Before Canva reached a quarter of a billion monthly users, Cliff Obrecht helped rule a tiny realm: Australian school yearbooks. The habits that carried him out of Perth - candour, thrift and a taste for the practical - still shape what came next.

From a 2010 demo reel to emergency maps used across 46 states, Michael Mehlhorn has built a career around one stubborn idea: information matters only when people can actually use it.