Two designers on opposite coasts talk their way through creativity, culture, and tech. It’s a podcast about everything except design, that somehow always ends up being about design.
Over-optimizing the creative process and climbing 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 it's a phase that you can skip or just have to work through. Plus handwritten type experiments, ba...
19 Oct 2026
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 the insane custom software stack powering David’s [very beautiful] new website. Plus we reflect on the f...
2 Oct 2026
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 easier to buy, and Nick’s ongoing obsession with making creative work more scalable. Plus, how a $2...
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
19 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Contact Works But Makes Noises
Guest appearances
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