Works But Makes Noises

55:17

With Nick Pattison: Pentagram Boot Camp, Productizing...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/10/02

This week, Jacob’s somewhere in rural Singapore (I think?), so David sits down with Nick Pattison, founder of Primary Studio, to trace his path from Pentagram and Milton Glaser’s studio to building a productized design practice around the two-week brand sprint. They get into earning your stripes, going from solo designer to studio owner, hiring your first employee, why design services should be easier to buy, and Nick’s ongoing obsession with making creative work more scalable. Plus, how a $2...

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56:12

Sell-Out Culture, the Other 95% of Building Products,...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/09/09

This week, we talk about the lost art of *not* selling out, whether or not to turn an idea into a business (plus David's released the beta of his app Archiv), and the forgotten 95% that goes into releasing a product. We get into the evolution of self-promotion and get nostalgic for when the design community had Twitter as a public space. David's off to pick up some original Karen Mobring-designed IKEA chairs and Jacob's going to the beach (surprise!). And does anyone know why there are parrot...

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63:47

Design Portfolios: Thinking Like a Business, Why Good...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/08/10

Recording from an NYC visit (David) and peak California beach season (Jacob), this week we dig into the design portfolio and how to present yourself effectively – whether you’re at the beginning of your career or revamping your agency’s website. We talk about how work quality gets you in the door but it’s the positioning that gets you hired, why designers obsess over their projects instead of thinking like a business, how writing might be what actually sells you, the red flag that can scuttle...

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59:13

Job Hunting, Career Philosophy, and Fit vs. Salary in...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/07/27

After a little summer break we've got Jacob's trip report from a van adventure in Spain and work retreat in Amsterdam, and David reflects on the ins-and-outs of an eight-month career journey. We talk salary, doing work that sparks joy, the tension between freelance freedom and job security, and what makes a good fit versus just a good paycheck. Plus travel gear, Brighton Football Club, World Cup wrap-up, and David's renewed spark as he recalibrates his independent practice. David McGillivray ...

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57:33

World Cup Kits, Mamdani’s Grocery Store RFP, Siri AI,...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/06/15

We're going full World Cup fan-mode this week. We make some personal picks for the tournament and talk best and worst of the national team kits. Also in the world of public and civic branding projects, we call out some personal do's and don'ts related to the week's most-commented design RFP: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's call for branding NYC's new public grocery stores. We talk about what the subway, public libraries, and Porto and Barcelona get right about civic design plus: Apple's audacious ...

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66:18

Digital Collecting, a Bauhaus Awakening, and the...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/05/26

This week we're getting moooooody – moodboards, that is! First we talk David's new iOS app Archiv, which lets you photograph and catalogue what's around you. Then we wade into the thorny world of design inspiration, copying, and downright plagiarism, vague posting without credit, and the blurry line between inspiration and theft. We tackle wether moodboards are lazy shortcuts, explore why learning through mimicking great work actually teaches you something real, trace David’s design awakening...

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68:50

Designing With Emotion, Elastic Branding, and Band...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/05/11

This week we're joined by Estee Kim, VP of Design at Soft Services, the cult-favorite body care brand known for its meticulous design and packaging. We talk on multi-generational design families, her parents’ graphic design and signage shop in Philadelphia, and her grandmother Rose's collage practice. Estee walks us through Soft Services’ design philosophy; how they capture sensory experiences visually, the brand’s “elastic branding” approach, the band metaphor for collaborative design teams,...

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60:11

Getting Good Design Feedback, Figma Comments, and...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/04/13

electric car shopping and EV tradeoffs, figma comments and modern design feedback, fragmented feedback across tools, structuring better client critique, feedback psychology and confidence, figma shortcuts and workflows, productivity tools we don’t use, are.na websites and spatial, caveman codex, spring in upstate New York https://www.44xdesign.com/spatial https://tiny.garden/sites by @gndclouds WILLIAM FELKER https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman Join our WBMN group chat on Output: h...

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54:33

Surf Apps & 70’s Surf Racks, Figma Config, Homebrew...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/03/30

surf forecasting tools and building personal software, jacob’s 70’s surf rack archive and design lineage, figma config branding and pushing beyond the parent brand, using ai to study and learn through narrative instead of memorization, planning a retreat for type designers and the limits of structured “fun” https://www.infinitemachine.com/ https://jheftmann.github.io/wavekit/ https://config.figma.com/ Join our WBMN group chat on Output: https://wbmn.output.app/workspaces/join/c2c99415297b97e6...

