Works But Makes Noises

David McGillivray & Jacob Heftmann
  • 5.0 (18)
  • Design
  • Updated Biweekly

Two designers on opposite coasts talk their way through creativity, culture, and tech. It’s a podcast about everything except design, that somehow always ends up being about design.

  1. 19h ago

    World Cup Kits, Mamdani’s Grocery Store RFP, Siri AI, and a Tribute to David Hockney

    We're going full World Cup fan-mode this week. We make some personal picks for the tournament and talk best and worst of the national team kits. Also in the world of public and civic branding projects, we call out some personal do's and don'ts related to the week's most-commented design RFP: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's call for branding NYC's new public grocery stores. We talk about what the subway, public libraries, and Porto and Barcelona get right about civic design plus: Apple's audacious bet to rebrand Siri, a split decision on the new Ferrari, and a heartfelt goodbye to David Hockney. 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 Heftmann is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons and founded XXIX and Index in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan Music by Mondo Boys Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

    58 min

  2. May 26

    Digital Collecting, a Bauhaus Awakening, and the Ethics of Copying, Crediting and Remixing in Design

    This week we're getting moooooody – moodboards, that is! First we talk David's new iOS app Archiv, which lets you photograph and catalogue what's around you. Then we wade into the thorny world of design inspiration, copying, and downright plagiarism, vague posting without credit, and the blurry line between inspiration and theft. We tackle wether moodboards are lazy shortcuts, explore why learning through mimicking great work actually teaches you something real, trace David’s design awakening to his discovery of the Bauhaus, and ask: how much of design is just remixing culture anyway? We talk about having our own work ripped off, the commercial stakes of credit, and how to know when copying crosses from homage to wholesale theft. 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 Heftmann is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons and founded XXIX and Index in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan Music by Mondo Boys Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

    1h 6m

  3. May 11

    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, VP of Design at Soft Services, 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 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 Heftmann is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons and founded XXIX and Index in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan Music by Mondo Boys Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

    1h 9m

  4. Apr 13

    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://tiny.garden/sites by @gndclouds WILLIAM FELKER https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman 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 Heftmann is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons and founded XXIX and Index in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan Music by Mondo Boys Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

    1 hr

  5. Mar 30

    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 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 Heftmann is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons and founded XXIX and Index in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan Music by Mondo Boys Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

    55 min

  6. Mar 16

    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. 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 Heftmann is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons and founded XXIX and Index in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan Music by Mondo Boys Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type ...

    58 min

  7. Mar 2

    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 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 Heftmann is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons and founded XXIX and Index in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan Music by Mondo Boys Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

    55 min

  8. Feb 16

    Jony Ive’s Ferrari, AI Copycats, Human-Washed Brands, and Faux Scribbles

    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/ 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 Heftmann is a Los Angeles-based surfer and graphic designer. He is currently the Design Director at Grilli Type. Previously he was on the faculty at Parsons and founded XXIX and Index in New York City. Artwork by Pablo Delcan Music by Mondo Boys Artwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Type www.worksbutmakesnoises.com

    1h 2m
See All (15)

5
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

Two designers on opposite coasts talk their way through creativity, culture, and tech. It’s a podcast about everything except design, that somehow always ends up being about design.

Information

  • Creator
    David McGillivray & Jacob Heftmann
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Works But Makes Noises
  • Show Website
    Works But Makes Noises

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