inFLUX
SCAD FLUX
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inFLUX is SCAD FLUX‘s podcast about all things design and more. Every episode, we interview a guest and learn about their stories. Our guests feature amazing people - from SCAD students, alumni, and professors, to industry professionals taking the time to talk with us; every story is worth listening to. Learn with us with each new guest - about life, design, and more.
Available episodes
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Oldest first
Oct 31, 2023
08 - "Finding Balance: School, Work, and Life." ft. Lara Felderspiel
In this episode of Influx, Corey and Belle welcome guest Lara Federspiel, a recent SCAD grad and former co-president. The topic of discussion is time management and work-life balance. Lara shares her experiences from her junior year of college, navigating personal hobbies, time management, mental balance, all while trying to strive to be a 'successful' designer. Tune in to hear the conversation about the pressures of high school, college, and the real world, and how Lara's perspective has evolved for her own atmosphere.
[00:02:02] Imbalance realization.
[00:04:51] Mental health and personal growth.
[00:09:28] Time management in school.
[00:14:09] Little changes make big waves.
[00:18:01] Finding balance in work-life.
Find Lara on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/larafederspiel
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Keep up to date with FLUX on Instagram
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Credits to Ethan, our sound designer, who you can find on Instagram:
@emorrell_02
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Aug 16, 2023
06 - "SCAD StartUp: Student Leadership & Team Organization" ft. Gabriel Mataleo
In this episode of Influx Live, hosts Belle and Corey sit down with Gabriel Mataleo, one of the co-directors of SCAD Startup 2024. They discuss the origins and growth of SCAD Startup, a week-long design challenge that has become the biggest student-led competition at SCAD. Gabriel shares insights on ethical leadership, team management, and effective communication within the organization. Tune in to gain valuable knowledge on student leadership and the power of passion in driving success.
00:05:36 Passion drives student leadership.
00:10:05 Importance of building connections.
00:11:45 Building connections and describing networks.
00:19:17 Importance of humble leadership.
00:26:07 Transparency in conflict resolution.
00:29:17 Applying team management principles effectively.
Follow StartUp's journey and subscribe to their newsletter here:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/scadstartup/
Follow Gabriel Mataleo:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mataleogml/
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Keep up to date with FLUX on Instagram
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Credits to Ethan, our sound designer, who you can find on Instagram:
@emorrell_02
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May 22, 2023
05 - "Ethics of User Research" Ft. Denise Pilar
Hi everybody, welcome back to the inFLUX Podcast! My name is Corey West, and I am the newest addition to the inFLUX Team, serving as your Podcast Cohost to the one and only, my partner in crime: Belle Duffner. In today's episode Belle and I sat. down with Denise Pilar; the UX research expert and our newest addition to the SCAD UX faculty. Tune in as we talk about all things UX research, AI development, and more. And just remember, you can listen to previous and future inFLUX episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Visit our website!
www.scadflux.com
And a shoutout to our sound designer!
@meghann.rrose
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Jan 8, 2023
04 - "What Makes a Good UX Designer?" Ft. McLean Donnelly
Growing into yourself and your career role in an ever-changing fish pond can instill a lot of pressure. However, with acceptance, willingness, and moral passion, you can find much more dexterity to run your own race.
In this episode, we talked with our new SCAD UX Professor McLean Donnelly, and learned a few things about the hard and soft skills behind what makes a “good UX Designer,” and how we incorporate them throughout our career journey.
This episode is a wonderful introduction to gain some tactical insight into the tech world, or even just a fun listen to learn more about our new UX professor and his views and values.
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Sound Designer:
@meghann.rrose
Visual & Social Media Designers:
@ghalibicious
@seth_stormberger
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Dec 2, 2022
03 "inFLUX Live" ft. Vincent Lee, Erika Williams, Varalika Mishra, Jacky Lo, Laura Lopez Andreu
The good, the bad, and the ugly of interning--all answered by our five wonderful UX internship panelists: Vincent Lee, Erika Williams, Varalika Mishra, Jacky Lo, and Laura Lopez Andreu. This session was a special one because YOU the audience were able to participate and ask all your dire internship questions! So, a big thanks to all our lovely inFLUX fans.
