Unpacking Design

Should you go back to design school during the pandemic? What are the benefits of going back to school during this time? Learn more about what Mike and Tim think about going back to design school during this time of the global pandemic and economic distress in this episode.

At some point in every designer’s career, they face a moment where they feel like there’s so much left to do for a project, but the deadline is quickly approaching. What often leads to these time crunch moments and how can we avoid them? Learn more about the positive aspects of time crunches as well as common causes and how to avoid them in this episode.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic spreading throughout the world, businesses are feeling its effects on the economy. The stock market is beginning to show signs of an incoming recession with drastic drops. What impact does a potential recession have on the design professions and how can we stay employed? Learn more about the effects of a potential recession on the design professions in this episode.

How do you keep a team of designers motivated throughout an entire project? What are effective ways of giving all members of a design team ownership of a project? In this episode of Unpacking Design, Mike and Tim talk about how they manage their teams and what they find to be the most helpful and productive ways of working together.

Have you ever had trouble getting yourself to start a project that you really wanted to pursue? Or spending a lot of time on a project, but never finishing it? These are issues that many designers face for many reasons including lack of planning, time management, fear, doubts, and others. Learn more about Charlie Gilkey’s book, Start Finishing, and how it can help you develop a process for starting and completing projects in this episode of Unpacking Design!

In order to get better at our pursuits in our lives, we need to know what our current strengths and weaknesses are so that we can embrace the things that work and change the ones that are holding us back. What does it look like when two close friends criticize each other and point out one another’s strengths and weaknesses? How can this help designers grow?

Every year, there are more people entering college with an increase in the number of people pursuing design related fields. Every designer who is now in the profession has had retrospective moments where we all know there are things we would do differently if we had a chance to go back in time. What are some words of advice for students pursuing design in college? Check out Mike and Tim’s advice in this episode where we unpack advice for design students in college.

All designers have ideas for speculative projects that they believe will influence the world in some way. From architectural proposals of new typologies that resolve a humane issue to graphic designs that will become the next iconic image of today’s world and the last bottle that is designed from cradle to cradle, designers always have innovative ideas in their minds. How can designers pursue these ideas and share them with the world? Learn about the process of coming up with speculative design projects in this episode.

One of the habits of all designers is the pursuit of free work for family, friends, competitions, and so on. We all have the tendency to want to solve any design problem that comes our way with very little thought to the value of the propositions we deliver. The best example are design competitions where designers actually pay a fee to submit their design proposal in hopes of winning money and/or commission. When should designers be pursuing free work and when should they turn it down? Learn more in this week’s episode where we unpack free work.

There’s no question about the benefits of living a healthy life and its positive impacts on a designer’s ability to focus and be creative. From food to exercise and amount of sleep, Mike and Tim talk about their personal habits that have contributed to their success so far in their careers and personal endeavors.

What happens from the time a designer gets up in the morning to the time they go to sleep on an average day? Learn more about what a typical day in the lives of Mike and Tim is like in this episode.

When we think about the work being created at design firms, there’s often a dilemma of ownership that employees face. Who owns the work that’s being produced? The obvious answer is that the design firm owns everything being produced at the office. Can employees also claim ownership if they were an integral part to specific projects? Learn more about design ownership and how everyone who is part of a project and the unwritten rules to how it can be used in this episode.

When designers enter their profession and start working at a firm, there are some who find themselves with consistent upward movement to higher level roles and others who feel stuck in their position. Many designers who feel stuck are faced with two common options: Do you stay and keep trying to grow? Or leave and enter a different firm?

What does it mean to stay focused in our lives and what does it look like? In the 21st century, we’re constantly being bombarded by information, tasks to complete, and simultaneously working between multiple projects. What if we distilled 10 of our highest priority projects down to only 1 and spent all of our time completing it? How does time and experience allow us to focus on multiple projects at the same time?

As a predominantly service based profession, our businesses and livelihoods rely on designing for clients who in turn pay us. What makes a client one that is ideal for our design firm? What can we implement at our firm to improve our client base and dispel their assumptions about our design process?

What does it mean to be authentic with the designs that we develop, products that we create, and lives on social media? How do we maintain ownership of the creative ideas that we share with the world? Today, more entrepreneurs are creating, marketing, and selling products online. Oftentimes, corporations, manufacturers, and individuals copy successful ideas and sell it as their own. Listen to Tim and Mike discuss their opinions on being authentic in today’s society.

In this episode, Mike briefly talks about Tim Ferriss’ book, Tribe of Mentors, and asks Tim 10 questions that Ferriss asks all of his guests in his book. From books to one message on a bill board and advice for a young person entering the “real world”. Learn more about Tim through his answers to these 10 questions from Mike and discover why and how these quotes impact their lives in this episode.

How do you know if you’re designs will be accepted by your client? What about society? How many times do you ask yourself if your designs are “good enough”? Mike and Tim reflect on how doubt affects us as designers and how they’ve overcome their self-doubts in their lives as designers.

In this episode, Mike and Tim talk about the importance of mentoring others and providing guidance to younger and lesser experienced creative professionals. They share their experiences both being mentored and mentoring others throughout their career.

In this episode, Mike and Tim talk about how they’ve burned out in their lives as creatives. Mike’s personal journey through burnout came from his decade long pursuits related to his career as an architect and his sacrifice of his health and relationships. Tim talks about his close encounter with leaving his life as an architect during his time as a sophomore student in college.