Creative Boom launches its fourth podcast season, bringing the inside scoop from leading artists and designers

Every Monday, our show will bring you the inside scoop from other artists, designers, illustrators and photographers about the highs and lows of being a creative professional. It will feature candid conversations with new and established names worldwide as we discover more about their creative journeys so far. As such, it's bursting with insider career tips, honest business advice and incredible stories, offering warmth, wisdom and inspiration to help you in your creative journey.

It's hosted by me, Katy Cowan – I'm the founding editor of Creative Boom, a platform I launched in 2009 to celebrate, inspire and support the creative community, particularly the underrepresented.

This next season has been made possible by our sponsor, Astropad Studio. It's something that turns your iPad into a professional drawing tablet by mirroring any Mac or PC app. Founded in 2013 by two former Apple engineers, Matt Ronge and Giovanni Donelli, Astropad Studio has been used by leading animation studios and is trusted by millions of artists around the world.

It's a clever solution for professional artists, designed to give the flexibility of an Apple Pencil combined with the full desktop power of software like Photoshop and Illustrator. And if you're worried about whether it can cope with the most demanding creative work, there's nothing to fear as Astropad Studio guarantees low latency performance over WiFi or USB cable, so you can stay productive and creative on the go. And it's jam-packed with features to customise your workflow – we're talking programmable gestures, custom pressure curves and pressure smoothing, and unlimited shortcuts. The sky's the limit.

One happy customer remarked: "From enhancing eyes to lifting shadows, Astropad makes this process much more fluid. The ability to select what you want to display on your iPad is key because it gives you the flexibility to use so many applications."

If you're ready to take your creative workflow to the next level, you can start your 30-day free trial of Astropad Studio today. Plus, save 10% on your first year when you enter the promo code BOOM at checkout. That applies to whether you opt for a monthly or annual subscription. Visit astropad.com to get started.

The fourth season kicks off with an interesting chat with Constance Fleuriot, a writer, games developer and producer based in Bristol who runs her own game design company, Pretty Digital. She also runs Grrrl Games to support women and girls of all ages to make games.

Being a big gamer myself, I wanted to learn more about the gaming industry, why there still aren't enough of us, and how we can perhaps inspire more women to join the sector in the future. We then, of course, talk of diversity in gaming overall and whether any progress has been made in recent years. We consider gender roles and identity and why it's important to have more female characters but also create those that are gender-neutral, too. And there's a delve into the creative process of game design and why you don't need to know how to use a computer to get started.

Up next, we hear from Sarah Hyndman, a graphic designer and researcher and the person behind Type Tasting – a practice on a mission to change the way we think and talk about typography by making it fun and exciting for everyone. We get right into how typography has changed since she first discovered it as a child, looking at chocolate and sweet wrappers in her local corner shop. We hear of her thoughts on trends and the design industry overall – about type snobbery and why we're all, in fact, experts. And we delve into the subconscious and how we feel about various typefaces. Even whether they have the power to change the world, shape our behaviour and influence pop culture.

Later, we meet Darnell Brown, a growth strategist and educator based in North Carolina. Originally a graphic designer, Darnell now helps business owners to harness their superpowers, hack their time and make a difference in the world. It's a career he carved out for himself after suffering the effects of burnout during his days of crafting logos and building brand identities. It was 2008, at the peak of the global economic crisis, when he decided to change from full-time employment to freelancing, spotting an opportunity to hire himself when no one else would.

Almost fourteen years later, Darnell has helped hundreds of clients to thrive and continues to apply everything he's learnt so far – from his days as a kid in the '90s, making money from his comic book drawings, to his time helping tech startups to raise millions in funding. A fascinating conversation for those of you wondering how to diversify and add more value to your design businesses.

In future episodes, we'll hear from graphic and motion designer Mat Voyce and why he doesn't think you need to win awards to be a success. There will be Marina Willer of Pentagram fame on her journey so far and her creative process at one of the world's largest design studios. Gush Mundae will chat about his "life's work" as the founder of the London agency Bulletproof. And Boma Krijsman of JDO UK will talk about her experience in the industry as a woman of colour, working mum and what agencies like JDO are doing to address a lack of diversity and champion flexible working.

It's all coming up, and I'm so excited to have you join us. We've tried to cover a variety of creative disciplines, from gaming and digital to illustration and graphic design, so there's something for everyone. To stay in touch, you can subscribe via all the major directories, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Acast and more. And if you're enjoying the show, a review is always welcome – particularly on Apple Podcasts.

Meanwhile, over 70 episodes from previous seasons are waiting for you to download and enjoy. Past guests include Timothy Goodman, Gail Anderson, Oliver Jeffers, Izzy Burton, Murugiah, Annie Atkins, Dapo Adeola, Debbie Millman, and Michael C Place.