All of our panelists are SCAD students, between Juniors or Seniors that have studied UX. For some, this is their first internship, for others, this process is nothing new. In this episode we cover the many hats a UX designer wears between internships; the diversity of job and coworker atmospheres and how to manage them; reaching out for interning mentorship, and the research that goes into learning about the position long before the interview.
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Sound Designer:
@meghann.rrose on Instagram
Visual Designer & Socials:
@ghalibicious, @seth_stormberger on Instagram
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Sep 25, 2022
02 - "UX at Twitch" Ft. Tatum Tran
Before we get into the episode, follow our Instagram @SCADFLUX to see upcoming events, workshops, and activities, and join our discord to stay in the know! All these links will be in the bio of this episode. Thank you <3
Today I welcome you, listeners, into a conversation with Tatum Tran. Tatum began as a Biology major at UT, and within the past couple of years, she switched careers to follow into User Experience Design. Now, Tatum shares her experiences as a UX intern at Twitch through her TikToks.
In this episode, we went into Tatum’s journey into UX and the resources she took advantage of as a student from a science background. We began to get more sentimental when discussing what motivated Tatum to design, and shared a laugh or two around the trials and tribulations that come with being a designer. The vibes were nonetheless immaculate–so without further ado, here is the lovely Tatum Tran.
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Sound Designer:
@meghann.rrose
Visual Designer & Socials:
@ghalibicious , @seth_stormberger
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Sep 3, 2022
01 - "UX Design within Product Design" Ft. Catherine Aurelio
While everyone was away, inFLUX decided to outreach during the summer to bring you a special episode with an even more special guest. Meet Catherine Aurelio, Sr Product Design Management in Central Privacy at Meta. Before she started at Meta, she worked in previous leadership roles in Coursera, Looker, and Apigee. Most notable for her TedTalk on Gamification, Catherine is a futurist visionary and innovator of design across numerous digital mediums.
In this episode, we discuss the differences and similarities between product design and UX and their importance to integrate with each other. We also get into the topics of leadership on how crucial communication and diversity are to produce the best results as a team. Not to mention a sprinkle of Meta humor and all things VR and XR. Both stimulating and humourous, this episode is not worth missing.
Interested in learning more about Catherine? Follow her links below!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherineaurelio/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jSzwSJmzRY&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
Make sure not to miss out on any new inFLUX updates, FLUX club events, and so much more on our Instagram and Discord.
https://www.instagram.com/scadflux/?hl=en
https://discord.gg/fcrEQ5Ff
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May 29, 2022
S2 EP 12 - Khoi Vinh
On Nico's and Varun's last episode before graduation, we are happy to say that we have a great guest to celebrate the end of an era. The guest is none other than Khoi Vinh, Design Director at Adobe. Khoi details his journey as a designer starting from Otis College of Art and Design to his time at The New York Times to his current position at Adobe. Varun and Nico also pick his brain on the difference between artists and designers as well as between generalists and specialists. Furthermore, Varun was excited to have Khoi on the podcast to talk about his love for movies and his blog, Subtraction. As the last episode of the quarter and 2021-2022 academic school year, this episode is unmissable and a farewell letter to everyone who has listened for so long. That said, I'm sure Nico and Varun will be back sometime or another.
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May 15, 2022
inFLUX Live - Khushi Bhatt and Andrea Castro
Prior to this spring's FLUXathon, inFLUX hosted their first ever live conversation featuring two incredible IR student guests interviewed by the next's year amazing hosts. With the addition of audience interaction, this episode dives deep into the intersection between IR and UX, a very topical talking point considering the increasing popularity of IR technology and the metaverse. Sit back and relax because there is a lot of information in this one.
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May 1, 2022
S2 EP10 - Josh Willey
This episode has been in the making since the very start of the podcast. It is with none other than our editor, Josh Willey. Josh is a SCAD Sound Design graduate that is now freelancing. He has been good friends with Varun for a few years now and this podcast would not have been possible with him. Listen to this episode to get the scope on how Josh joined the podcast, his experience at SCAD and his opinions on listening in on Varun and Nico for so many episodes.
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Apr 17, 2022
inFLUX Next Generation (S2 EP9)
Today is a special day because we will be introducing the new co-hosts for the coming 2022-2023 academic school year, Belle and Amadeus. Amadeus has been on the podcast before while it will be Belle's first time. Together, with Varun and Amadeus, inFLUX is bringing one of its longest episodes till date where we not only talk about the future of the podcast but its past too along with some fun new hot takes.
