Honest Designers Podcast Episode 29: Meet Your Hosts

In this week’s episode we mix things up and get personal. Now that the Honest Designers show is 6 months old, we wanted to share a little more about ourselves, for everyone listening at home. We kick off by asking each other some design related questions and then do a round of quick fire personal related questions which reveal some surprising answers and one very bizarre hidden talent. We hope you enjoy it and let’s get into the show!

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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

Please find full show notes for this episode below:

[1:00] This week we have a bit of a different episode for our listeners
[2:00] Dustin’s first question is to Tom and he’s asking if Tom were to start a new design business (different to DC) what will he do in the first 30 days to make money to pay the rent
[2:45] Tom says the first thing he will do is create a minimal viable product
[3:30] Then he will use all his connections and ask them to raise awareness of the new product
[4:15] He will also test a lot of new things and see which ones work, then put more effort into those
[4:50] Dustin asks Ian what is his ratio of rubbish to awesome work
[5:20] Ian says, that for example he’s been drawing the letter Q for about 2 months but the script lettering usually comes out on first try
[6:00] Ian reveals that the ratio is 80 rubbish/20 awesome
[6:30] Tom finds it reassuring as he’s mostly seen Ian’s polished feed
[7:00] Dustin asks Lisa what is her exact process from creating one of her cute characters
[7:20] Lisa says she initially draws a sketch on a piece of paper and then she vectorises it
[8:15] She prefers it this way, as she admits she struggles to draw with brushes on the computer
[8:45] She will then go on to connect her Ipad through Astropad and takes a screenshot of the design on the Ipad which she then opens in Procreate
[9:40] Lisa also creates most of her textures on paper too
[10:00] The last thing she will do is playing around with layers and colours
[10:45] Tom asks what is the average time for designing one of the graphics for the Honest Designers show
[11:30] Lisa asks Dustin if he plans his business yearly, quarterly, monthly or is It more random
[12:00] Dustin admits that he writes a yearly plan but then he doesn’t follow it
[12:30] Lately Dustin found it effective to put a list together with his monthly goal including the different activities he can do and tracks how many times he’s done one of the activities and how many customers he’s gained
[13:15] Lisa asks Ian is he has another skill he would like to pursue or is there a new skill that he would like to learn
[13:40] Ian says he would like to be good at illustrations so he can add illustrations to his calligraphy graphics
[14:00] Lisa confirms that illustrations can be taught
[14:40] Lisa and Ian agree that it would be interesting to see some of Lisa’s old illustrations
[15:00] Lisa ask Tom, when he first started DC, if he was nervous about hiring employees and if he still feels this now
[15:30] Tom admits he was nervous as this is an important thing for any company and there are many aspects involved in this decision as well as legal issues
[16:15] It’s important to genuinely care, treat people well and want the best for everyone
[16:30] Dustin jumps in and ask Tom how much money he needs to make in revenue for each person he needs to hire, so that he can afford that person
[17:00] Tom says it depends on the profit margins and on the type of role he needs to hire for
[17:50] In certain roles where the employee brings revenue, a target is set which needs to be achieved every month so that the business can afford to pay for them
[18:40] Tom asks Ian which are the biggest things people get right and wrong on social media
[19:10] Ian suggests the most important thing to avoid is putting out too much of your personal life on your professional feed
[20:00] The most important thing is being consistent and putting your best work out
[20:45] It’s important to be at the forefront of your target audience
[21:30] Tom reiterates it’s import to add some personal notes to your feed but tie it in with your work
[22:30] The feed should keep people interested and intrigued
[23:15] Tom asks Lisa how she manages to give so much character to her illustrations
[23:45] Lisa says one of the most important things she takes into consideration is the line of action
[24:50] She also tries to think of what the character is thinking at the time
[25:20] She mentions other tricks, for example the eyes, the direction of the face, what the hands are doing
[25:50] Lisa suggest adding some movement to the illustrations
