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
May 25, 2020 • 29min
187: Launching a big project
Convert Kit HomepageAngie KwanJoin our Patreon!
May 19, 2020 • 30min
186: Design QA Process
Although we work for companies of different sizes and on vastly different kinds of projects, there are more similarities between our QA reviews than there are differences. A QA is a process that every designer implements as the project comes closer to completion, as a designer you need to check everything is good to go for your launch date. Hitting snags at the end of a project is common, we discuss how we’ve evolved our design QA process to get the best results.
May 5, 2020 • 53min
185: Facilitating workshops with Jonathan Courtney (AJ&Smart)
Jonathan has worked with companies like Lego, Twitter and even the UN, running sprints to make design decision making easier. Following on from our recent topic of design decision making, we ask Jonathan to tell us more about how we can get out of busy work and instead, spend time creating through easier, faster and more collaborative design decision making.AJ&SmartThe Workshopper Playbook
Apr 28, 2020 • 33min
184: Making design decisions
As designers, we make a lot of decisions. From moving something two pixels to the left to redesigning an entire website, our decisions range in difficulty. Today on Design Life we talk about how we go about making these decisions and how to overcome decision paralysis.Join the community on PatreonCheck out our online store
Apr 21, 2020 • 34min
183: Design reviews and getting feedback
Design reviews can seem a bit like a holy grail but using them to the designer’s advantage to create a successful project is key. We dive deep into the processes in place for formal and informal design reviews and crits where we work and share what we have learned from giving and receiving feedback.
Apr 14, 2020 • 31min
182: Starting a new side project
On this episode of Design Life we are talking side projects. You might have a few ideas bouncing around in your mind of late, that keep coming back to you. Maybe you want to see if your idea would spark interest in the audience you have in mind, but you don’t know where to start. Using our own side projects as examples, we talk about how you can bring your idea to life and avoid potential pitfalls along the way. Burger bun recipe
Apr 6, 2020 • 26min
181: Getting through a motivation slump
In this week’s episode of Design Life, we have a timely discussion about our motivation while working from home. These are unprecedented times we’re living in. Trying to find and stay motivated while also building a new routine when working from home is a challenge. We discuss our levels of motivation as it changes from day-to-day and why it’s important not to give yourself a hard time if you’re feeling less motivated than usual.Femke's video: Temporary workstation setup while working from home (Desk Tour)Join our community!
Mar 24, 2020 • 39min
180: Working from home during COVID-19
Many people find themselves working from home at the moment as workplaces play their part in helping to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. For those of us who are working from home for the first time, or returning to remote working after some time in the office, we use this episode of Design Life to chat about the benefits of working from home and how we stay productive in our new environment. We also share the struggles we face as we miss our colleagues and how we use technology to stay connected.Join the community on Patreon!Get yourself a Design Life pin!
Mar 17, 2020 • 31min
179: How to build your network
In this episode of Design Life we discuss how to build your network. Over the course of your career, how can you build a strong, supportive network? We talk about taking the organic approach to creating your network so you can you successfully leverage the support of your colleagues online and IRL.How to network as an introvert116: An alternative approach to networking107: Advice for networking
Mar 9, 2020 • 38min
178: Performance reviews
Giving and receiving feedback can be tricky. In this episode we talk about performance reviews, which is quite timely as both of us have just finished or are in the process of having ours. We discuss how feedback works on our teams, how this helps us and what we plan to do with our feedback.Join our community!Buy a Work In Progress pin!
