Works But Makes Noises
David McGillivray & Jacob Heftmann 20 episodes Nov 9, 2026
Two designers on opposite coasts talk through creativity, culture, and technology. The show is framed as being about everything except design, yet the conversation keeps circling back to design. It offers a casual, wide-ranging discussion of how creative work intersects with the wider world.
Episodes
Over-optimizing the creative process and designing your way out of the Valley of Sh*t
Everyone creative person has been in the Valley, the miserable stretch in a project where nothing works. In this episode, we talk about some of the tricks we use to get to the other side: sleep, sneak attacks, talking it out, word-association games. But we also ask: are we optimizing creativity out of the design process? We weigh efficiency against good work, the value of the Valley, and whether i
Not-so-graphic design: Dueling product launches, why EV form factors are stuck, and the custom stack powering David’s new www
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 th
With Nick Pattison: Pentagram Boot Camp, Productizing Design, the Birth of Brand Sprints, and What AI Still Can’t Replace
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 ea
Sell-Out Culture, the Other 95% of Building Products, to Monetize or Not, and Where the Online Design Community Went
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
Design Portfolios: Thinking Like a Business, Why Good Work Isn’t Enough, and the Crystal Goblet Mindset
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 thin
Job Hunting, Career Philosophy, and Fit vs. Salary in a Midlife Design Career
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, W
World Cup Kits, Mamdani’s Grocery Store RFP, Siri AI, and a Tribute to David Hockney
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.
Digital Collecting, a Bauhaus Awakening, and the Ethics of Copying, Crediting and Remixing in Design
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, explor
Designing With Emotion, Elastic Branding, and Band Dynamics with guest Estee Kim, VP of Design at Soft Services
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 experi
Getting Good Design Feedback, Figma Comments, and Electric Car Shopping
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 Yorkhttps://www.44xdesign.com/spatialhttps://tiny.garden/sites by @gndclouds WILL
Surf Apps & 70’s Surf Racks, Figma Config, Homebrew Study Aides, Hand-Finished Design, Reverse Airbnb, and Design Team Retreats
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
Special Guest Allan Yu on Going From Designer to Founder, Pivoting Your Startup, and Why AI Should Be Invisible
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
The End of Wireframes, a Robot Vacuum Army, and Why Designing Backwards is the Way Forward
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
Jony Ive’s Ferrari, AI Copycats, Human-Washed Brands, and Faux Scribbles
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 Ferrarihttps://www.highsnobiety.com/p/ferrari-luce-jony-ive-marc-newson-lovefrom/Stripe Sessions: Jony Ive
Special Guest Elizabeth Goodspeed on Design Education, Experimental Branding, Weird References, and Archiving Everything
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
The Rise of Home-Cooked Software, Authenticity & Imperfection, and When to Start a Design Studio
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 Failhttps://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/1pfzxt0/tesla_optimus/Dell's Big Boyhttps://www.engadget.com/
Robot Lamps, Apple’s New Design Era, Utah 2034, Iconic Olympic Brands
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 2
Zohran’s Campaign Design, Geriatric Millennials, and Ten Foot Skeletons
Ten foot skeletons, Gen Z nonchalance vs. Millennial effortfulness, Zohran's campaign design, Al Gore was the worst client.Links mentioned in the showZohran Mamdani’s Campaign Logo Looked Nothing Like a Campaign Logohttps://www.curbed.com/article/zohran-mamdani-campaign-logo-graphic-design.htmlFully automated 'private chef'https://x.com/miyuselene/status/1982517846124192011?s=20NEO
Personal uniforms, electric bikes, and 90's ad agencies.
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
Two weddings, one Subaru, and an AI that designs your company
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 existentialismDavid McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He als
Art, Aging, and AirPods That Randomly Beep
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 fantasiesDavid 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 stor
Recommended
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
100 Greatest Old Time Detective Stories
Fantasy Flex
Classic Radio Theater with Wyatt Cox
Take Back Your Health®
Solved Murders - True Crime Stories
Old Time Radio - Gunsmoke
ESPN SportsCenter Update
Back to the 80s Radio
Heaven’s Gate Academy
Deadline: White House
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas