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Mar 12, 2022
Lara Federspiel and Matt Ahrens (S2 E8)
As the last episode of winter quarter, Nico and Varun bring on Lara and Matt, the new co-directors of FLUX for the upcoming academic year. Together, they talk about both their SCAD and FLUX journey up until now, while sharing some of the excitement for next year. The fun, goofy dynamic between Lara and Matt is not worth missing.
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Feb 19, 2022
Erin Imhof (S2 EP7)
This delightful episode brings back SCAD alumnus Erin Imhof to talk about her journey post-SCAD in which she took some time off for herself and eventually ended up at Visual Logic as a User Experience Designer. Her story will resonate with a lot of seniors that are currently nervous for graduation and are hunting for jobs. Beyond her post-SCAD journey, Nico and Varun were able to dive deep into her amazing UX projects at SCAD which were not only impactful but amongst the most joyful projects seen by the department. A fun little bonus for our passionate listeners, Erin also happens to be our editor Josh's girlfriend, so tune in to hear how they met.
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Feb 5, 2022
Nico and Varun Alone (S2 EP6)
For the first time in inFLUX history, Nico and Varun didn't have a guest on the show and had the fearsome task of just talking to each other. As scary as it was, they managed to have a fun time by diving into senior studio, talking about the elusive Nort (AKA @scadshed on Instagram), and ending the episode off with a conversation on the media they have been consuming. If you enjoyed this style of episode, let us know and there may yet be more to come.
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Jan 22, 2022
Amadeus Cameron (S2 EP5)
The new quarter is kicking off with Amadeus, the youngest FLUX officer on the team right now as well as the co-director of STARTUP this year. His positive vibes have always been loved by everyone of the team and today he shares them with all you listeners. Tune in to hear us chat about his journey to UX, starting off college in an all-online fashion, as well as hearing some new fresh hot takes.
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Nov 6, 2021
Matt Walker (S2 EP4)
This season we have gone out of our way to find designers from Las Vegas. This week we have another fantastic designer from there, Matt Walker. Matt is a senior product designer focused on design systems at Mailchimp. His journey to become a designer is a rather fascinating one with him starting out in agencies, then being one of the early UX designers at Home Depot to his current role at Mailchimp. Nico and Varun dive into this journey, a little about design systems as well as the obsessive fascination with Figma that every designer seems to have nowadays. This episode marks the end of our 2021 releases and we will return in January with more episodes. Stay tuned because we have some great things in the works.
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Oct 23, 2021
FLUX × Design CO. (S2 EP3)
This marks the first collaboration between FLUX and Design CO. Not only are these two extremely different schools to study design at, but they are located on opposite coasts. Nico and Varun are joined by Sergio and Adam in this chat. Over the period of their chat, they discuss the difference between the two schools as well as the two clubs. Like always they end with a rapid fire with some never asked before hot take questions.
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Oct 9, 2021
Jackie Sabillon (S2 EP2)
This week we have the incredibly kind Jackie Sabillon! Jackie is a recent SCAD graduate, who graduated right before the COVID outbreak almost 2 years ago now. The episode was recorded over the summer when Jackie was a product designer for Click Therapeutics in New York. Since then, she has started a new position at MIT Media Lab as a User Experience Designer. In the episode, we get to talk to Jackie about her move from Illustration to UX, her interest in game UX and her calling to empower those around her.›
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Sep 25, 2021
Travis Neilson (S2 EP1)
After summer break, inFLUX is back and it is going to be bigger and better than before. We kick off this new season with Travis Neilson who is not only a designer at Google but a musician, ex-YouTuber, and more. Varun has been wanting him on the show since the beginning and we are excited to finally have him on. Nico and Varun sit down with Travis to talk about personal impact by COVID, design trends, content creation, music and more.
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May 1, 2021
EP 8 - Edie Alvarado and Deane Collins
Have you ever wondered where the intersection of UX and Fashion is? To answer that question, we bring in two senior SCAD students, one from each major, Edie and Deane to see what they think. The conversation doesn’t end there. Together, we reflect on learnings over the past year as well as discuss design trends we hate. Ultimately, this episode is a fun look into the minds of art school students, whether they are UX or not.
