Welcome to The Honest Designers Show
We are so excited to launch our brand new weekly podcast, The Honest Designers Show!
This new podcast features our founder and CEO Tom Ross, alongside experienced designers Ian Barnard, Lisa Glanz and Dustin Lee. Each of your hosts have excelled in their own creative fields, and this new show is our way to give you a transparent look into life as a modern designer. Want to learn how to land your first client, develop a unique style in your work, or simply to realise that other folk are going through the same challenges that you’re facing? Then this is the show for you!
You can listen to our first ever episode below:
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Other Ways to Listen: Soundcloud | iTunes | Stitcher
Meet Your Hosts
The Honest Designers Show started when our founder Tom found he was regularly chatting and sharing tips with top designers; Ian Barnard, Lisa Glanz and Dustin Lee. We soon organised a weekly call where we would help each other with areas we were struggling with and try to give each other actionable feedback. Soon we realised that the collective experience of the group was proving so valuable for each of us, that we thought ‘why not share these conversations with the world?’.
And so, The Honest Designers Show was born! This podcast is an insight into how to succeed in the creative industry, as well as giving you a totally transparent, under the hood look at some of the tougher, less glamorous hurdles to overcome! We also tend to get a little goofy along the way, so this is a chance to get to know each of us a little better :). We’ve loved recording this show for you, and we hope that you find value and enjoyment in listening to it.
SHOW NOTES
In this first episode we delve into exactly how to develop your own personal style as a designer. This is something every designer goes through at some stage, and once you land upon your own unique style, amazing things can start to happen! We describe our own journeys of how we got there, roadblocks we overcame, and dish out plenty of tips on how to find and develop a great style yourself.
[1.00] Copying others to find your style, and getting comfortable with yourself
[1.45] How to recognise when you’ve found your style
[2.25] The ‘switch’ moment when you finally discover your style
[3.00] Using other people’s work to find your own style
[3.40] Why copying is a natural part of the process
[4.20] Finding different sources of inspiration
[5.15] Being inspired by outside styles
[6.00] Using outside inspiration for marketing yourself
[6.30] Dustin’s shaving routine (and how it helps inspire him!)
[7.30] The power of mood-boards and other cliches
[8.30] Ian’s struggle to nail down a particular style
[9.45] Why you shouldn’t worry if your style flits all over the place
[10.20] How your style can often by subconscious
[11.15] The importance of practice
[12.05] Feeling comfortable in your skin
[13.25] Ian’s random feed (and why this doesn’t matter!)
[14.50] The home-runs in the early days
[15.15] Copying your best self
[16.00] Holding yourself accountable with a fan-base
[17.00] Why consistency matters
[17.50] How to avoid giving up too quickly
[18.30] Why feedback is great (even the bad feedback!)
[19.25] Why no feedback is the worst feedback
[20.25] The insecurities of being a designer
[21.20] Why you should aim to divide people with your work
[22.00] Finding your core fans through polarisation
[23.00] Taking note of what you’re drawn to
[23.50] Finding your style in other areas (music)
[24.40] Dustin’s friend’s amazing project
[25.55] Getting out of your head, and getting lost in the process
[27.30] Learning along the way
[28.10] Why Ian works on what interests him the most
[29.45] Exposing yourself to multiple influences
[30.50] Why a defined style can be an advantage
[31.30] Listen to your personality type to find your style
[32.20] Our various styles (and who is most distinctive)
[33.20] Why YOU can be your style (rather than just your work)
[34.00] Why you can attract clients with a narrow style
[36.00] Why other people’s style might not be right for you
[37.45] Some styles are more achievable via practice than others
[39.00] How to see different styles in imperfections
[40.00] Having fun and trying different things
[42.00] ‘Find your fun’
[43.00] ‘Do what’s weird about you’
[43.50] How to stand out in a busy industry
[44.30] Branching off from your best ideas
[45.10] Tom’s teacher ripping up his artwork at school!
[46.25] How Lisa judges a successful project
[47.40] Dustin NOT going to the bathroom on the call
[48.45] Lisa’s weird world
[50.00] The importance of giving yourself some slack
[50.50] Tom’s tip for feeling better about your journey
[52.00] Why people remember your failures (and why this is ok)
How you can help
As this is a new show, we’d really appreciate your help spreading the word. If you enjoyed listening and found value in this first episode, you can do these two things to help us:
1. Subscribe to The Honest Designers Show in iTunes
2. Leave us an honest rating/review in iTunes
Early reviews can make the world of difference for new podcasts being discovered, and it would mean the world to us if you were able to help.
Click to listen to The Honest Designers Show on iTunes
Here is a quick guide for how to leave a review on iTunes
Let Us Know What You Think
We would absolutely love to know how you enjoyed this first episode. We’ll be releasing a new episode each Wednesday, and look forward to hopefully answering many of your questions on the show. We continue to be so grateful for the wonderful community here at Design Cuts, and hope that this show is another way that we can give back to you all.
PS: A bit of trivia for you: the artwork for Honest Designers was a group effort. The wonderful lettering is by Ian Barnard, the illustrations are by Lisa Glanz and Dustin/Tom compiled the wider layouts, details and colour palettes.
Hey guy such a nice podcast! put on soundcloud! that would leverage a huge community!
Done and done! :) https://soundcloud.com/user-780813568 Thanks for the tip Julian.
Your show is wonderful. I really like the fact you folks have more than one opinion or style. Great information from yourself and guests.
This is my favorite go-to site for vectors, fonts, and everything else. Keep up the great shows and the best deals on the internet.
Ralph
Thanks Ralph, I really appreciate the great feedback. One of my favourite things about our chats is that we do have such different experiences and opinions, and it’s great to hear that resonates with you. We’re truly grateful for you being such a fantastic part of the community here :).
Hi
Is this available as a straight mp3 download? We’re not all Apple / iTunes lovers
All the best
Charlie Tokyo
It sure is Tony! :) You can download the episode via the player at the top of this page, or check it out on Soundcloud. I hope this helps.
Love it guys! Very inspiring ideas, with more new than stuff I’ve already tried.
Totally “get” Lisa’s statement about being drawn to certain artwork because it’s your style, or wish it was, and then building up skills so that design style you’re drawn to just starts to show up in your own work, naturally.
Every great artist copies to learn skills. It’s only nasty when you don’t admit it, and with copyright laws, people being sued by big companies because they used a copywriter pic accidentally on their personal “family” blog, I think we tend to err too much on the side of caution. Copy, enjoy, experiment, learn. Just be honest about it! I mean, isn’t that what “Fan Art” is about, in a way?
I laughed so hard when I heard Tom say the word “man” (as in dude) in his excellent accent. I say this in the most endearing way, truly.
Now I want it to be a webcast, so we can see the beards. Come on, Ben. Make it a movie!
Excellent!
Stace
Love the positive outlook Stacy, and I’m totally with you that finding inspiration in the work of others is absolutely ok, if done in the right way.
Glad I could make you chuckle with my *ahem* ‘steller’ American accent :P.
We’ve actually had a few requests for web-casts, so we’ll see how things evolve over time!
Thought it was great fun, maybe a tad long. Would like the questions or points along with the short answer to be in a quick little summary at the end. eg. Finding your style… Just have fun etc. You may have done this in the summary on itunes… but I probably won’t take the time to go over somewhere else to get what should be at the end of this. Just my opinion, and my bad for not taking more time to follow up.. Overall fun, and I like that is casual.
That’s a great idea, Christine. Would be cool to have a summary at the end of each episode of key takeaways. Thanks for the feedback and listening in!