Creator Spotlight - Craig Burgess

One of the members of the Soaring Twenties Social Club, the man who obsessively podcasts about (and on) Wednesdays

Craig Burgess, a man of many designs, words, banned words, and podcasts, kindly answered my questions during a harrowing stimulating series of E-mails. He owns and runs the Genius Division digital agency from the UK. He also creates and publishes the most Wednesday Audio podcast in the world. For a more complete list of old and new projects, check out his Get Doing Things website.

Welcome Craig.

Intensity personified, that’s Craig

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What did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a police officer, or a 'Bobby' is they're often called around these parts. Since I could walk, I wanted to be in the police. Not sure why, not sure where it came from, not sure who influenced me. None of my family were ever in any occupation that even remotely resembled the police.

My growing up desires stayed that way until I was 18. I'd finished my education, but I had to wait 6 months before I could apply (you had to be 18.5 to become a police officer in the UK). So I went to university instead. I was about ready to go off to study games design—I'd always been into videogames—but at the last minute I saw a poster for a web design course.

I joined the course, and within 12 months I had a job as a graphic designer and a web designer. I never looked back. I've been floating around in marketing and design and 'the arts' ever since, for the past 16 years.

The funny part of this story is that, deep down, I knew this was what I was going to end up being when I look back at my childhood. I'd been messing around with Microsoft Publisher ever since I got my first computer at 11 years old. I'd been messing around with websites since 15 years old. I loved album covers, wished I could create them. But coming from a working class town in the arse end of Yorkshire, I didn't even know any of these things were jobs. A job was work, at least that's what I'd always witnessed.

I run my own design agency now, in sunny Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK.

What kind of ups and downs have you seen in the graphic design business in the UK during these past 16 years?  Are most of your clients domestic (i.e.  UK/Ireland)?

The creative industries are a going through a familiar crisis to lots of industries right now. There used to be a focus on ideas and originality, and there's now become a focus on technical competency and templated ideas. Example: when I began to learn design around 16 years ago I was surrounded by living design legends who put the idea first in all their work. George Lois calls it The Big Idea (book recommendation: Damn Good Advice). Every piece of creative work should have it. He'd know, just go look at his work. He was the inspiration for Don Draper in Mad Men.

Fast forward 16 years, and we're drowning in tutorials about the how, but not the why. I have millions of tutorials available to me if I want to learn Photoshop, but what about if I want to learn original thinking, lateral thinking and creativity? Not so much, if anything, is available.

Let's turn this into a proper rant: and designers have just gotten so boring and predictable. Designers used to be rebels, free thinkers. They used to write books and make music and do other things. The modern day designer tweets threads about design or makes YouTube tutorials about how to be a designer. It's all become so predictable and tiresome.

This has all affected the industry deeply. Clients don't have the option to buy ideas anymore, they just buy technical proficiency. 

What led you to start publishing your thoughts online, especially into the more public places?

Two direct influences:

1. Jack Butcher

2. Covid

I'd previously been a designer for over a decade who had never really publicly said much of anything. I'd hidden in complete obscurity. It's common: I preferred to do the work than be known for doing the work. But, I've always enjoyed writing and making videos and messing around. For many years I took on 'challenges' each year to do a thing a day for 365 days. My first ever one was to design an A4 poster every day for 365 days. I never did it for fame or fortune, I just did it because I wanted to become a better designer. I never connected the dots that way.

So, each year I'd do a thing for a while, then disappear from the web completely. A poster a day. A photo a day. A record sleeve design a day. A blog a day. A podcast a day. A complete reboot, every other year. I'd always tweeted, but never with an idea to grow an audience.

Then, some years later, covid hit. I was worried my business was going to get hit hard. We started to doing worst-case scenario assessments. I realised I had nothing outside of the agency, no presence, no personal brand. So I started writing tweets. In fact, with the extra time I had from working from home I started recording videos, podcasts, writing tweets, emails, blog posts, you name it.

It all came from finding Jack Butcher in his early days, and following his journey. He came from a similar place in the UK, had similar experience to me. Why couldn't I be Jack?

Of course, things have developed somewhat since then. I got sick of saying some of things I said online and took a creative sabbatical. Out of that, The Wednesday Audio appeared, and eventually my passion for writing renewed.

On cue, a wild craig appears.

Before I ask you about The Wednesday Audio I'm curious to know about your writing process.  Does pen and paper play into it at all or are you 100% keyboard/touch screen?

I sit down to write at a mechanical keyboard (Keychron are my favourite ones). Sometimes I'll sketch ideas out on my phone in Ulysses, but I always complete drafts and edit on my Mac using the same app.

I treat writing like a performance. I see my pieces as if I'm delivering it live on a stage, and like to write how I'd say it to an audience or to a mate at a pub. It helps me to not be so formal and 'henceforth, I shall now commence my writerly prose to convince you or otherwise'.

