A short bonus episode showcasing a few stand out moments from this weeks guest interview with Aporva Baxi (DixonBaxi) 

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[00:00:00]  Hey, welcome to this bonus episode of Daring Creativity Podcast. In these episodes, I revisit the interview published earlier in the week, giving me an opportunity to zoom in on a few standout moments for extra value and meaning. I'll take time to digest the goodness my guests share with me every week.

And this week I released a conversation with Aporva Baxi, the co-founder and ECD of Dixon Baxi, the global. Branding agency, and again, I was super happy to find yet another eloquently elegant creative leader who didn't hold back peeling back to layers. 

 Let's start with the moment where Polvar told us how he met Simon Dixon and how they define the principles.

I was just saying to Simon the other day that, this past February,I've known him for 30 years. So we've had a long, relationship together. certainly, very much rooted in respect for each other, but also pushing each other [00:01:00] forward.

Aporva Baxi: And then in that time we've been able to, grow the business, not necessarily just in scale, but hopefully in influence, in the things that we love doing. we've always had very strong principles from the beginning. I'm sure a lot of people may have heard this, but we did have a list of things that we would do and wouldn't do when we began.

And although that list has evolved and changed, they were root principles. and I think, we really like the idea of a principle base. Business as opposed to one that just has a rule set so it can adapt over time. And we've been working across many eras, so we've seen, the industry change, culture change, music choice change, fashion change.

And so it's amazing thing to be part of that journey. and it still is,very excited to be where we are now. But, even this morning there's a slight, always a slight not an anxiety of where we're gonna go next and what we can do next. I think the idea of settling is, the opposite of what we or the industry should be doing now.

 [00:02:00] the working relationship between Aporva and Simon Dixon is something of a milestone to cherish in our industry.

 They've been working together for 30 years, they have created a list of principles why they wanted to create an agency with the reason they wanted to create it with, I mean, they couldn't really fail, could they? 

Because their principles made them stay true. have agencies who are obsessed with getting bigger or making more money, or we're just keeping the lights on, but. Here SVA talking about something completely different.

 Even despite having defined principles where they're going, they are not settling, They're looking ahead. So even if they've been successful, they could easily coast. But there's a constant anxiety about what's next.

That's not a neurotic worry, that's a creative hunger that keeps them sharp. And the moment when agency think they have figured it out, it's the moment where you start declining. Because, let's be honest. [00:03:00] Everything changes all the time, but it's easy to create one formula and hope that formula will carry you into the sunset, but it does not.

 in a provost reply. He talked about anti settling mindset as a core principle rather than leaving things to chance. And this explains why Dixon's backseat work never feels stale, formulaic, because they're actively resisting comfort zones as a company policy.

the second quote is about putting conversation ahead of the portfolios.

So when we spoke to clients, it wasn't about portfolio, it was about ideas,and principles and the way of working and how brands can exist in the world in a much deeper way.

Aporva Baxi: And how we have to understand the audience, which seem quite commonplace now. But again, back then, you could talk about aesthetics or you could talk about strategy, but the overlap and the bridge of that. Was, very interesting to us. and more than anything, it was about our creative voice, finding our [00:04:00] story.

And the reason for starting with a blank sheet of paper and some principles was to figure out what that was. And,and we've worked really well together. I think one of the things that probably makes us successful is that we, respect each other, listen to each other. We have our own points of view.

 when we think about it, agencies often, often to meetings with proof of work portfolios showing that they have delivered, they've got case studies, awards, but. SVA told me that they've been running this process of talking over portfolio or conversations over portfolios ever since they started.

 they started with showing nothing and talked about everything that matter. they chose conversations over credentials, philosophy over portfolios. It can be terrifying, but it can be liberating. 

You have to be confident in your ideas and principles to walk into a room empty handed, but armed with your linguistic acrobatics and knowledge. Because [00:05:00] this approach forces both agencies and client to focus on the future rather than the past. It's a difference between, hey, here's what we've done, as opposed to here how we think

 And in the third moment I had to ask Aporva about bravery and how does he see it? Because they've been one of the agencies that have used this term bravery for quite some time.

