Leading creative studios share the secrets behind the world's most influential brands in a new podcast

Now a new podcast series is hoping to change all that, giving us exclusive access to the ideas and opinions of some of the best design and branding agencies out there.

Made Thought, RoAndCo, Collins, Base Design, Koto, AllOfUs, DesignStudio, Gretel, Mythology and Character all feature in Private View(s), ten insightful episodes created by Ask Us For Ideas (AUFI), a client-creative matchmaking agency, in collaboration with producer David Michon.

The revealing conversations look beyond their work and instead get to grips with their thinking: what can good branding do, and what can't it; why some agencies are tackling business models before they design; and what they are doing to address climate change, the male gaze, and tech addictions.

Founded in 2006 by Creative Director Roanne Adams, New York studio RoAndCo’s all-female leadership team has worked with influential global beauty brands including MAC Cosmetics and Clinique. Roanne told Private View(s) about the clear advantages of running a female-led agency in an environment traditionally dominated by men. She said: "A lot of women want to come and work for us. And maybe those women feel much more passionate and driven to work for us because they want so desperately to work under female leadership."

London agency Koto, meanwhile, helps bring brands alive for cutting edge innovators like Airbnb Plus and nurx. The studio’s Founder and Creative Director James Greenfield praised British designers' unique approach to creative projects. He said: "There is a combination of the historic nature of education in the UK combined with a slightly British cynicism, plus a bit of tall poppy syndrome where we don’t like people to get too elevated above their station. That combines together to make us quite inquisitive and bullshit-free."

Launched this month on Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud, you can access five episodes with another five to be released later this year.

AUFI Co-Founder Nick Bell said: "Private View(s) is the podcast that looks beyond the portfolio drilling down into what makes our most influential creative leaders tick. It is not about what they do but why they do it. We hope it provides the kind of food for the soul that both nourishes and provokes at the same time."