[26:30] Tom asks Dustin what attracts him about retro design and why does he love it so much
[27:00] Dustin mentions he’s been very nostalgic about his childhood toys and friends
[27:45] His grandma’s house which is a mix of 50s, 60s and 70s and he finds this very comforting
[28:20] Ian asks Tom who is the person that inspires him the most
[28:48] Tom has been following Gary Vaynerchuk @garyvee for years now
[29:20] Tom thinks Gary is great for business inspiration and he is a bit like marmite, people either love him or hate him
[30:00] Gary is very black and white in his approach and Tom found that following his strategy works and brings results, but this only works for a short time, as Tom ended up in hospital after working himself to the limit
[31:00] Ian compares this to putting aside all the riches for a while and building a profitable business
[31:50] Tom thinks it’s important to find a balance and enjoying what you do and still have a life
[32:30] Tom recommends, from his experience, not to go all in on any of the extremes
[32:45] Ian asks Dustin, if he were stranded on a desert island and he could only have one design software what will he choose: Photoshop or Illustrator?
[32:50] Dustin chooses Illustrator and Lisa agrees with this choice
[33:30] He always found Illustrator more fun and easy to use then Photoshop
[34:00] Ian asks Lisa what is the one tool, apart from her computer, that could hinder her from doing her work
[34:20] Lisa says she couldn’t do her work without her IPad and Apple Pencil
[34:50] These devices made a huge difference to her work, as now do she can textures digitally
[36:00] The hosts are doing a round of quick fire personal questions
[36:30] Dustin asks Ian which household chore he hates mostly and why
[36:50] Ian admits he hates all cleaning as he is the messiest person in the household
[37:30] Dustin says he also has a sort of ‘messy blindness’ and Lisa agrees that this is true for most men
[38:20] Dustin asks Lisa if she could write a song about her life, what type of music would it be and why?
[38:35] Lisa thinks it would be a combination of Neil Young, Bee Gees and Abba
[40:10] Dustin asks Tom which is his biggest fear
[40:30] Tom reveals he is scared of snakes and also fears, that due to being really ambitious, he might not be fully contempt
[42:00] Lisa asks Dustin if he ever plays with his daughter’s toys and he confirms that he actually does
[43:10] Ian says that part to being a parent is buying toys for your children that you can also play with
[44:00] Lisa asks Tom if he could be a pro sportsman what sport would he choose
[44:30] The first thing that came into Tom’s mind is the lumberjack games
[44:45] The actual sport he would choose is soccer
[46:00] Lisa asks Ian if he drinks all the coffees we see on his Instagram feed
[46:30] Ian admits he had to reduce the amount of coffee he drinks, and he now drinks between 3 and 4
[47:40] For his graphics, Ian sometimes borrows images of coffees and other time uses his own
[48:00] Tom asks Ian if he had a choice between only whispering and shouting for the rest of his life which one would he choose
[48:30] Ian chooses whispering as his wife is a speech therapist and he knows how much damage shouting can cause to your voice
[49:00] Tom asks Lisa to teach the hosts a South African word
[50:00] Lisa teaches the hosts the phrase ‘Jou ma se hare’ which in English translates to ’Your mother’s hair’
[51:40] Tom asks Dustin what is one of the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to him
[52:15] Dustin reveals he almost broke the toilet door in an airplane as he feared he will get stuck in the toilet during take off
[55:00] Ian asks Lisa what’s the weirdest scar she has and the story behind it
[55:30] Lisa remembers a skateboard accident which gave her a massive scar on her wrist
[56:20] Ian asks Dustin what it’s his most useless talent
[56:50] Before Dustin gets to reply, Ian reveals he can fit his whole fist into his mouth
[57:00] The hosts are truly amazed by this skill
[57:40] Lisa’s useless talent is being able to burp her country’s entire national anthem
[58:30] Dustin reveals that his is being able to hold his breath for almost 3 minutes
[59:00] Tom can also do this but only while being underwater
[59:40] Tom reveals that due to being restless at school he got into the habit of spinning books and other items on his fingers
[1:00:30] Ian asks Tom what would be harder to give up: coffee or alcohol
[1:01:00] Tom would find it easier to give up coffee as he is not a massive coffee drinker
[1:02:30] Thank you all for listening to this week’s episode

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