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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

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 Yorkhttps://www.44xdesign.com/spatialhttps://tiny.garden/sites by @gndclouds WILLIAM FELKERhttps://github.com/JuliusBrussee/cavemanDavid 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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.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/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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.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.appDavid 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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.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.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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.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 Ferrarihttps://www.highsnobiety.com/p/ferrari-luce-jony-ive-marc-newson-lovefrom/Stripe Sessions: Jony Ivehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLb9g_8r-mEGranola Rebrandhttps://www.granola.ai/blog/a-new-look-for-granolaThe End of Analog by Elizabeth Goodspeedhttps://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/elizabeth-goodspeed-on-analogue-creative-industry-290126Jason Combshttps://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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

How to pay off sleep debt, ancient internships, should designers c*de? design engineers, teaching at RISD and Parsons, experimental branding briefs and constraint-led projects, what design school doesn’t teach, archives versus mood boards, Arena as a second brain, collecting and scanning physical references, folk packaging and diner placemats, obscure illustrators and forgotten ephemera, taste as something you build over time, trend reports and in–out lists, writing as a way of thinking, print, tactility, control, and staying creatively engaged without chasing trends.Elizabeth Goodspeed is an independent designer, art director, and writer specializing in branding, packaging, and book and editorial design. She’s also the US editor-at-large for It’s Nice That and publishes Casual Archivist, a design history focused newsletter.https://elizabethgoodspeed.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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

The 52" monitor, home-cooked software, claude code, vibe coding, personal tools, craft, authenticity and imperfection, authorship and taste, designing without scale, having an independent design practice, freelancing vs studios, building a career on your own terms.Tesla Optimus Failhttps://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/1pfzxt0/tesla_optimus/Dell's Big Boyhttps://www.engadget.com/computing/dell-unveils-a-massive-52-inch-6k-ultrawide-curved-monitor-at-ces-2026-140024842.htmlPeople Building with Claude Codehttps://x.com/claudeai/status/2009666254815269313?s=20Ryo Lu's OS https://os.ryo.lu/Gabriel Valdivia's Big Calendarhttps://x.com/gabrielvaldivia/status/2008259086614409438?s=20David 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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

Snowstorms in the Catskills, Jacob’s month on the North Shore, selling the Audi and becoming a full-time Subaru guy, mechanics doing power slides in your car, talking lamps and unhinged home robots, Terminator bots and the sci-fi week online, Apple entering a new design era, Google’s Nano-Banana and AI faking sketchbooks, Bloom and the rise of brand-asset generators, the new CNBC logo mess, Utah 2034 and the puzzle of future-proof Olympic branding, the icons of Olympic identity from Mexico 68 to Munich 72 and Montreal 76, and why mockups are still the secret weapon in design.🖼️ Visual Show Noteshttps://worksbutmakesnoises.com/episodes/5David 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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

Ten foot skeletons, Gen Z nonchalance vs. Millennial effortfulness,  Zohran's campaign design, Al Gore was the worst client.Links mentioned in the showZohran Mamdani’s Campaign Logo Looked Nothing Like a Campaign Logohttps://www.curbed.com/article/zohran-mamdani-campaign-logo-graphic-design.htmlFully automated 'private chef'https://x.com/miyuselene/status/1982517846124192011?s=20NEO home robothttps://www.1x.tech/neoDavid 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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

Surfing in Mexico, Gap is back, having a personal ‘uniform’, Electric Bikes, NYC Subway design, AI slop (oh no), edible rocks, 90’s ad agency offices, naming things.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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

New Grillitype launches, social battery collapse, Palermo wedding gossip, buying a 2008 Subaru on Facebook Marketplace, DMV purgatory, LL Bean collab trim, new iPhone and AirPods takes, AI brand builders, Jacob hates moodboards, designer existentialismDavid 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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com

Catskills nervous system reset, tiny New York party memories, birthday art pilgrimages, Mass MoCA, basic-taste art confessions, work-life blur, Apple event ambivalence, light-phone fantasiesDavid 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 DelcanMusic by Mondo BoysArtwork typeface; GT Standard Mono by Grilli Typewww.worksbutmakesnoises.com