The Nudge Podcast

Listen for some tips and tricks on how to improve your design process and increase the value you provide to your clients.

Jason Chatfield is the young cartoonist who was handed the legacy of Australian comic-strip icon, Ginger Meggs. In this frank discussion he talks about being handed the baton, finding mentors and what happens when your mentors are cut down. This episode was recorded in an echoey office in New York, where Jason now lives. We’ve tried everything we could to get the sound up to scratch. Hopefully the honest discussion can help you get past that.

The word "deadlines" has the word "dead" in it, so those things must be bad for us, right? As designers we have a habit of being terrified by deadlines. Often we're paralysed with fear by deadlines. But maybe we can think about them in a way that actually makes us better at our work. We speak to Lucy Battersby, journalist for the Fairfax press about how she deals with deadlines, how the concept has changed over time and how they're a great tool for weeding out the weak.

We all believe we're right all the time. Sometimes we're not. Designers need to know how to say "no" to clients in the right circumstances. So then we have to understand what the correct circumstances are and what the final result is. The team speaks about how to gain the trust of the client, build their confidence in design and be treated like an expert. And an expert knows when to say "no" and dig in heels and when to back down and look at the longer strategy.

This starts as a conversation about when designers might not be acting in a client's best interest. Then it changes and Josh, Ross and Jerome discuss how not all clients' problems are solvable through design and how not all clients are for all designers.

There are so many things to take into account when we design. We have the users, the client's needs, the constraints that we have in budget and time, and then there are the tools: user stories, analytics, wireframes, colour-theory, psychological and emotional journeys, usability, accessibility, hallway testing… Josh and Ross look into the possibility of us overthinking design as a way of avoiding doing the actual work of design.

When a five year-old organisation charged with celebrating books, writing and ideas needs to get noticed by people who may not know it exists, it creates a stealth campaign to raise awareness in markets outside of the inner-urban literati and retirees. Michael Williams of the Wheeler Centre joins Josh Kinal live at the Kelvin Club to talk about the Centre's need to move outside its comfort zone and take its remit to the streets, literally, with its "#Discuss" campaign.

Luke Ryan’s book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Chemo, took a lot of time, effort and emotional capital to produce. We talk to him about how he could keep going in the face of hard work, extreme professional criticism and significant redrafting.

The design field is a mixed bag of people having had formal education in design school and others who learn design on the job and become designers as a matter of course. Once someone is a designer, how do they improve their trade? Do they improve their trade or are there a bunch of laurels they can just lie around on all day and be inspired? Then there's the question of applying the education you acquire. How the hell do you do that? That's insane. Josh and Ross discuss the idea of continuing education for designers and what balance of formal and informal practice needs to take place.

One of the hardest things in design is knowing the right time to compromise, if there ever is one. The very idea of compromise might send some precious designers into fits. That's why we spoke to [Mike Monteiro](http://muledesign.com/about/mike-monteiro/) about this topic. The man has a reputation that makes him seem absolute about everything. So when is it ok for him to compromise? Josh and Ross investigate that idea with Mike which leads into discussion of all sorts of design problems.

In creative industries, if a designer is working for a larger organisation, then all of her work is owned by that organisation. It doesn't matter if she is working in client services for an agency/studio or working in-house: The work is owned by the parent organisation. The issue comes when a designer worked on a piece of design and then needs to show pieces in her folio for prospective new jobs. What is appropriate to claim in this scenario? How can the skill of an individual designer be appropriately assessed from a folio that includes collaborative work?

How can we be sure that we're on the right track? Doubt is the rust that eats away at our ability, as designers, to be confident that what we're producing is good and worthwhile. In this episode Ross and Josh speak to professional speaking human Merlin Mann about overcoming or, perhaps, embracing self-doubt, to become better producers of quality work. Are we allowed to change our minds and how do we deal with the criticism that results from that?

Ross Floate and Josh Kinal discuss the problems facing designers today, turning passion into business and keeping the two in sync. It's an offshoot of The Nudge live events held in Melbourne.

We talk a lot about hard work. But what does that actually mean? Grit is the idea that someone will stick to a project and see it through until it's finished. It's the idea that someone starts on a journey, has a goal and does not give up half way through. [Wil Anderson](http://www.wilanderson.com.au/index.html) creates at a new show of 60 minutes of stand up comedy every year. On top of that he tours two countries (Australia and the USA) throughout the year, hosts and produces two podcasts ([TOFOP/FOFOP](http://www.tofop.com/) and [Wilosophy](https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/wilosophy/id730032474?mt=2)) and hosts the Gruen programs on ABC TV. We thought he'd be the perfect person to put the idea of grit into perspective.

We often wish that we could stand out from the crowd and be recognised for who we are as individuals, known for the quality and uniqueness of our work. Maybe, though, we should be careful about what we wish for. John Safran has spent the last 17 years being a voice in the Australian media unlike any other. How did he get to be an individual in a world where we keep being pushed in all sorts of directions and is it everything it's cracked up to be?