Works But Makes Noises

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 [https://esteekimoffice.com], VP of Design at Soft Services [https://softservices.com], 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 experiences visually, the brand’s “elastic branding” approach, the band metaphor for collaborative design teams, and why designing for feeling—not just function—matters in commercial work. David McGillivray [https://x.com/dmcgco] is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice [http://www.dmcg.co]. He also co-founded Offhours [http://www.offhours.co] and runs Corners [http://www.cornersnewyork.co], an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftmann [https://x.com/jheftmann] is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer [https://jacobheftmann.com/]. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com/]. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons [https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google_Search_Text_Parsons_B&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=931654278&gbraid=0AAAAADfsqWg6JjHpuCVvtuOfMLhCBm4sB&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2YDQBhD_ARIsAE1qeSehYLl9CD7Ij41NeipTt3Caqx4xQCGs4aYBkYHdv_B27ymKTF7K5FEaAtmUEALw_wcB] and founded XXIX [https://www.xxix.co] and Index [https://www.index-space.org] in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan [https://pablodelcan.com/] Music by Mondo Boys [https://mondoboys.com/] Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com] www.worksbutmakesnoises.com [http://www.worksbutmakesnoises.com/]

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 York https://www.44xdesign.com/spatial [https://www.44xdesign.com/spatial] https://tiny.garden/sites [https://tiny.garden/sites] by @gndclouds WILLIAM FELKER https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman [https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman] David McGillivray [https://x.com/dmcgco] is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice [http://www.dmcg.co]. He also co-founded Offhours [http://www.offhours.co] and runs Corners [http://www.cornersnewyork.co], an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftmann [https://x.com/jheftmann] is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer [https://jacobheftmann.com/]. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com/]. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons [https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google_Search_Text_Parsons_B&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=931654278&gbraid=0AAAAADfsqWg6JjHpuCVvtuOfMLhCBm4sB&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2YDQBhD_ARIsAE1qeSehYLl9CD7Ij41NeipTt3Caqx4xQCGs4aYBkYHdv_B27ymKTF7K5FEaAtmUEALw_wcB] and founded XXIX [https://www.xxix.co] and Index [https://www.index-space.org] in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan [https://pablodelcan.com/] Music by Mondo Boys [https://mondoboys.com/] Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com] www.worksbutmakesnoises.com [http://www.worksbutmakesnoises.com/]

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/ David McGillivray [https://x.com/dmcgco] is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice [http://www.dmcg.co]. He also co-founded Offhours [http://www.offhours.co] and runs Corners [http://www.cornersnewyork.co], an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftmann [https://x.com/jheftmann] is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer [https://jacobheftmann.com/]. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com/]. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons [https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google_Search_Text_Parsons_B&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=931654278&gbraid=0AAAAADfsqWg6JjHpuCVvtuOfMLhCBm4sB&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2YDQBhD_ARIsAE1qeSehYLl9CD7Ij41NeipTt3Caqx4xQCGs4aYBkYHdv_B27ymKTF7K5FEaAtmUEALw_wcB] and founded XXIX [https://www.xxix.co] and Index [https://www.index-space.org] in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan [https://pablodelcan.com/] Music by Mondo Boys [https://mondoboys.com/] Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com] www.worksbutmakesnoises.com [http://www.worksbutmakesnoises.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 [https://output.app/]. 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 craft vs shipping product, venture-backed startup pressure, fake users testing your product, why consumers don’t care about AI, AI as invisible product magic. https://output.app David McGillivray [https://x.com/dmcgco] is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice [http://www.dmcg.co]. He also co-founded Offhours [http://www.offhours.co] and runs Corners [http://www.cornersnewyork.co], an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftmann [https://x.com/jheftmann] is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer [https://jacobheftmann.com/]. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com/]. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons [https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google_Search_Text_Parsons_B&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=931654278&gbraid=0AAAAADfsqWg6JjHpuCVvtuOfMLhCBm4sB&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2YDQBhD_ARIsAE1qeSehYLl9CD7Ij41NeipTt3Caqx4xQCGs4aYBkYHdv_B27ymKTF7K5FEaAtmUEALw_wcB] and founded XXIX [https://www.xxix.co] and Index [https://www.index-space.org] in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan [https://pablodelcan.com/] Music by Mondo Boys [https://mondoboys.com/] Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com] www.worksbutmakesnoises.com [http://www.worksbutmakesnoises.com/]

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 [https://x.com/dmcgco] is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice [http://www.dmcg.co]. He also co-founded Offhours [http://www.offhours.co] and runs Corners [http://www.cornersnewyork.co], an art and design store in the Catskills. Jacob Heftmann [https://x.com/jheftmann] is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer [https://jacobheftmann.com/]. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com/]. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons [https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google_Search_Text_Parsons_B&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=931654278&gbraid=0AAAAADfsqWg6JjHpuCVvtuOfMLhCBm4sB&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2YDQBhD_ARIsAE1qeSehYLl9CD7Ij41NeipTt3Caqx4xQCGs4aYBkYHdv_B27ymKTF7K5FEaAtmUEALw_wcB] and founded XXIX [https://www.xxix.co] and Index [https://www.index-space.org] in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan [https://pablodelcan.com/] Music by Mondo Boys [https://mondoboys.com/] Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type [https://www.grillitype.com] www.worksbutmakesnoises.com [http://www.worksbutmakesnoises.com/]