Design Life
Charli Prangley, Femke Van Schoonhoven
Design Life is a podcast about design and side projects for motivated creators. It was born after your hosts, two serial side project addicts, saw a gap in the podcast market for a conversational show about design and the issues young creatives face, that was hosted by two females.
This show aims to tackle the big issues designers face like getting paid, overcoming a creative block or managing time, to name a few. We want to open up discussion about things we wish we heard people talk about when we were studying, and we want to chat to you about the joys and the frustrations of working in the tech industry by day, and on our passion projects in the rest of our waking hours. We hope that by doing so, Design Life will give you a dose of motivation or inspiration when you need it.
This show aims to tackle the big issues designers face like getting paid, overcoming a creative block or managing time, to name a few. We want to open up discussion about things we wish we heard people talk about when we were studying, and we want to chat to you about the joys and the frustrations of working in the tech industry by day, and on our passion projects in the rest of our waking hours. We hope that by doing so, Design Life will give you a dose of motivation or inspiration when you need it.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 27, 2021 • 31min
217: Why you should share your work
There are many benefits to working in public but sometimes it can be difficult for designers to share their work. This week on Design Life we talk about how to start sharing your work and some prompts to help you begin.
Mar 15, 2021 • 30min
216: Taking ownership of your career growth
Today on Design Life we discuss taking ownership of your career growth. Pursuing your dream career takes courage but the risk is worth the reward. In this episode we answer a question from a listener about how to discuss career growth with your manager as a junior designer and also as a woman. We share the times that we have succeeded, and failed, at taking that leap in our own careers and what we have learned along the way.
Feb 23, 2021 • 28min
215: Running a hack day
Have you ever thought about organising a hack or jam day at your work? A hack, hackathon or jam day is an event for you and your team to put aside your usual work and focus on one project or idea, an opportunity to make progress within a tight time constraint, like one day or a half a day. In this episode Femke shares her experience of running jam days at Uber as Charli prepares to run a hack day for her team at Convertkit.
Feb 8, 2021 • 25min
214: Our daily routines
How has your daily routine changed over the past year? Working from home has meant our daily routines have adapted so that we start a little later, spend more time on our morning routines and get more from our day as a result. Today on Design Life we chat all about our daily routines and really break down how we spend each part of our day.
Feb 2, 2021 • 35min
213: Balancing work and side projects
How do we balance our side projects and our full time jobs? This is a question we get asked a lot! The thing is, time gets filled up very easily. You’ll never find the time unless you are purposeful about how you spend it. Today on Design Life we discuss how working from home, taking on more responsibility in our day jobs and having shorter blocks of time in which to get work done has made us change our priorities and find balance in new ways.
Jan 28, 2021 • 37min
212: Inside the design hiring process
This week on Design Life we want to talk about hiring from the perspective of the person doing the hiring. In the past we’ve talked a lot about finding a design job, portfolios, interviews and everything that the process entails but today we are looking at the other side of hiring.
What do you need to consider when hiring a designer to join a team at your company? How can you encourage a diverse pool of the right people to apply for the job and how can you whittle it down to the best applicant. If you’re leading a team and own the hiring process, or if you regularly get pulled in to help during the hiring process this episode will be useful for you.
Jan 18, 2021 • 29min
211: Ageism in the tech industry
In today’s episode of Design Life we talk about ageing and ageism in the tech industry. This is something we’ve started to think about more recently as we noticed there are a lot of people in the design industry in their 20’s and 30’s and a lot less in their 40’s. What happens to people as they age in this industry? As designers, we are ageing along with tech. Ten years from now will it be common place to have your entire design team made up of people in their 40’s, or is this a naive idea? We discuss finding role models, fuelling your ambition and what we can do about ageism in tech.
Jan 12, 2021 • 34min
210: Our plans for 2021
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Dec 22, 2020 • 34min
209: Reflecting on our careers & side hustles in 2020
This year has been a year like no other, which is all the more reason to look back and reflect on what we have learned and what has changed since the year began. In this episode of Design Life we chat about monetizing our side hustles, promotions, learning curves and finding gratitude in difficult times.
Dec 15, 2020 • 27min
208: Should you use a Notion doc as your portfolio?
From the outside it seems like a quick and easy way to share your work and who you are as a designer, with a lower entry level than customising your own website, but is it too good to be true? We share the results of a recent Twitter poll on what the design community thinks about this new trend, along with our thoughts on whether this is a cool and creative idea or something to avoid if you want to make the right first impression.
