- Together by Design
- Topics
- Design Leadership
When AIGA Legends Gather: A Chat with Mike Joosse
Mike Joosse, Group Studio Director of Brand Design at VML, shares how attending a record-breaking ten AIGA leadership retreats shaped his approach to creative community-building and design leadership. From volunteer to chapter president to national director, his AIGA experiences have become the blueprint for his current role connecting design professionals across the country.
The Translation Layer
Business leaders and designers often speak entirely different languages—one talks KPIs and ROI, the other design systems and user journeys. Having lead creative programs and internal events for Amazon Design, I’ve learned firsthand that building mutual understanding requires intentional translation.
The Failure Trophy: What Event Marketing Taught Me About Real Leadership
Forced to abandon our successful in-person Creative Jam playbook overnight, our team stood at the edge of pandemic uncertainty—until my mentor’s counterintuitive advice to “fail spectacularly” unlocked a journey of experimentation that would transform our events in ways we never imagined possible.
