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
Jul 24, 2019 • 33min
164: How to get your first design job
In this episode of Design Life, we talk about how to get your first design job. It can be a conundrum, in order to get a job you need to have experience, but in order to get experience you need a job. How can you get experience if no one is willing to give you a job? We share our tips, along with an exciting new product we have launched in the Design Life store.
Get the new Work in Progress Pin!
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Liz Steel
Hollie Arnett
Jul 8, 2019 • 30min
163: Earning passive income
Passive income is a great way for designers to earn a little extra every month alongside your full time or freelance gig. In this episode of Design Life we discuss the different passive income streams we have used successfully, what we have learned and what we hope to try in the future.
Charli’s passive income, a breakdown
Amazon Associates
Jul 1, 2019 • 37min
162: CEO and designer, Helen Tran
This week we are delighted to share a very special edition of Design Life with you. For this episode we invited Helen Tran who is a Product Designer, hobbyist writer, and the CEO & Founder of Jupiter to tell us all about her journey to becoming her own boss, the importance of teaching and her thoughts on going deep versus going wide.
Helen Tran's Blog
Jupiter
Helen on Twitter
Jun 11, 2019 • 25min
161: The project kickoff
A few weeks ago on the podcast we discussed project retrospectives. A listener sent in a follow-up request for an episode about project kickoffs, which it turns out we have never discussed! Starting a project with a kickoff checklist can be useful for everyone involved. In this episode we discuss the checklists we use, and how to jump in successfully if you haven’t been involved in the kickoff.
Design Life Episode 151 Running Design Sprints
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May 29, 2019 • 35min
160: Every creative feels broken inside
This episode comes by way of a talk Charli heard at the How Design Live conference in Chicago. Stephen Gates delivered a thought provoking presentation, about living life as a creative. One question in particular stood out - is our manufactured reality killing the design industry and our creativity? In this episode of Design Life we tease out this topic, and how we see it play out in our lives and in our careers.
Dribbble's HANG TIME – Get $100 off admission!
Stephen Gates
How Design Live
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May 21, 2019 • 32min
159: Is your portfolio a lie?
Is your portfolio truthful, is it a fair representation of your skills? Today’s episode comes by way of an email we had from a client, who asks this very question, and favours freelance market places as a result. We discuss how to make sure your portfolio is an accurate representation of your work, honestly.
Dribbble Presents: Hang Time
Quinn Keast’s portfolio
Alejandra Quintero’s portfolio
Daniel Eden’s portfolio
May 13, 2019 • 34min
158: Job titles, are they important?
Job titles and promotions came up as a topic of conversation for us on Twitter recently and we thought it a topic worth diving deeper into, in this episode of Design Life. Sharing your job title with people gives them an insight into the work you do every day, but what if your title doesn’t reflect your responsibility or autonomy? We discuss the tips we use to explain our work in the best way possible and how you can too.
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Apr 29, 2019 • 32min
157: Project retrospectives
In today’s episode we discuss running project retrospectives. Retros give the whole team the chance to reflect on what went well, what didn’t go well and any areas of opportunity to improve upon next time. Find out why we think that not running a project retrospective is a missed opportunity to give your next project the best chance to succeed.
Apr 17, 2019 • 31min
156: Creating effective design documentation
Design documentation might not be the most exciting part of the design process but its importance cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately the people we work with cannot read our minds, which is why documenting our designs is crucial. Communicating the ‘how and why’ of our design’s functionality allows questions to be answered quickly and efficiently. Today we talk about how we document our designs and the tools we use daily.
Flowkit library
Apr 9, 2019 • 31min
155: Done is better than perfect
In this week’s episode we get a little bit philosophical as we discuss the concept of done being better than perfect. This week’s episode comes by way of a listener comment, despite knowing that their design will only really come together in the end stage, they have a nagging doubt in their head that the project should look perfect at every step of the way. We discuss how we have overcome this doubt ourselves in the past and how done is better than perfect can often be good enough.
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