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58:10

Special Guest Allan Yu on Going From Designer to...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/03/16

This week we’re joined by Allan Yu, designer and co-founder of community messaging app, Output. He previously worked as an early designer at Svpply, a cult favorite among designers, and later at Google Labs, Meta, and Shopify. We talk on designer to founder reality checks, pivoting your startup (again and again), Svpply nostalgia, type foundry UX rants, building a Discord for normal people, design craft vs shipping product, venture-backed startup pressure, fake users testing your produc...

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54:46

The End of Wireframes, a Robot Vacuum Army, and Why...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/03/02

Robot vacuum fleets, Claude code experiments, Personal SaaSpocalypse, closed loop design workflows, building before designing, design is the bottleneck, pushing to prod, the death of wireframes, grey box trauma, and unlearning the process. David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftman is a Los A...

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61:59

Jony Ive’s Ferrari, AI Copycats, Human-Washed Brands,...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/02/16

Ive's Ferrari collab, tactile design, electric performance, AI copycats, creative IP, opt-in consent, database tools vs model training, human-washed tech, the Granola rebrand, analog aesthetics, faux authenticity, proof of humanity, OpenAI vs Anthropic, authenticity vs costume. Jony Ive x Ferrari https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/ferrari-luce-jony-ive-marc-newson-lovefrom/ Stripe Sessions: Jony Ive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLb9g_8r-mE Granola Rebrand https://www.granola.ai/blog/a-new-l...

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64:49

Special Guest Elizabeth Goodspeed on Design...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/01/26

How to pay off sleep debt, ancient internships, should designers c*de? design engineers, teaching at RISD and Parsons, experimental branding briefs and constraint-led projects, what design school doesn’t teach, archives versus mood boards, Arena as a second brain, collecting and scanning physical references, folk packaging and diner placemats, obscure illustrators and forgotten ephemera, taste as something you build over time, trend reports and in–out lists, writing as a way of thinking, prin...

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64:31

The Rise of Home-Cooked Software, Authenticity &...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2026/01/10

The 52" monitor, home-cooked software, claude code, vibe coding, personal tools, craft, authenticity and imperfection, authorship and taste, designing without scale, having an independent design practice, freelancing vs studios, building a career on your own terms. Tesla Optimus Fail https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/1pfzxt0/tesla_optimus/ Dell's Big Boy https://www.engadget.com/computing/dell-unveils-a-massive-52-inch-6k-ultrawide-curved-monitor-at-ces-2026-140024842.html Peop...

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62:18

Robot Lamps, Apple’s New Design Era, Utah 2034,...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2025/12/09

Snowstorms in the Catskills, Jacob’s month on the North Shore, selling the Audi and becoming a full-time Subaru guy, mechanics doing power slides in your car, talking lamps and unhinged home robots, Terminator bots and the sci-fi week online, Apple entering a new design era, Google’s Nano-Banana and AI faking sketchbooks, Bloom and the rise of brand-asset generators, the new CNBC logo mess, Utah 2034 and the puzzle of future-proof Olympic branding, the icons of Olympic identity from Mexico 68...

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58:46

Zohran’s campaign design, geriatric millennials, and...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2025/11/10

Ten foot skeletons, Gen Z nonchalance vs. Millennial effortfulness, Zohran's campaign design, Al Gore was the worst client. Links mentioned in the show Zohran Mamdani’s Campaign Logo Looked Nothing Like a Campaign Logo https://www.curbed.com/article/zohran-mamdani-campaign-logo-graphic-design.html Fully automated 'private chef' https://x.com/miyuselene/status/1982517846124192011?s=20 NEO home robot https://www.1x.tech/neo David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in ...

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69:06

Personal uniforms, electric bikes, and 90's ad agencies.

Works But Makes Noises ·

2025/10/17

Surfing in Mexico, Gap is back, having a personal ‘uniform’, Electric Bikes, NYC Subway design, AI slop (oh no), edible rocks, 90’s ad agency offices, naming things. David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftman is a Los Angeles-based graphic designer. Currently the Design Director at Grilli Typ...

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55:37

Two weddings, one Subaru, and an AI that designs your...

Works But Makes Noises ·

2025/09/26

New Grillitype launches, social battery collapse, Palermo wedding gossip, buying a 2008 Subaru on Facebook Marketplace, DMV purgatory, LL Bean collab trim, new iPhone and AirPods takes, AI brand builders, Jacob hates moodboards, designer existentialism David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftm...

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66:31

Art, Aging, and AirPods That Randomly Beep

Works But Makes Noises ·

2025/09/06

Catskills nervous system reset, tiny New York party memories, birthday art pilgrimages, Mass MoCA, basic-taste art confessions, work-life blur, Apple event ambivalence, light-phone fantasies David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftman is a Los Angeles-based graphic designer. Currently the Desi...

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