Hustle

Claudio Vallejo is a passionate Freelance Web-Designer and Front End Developer by way of Monterrey, Mexico. Beginning in the Baylor business school and through the Baylor Accelerated Ventures Project, there he discovered design and development and was given his first experience in product design. In this episode, Claudio and Anthony sit down to discuss everything from how a failed college project would ignite his creative passion to his perspective on turning ideas into reality to the challenges faced as a non-us citizen looking to land a design job. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

If you know anything about Funsize, you know we love to collaborate and Johnnie Hamn is no different. Through his 16 years of hands-on design experience and believing strongly in cooperative and collaborative design; Johnnie comes to the table with his perspective on what it means to be a design leader and client advocate at Funsize. In this episode, Anthony and Johnnie sit down and talk about his role at Funsize and the idea of selfless leadership, going the extra mile to build trust with the client, what it means to transition a client into a design partner. Anthony and Johnnie have been friends for a very long time so they discuss a wide range of topics in this episode but one topic they focus on is how investing in relationships can elevate client services, and more often than not, make them profitable. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

If you've played Monument Valley then you've seen a slice of the ustwo pie. Three years ago, ustwo explored the state and future of the digital consultancy industry, posing the question “How, When, and Where Will The First Truly Great Digital Design Studio Emerge?“. Now, three years later, Jules followed up with his essay "The State of the Digital Nation 2016" where he provided an in-depth, four-pronged approach to building the digital studio of the future. "The industry has experienced seismic shifts and a sweeping wave of consolidation. So let’s take another look at the state of the digital nation and why, for the bold, great opportunity lies ahead." On this episode, I get an opportunity to talk to Jules about this important piece of writing and what the future of agencies look like in order to remain relevant, build trust, and create meaningful impact. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

Dann​ is a full-time freelancer and is known around the world for his skill and encouraging personality. If you've seen HBO's Silicon Valley, Google, Airbnb, Uber, Medium, Boosted Boards and Luxe Valet; then there's a chance you've seen his work. He's also the Founder and organizer of the Epicurrence and Montues events, which are life experience inspirational and adventure oriented events for designers. They're EPIC. Dann has been traveling around the United States interviewing designers for a movie he's making about freelance designers. Over the last couple of months, he's gained some new personal perspectives on work, life, balance, and the meaning of success. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

Tony Sanchez, Product Designer at Funsize discusses the journey of his career path from textile design, to print, to screen printing, to digital product designer. Anthony and Tony talk about Funsize's Design Apprentice Program, and Tony sheds light on his experience at Funsize and shares a few tips for new designers. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

A few months ago, Andre, one of Funsize's product designers decided he wanted to move on to greener pastures in Bend, Oregon. But he still wanted to work with Funsize and we didn't want to lose him either. As he's gone out to live in a tiny house on some beautiful mountain land in Oregon, he's learned a whole new curve to working entirely remote. Rick and Anthony chat with him about how the adjustment has been going. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

Victor is a user experience (UX) researcher with a passion for representing the voice of the end user in product design decisions. He writes and speaks on the application of psychology to design. He's written for A List Apart, Smashing Magazine, UX Booth, User Experience Magazine, and more. He's the author Design for the Mind, a book from Manning Publications on the application of principles of psychology to design. about the book: Design for the Mind: includes 7 Psychological Principles of Persuasive Design teaches you to recognize how websites and applications can benefit from an awareness of our innate, natural responses as humans, and how to apply the principles to your own designs. listener discount: bit.ly/yocco1 https://www.manning.com Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

Rick & Anthony discuss a recent article entitled State of the Digital Nation 2016 by Jules Ehrhardt. http://blog.marvelapp.com/state-of-the-digital-nation-2016/ Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

Rachel Gertz, Partner, Systems Consultant & Trainer at Louder than ten discusses some philosophies around project management. And roles and disciplines as teams grow and projects evolve over time. Discussion points Emotional intelligence: empathy is taught. Be a champion for your team, they are dealing with a lot Should designers PM? Designers need to have empathy too When building teams hire less for fit, and more for the ability to make decisions based on business goals. PM's role needs to be unique because they need to be held accountable for project success/failure. Strategy focus Creative has the load of creativity, is it fair to have the role of asking the hard questions like scope, goals, body language. Links Soap conference (Travis speaks about Design Machines) Collaboration workshop - http://soapconf.com/edu-summit/ (workshop with Travis and Rachel) Design & content conference, Vancouver Fall workshop in Calgary, Canada TBA Article by Mike Davidson, former Design Director at Twitter Visi

Companies are looking for a partner these days, not just a design agency to throw a marketing budget at. When working with people and trying to establish trust, it takes a little time. There is also another side of the coin, in that It's possible to deteriorate trust. Finding out how to gain trust and not deteriorate it is step one. Listen in as Aaron O'Hearn discusses his path to Funsize, and also the nature of selling design work to product companies. We discuss some philosophies, as well as some practical aspects of business development. Resources mentioned in this episode: Breaking The Time Barrier [Invest in Lines, Not Dots][2] Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram [2]: https://bothsidesofthetable.com/invest-in-lines-not-dots-611f36491d73#.qgppg1l4p

Engineering has made leaps and bounds towards a more efficient process of building software since the early waterfall days. Agile methodologies have helped guide the way. As design has become more important to a product's success, designers have earned a seat at the table. Now design too has adapted to similar approaches to building software. What has helped us get to where we are and how we build? What has taken design so long to catch up with engineering? Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

Now that we've had a chance to get back to real life, we are left with a few memories at Epicurrence Montues. There we're some fantastic experiences. In this episode Rick sits down with fellow Funsizers Natalie Armendariz, Phi Hoang and Edgar Briseño to discuss our experience at Epicurrence Montues. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

We briefly met Ben, Owner and Creative Director of Elegant Seagulls at Epicurrence. These guys do some killer work. We wanted to hear how they were able to inject personality into each and every design they create and keep up with such a high-level of clients and projects. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

While in the midst of escaping a the sxsw madness, we set up in Anthony's home to record a couple of episodes! In this one, we are excited to have Nick Robalik, Creative Director and Johnnie Hamn (who recently joined the Funsize team!

Steven Ray and Anthony Armendariz go way back. They had a company together prior to Funsize and in addition to hearing Steve's experience at Dialexa, they also tell the story of starting up a distributed mobile design boutique years ago. Since the Funsize office was taken over by sxsw, we decided to hang out in Anthony's kitchen and lay down some thoughts about our experiences together. Including how Rick first met Anthony which was the same time he met Steven Ray. Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

What do you love about being a designer? How does geography affect your career? What do you want to be doing in 5 years? What's your least-favorite design trend? Interviewees Mae Reed - Freelance @maebees Mike Townson - Project 202 @miketownson Mike Blakesley - Project 202 @mikeblakesley Joshua Bullock - vauto @blisster138 Dan Benjamin - 5by5 @danbenjamin Haddie Cooke - 5by5 @haddiebird Chris Meeks - Hatbox @chrismeeks Clark Wimberly - Invision @clarklab Brian Peterson - Daily Fantasy Sports @ironcobratv Ryan Weaver - Creative Market @ryantheweave Danh Hoang - Adonit @danhhoang Nick Robalik - Creative Director @nickrobalik Jonathan Howell - Microsoft @ItsJonHowell Steven Ray - Dialexa @stevenray Ethan Leon - Thoughtbot @ethangl Amanda Donaldson - Spreadfast @AMDesignlovin Carlos Arellano - vauto @carlosarellano Bryan Smith - vauto Riley Spiller - Atlassian @RileySpiller Jonathan Haver - Rocksauce @jhTHUNDERmaker Jim Jordan - Funsize @JimJJordan Rachael LaCoss - Media General @RachelLaCoss Anthony Sanchez -

It's great to push the boundaries of design to make interesting work, but is it ok to break normal design patterns to do so? How do we convince clients that something outside of the typical design trends is the right choice? Lovably Dylan's latest Album Claye Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

How much research do you need before you can make some design decisions? Surely, this is different for each product, but at what point has their been enough research done for design to get started? Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

We invited Sam Kapila, Director of Instruction at The Iron Yard to discuss the approach to the unique challenges involved in her role. The Iron Yard is the world’s largest code school with full-time immersive courses in 20 cities. Taking a non-traditional approach to education on subject matter that is both complex and volatile. Sam has a unique position and perspective on where design solutions are applied to more than just screens. We we're also joined by Jim Jordan, Product Designer at Funsize and one of Sam's former students. Some subjects discussed in this episode: Thoughts on today’s product design processes Design principles, design assumptions, user thinking and design approach instead of "design thinking" When is the right time to get research in? When is it too much? Applying Design to non-design things Learning What doesn’t work "Pixel Perfect Design Thinking" - ha Designing for the imperfect scenario What's behind the design decisions we make? Books mentioned in this episode: A

Design often needs a voice to communicate its intention. Tom Greever has recently published a book called "Articulating Design Decisions". Rick and Anthony sit down with Tom to talk through a critical skill that many designers lack. Tom Greever's book, published by O'Reilly: Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram