23:15]

Oh my gosh. Now I'm like, I get them. Okay, call up the CPA and we talk about, but it used to stress me out so much.

Rotimi Solola [23:22]

No more tax talks.

Christian Solorzano [23:24]

Yeah, no more tax talks.

Candace Solola [23:25]

It's a part of it. It's a massive part of it.

Christian Solorzano [23:28]

Is there a lot of collaboration between the two of you on the creative work, or is the industrial and the brand design kind of separate entities? Maybe talk to us a little bit about that. And then also the follow-up question to that is, With a, with a partnership like the two of you, how do you resolve conflict? And do you bring the home— the work home with you? Or is there the clear boundary of—

Rotimi Solola [23:54]

Definitely a 2-part question. Okay, let me take the first part. Okay, so the first part of the question was around, do we collaborate often? So I think, and how? So there's— so there are instances there's plenty of instances where we are kind of like, there's either a brand-led project or an industrial design-led project. I think our ultimate vision for what, where we see ourselves going in an ideal state would be to get as many projects as possible that sort of encompass both disciplines.

I think that's ultimately the type of work we really enjoy because, again, like we're able to kind of get different perspectives in by collaborating together. And I think that there's just something really powerful about being able to not only craft the brand, but also shape the product development or like then vice versa. So that's something really powerful about actually being able to collaborate together. I think some instances where we get to do that a lot now are we do a fair amount of packaging design.

And for example, a project that we've shared publicly has been Every year we do a project with YouTube and we do this sort of really elaborate packaging experience around creating a sort of unboxing experience for their top creators. And this is for every year they sort of gift their top creators this sort of really customer-specialized gift. And we're the go-to partner for developing everything from the actual physical box structure into the graphic language and the visual identity of that unboxing experience.

Candace Solola [25:36]

And so that's in partnership with—

Rotimi Solola [25:39]

And that's in partnership with an experience design agency called Advocate. And every year that, is a great example of how we can both come together and really like leverage both of our expertises and both of our skill sets and really just create something really amazing and immersive and experiential together. So I think we really enjoy that type of work. And again, we really see the vision of show design being more and more of that.

But again, there's always, there's always projects again that are just more focused on the brand side or the ID side. But even in those separate projects, we really try to leverage each other and pull each other in and kind of get perspective from one another to ensure that, we're thinking about it more broadly, maybe outside of what sometimes we might have blinders in our own, in our own ways.

But how can we kind of leverage each other to kind of enhance or expand our thinking across Even projects that are maybe a little bit more siloed. So that's sort of the answer to the first part of your question.

Candace Solola [26:43]

Yeah, and I would say just piggyback off of that. I think that, and that's been why we've had a focus over the last couple of years on, building and developing out this team, because again, I'm always thinking the business side, profit side, we're not, it's not every project where we even have the budget to, for both sides to work equally on it, right? And so and then with, Candace, spread a little bit thin.

Sometimes it is just like one discipline on one project, and that's fine too. Every now and again, it, might pop in and offer 2 cents. But yeah.

In terms of resolving conflict, I think that, our first year in business together, there were quite a few Conflicts, nothing like crazy, but quite a few disagreements, even arguments in the office. I think we've gotten much better with that. And I feel like a couple of things that helped with that was, one, I always say, stay in your lane. And I think there are moments where one of us will cross into the other person's lane, and that's where we have conflict. So for instance, yeah.

If Candace is the expert on branding, I have to trust that she can guide and lead that project. Sure, I might have ideas of my own, but I have to be aware of how I bring those ideas out instead of sort of an authoritarian way of like, this is what we should be doing. I have to be aware of how I do that. And I've definitely been caught in the, this is what we should be doing. And so that can create that tension and that conflict.

And I'm not saying that I solved that completely, but it's something that we're both aware of, and there are moments where we're doing something that's really technical on the ID side. And, we have to understand how to take feedback. So we understand that, okay, this person may not have the technical experience as to how it's manufactured or things like that. So sometimes comments are made and it's like, yeah, but it's really not gonna work, that type of thing.

So one of the biggest things was really like, okay, let's understand when we stay in our lane and let the other person lead, especially when and I think conflicts are worse when it's sort of in the vicinity of other team members. If it's just us, sometimes we can deal with that. It makes it a little bit more maybe awkward or a little bit more tension if there's, someone else in the room. So I think it's gotten a lot more like streamlined, I think, because—

Rotimi Solola [29:20]

Yeah, we still have those moments of like, little bickering things that happen, but nothing major. And we've prepped our team. I'm like, hey, you guys, we're married, they're great sports about it. But I think, yeah, I think we did.

We have had to overcome, just making sure that— and even in the way that we respond to each other, communicate, making sure that we're operating or have that sort of tone of respect in terms of what each person's knowledge and expertise and what they offer, making sure that, it doesn't feel like, we're shutting down anyone's, any ideas or just kind of making sure it feels— it's still creating that sort of collaborative environment even between the two of us so that we're kind of reflecting that to our team and creating and fostering that environment as well.

So again, it's, nothing— we've never had any sort of major issues, but it is kind of hard us being married and having this sort of home life and then also having this sort of life in the office and making sure, again, we try to keep things as separate as you can, but it's all, it really is all blended and mixed up together anyway. And so that creates its own challenges. But I think overall, we do work really well together.

Candace Solola [30:34]

So yeah. And I think the other thing is communication. You hear it all the time, whether it's marriage or teamwork, it's communication is literally number 1, 2, and 3. And so I'll give you an example, sometimes where, we're about to jump into a call and it's like, okay, who's leading this call? Generally, it's going to be whoever brought in the client or whoever has jurisdiction over it. So if it's really branding focused, then it's okay, Candace, you take the lead on this. I'm gonna be here.

You need me, point to me and I'll jump in? And so I think that type of thing really helps as well.

Christian Solorzano [31:06]

Yeah. And when it comes to— so I'm familiar with like the YouTube project, the Creator Project, and I've seen like the response videos of like the people opening up the package and like just being super excited about it. And to me, that's always the most successful type of work when you're able to witness someone engage with something that you made for the first time ever, especially something that every year is changing.

So there's kind of like a hype around like, what is it going to be this year? But for your studio, how do you define success? What makes a project be successful both to the business, but then also like as an individual? What what's that sweet spot of like, we really, we really like, did it with this one?

Rotimi Solola [31:56]

That's a good question. I think the thing that comes to mind off the top of my head is, does the client feel heard? And do they feel like we sort of really helped them to shape the vision that they had or help define what the vision, what their vision is, and do it in a way that they feel, they feel like a part of the process, and they feel like we truly heard them and we truly listened.

And the outcome and the result is something beautiful and something that is, has that story around it. And it's, I think, I think the client, we try to put our clients we try to put our clients first and make sure that they really feel like that they made the right decision to work with us and that sort of thing.

So I know that's one criteria of like, this was a successful project is if our clients are really sort of wowed by the experience of working with us and also the outcome of the work.

Candace Solola [32:58]

Yeah, and they're pretty vocal. And so when they, when they share their excitement and all that stuff, then yeah, that's absolutely a win for us. And then I would just add into it from like the business side, Oh gosh, I know what he's gonna say. Profitability, baby. That's my problem.

No, but what I mean is, even in the early days of building the team and working with, at least on the ID side with my team, in the early days, it was hard to get products, projects out the door, because we're like, we have to do a million revisions because we do a million revisions internally before we share it with the client. And then we may have a million more revisions with the client.

So we found that we're just iterating just so that we can be happy with the work.

But I think we really have a nice combination of team members where it really does feel like we're getting things in and out the door much quicker and it's still the same quality of work, if not better. And I feel like that's a massive win. And then if we can pair the two and make sure Client is happy and excited, and we got it done in a record time. That's a win from both sides of the business.

Rotimi Solola [34:10]

And then just to build off of what you said in the beginning was like, that sort of moment of being able to see it out in the world. I think that's always still rewarding. That's something with the YouTube project that honestly, one of my favorite parts is being able to see the content that's created around, how excited the YouTubers are to just like unbox and interact and see how they interpret what this thing that we've concocted.

And it's just like really kind of cool to just see it all kind of unfold and get that sort of reaction from them. So I think that's always really fun.

Christian Solorzano [34:45]

Yeah.

Candace Solola [34:46]

Yeah. And I'm so much like, I spent a lot of my career getting products out in the market. And so that was always a big part of why I did, I do this. Now it's kind of morphed into the process. And so now I get really excited about how efficient were we on the process this time around? And did we, get great results?

Rotimi Solola [35:07]

Or what did we learn in the process too that we can maybe apply to another project or, just carry forward with us? So yeah, I think we are really big on process in our studio. For sure.

Christian Solorzano [35:20]

Yeah. And also, are there any particular like industries that the both of you or the studio is drawn to? Or like, I want to understand if there's any certain type of project that the both of you resonate more with. Just curious.

Candace Solola [35:38]

Yeah, no. So I would, I would tee this off because I definitely want Candace to chime in here. But I would say that we both come from different backgrounds within design. And I'm not just talking about discipline, graphic design versus industrial design, but even places we've worked and the types of projects that we've really enjoyed. So there is, there are some industries that I'm really interested in bringing more work in.

I think some that Candace is really interested in, where we still find common ground or still find excitement. And then there are those industries that when we think about what's going to be the best use of both sides of the business, and those come up. And so I know from my side, I've always been really big on tech. And I like the tech industry. And there's money in that industry, right?

It's a volatile industry for sure, but it's also an industry that, if the product goes big, it goes really big. So being able to be a part of that industry is something that's very important to me from an industrial design perspective as well as from a branding perspective, being able to work with a lot of startups in tech. And so kind of seeing their journey and, not everything's gonna be successful, but we've been fortunate.

A lot of the startups we've worked in have had longevity so far. So I know that's one avenue for me from my end that I definitely want to continue to build.

Rotimi Solola [37:08]

And then I mean, it's really hard for me to say one industry or one type of project because I think we are really all about the versatility. And I think it's been really hard. We've been even trying to force ourselves to like, how can we pinpoint like where we want to, can we drill down into maybe a niche that we really want to sort of target and that sort of thing, or one industry that we feel like we could focus on.

And because we come from different backgrounds, it's really been difficult to do that. But I will say, some industry— I mean, I really, enjoy working on, lifestyle brands, whether it's, a beauty brand, or we all— I did a lot of spirits work when I first started my career. So there's, a love for that.

And also, I guess another thing is just, No matter the type of brand, I think one thing that does really sort of resonate with us is we really enjoy crafting like premium brands and sort of like an elevated, more of an elevated sort of experience and aesthetic.

And so I think that there's, again, regardless of the industry that we're in, that's maybe a theme that you can kind of start to see in some of the work that we do is just how can we sort of elevate or like kind of, create that sort of more premium, really considered feel in terms of, any project that we do. And so, again, that's sort of a hodgepodge of different things. But again, that versatility, I think, is really important to us.

And I think we're able to sort of apply learnings and things from even if it's seemingly unlikely, or different industries that we're working across, how can we sort of leverage what we know and really create Awesome work regardless of the industry.

Candace Solola [38:54]

Yeah. And I started by saying tech because I think that's just always been a passion point for mine. But it's one of the reasons why I wanted to start, show design in the very beginning was because of versatility. I mean, even my head has always been on a swivel, oh, I want to work for that company. I want to work for this company.

The only way I could work for all the types of companies that I want to work for is to be a— to have an agency where we can do that type of thing. So yeah, it's absolutely— I really enjoy the consumer product design space. Anything that someone's going to consume or use, how do I make it better or impact it?

Christian Solorzano [39:31]

And then shifting over, so one of the— so a good amount of our listeners are aspiring designers, students, junior designers. And a question that I always get is, for design studios, what are some of the qualities or characteristics that stand out to you as you're continuing to like build your team? Maybe another way to frame that question is like, what are some of the differentiators of your studio, of your team?

Candace Solola [40:04]

And this is a question when we're interviewing, we've gotten pretty good about trying to find, even ask people that are interviewing, what drew you to this company? And so one of the things that we've seen time and time again is sort of the balance between industrial design and branding. And there's not a ton of companies that really kind of achieve that 50/50 split. And it's, again, it's not always 50/50, right?

But I think overall, if we were to look at the end of the year and see how the whole year went, it ends up being pretty close to 50/50. And so I think that collaboration, even if they're not interested, because we're not going to hire someone to do graphic design and industrial design. They're different disciplines, and we need their hands on the work that they're doing.

But it's— some people are just interested in working next to someone that is on the other side and kind of seeing how that impacts their work.

Rotimi Solola [41:07]

Or being somewhat integrated into a project that may be focused in that other discipline so that they can learn and absorb. So yeah, they're really, I think that's one of the defining characteristics of what we're building here. And so I think that has drawn some interest from people that we've interviewed.

Candace Solola [41:26]

Yeah, I mean, and then the next point was sort of small studio, big impact. I think that's another, thing about us. And, you could say we're a small studio because we're still, early. But I honestly, I see in the next 5 years, still being a small studio with big impact. I think that's, we are 2 individuals that have always been able to cover a lot of ground.

I mean, at any given point, our business, I mean, there are moments where I'm juggling 7 projects at a time, 7 different clients, and stuff is getting done and through the door. And that's just with me. And then you add Candace and add another 5 projects outside of her day job. Maybe not 5 projects. But so we've always been really good at juggling and doing that.

And so now that we're growing a team, it's only getting better that we can cover a ton of ground, even though we're a smaller group. And so small team, big impact is something important to us.

Rotimi Solola [42:31]

And I think that just speaks to our work ethic too. I think that's another sort of defining characteristic of us is like, we work hard, and we're not afraid to kind of say that. I know there's, we're kind of in a time where, that hard work is depending on who you talk to, that can be sort of a dicey subject of like.

Again, I won't get down into that rabbit hole. But I think, I think that we, we've always been like not afraid of hard work, not afraid of like rolling up our sleeves. If we have to work late, we do what we have to do. And that's been kind of propelled us to where we are today. And again, now we're at this point where we want to be able to share the workload and bring in people that can kind of support that vision and all of that.

But just, that hard work. And I think our clients feel that too. And I think we want to demonstrate to them that, you know if you, working with us, we're gonna, we're gonna make sure that we do everything in our power to make sure that whatever we present to you or whatever we bring to the table is like we've poured, we've poured ourselves into it and we put, we have that passion behind it. So I feel like, our work ethic is that other thing.

And I think we look for that in team members. That we want to bring on. It's like, do you have the passion? Do you have the drive for this? I think we're not interested in necessarily hiring people that this is more so, this is maybe more so a—

Christian Solorzano [43:55]

Job.

Rotimi Solola [43:55]

Just a job. Like we've interviewed people where, you went to design school and, you got, you just, you want to get something, anything. And it's just sort of treated as like a, I'll do my thing, my 9 to 5, I'm out. And I don't really have that love or that passion behind what I'm doing. And that's what we thrive on. And so we were building out our team looking for people that have that energy.

Candace Solola [44:17]

Yeah, I mean, it's never been a job for us. To me, it's a privilege. It is an immense privilege to come in and be creative every single day. And especially in a company where we're gonna put on the— a lot of times I take the projects that are very tedious and that are very like, just so my team can have some of the more exciting projects. So we want to support that creativity. And so we definitely do. It's not a job for us. It's never been.

It's always been really fueled by passion. But I would say the thing that makes having a passion in a business like this, the thing that makes that possible is ownership. Yeah. And so even with young designers, that's one of our values. We want everyone to feel like they have a piece of the pie. That they can actually steer the ship, even if it's on a small project or something. I mean, we've had interns work on products that got launched.

You saw one of the YouTube products, at the time she was one of our interns. Phoebe designed the box and I designed a bunch of concepts and she designed a bunch of concepts and the client chose hers. And it was like, okay, you're selected. Now you're gonna work with the manufacturer. Yeah, I mean— And, of course I'm there, but you're gonna see it through, and that was a very exciting moment. And that's not the only time that's happened, it's happened several times.

And so that ownership where someone can come in, even someone that doesn't have a ton of experience and work on something and see it through and learn that side of things, it makes them feel more invested in the business. And I think that kind of has a trade-off that it's like, yeah, you have the passion, but then you're put in a situation where you get to lead something and then you see the result and it gives you more Right? And it becomes a cyclical thing.

Rotimi Solola [46:03]

Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [46:04]

Yeah. And within the realm of industrial design and brand design and just design in general, are there any trends or anything in particular that excites the both of you or anything you're looking forward to in terms of like new technology or what's your assessment on the world of design as it currently stands? Both positive and negative. What do the both of you think?

Candace Solola [46:30]

Yes, I mean, this is a conversation that we're having amongst ourselves. I mean, I think you're maybe, alluding to AI and its influence in the design world, among other things, among other technologies. For us, we are— we don't have a firm point of view on that just yet. I think we're definitely using these tools and seeing how they can improve our workflow. But at the same time, there is a concern around dependency.

And so I think it's— I always personally, I want to always exercise my aesthetic eye and my skill set, because if this tool is not available for whatever reason, or if thousands of designers are using this tool, and a lot of the same data is being fed to these tools, and so just regurgitating the same designs that are just slight variations on each other, right? And so for me, I think some of the most successful work that we've done isn't necessarily rooted in trends, right?

It can be flashy and really great in that moment. But for me, it's really rooted in story and how that story connects to the brand and how that brand connects to the consumer. And I really like to start our projects that way, even before image searching, before mood boarding, before generating sketches. What's the story? And then we can use whatever tools to help us, flesh that out, shape that out. Exactly. But yeah, I'm a little wary in that.

And then just from a personal selfish reason, I know it's the same for Candace and as for me, I just love the process so much and I'm just not ready to give that up yet.

Just the process. I know it can be slower to do a sketch. It can be slower to do something in CAD or to do it yourself. But that side of it is therapeutic. That side of it is the art side of design, is the actual crafting. It's like building a sculpture. Yeah, there's many fast ways to create a piece of art. You don't have to sit there chiseling a piece of marble for, several years.

But there's just something about that process and uncovering the design and learning Through that process that I'm not sure I'm ready to give up just yet.

Rotimi Solola [48:55]

Yeah, and I don't think it's that we think it's all or nothing. I think we're trying to also navigate, how do we still— how do we make sure that we're aware of what's going on and we're aware of, these new technologies and all these AI developments that are happening and how can we find ways of integrating into the process without taking over the process.

But again, we're still very early in that and we haven't, like, we haven't— we don't have a sort of definitive point of view on that necessarily. But yeah, we do. Again, we are really all about process. And so if there's a healthy balance or way that it can be integrated, we're open to that. And we're kind of exploring that as well. But we never want to get to a point where it's taken over.

Or that we're so dependent or reliant upon it that, it becomes sort of a crutch or yeah. Or that sort of thing.

Candace Solola [49:47]

And I mean, I'll give you an example too. Again, for me, it's also personal preference. I mean, we've used a lot of AI tools pretty heavily on some projects that are complex and we don't have a ton of time, so it can be very helpful. But like sometimes you can use AI tools to generate storyboards, right? And, but there, I still love paper to pencil sketches of a storyboard. You've seen the making of Disney movies.

Where you see the sketching animatics and you see how the thing— there's just something so amazing about that where it's enough that you understand what's going on, but not so much where you can still fill in the blanks and come up with new, builds on that. And so it's like, okay, yeah, I can do this in 5 minutes, or I can storyboard and it might take me a couple of hours. But to me, there's something still so tangible about those.

So I think it comes to personal preference too, in a lot of ways.

Christian Solorzano [50:47]

Yeah. Well, that answer gives me hope because I love that there's— I love that the both of you are still committed to like the process of making with your hands. Because I know I teach design and sometimes I hear people tell students that they should rely on AI To like come up with like their resume and things like that.

And I always find it so alarming to, 'cause I think it, I think relying on it so much like will atrophy your like, your creativity to the point where if the internet goes down and you can't connect to AI, it's like, what do I do? I can't, I can't think on my own. So I like that.

Rotimi Solola [51:30]

I think we're already trending towards that with a lot of things. We don't have to write anything ourselves anymore and there's just, there's just so much of that is like, how, like in design school, I feel like there should still be that learning of those hardcore skills that you need. And I feel like if we become too reliant on AI, you're coming out, what are you, what are you coming out of school knowing?

And then how do you, how do you make sure that you, well, you have that baseline at least before?

Candace Solola [51:58]

And I would even say like, I mean, we've experienced it. Our, we're hiring at the moment and we've gotten a lot of resumes and cover letters, and I, and I read, just about all of them. And I mean, I would see— there was one day in particular, I think we received like 5 applications in the same, day. And as I was reviewing them, I was just this has ChatGPT written all over it for all 5 of the applicants. It was literally the same thing with variations.

Rotimi Solola [52:28]

The same cover letter, the same.

Candace Solola [52:29]

And I was just I'm not interested in going any further. Because, if you're gonna— we don't even demand a crazy cover letter. You could send us 2 sentences, but yeah, it should be sentences you wrote yourself.

Rotimi Solola [52:41]

Make it a little meaningful. But yeah, so I mean, yeah, there's a— there's sort of an interesting dynamic there. But I think we really, we still really appreciate the process. And even when we're interviewing or hiring, we always look for, ask for, let's see your process. We see that you— we can see on your website that you have some, beautiful work. Let's see what went into that.

Talk to us about how you got to where you, some of the ideas behind the work or the, show us, some of the sketching or something. We really like to see that. And I think that kind of speaks to how important the process is within our studio and how much we value that. So.

Candace Solola [53:24]

And as Candace already alluded to earlier, it's not that AI can't be a part of your process. And we just saw a resume the other, just a few days ago, portfolio and AI was a big part of their process, but you also saw their sketching and their thinking and how they were using it. And it was very like, it was a great example.

Rotimi Solola [53:42]

Seamless, very seamless, or, back and forth between sketching and AI and back, there's just like this sort of beautiful blend.

Candace Solola [53:53]

And it worked really well. And that, I have no, that can absolutely be something that we, a process that we use. But it's, yeah, it's just when it becomes, when it takes over.

Christian Solorzano [54:04]

Because it's a, it's, I see it as like, it's a tool to collaborate with. And there still needs to be that like, collaboration as opposed to like, you do all of it. And then that's it.

Rotimi Solola [54:17]

No, we agree.

Christian Solorzano [54:18]

Yeah. So given that we are a Chicago-based organization, a Chicago-based podcast, Chicago-based studio, I want to maybe spend a little bit of time just talking about just Chicago in general. What has kept the both of you in Chicago?

Rotimi Solola [54:34]

Pretty much grew up here in Chicago.

Candace Solola [54:37]

Yeah, I mean, I think we're born in different locations and, all that. Pretty much grew up in Chicagoland suburbs and stuff.

Rotimi Solola [54:45]

So all of my family is— well, not all of my family. Most of my family is here in Chicago. And so that's a big part of Making Chicago feel like home to me is just the fact that I'm surrounded by family.

Candace Solola [54:58]

Yeah. And I'm, my parents moved to Georgia, to, Jackson, Georgia. So for me, I don't— I mean, I have some family here, some in California, some— so they're everywhere. And then globally too. So, I'm not maybe as rooted, although I, definitely connected with Candace's family and all that. But I would say too, from, for me, from a design perspective, Chicago is an amazing city. And I see a lot of my colleagues go to the West Coast.

So many of my friends have moved to West Coast because there, I, there's an ID thriving community out there. There's definitely ID in Chicago too. But maybe it's bigger out in the West, in the West Coast.

So For me, I've always been, I look at other companies in the Chicagoland that I feel like are doing a good job with the design studio, and I want to add our name to the list of places that you have to, consider if you're trying to come to Chicago to work or come to find an agency to work with. For me, it's about elevating certainly, long, mid to long term.

And even now, it's about elevating the design community as much as possible, or having a hand in, really being a design hub of the U.S. And I think in some ways we have a great amount of design happening in Chicago, especially if you compare us to other cities. But that only happens when new blood comes in and, adds— because, we've also seen a ton of agencies just kind of fizzle out or get bought up and acquired by large corporations. We've seen that, time and time again.

And so there needs to be room for new guys to come in and to reestablish that anchorage for young designers, graduating to say, hey, I want to work at that studio, or for companies that want that young and fresh ideas, company. So I think that we just want to be another pillar in Chicago. And I think we're probably here to stay for a while. Yeah.

Rotimi Solola [57:22]

That's the hope. It better be.

Christian Solorzano [57:25]

I love that answer.

Rotimi Solola [57:27]

Yeah. Chicago has a special place in our hearts for sure.

Christian Solorzano [57:31]

So we're almost at time. But before we wrap up, I want to ask the both of you, what are you listening to? What are you reading? When you're working, what's your world like? What's keeping you inspired outside of the work? It could be music, podcasts, movies. What media are you both consuming?

Candace Solola [57:54]

I mean, for me, I'm not great at— even when I listen to music, I don't always know who the artist is. I just I just consume. I go for the vibe. So I won't, I won't be able to, share specifics. But I, but I mean, there are some. For me, I'm in the world of definitely listening to music when I'm actually doing hardcore design work, which is not as frequently now. It's mostly brainstorming, meeting with clients, meeting with the team, that type of thing.

But yeah, when I do get to design, it's music and it's maybe house music or trans, things like that. I like jazz. I'm still always been big into jazz, things that just kind of let me get lost in the time.

