"Frustration isn't the enemy of creativity - it's the fuel." (Pablo Juncadella bonus episode)

0:00Radim Malinic:Hey, welcome to another bonus episode of the Daring Creativity Podcast. I'm back to unpack some of the gems from this week's conversation, pulling out those moments that deserve a second look and dig deeper in what makes them special. This week I spoke to Pablo Juncadella, a co-founder and partner at Mucho, the global branding studio he's been building for nearly 25 years. In our conversation we talked about his experience redesigning newspapers in his mid-twenties Building a global studio rooted in collective intelligence And his path that has been always shaped by curiosity, humility and insistence on moving the wheel of design forward The episode that was published a few days ago was titled Dare to bring creative poetry to every problem And we zoomed in on what it truly means to bring that poetry, not just solution, to every problem that lands on your desk It was a great conversation that's already been proven so popular.

0:53Radim Malinic:And if you haven't checked it out, let me share with you these four standout moments. Part of the culture of mucho is almost helping the careers of others. And in that sense, I always come back to the idea that creativity isn't absolutely needed for anything, but it's of great help to anything that you do, regardless of it being a creative job. Creativity is the capability of seeing things from a slightly different perspective to the majority and having the capability of making others go to that place. And I find that, in fact, works everywhere. We tend to confuse creativity to the capability of visualizing stuff, but they're really two different things.

1:41I'm a firm believer that the best lawyers are creative lawyers. best businessmen are creative businessmen and those are people who have or have acquired the capability of seeing things from a slightly different perspective and bringing people to that perspective.

1:57Radim Malinic:I love this clear definition of creativity from Pablo. As you will hear it arrives early in the conversation and almost as a throwaway but Pablo wasn't talking about just about talent output or even ideas. He was talking about a perspective as a skill and more importantly the ability to move people towards it. The second part is what separates a creative thinker from a creative communicator. Anyone can see things differently, but a real craft is in bringing others with you. If you ever struggle to explain why design matters, Pablo has just handed you the words. So I've always been dyslexic, and it's something that I've always had to deal with, and it's only after that I've realized, hold on, why are things for me easy that seem to be very hard to others?

2:46And my answer is that my limitations have created also my virtues. And I just try and make the best of it. I never thought much of I really like doing magazines and newspapers, regardless of me having a hard time reading them or understanding them or having to read an article three times. This is something that by that time I was already accustomed to it.

3:07Radim Malinic:I'm sure you'll agree that there's a real freedom in this moment. Pablo was talking about dyslexia, but the inside that stretched far wider. Most people spend years agonizing over what path to take, what to specialize in, what kind of creative to become. Pablo had the decision made by his wiring, and rather recognized it as a gift. It's a reframe of disadvantage that doesn't feel forced, or something like a motivational quote poster. He's not saying that struggle is secretly great. He's saying clarity about what you can do is sometimes the fastest route to understanding what you can do. This is a genuinely useful thought for anyone still trying to figure out where they belong.

3:53And I was very lucky to land that job at a very early age and work at a very hard level. But also, I think one of the best takeaways that I got from that experience, which seems to me almost like another life I've gone right now, but it's this idea that not be too precious to ideas. Newspapers force you into a pace where you might get it really right a couple of times and you might get it wrong another couple of times and there'll be another chance the next day. And I feel that this is the right way to approaching our job where if we fall too much in love with certain ideas, sometimes those ideas are the prequel to a better one.

4:34and it's really about doing the best that you can with the time that you have and newspapers have this space where there's a moment where it has to go to print and that happens every week or in the case of the guardian every day and you have to deliver the best that you have for that day

4:52Radim Malinic:and there'll be another day the next day i mean who needs to hear it who needed to hear it right now because in our early stages of our careers how many times did we almost married to our idea and would never let anyone to change it but in Pablo's moment he really came to understand that what he learned in the world of newspapers where the pace of production made attachment to any single idea a liability there was always another addition another front page another a chance to get it right what he absorbed from that environment wasn't indifference it was proportion loving the work and being precious about specific outcomes are very different things and conflating them is one of the most common creative traps this idea has particular resonance for anyone working with clients in teams or at pace and letting go of the version you loved isn't failure.

5:49Radim Malinic:It's just a room you cleared for a better one. Yeah, I happen to think that this is me more than, I wouldn't say that everyone in the organization thinks this, but I happen to think that we're there to contribute. So design is this big wheel that we have to try and move on every project that we do every time. And that is a putting the standards of what you do very high and it's non-related to what's going on today, But how do you contribute in something that moves the wheel of the design so that somebody else can build on that? And I believe that this is something we have to try on every project and we will fail 99.99999 % of the time.

6:35Yet you have to have the courage to the next day with the new client, with the new project. think, okay, maybe on this one, I can create something that not only is effective to my client, but moves the wheel of design. And that can bring a lot of frustration because it's putting your work at the highest standards and not really thinking that much what's going on today, what happened in the past, it's really understanding with a client. It's also making the client happy, but as the base of what you do, not as the objective. My objective isn't to make our client happy. It is the beginning of what I do.

7:14Of course, it has to be happy. But I am the one who brings the standards of design. And the standards of design are very high to the point where I will be frustrated with the result every time. Because I know this could have been better if I had another day, if I had another opportunity, if my client was a little bit more ambitious, if I had a slightly more talented or would have explored 3D or this or that, I maybe could have done it better.

7:41Radim Malinic:I've been adoring Mucho's work for a long time. And you would never think that the work that studio of that size produces, that mostly it fails to move something forward because I'm sure it's very much a self-observed truth. But what I love about this is the honesty about the percentage. Because Pablo wasn't offering a rallying cry per se, but he was just offering a realistic contract with creative ambition, when you think about it. He genuinely believes that contributing something meaningful to a broader history of design is the correct target to aim at, even knowing you'll almost never hit it.

8:23Radim Malinic:And crucially, he doesn't see that as a demoralizing. He sees it as what keeps the work honest. is the antidote to the kind of comfortable mediocrity that creeps in when in the client was happy becomes the definition of success raising a bar past what anyone asked for and accepting the frustration that follows is his version of staying in love with the job i genuinely enjoyed the conversation with pablo about the fact how they run the studio the language he used to talk about his work and i admire people like him for the fact that 25 years in the industry if not longer and he's still hungry he's still fighting pushing striving and believing in the thing that he started some no three decades ago and that's still there that passion is still there and i'm hot off to him because they create an incredible work if you haven't checked out a full episode i can only encourage you to do so it's a real gem and thank you for being here.

9:27Radim Malinic:I'll catch you on the next episode next week. If you enjoyed this episode and would like more accessible resources to help you discover your daring creativity, you can pick up one of my books on themes of mindful creativity, creative business, branding and graphic design. Every physical book purchase comes with a free digital bundle including an e-book and audio book to make the content accessible whatever you are and whatever you do. To get 10 % of your order, visit novemberuniverse.co.uk and use the code podcast. Have a look around and start living daringly.