Mike Spakowski
Photos provided by Mike Spakowski
Explore: Atomicdust
5(ish) Questions for is a chance to discover and learn about St. Louis Creatives, Community Champions, and, well, just interesting people in and around our city. It's a deep dive into what they love and where their passion lies. It's an opportunity for all of us to see our region from a different perspective. This written interview is a peek into their lives and their outlook on St. Louis.
Meet Mike Spakowski, the powerhouse Partner and Creative Director at Atomicdust. His mantra? Design isn’t just about looking good, it's about making things better. Straight-talking and full of curiosity, Mike isn't afraid to ask the hard questions, ensuring Atomicdust's work truly resonates with audiences. He's a die-hard St. Louis fan who sees the city as a sandbox for creative folks and entrepreneurs.
Hi, Mike! Tell us a little about yourself…
Hi. I’m Mike Spakowski, Partner and Creative Director at Atomicdust. We’re a branding and design consultancy that uses creativity to build competitive advantages for businesses.
A big part of our work is serving cool and iconic St. Louis brands that make our city a great place to live.
What drives you, what gets you out of bed every morning?
What gets me out of bed every morning is the idea of improvement. I’m a designer at heart, and with that, you go about your life trying to make things better. Usually it starts with visuals—trying to make things look better. But as you mature, you start to see that most things in the world have opportunities for improvement. Your work, your businesses, your family. Where are we today, and where do we want to be tomorrow? There is a great quote from famed product designer Ayse Birsel: “Life is your most important project. So why don’t you do it creatively? Be a designer of life.”
Also, the smell of coffee helps.
What are some unique or innovative approaches you take?
When I was younger and first started working with clients, I would try to mask all my insecurities. Hide all my dumb questions. Shape my approach to what they needed me to be.
Nowadays I’m confident in my perspective. In my own naïveté. In asking dumb questions.
It took years of acting and trying to understand everything about a client’s business to realize that if I don’t get it, neither will their audience. If I can’t comprehend it while I’m in a room full of people who are paying me to help, their audience won’t understand it either.
Acting and blending in wasn’t making my work stronger, it was only weakening it.
So my unique approach is to relax, learn and be able to communicate the meaning behind things. To be fully comfortable being uncomfortable.
What inspires you about St. Louis?
One time, after a week-long trip in another city, I remember being on the plane and landing in St. Louis. I thought to myself “Dammit all to hell. Why do I live on this pile of rock? Why do I keep coming back?”
I’ve thought about it for years—and do you know why I love St. Louis? You can do anything you want here if you dare try. You can start a business, throw giant events, launch weird organizations—you can be a big fish in a small pond.
It is not perfect, but it can be an absolute playground for creative people. Property is affordable and interesting. People here will support you, and eventually diss you once you’ve achieved a threshold of success. Life here is laid back and friendly, but the people do big things.
Also, I really love St. Louis County. Man, I love the county. It is an amazing place for families, raising kids, parks, friends and neighbors.
As a business, we work with clients all over the country, not just St. Louis. But the creative talent pool here, the ease of life and community make it a great place to call home base.
How is your industry evolving?
In a lot of ways, the creative industry is evolving, while devolving.
This last decade, design and branding have become more popular for business than ever before. Businesses are embracing the concept that design and design strategy improves their customers’ experiences and can make their business more profitable.
That is the only real value designers bring to business. To help them grow.
So more businesses embrace design. Great! But with that comes commoditization.
Design templates, stock photos, AI, WordPress themes, Fiverr. These are really low-cost items that are available to businesses. And this is probably the part where you think I’m going to say how terrible and generic they all are—but I actually think they are great.
Charles Eames once said about design: “The best, for the most, for the least.”
Meaning, the best designed products, for the most people, for the least amount of money.
It is great to see businesses realizing the positive impact of design and being able to afford something good.
So, in a lot of ways, the creative industry is becoming more strategic, more breakthrough and more next-level. It’s the thinking that moves us forward. It’s the impact. Making things look good is still very important, but with easy-to-use digital tools, it’s becoming faster and cheaper to produce.
What impact are you making, or hope to make?
We do work that helps our clients break through the noise and competition. Our work serves as the foundation for how they interact with customers and each other. It’s designed to serve them for years.
It’s amazing to see an idea be conceived and born—then sent out to live in the world without ever calling its parents again. We are really honored to be a part of that.
But probably, on a much less grandiose scale, we give the 24 people we employ a place where their good ideas can shine. A place that they don’t dread working at every day. A place where they can be themselves and be comfortable. Hopefully they think about it fondly.
And personally, I like to think I’m an example of how far being deeply interested in a topic and too dumb to quit can take you. Maybe that would make an impact on someone starting out or serve as an example for my kids.
Why do you do the work you do?
I am a fixer. I grew up living between two bitterly divorced parents. I got really good at looking at situations and reframing them. I learned how humor can build acceptance, and concepts can bridge gaps.
The right framing can make a problem melt away. I think I learned that from Mad Magazine.
Cleverness. Metaphors. Unique problem-solving. Having puzzles to work against. The visual aspect is just the vehicle for bigger ideas—for creating something that breaks someone’s behavioral pattern and gets them to think differently about a topic, if even for a second—that’s the joy of the work.
Even if I wasn’t a professional, I would still create things. I wouldn’t know what else to do. When I’m part of hatching a great idea—it is the most energizing thing in the world to me.
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