MaD chats: postgraduate podcast collective
MaD chats is a podcast collective made up of nine postgraduate students. Together, they discuss their own creative practices and take inspiration from other seasoned practitioners. Here, we caught up with Sukanya Bhattacharya, a MA Fashion Design Management and Innovation student at Ravensbourne, to tell us more about the podcast and what listeners can expect.
Can you give me a bit of background about the podcast and who it is aimed at?
The story we are telling is the one of a group of young creatives that seeks confidence in the wisdom of their heroes and seasoned practitioners. We believe design and creativity should be all-encompassing, not separated. After all, we are like-minded individuals.
We want to promote interdisciplinary thinking and create a hub where guests, hosts, and the audience can contribute to this amazing creative economy that surrounds us. It will allow our mentors and mentees to voice their frustrations and thoughts in a frictionless environment.
What sort of themes do you cover on the podcast?
We are a group of nine individuals from different creative disciplines and we are trying to foster conversations about the topics that interest us, spanning from fashion design to visual design. Instead of the traditional narrative and monologue style, MaD Chats creates a dynamic, interactive atmosphere to embrace the guests and to provide the audience with an opportunity to connect with us all.
Can you give an overview of the guests you've had on the podcast in the past?
We've already had a great mix of guests on the podcast from across the creative spectrum. To name just a couple:
- Angelo Stitz and Dominik Langloh – visual communicators.
- Adrian Shaughnessy – graphic designer, writer, and lecturer at Royal College of Arts London.
What do have in store for the future?
We believe in heritage and legacy, but we also see the value of working as part of a team. We also plan to hand the podcast over to the next young postgraduate creatives. The purpose is to create a space that could enhance collaboration and creativity as much as it did for us.
Can you tell us about the latest episode?
In episode four, we have an extremely candid interview with Peter Williams, who delves deep into his experience within fashion, management and retail.
Peter Williams has spent over 30 years in a variety of both executive and non-executive positions in consumer-facing businesses. These roles span retail, leisure, media and consumer products. He's worked with some massive household names including Selfridges, ASOS, boohoo, Domino’s Pizza, Miinto A/S, Superdry plc, Rightmove plc, Sophia Webster and The Design Council – he has it all under his umbrella.