Ep. 21: Creative Grit & Purpose: Tyler Tolson on Building Denik

What does a third-grade drawing of Shaq, a $3,000 domain deal, and notebook paper from Walmart have to do with building a global creative brand?

In this episode of What the Helvetica, Mike Janda sits down with Tyler Tolson, founder of Denik, to explore the real behind-the-scenes of how a small idea in college became a purpose-driven design brand building schools around the world.

🎙️ We talk about:

• How Tyler turned a personal passion into a full-time creative business
• What it really takes to build your design agency from scratch
• Why grit outperforms talent every single time
• Embracing creative failure, surviving stress, and finding your “why”
• The true story behind Denik’s name, funding, and first machines (and yes, it involves beef bologna)
• How Denik’s design-forward notebooks are competing with Moleskine — one bold decision at a time

Whether you're freelancing, building a brand agency, or stuck in survival mode trying to figure it all out — this is the episode that reminds you: You're too good to throw away.

🤝 Connect with Michael Janda

Michael Janda is an award-winning creative director, designer, and agency veteran. In 2002, he founded the creative agency Riser, which provided design and development services for clients that included Disney, Google, Warner Bros., Fox, NBC, ABC, National Geographic, and many other high-profile brands. Michael sold his agency in 2015 and now spends his time speaking, developing books, courses, and social media content to help creatives level-up. He is the author of “Burn Your Portfolio” and “The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing.”

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/morejanda
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• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/morejanda
• Website: https://michaeljanda.com
• Courses: https://morejanda.teachable.com
• Community: https://morecreativeacademy.com

🤝 Connect with Tyler Tolson

Tyler Tolson is the CEO and Founder of Denik (deh-neek), a designer notebook and lifestyle product company that uses a portion of its funds to build schools and support artists. He started the company in 2011 as an artist and full-time student at Utah State University. The company has blossomed into an 8-figure brand and serves customers like Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, and Target in over 16,000 retail locations in North America. Denik also produces custom notebooks for brands like Nike, Disney, Google, and TikTok. The Denik creative community has funded and built 10 schools to date — in Laos, Guatemala, Ghana, Nicaragua, Senegal, Mali, Malawi, and Nepal.

Tyler has been named a “Young Emerging Leader” by the Leader to Leader Institute in New York and was selected as one of the "Top 40 Under 40" leaders in the Gift and Stationery Industry. He currently serves on the Entrepreneurship Center Board at the Huntsman School of Business. Over the past eleven years, he has taught and trained audiences of various capacities, and has consulted entrepreneurs, students, and artists at all stages of business. However, Tyler's greatest accomplishment is marrying the girl of his dreams and raising his five (almost six) rockstar kids. IG: https://www.instagram.com/tyler.at.denik/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylertolson Shop Denik: https://denik.com/ Book a call with Tyler: https://calendly.com/tylerdenik