Works But Makes Noises

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://tiny.garden/sites by @gndclouds WILLIAM FELKER
https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman

Join our WBMN group chat on Output:
https://wbmn.output.app/workspaces/join/c2c99415297b97e6dfc0

David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills.

Jacob Heftman is a Los Angeles-based graphic designer. Currently the Design Director at Grilli Type, he has nearly two decades of experience across studios, in-house roles, and his own practice. Also: big surfer.

Artwork by Pablo Delcan
Music by Mondo Boys

Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type
www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

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/
Join our WBMN group chat on Output:
https://wbmn.output.app/workspaces/join/c2c99415297b97e6dfc0

David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills.

Jacob Heftman is a Los Angeles-based graphic designer. Currently the Design Director at Grilli Type, he has nearly two decades of experience across studios, in-house roles, and his own practice. Also: big surfer.

Artwork by Pablo Delcan
Music by Mondo Boys

Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type
www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

This week we’re joined by Allan Yu, designer and co-founder of community messaging app, Output. 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

Join our WBMN group chat on Output:
https://wbmn.output.app/workspaces/join/c2c99415297b97e6dfc0

David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills.

Jacob Heftman is a Los Angeles-based graphic designer. Currently the Design Director at Grilli Type, he has nearly two decades of experience across studios, in-house roles, and his own practice. Also: big surfer.

Artwork by Pablo Delcan
Music by Mondo Boys

Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type
www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

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.
Join our WBMN group chat on Output:
https://wbmn.output.app/workspaces/join/c2c99415297b97e6dfc0

David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills.

Jacob Heftman is a Los Angeles-based graphic designer. Currently the Design Director at Grilli Type, he has nearly two decades of experience across studios, in-house roles, and his own practice. Also: big surfer.

Artwork by Pablo Delcan
Music by Mondo Boys

Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type
www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

Ive's Ferrari collab, tactile design, electric performance, AI copycats, creative IP, opt-in consent, database tools vs model training, human-washed tech, the Granola rebrand, analog aesthetics, faux authenticity, proof of humanity, OpenAI vs Anthropic, authenticity vs costume.

Jony Ive x Ferrari
https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/ferrari-luce-jony-ive-marc-newson-lovefrom/

Stripe Sessions: Jony Ive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLb9g_8r-mE

Granola Rebrand
https://www.granola.ai/blog/a-new-look-for-granola

The End of Analog by Elizabeth Goodspeed
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/elizabeth-goodspeed-on-analogue-creative-industry-290126
Jason Combs
https://jasonsbmoc.com/
Join our WBMN group chat on Output:
https://wbmn.output.app/workspaces/join/c2c99415297b97e6dfc0

David McGillivray is a designer and creative director in upstate New York, designing for early stage tech companies through his own practice. He also co-founded Offhours and runs Corners, an art and design store in the Catskills.

Jacob Heftman is a Los Angeles-based graphic designer. Currently the Design Director at Grilli Type, he has nearly two decades of experience across studios, in-house roles, and his own practice. Also: big surfer.

Artwork by Pablo Delcan
Music by Mondo Boys

Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type
www.worksbutmakesnoises.com