But especially now where the business side is so important and we're really thinking about longevity and how to make sure that we're still here in 10 years, I've been listening to a lot more podcasts and, watching or just having YouTube videos in the long format, YouTube videos in the background, really focused on the business side. Diary of the CEO is one that I've been listening to a lot where they bring in experts from just all industries and they talk about just different types of things.

A lot of things focused on life, a lot of things focused on relationships, but also on business. And I've been consuming a lot of that just to, stay— I mean, one thing that you don't really think about when you create a business is how global events and economic events affect you, right? When you're working as an employee for a larger company, those things don't directly affect you.

They may affect the business, but by the time it trickles down to you, it might not be much, or it might be something like, I know during COVID a lot of salaries got cut. Oh, hey, we're gonna cut your salary by 10%, 20%, 15%. And some of those things, they feel horrible. But at that point, when they've been distilled down to you, that's the brunt of it. But now when you're in a business, you absorb it much more.

The fact that some war in a completely different country can affect your supply chain, and now your client is calling a true story in the middle of the night, and you're trying to brainstorm live with them, trying to figure out, okay, shoot, how do we get around this situation? How do we make sure you can still ship a product? Because your success impacts our success too, right?

So I've been, I've gotten even into politics, even though I'm not really big into politics and don't have a huge interest, but just a lot of media around a lot of different things.

Rotimi Solola [60:42]

Yeah, right. Yeah, trying to be more aware of what's going on. It's hard for me to answer the question too, because I'm not consuming a lot of things. I feel like we're so busy with the business, it's hard to like, okay, what am I sitting down and watching? Or, I have music on in the background and things like that. But it's, yeah, I'm not like at the forefront, not the person to be asking like, what's the next thing? Or what's the cool thing you're listening to?

But I have more recently had the opportunity to do some travel. I took 30 days and I traveled to Southeast Asia and I was able to like take some time for myself and really just kind of be immersed in like another, like other cultures. And I think that that's something that I think is just another form of inspiration or even just like reinvigorating yourself or giving yourself that sort of energy to come back and like get back to it.

So I think that's just another form of, not necessarily the most seamless answer to what you asked, but I think just in terms of like how we can, how we're seeking outside inspiration, I think I think, again, more recently, that travel has been just a form of that for me personally. So yeah.

Candace Solola [61:49]

And I will say too, from, I see that, I see value in sort of both of our responses, I mean, there are times where I'm like, Candace, you really have to read this article, you got to look into this is our future.

Oh my gosh, scary, and I can and so there's value in, seeing what's out there, but it can also be very overwhelming, and it can be stifling to creativity, and it can be stifling to even— it can even make you not want to do, the things that you would normally do had you not consumed that content. So I don't think there's anything wrong with consuming content.

With not consuming a ton of content. I mean, I've really seen myself consuming a lot of content, a lot of different things, but I also, I don't accept everything that I see, read, or hear, right? Very critical about everything. So I think I'm fairly equipped to absorb it and take and leave a lot of it. Whereas, so a lot of people might absorb and absorb and without this separating.

And so I think that there's even value in if you say, hey, listen, I'm just gonna stand outside of it, and I'm gonna do what my heart tells me to do, as long as you're also, thinking strategically, right? Okay, let your heart lead and think strategically as well.

Because I think, not to get too philosophical, but in the context of art and design, if you let the spirit lead, you will uncover a lot of things in ways that, just listening to, 30 different experts tell you what it is, can't, if that makes sense, right? And so you still always want to uncover and hear your own voice. And when there's so much media that you're consuming, and I've seen it happen to me, it's harder to hear your own voice, that really what voice inside.

And so I think there's, and, kudos to Candace for, I think you probably hear that voice when you're not, flooded with all of this media.

Christian Solorzano [64:07]

Man, that is so cool. That's an amazing answer because, yeah, I just certainly agree with everything. It's the stream of articles and content is just never-ending. And I feel like most of it is just there to like frighten you and make you feel like you're missing out on something or like you need to do something. And sometimes that gets, that gets in the way of you actually doing the thing.

And maybe you make a mistake and like you learn from the mistake and you like continue as opposed to just being frozen and just being like, well, I don't even know where to start. So I like that. So last question, what are some favorite spots in Chicago? What do you guys like to do for fun in the city?