However, that mindset and that view is changing.

I think it's like anything, it's a sticker, it's a bumper sticker,or it has become, and, with anything, whether it's about the diversity and eclecticism of a team,the voices that are seen in industry, the designs and brands that you might be involved in, it's through action that we see that actually manifests.

Aporva Baxi: So to say it is one thing, but to do it is so much harder. And it comes down to conviction, that belief in yourself. And, we don't come into the studio and go, you know what? We're gonna be brave today. No, [00:06:00] we're just going to do fucking cool work. and we're gonna try and. Feel excited and find the joy in it for ourselves. 

I had to ask this because I had such respect for Aporva honesty here. I mean, there literally created this brave brand's language that became a massive in the industry. And now he's told me that they took it off their website and just used it as one of the points within the websites because it's been germinated, it's been hijacked, it's been used.

And that terminology, when everything gets rounded, it loses meaning because a lot of us catch up things because we use them and see that, talking about brave brands, it makes us look braver. But in the conversation, I very much questioned the fact are we talking more about bravery than we are actually brave, because as a Provet replied, they literally removed the statement from their website because most people started using it [00:07:00] too, not because it was the question of being copied, but it's a question of actually being true to their mission.

It's a perfect example of how genuine insights can get commodified and lose its power, and what started as authentic philosophy became almost an empty marketing speak, not for them, but generally for the industry. And the tragedy is that real bravery, their practice of pushing boundaries gets buried under performative language.

The next point we talked about was disrupting arm recipes.

But I think there's an opportunity to confound that. And that's the thing that I think keeps us up at night or propels us, you know, is the catalyst for us is how we disrupt our own recipes.

Aporva Baxi: You know, whether that's for us at Dixie Maxie or for our community, the industries to ask those pro provocative questions that say, well, where are we going next? And how do we, articulate and create new ways of expressing [00:08:00] things that are meaningful and different. And I think, you know, it's, it is a challenge for us and our team, as much as anyone to.

Disrupt our own recipes. You know, we have ways of creating things. We have a process, and it works to create brands at scale. But that, I don't think that's good enough. You know, you kind of can settle. and, you know, we are always asking ourselves a question of, well, it works. 

I think this is the probably most honest thing I've heard a successful creative say, because Most agencies, mode designers, we all develop systems and processes that work. And as I said earlier, we are not always too keen or welcoming to change, But here's what most of us don't talk about.

 That same systems that we create can become a creative prison. It takes enormous discipline to question your own successful formulas. Most people double down at works Dixon Baxi actively sabotage their own [00:09:00] comfort zones 'cause they're essentially creating internal friction to prevent external irrelevance.

 This explains the longevity. They've been disrupting themselves for decades before disruption became a buzzword, but, and it's not about it. Change your sake. It's about staying ahead of your own patterns, because It is a courage to break what's working before it breaks you.

Aporva Baxi: the last moment is the one that inspired the title of the episode, designed for Life, and a apo said in a couple of moments in our conversation how they see demean of designing for life. the core things that we thought about was design for life. You know, so for our lives personally, it's baked into who we are, but also designed for life as in the millions of people out in the world.

And that design has an opportunity to do things that, moves the world forward. You know, there's human progress in that, 

So when he said this, something simply clicked for me. It's not just a clever wordplay, but it's a [00:10:00] beautiful dual meaning that captures everything about how they think. in the previous moment, he talked about disrupting recipes.

 In this moment, They're not just designing brands, they're designing their own existence and considering the ripple effect on everyone else. This connects the intimately human with the broadly social.

 This is why their work feels authentic rather than manufactured, and it comes from genuine life experience and consideration for real human impact. It can be said that too many agencies can treat creativity as intellectual exercise, but Apul is here talking about creativity as a life practice when design is integrated and how you live, not just what you do for client.

 It changes everything. I really cherished my conversation with Aporva. We covered so many more topics than just highlighted in here. So if you haven't had a chance and you're curious, please check out a full interview in the previous [00:11:00] episode, 

and I will see you again next week.