Jacob’s back from Indonesia and Japan to find that David didn’t, in fact, burn the house down. We compare two very different product launches – Apple’s new HomeView and Tesla’s dream car (if you're a 12-year-old boy). Then we go full car talk: why electric vehicles can’t break out of car-design convention, some good and bad Porsche sightings, and the new Volvo XC60 hybrid. We also dig into the insane custom software stack powering David’s [very beautiful] new website. Plus we reflect on the f...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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,...

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 David McGillivray is a designer and c...

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/ David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for ear...