Dive Club 🤿

Ridd
  • 4.9 (37)
  • Design

Where designers never stop learning 💪 Dive Club is an interview series hosted by Ridd that is designed to unlock knowledge from today's most prolific designers. We go deep into craft, storytelling, tools, design engineering, startups, and much more. You can find all of the episodes, key takeaways, and bonus resources here 👉 Dive.club

  1. 3d ago

    Tom Johnson - The most insane portfolio of 2026

    This week's episode is with Tom Johnson (https://x.com/tomjohndesign) (staff designer at Vercel) who just released one of the coolest personal sites (https://www.tomjohn.design/) I've ever seen. So he's going to give us a behind the scenes of his portfolio journey that led him to create a fully simulated world generator for his camper travels. It might be the most robust set of tooling I’ve ever seen a designer create on this show. And that sparks a lot of questions about what it really means to be a designer these days. Some highlights: - How Tom’s workflow has evolved as a builder - How Tom accidentally turned his portfolio into a game - Why Tom built a skill to show his prompts in case studies - How experimenting with 3D unlocked new possibilities as a designer - + a lot more - Tom's portfolio (https://www.tomjohn.design/) - White Knuckle case study (https://www.tomjohn.design/content/whiteknuckle) Dive is where the best designers never stop learning 🤿 🌐 dive.club 🐦 twitter.com/joindiveclub Now you can join advanced courses taught by the top designers to help you take a huge leap forward in your career 💪 Chapters 0:00 Intro 4:28 How it started: case study 9:13 What the models were good (and bad) at 16:03 How working in 3D levels Tom up as a designer 17:08 White Knuckle 20:11 How Tom build White Knuckle 25:16 How this is shaping his ientity as a designer 26:10 Lost breadcrumbs / Gretel 26:54 Adding prompts to your case studies 30:41 Building a custom video tool for shorts 33:14 Noticing what's wrong 36:09 How our design workflows are changing 43:32 Identity when AI makes 50:02 Prompts in public

    Tom Johnson - The most insane portfolio of 2026

  2. Nov 3

    Derek Briggs - Scaling craft at Shopify

    This week's episode is with Derek Briggs and we're doing a deep dive into how he's raising the bar for craft as a principal designer at Shopify. Some highlights: - Scaling impact as a principal IC at Shopify - Creating systems for greatness to happen - Sweating the details on the shop.com carousel - The custom easing system Derek built for Shopify - Building custom data pipelines to uncover opportunities - Why Derek thinks design engineer is the most important role today - + a lot more

    Derek Briggs - Scaling craft at Shopify

  3. Oct 28

    James McDonald - Building Beautiful Websites with Claude

    James McDonald is one of my favorite visual designers on the planet… but recently he took on his first ever contract where he’s responsible for both designing AND building his ideas from scratch. So I used it as an excuse to get him back on the show to learn his tactics for creating stunning web designs with Claude. It’s a ton of screen-sharing and a heck of a behind-the-scenes into his process. Some highlights: - When James reaches for Figma vs. Claude - How James builds custom mini design tools - How James finds visual motifs to build around - James's strategies for animating designs with AI - How James explored the visual language for Onlook - + a lot more

    James McDonald - Building Beautiful Websites with Claude

  4. Oct 20

    Kyle Barber - Designing Inflight (the raw behind-the-scenes)

    This week's episode is a behind-the-scenes of the Inflight design journey. So I invited my co-founder Kyle Barber (designer at Tinder, Facebook, and Airchat) to share what it's actually like designing a startup today. Inflight Pitch Episode (the SPC pitch we mention in the fundraising section)

    Kyle Barber - Designing Inflight (the raw behind-the-scenes)

  5. Oct 15

    Myles Palmer - Building Custom AI Tools at Metalab

    I’ve seen a lot of custom AI tools on this show… But this week’s episode with Myles Palmer (Design Director at Metalab) might take the cake. Myles is the perfect archetype for what it looks like to be curious as a builder today and in this episode he gives us the ultimate behind-the-scenes look at the internal tooling system he built at Metalab.

    Myles Palmer - Building Custom AI Tools at Metalab

  6. Oct 6

    Rhiannon Bell - How Google designs for AI at scale

    This week's episode is with Rhiannon Bell (VP of UX for Google Search) and we're doing a deep dive into what it takes to design for AI at the scale of Google. Some highlights: - The design decisions that unlocked AI Mode - What it takes to design at the scale of Google - Designing dynamic component systems for AI - How AI is shaping the practice of design at Google - What we can learn from the top designers at Google - What skills are becoming more valuable for designers - + a lot more

    Rhiannon Bell - How Google designs for AI at scale

  7. Sep 29

    Danny Martinez - Thriving in today’s design job market

    This week's episode is with Danny Martinez and we're doing the ultimate deep dive into design hiring and what's happening in today's job market. Danny has the perfect vantage point as the CEO of Decimals—the platform that powers everything I do with the Dive Talent Network. So this episodes is about as practical as it gets. - What companies want in a “design engineer” - The biggest green and red flags from hiring managers - How the best teams are iterating on the hiring process - Examples of portfolios getting hired in the talent network - Why brand design is the most difficult design role to hire for - How to attract the most in-demand designers as a hiring manager - The interaction design example hiring managers keep highlighting - + a lot more

    Danny Martinez - Thriving in today’s design job market

  8. Sep 23

    Geoff Teehan - Navigating change as a designer

    This week's episode is with Geoff Teehan—co-founder of the legendary design agency Teehan+Lax, longtime design leader at Facebook, and now Chief Design Officer at Lightspark. Some highlights: How Geoff has navigated multiple cycles of changeWhat the “parking spot” phase of software looks likeWhy Geoff plans to only hire 4 designers at LightsparkThe design backstory behind Geoff’s viral Dialed gameHow Geoff brings consumer principles into enterprise design＋ a lot more

    Geoff Teehan - Navigating change as a designer
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4.9
out of 5
37 Ratings

About

Where designers never stop learning 💪 Dive Club is an interview series hosted by Ridd that is designed to unlock knowledge from today's most prolific designers. We go deep into craft, storytelling, tools, design engineering, startups, and much more. You can find all of the episodes, key takeaways, and bonus resources here 👉 Dive.club

Information

  • Creator
    Ridd
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    227
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Dive
  • Show Website
    Dive Club 🤿

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