Candace Solola [64:46]

It's been— I'll let Candace, I'm going to buy you some time to think about spots. I think it's been tough because of the business and also coming out of a COVID environment. I mean, we don't do as much as we used to do. And even sometimes, I mean, Fridays are date nights and sometimes we just get home and we're just like exhausted, right?

Rotimi Solola [65:12]

Tired.

Candace Solola [65:13]

So I think that's been there. There are some, a couple of go-to spots that we still really enjoy. And I like speakeasies. I like to hear myself talk with Candace and things like that.

Rotimi Solola [65:28]

Places with good cocktails and kind of low-key. I think we really appreciate the hidden gems.

Candace Solola [65:34]

Yeah, we still like Untitled. That one gets pretty popular.

Rotimi Solola [65:38]

But yeah, there's just like any kind of low-key places where we can just have good food, good drinks. And then I don't know, summertime is coming up. So I like, I like to kind of do the, movies in Millennium Park, or like there was— we did this really cool thing for the Rooftop Cinema Club, which was amazing last year.

We went for my birthday and we just got to be on the rooftop watching a movie, like stuff like that where you just kind of get out and about and just kind of enjoy the weather. This is my favorite season of the year. So I'm excited. Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [66:12]

Cool. Well, thanks to the both of you so much for this awesome conversation. It flew by, but I enjoyed learning so much.

Candace Solola [66:21]

It flew by.

Christian Solorzano [66:22]

I enjoyed learning so much about you, and I'm sure the listener listening is going to find a lot of what was discussed to be super inspirational. So we'll drop all the links to like your website, Instagram, all that stuff in the bio for this episode or in the description for this episode. But with that said, any parting words? How could people— I mean, what's the best way for people to get a hold of you if they have any other questions?

Candace Solola [66:46]

Yeah, I mean, check out our website. I think our emails aren't too hard to find. And I think you mentioned you'll have some links there. We're on social media. But I think for me, and I want to bring up something that Candace mentioned, I think just understand that design is a privilege. And if we're in a situation that we get to do that for a living or for school, for education, it should not be a chore. And I think I'm also an educator.

I've been teaching at UIC for 7 years, and I've taught at Northwestern. And sometimes it feels like it's a chore for some of my students, and it should never be that. It's hard work for sure.

But understand it's a privilege and just sink yourself into it. And it becomes fun and the time really flies by. Get lost in what you're doing and you'll be a better designer and it'll be easier for you to get anything you want within this industry, whether it's this interview or this job or whatever.

Rotimi Solola [67:51]

Yeah. And I'll just go off of that. I think that's a great answer. And I think that just remember why you fell in love with it in the first place.

If the love is actually there, remember why you started down this path, because I think that'll— I know that we can oftentimes get burned out and, there's just a lot coming at us at once, but just kind of remember, take a moment, step back and remember why you fell in love with this in the first place, and that'll kind of keep you going and kind of refuel you.

Take the breaks that you need and do what you need to do to make sure you're not, you're not you're not, overwhelming yourself. But I do think that there's that if that passion is fueling you, don't forget that and kind of keep that at the forefront.

Christian Solorzano [68:35]

So beautiful. So many great quotes for the social media from this conversation.

Rotimi Solola [68:41]

And we do want to take a moment to just thank you for even inviting us or having us on. I think you've made this conversation so easy to have. And so we just really appreciate even being considered and brought onto the show. So we appreciate it.

Candace Solola [68:55]

Yeah, I know it took a while for us to find time to get this to work with travel schedules and all that. But yeah, definitely worth the time to sit down and chat with you.

Christian Solorzano [69:05]

Cool. Yeah, and let's keep the conversation going. Maybe at some point in the future, we could find a way to do a collaboration with the Chicago Graphic Design Club or find some opportunity to do something together. Thank you.

Rotimi Solola [69:17]

Sounds good. All right.

Christian Solorzano [69:18]

Well, have a good rest of your day and we'll talk soon.

Candace Solola [69:21]

Okay.

Rotimi Solola [69:21]

You too. Bye-bye.

Candace Solola [69:23]

Wow.

Christian Solorzano [69:26]

What a great conversation that was. Thank you so much for sticking around until the end. I hope that you're inspired by Candace and Rotimi and that you go check out their work. As always, thank you for your support. To learn more about us, visit www.chicagographicdesign.club. Talk to you soon.