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Apr 17, 2021
EP 7 - Sarah Beth Doncals
Varun's mentor, Sarah, joins us this week and we have a great time chatting. Sarah is currently working at Uber Freight as a product designer and she is a recent SCAD grad. On today's episode, we chat about her job hunt after having her offer at Uber rescinded, how she eventually found her way back and even about who her favorite FLUX member is. Listen to get the insight scoop on who the member is! We think you will be surprised.
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Apr 3, 2021
EP 6 - Keenan Mai
We are back! After a small break, Nico and Varun return to talk to Keenan Mai, a User Experience Product Manager at HP in Fort Collins, Colorado. The conversation starts by talking about Keenan's unique journey into UX but then slowly transitions to a fun, obsessive chat about coffee and more. This episode also introduces a new format that we are testing and we hope you enjoy the refinements.
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Mar 13, 2021
EP 5 - Zachra Pradipta and Dallin Higgins (Winter 2021 Recap)
To mark the end of the quarter, we invited Zachra and Dallin, the co-directors of FLUX, to discuss the quarter and its large FLUX events including StartUp. This was a super fun conversation to have because we work with Zachra and Dallin regularly, but for those of you who don't know them as well, we dive in to their journey to SCAD, talk about their soon-to-happen graduation and much more. This episode provides insight into the people behind FLUX, so you definitely won't want to miss it.
We will be taking a short break till the next quarter too, so stay tuned till the next episode.
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Feb 26, 2021
EP 4 - Clark Delashmet
For the first time on inFLUX, our guest is one of the UX professors and it's none other than Professor Clark Delashmet. We start by talking about his journey to becoming a professor but move to more obscure topics such lab-grown whiskey as well as getting schooled on college football. This fun and lighthearted conversation with a great professor is definitely something SCAD students don't want to miss.
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Feb 12, 2021
EP 3 - SCAD IDSA - Natalie Schaake + Joshua Nilsson
Nico and Varun are back this week after a short break. This episode the show grows bigger with two guests instead of one, Natalie Schaake and Joshua Nilsson, the co-presidents of SCAD IDSA. In this hilarious episode, we discuss what IDSA is and how it is changing this year, learn about Josh's connection with Paula Wallace (SCAD's president and founder) as well as get the scoop on Nico and Natalie's relationship. You don't want to miss out on this one.
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Feb 3, 2021
STARTUP 2021 Bonus Episode - Jen Bonnett
On this special half-length episode of InFLUX, Savannah and Lara take over (again) to talk to Jen Bonnett, VP of the Savannah Economic Development Authority or SEDA. Jen and SEDA are a signature sponsor of this year’s StartUp event! We sat down to chat with Jen about her early career, SEDA as an agency and of course, StartUp! Since it was a short chat, we decided to release a special half-length episode, but don’t worry, we will be back next week with another full length episode and a pair of special guests.
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Jan 29, 2021
EP 2 - STARTUP 2021 Special w/ Andrew Sibert, Savannah Wilkinson & Lara Federspiel
On this special episode of inFLUX, Savannah and Lara take over to talk to Andrew Sibert, UX designer at Backbone. While at SCAD 6 years ago, Andrew founded STARTUP. This episode will dive into why he started it, the history of STARTUP and then move to the future with Savannah and Lara co-hosting this year. Outside of STARTUP talk, Savannah and Lara will talk to Andrew about his recent shift to Backbone, a company focused on mobile gaming, from his job at Google.
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Jan 15, 2021
EP 1 - Dane Galbraith
Welcome to the first episode of inFLUX! This episode is not only your introduction to this new show but gets straight into the action with our first guest.
On our very first episode, Nico and Varun interview the one and only Dane Galbraith, a recently graduated senior from the UX design department here at SCAD. He is the perfect candidate to be the first guest on the show because not only was Dane the president of FLUX last year, but he also hosted STARTUP 2019. Although now Dane works at Google, he is clearly a FLUX veteran. Nico and Varun chat with him about what it's like working in the pandemic, graduating SCAD, and ended the episode by getting some recommendations for movies to watch and music to listen to.
Thank you for joining us on this journey.
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