I'll write the barebones, most of the time the entire first full draft, in one sitting.

I'll then carry the draft around with me on my phone for 5-7 days, thinking about it, maybe sharing it with a few people. I'll make edits during that time or add new ideas as I think about it a little more. I write when I'm passionate, I edit when I'm not so passionate.

I enjoy messing with structure and layout, and I'll often think of a structure for a piece before I get the actual idea. To me, the structure and layout is as important to the concept as the actual words. In nuffink, I had this idea of trying to emulate a live stream and how I could do that in an interesting way. I used the footnotes as the adverts. In Scatology, I just had this idea to say shit as many times as possible. In Contentalife, it began as a piece written in the second person and went from there.

OK, it's time for you to tell the Wednesday Audio story.  BTW, I've seen a football match at the Sheffield Wednesdays Club, which I think was the inspiration for naming your podcast.

I won't tell you the story of The Wednesday Audio. It has to be experienced rather than explained. Let's just say it's not like any other podcast you've listened to. Let's say it's like the Bavarian Restaurant sketch from Monty Python.

However, I will tell you the story of how I got to that. I started podcasting around 2017 with (another) daily challenge. I'd done design challenges and other creative challenges over the years, but decided I wanted to do something different. I'd never recorded a podcast before, but on December 27th I decided from January 1st I'd start recording and publishing a podcast every day.

The time constraints forced me to focus on what kit I needed to start instead of what kit I wanted. I bought a mic, figured out some simple recording software, and got started.

So what did I podcast about? Marketing, obviously. I did a dry and horrible and nervous podcast about design and marketing for around 100 episodes. Then I started a different one that got a bit trippy. After that, I did an interview style podcast. I got bit by the podcasting bug.

There's a magic with the audio medium I don't find in any other creative medium. The idea that the listener has to imagine so much of what you're talking about makes the medium intimate. It's the only medium that—when done right—feels like it's talking directly to you, rather than an audience.

After my aforementioned creative sabbatical I did a Monty Python and thought: And Now for Something Completely Different. I threw the idea of an audience and marketing in any fashion completely out of the window. I just started a podcast with no expectations of what it might be, and it turned into something, well, it turned into The Wednesday Audio. Ironically enough, without even trying and at moments actively displaying distaste of my listeners, it's the most 'popular' thing I've ever done.

At this point I've made hundreds, close to thousands, of podcasts over the years. The only podcast that anybody ever talks to me about is the 62 episodes (probably more now) of The Wednesday Audio. All of the marketing podcasts, serious podcasts and How To podcasts have faded into complete obscurity.

I'd encourage more people to follow this creative process. Create with your heart and not your head. Create for yourself and not for others. A lot of my writing these days talks about this.

Tell about the Soaring Twenties community experience:  what is it, how did you find it, what do you personally get out of it?

The Soaring Twenties Social Club dragged me out of a creative funk, kicking and screaming. They encourage you to discover your creative honesty (a phrase somebody said in there the other day). None of this is done through a course or any kind of structured learning whatsoever. There's no tutorials to read. You just jump in and start chatting, which is the best kind of community in my opinion.

It's a group of people cheerleading you, providing feedback, having a laugh, being highly critical of the status quo, and much more. I always liken it to a rather obscure reference: it's like Mrs Miggin's Pie Shop from Blackadder. It's a group of real artists, warts and all.

I found it through Thomas J Bevan. I'd been reading his work for a while and started supporting it. When I became a paid subscriber I realised that there was a link to a discord. I jumped in, and never looked back.

I get so much out of it. I get feedback, advice, community, friends for life. I'd encourage anyone who's looking for their group of artists online to join in.

How do you feel about the UK exiting the European Union?  Do you think it's a good move for the long term?

Impossible to say, even now that we've exited. All the the data so far seems to suggest it was a bad decision, bearing in mind it was mostly fueled by a flippant election pledge that (for once) politicians decided to uphold. I've yet to find somebody who can tell me a single benefit. It certainly tracks with the rest of Western society making incredibly poor choices when it comes to politics right now.

Pretend you wake up one morning and the Internet has been destroyed.  What's the first thing you do?

I wake up one morning, I switch on my phone. I notice there’s no internet signal. Weird. 

I get out of bed, curious to find the answer. I switch on my computer, still no internet. Weird. 

I go downstairs. I notice an official-looking memo posted through my door. It’s simple, but serious. It looks real. 

“During the last 24 hours, the UK Government has taken the decision to permanently disable access to the internet for all UK citizens. We’re sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.”

I re-read the short note. I smile. I nod. I speak, to nobody in particular. 

“Thank fuck that whole weird internet saga is over. We really got lost in the weeds for a while. I suppose I’ll just go for a walk then.”

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Thanks to Craig for this fun Q&A session!