Rough Drafts by BOUNCE

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Rough Drafts – Where ideas are still forming. Most design podcasts focus on finished work: the award, the commission, the retrospective. Rough Drafts goes earlier. Each episode explores the thinking before the thinking, the first sketch, the direction that didn’t work, the moment a project changed shape. It’s not confessional, and it’s not about failure. It’s about what creative practice actually looks like when you’re inside it: ambiguous, iterative, collaborative, and often uncertain. We talk to graphic designers and typographers, architects and urban thinkers, illustrators, filmmakers, animators and game designers. To social innovators using design as a tool for change, educators building the next generation of creative thinkers, researchers asking the uncomfortable questions about what design is actually for. Some guests are well known. Some are doing the most interesting work you've never heard of. What they have in common is a willingness to talk about the version before the version — to show you the sketch before the sketch, the draft before the draft, the conversation that happened before anyone knew what they were making. Rough Drafts is made in Ireland, with guests from across Europe and beyond — because the best process conversations don't care about geography. Irish design has a distinctive voice, a particular relationship to craft, language, and identity, and a community of practitioners who are doing genuinely original work on a global stage. Rough Drafts is a place to hear how that work actually gets made. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts — or sign up for updates at bouncecreative.ie and be the first to know who's coming up next.

Episodes

  1. MAY 12

    From Bucket Showers to Goose Attacks

    Aisling Murphy and Fiona Ennis’s talk introduces Something Somewhere, a self-initiated design collaboration that brings design skills to grassroots projects in remote communities around the world. In this session at Bounce 2025, they share the motivations behind starting the initiative, the process they’ve developed for identifying and supporting purpose-driven organisations, and what happens when designers step outside the studio and work directly within the contexts they’re designing for. Through stories from projects in Malawi and Colombia, they illustrate how design can support local founders tackling environmental and social challenges. In Malawi, they collaborated with the organisation Clean and Proud, helping translate recycled plastic waste into a fashion brand through branding, photography, storytelling and a retail catalogue that communicates the impact of each product — including bags made from hundreds of recycled plastic bags or salvaged materials. In Colombia, working with the environmental foundation Fundación Montecito, they developed tools to engage local communities in conservation — from designing an environmental festival and educational bird guide to creating a community-made board game that teaches children about protecting their wetland ecosystem. Central to the talk is the pair’s belief that design can contribute meaningfully to smaller, local problems, especially when designers immerse themselves in the context and collaborate closely with the people affected. Their approach involves finding passionate founders, embedding themselves within communities for several weeks, and co-creating practical tools that organisations can continue using long after the designers leave. The talk also reflects on why they pursue these projects alongside their full-time careers: the desire to work on projects with purpose, to challenge their own assumptions about resources and privilege, and to keep design grounded in real people and places. Notably, this was the first time either of them had spoken publicly, having been encouraged to step onto the stage and share their experiences — embodying BOUNCE's commitment to amplifying new voices and perspectives from the design community. Check out their incredible story here. Like this Content? Consider becoming a paid subscriber, and support us to continue to grow our catalogue of thoughtful, meaningful content. Find Out More

    1 min

  2. SEASON 1, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

    Rough Drafts – Where ideas are still forming.

    Most design podcasts focus on finished work: the award, the commission, the retrospective. Rough Drafts goes earlier. Each episode explores the thinking before the thinking, the first sketch, the direction that didn’t work, the moment a project changed shape. It’s not confessional, and it’s not about failure. It’s about what creative practice actually looks like when you’re inside it: ambiguous, iterative, collaborative, and often uncertain. We talk to graphic designers and typographers, architects and urban thinkers, illustrators, filmmakers, animators and game designers. To social innovators using design as a tool for change, educators building the next generation of creative thinkers, researchers asking the uncomfortable questions about what design is actually for. Some guests are well known. Some are doing the most interesting work you've never heard of. What they have in common is a willingness to talk about the version before the version — to show you the sketch before the sketch, the draft before the draft, the conversation that happened before anyone knew what they were making. Rough Drafts is made in Ireland, with guests from across Europe and beyond — because the best process conversations don't care about geography. Irish design has a distinctive voice, a particular relationship to craft, language, and identity, and a community of practitioners who are doing genuinely original work on a global stage. Rough Drafts is a place to hear how that work actually gets made. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

    2 min

Trailer

About

Rough Drafts – Where ideas are still forming. Most design podcasts focus on finished work: the award, the commission, the retrospective. Rough Drafts goes earlier. Each episode explores the thinking before the thinking, the first sketch, the direction that didn’t work, the moment a project changed shape. It’s not confessional, and it’s not about failure. It’s about what creative practice actually looks like when you’re inside it: ambiguous, iterative, collaborative, and often uncertain. We talk to graphic designers and typographers, architects and urban thinkers, illustrators, filmmakers, animators and game designers. To social innovators using design as a tool for change, educators building the next generation of creative thinkers, researchers asking the uncomfortable questions about what design is actually for. Some guests are well known. Some are doing the most interesting work you've never heard of. What they have in common is a willingness to talk about the version before the version — to show you the sketch before the sketch, the draft before the draft, the conversation that happened before anyone knew what they were making. Rough Drafts is made in Ireland, with guests from across Europe and beyond — because the best process conversations don't care about geography. Irish design has a distinctive voice, a particular relationship to craft, language, and identity, and a community of practitioners who are doing genuinely original work on a global stage. Rough Drafts is a place to hear how that work actually gets made. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts — or sign up for updates at bouncecreative.ie and be the first to know who's coming up next.

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