In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Tim’s sixth lesson— If Your Life Were a Book, Your Actions Would Be Your Pen.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Mike’s sixth lesson—Make Empathy Your SuperpowerBy Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Tim’s fifth lesson—Never Ask for Permission. Ask for Guidance.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Mike’s fifth lesson—Become the Hero of Your Own Story.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Tim’s fourth lesson—Have a Financial Plan.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Mike’s fourth lesson—Burnout is Real.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Tim’s third lesson—Plan Less. Do More.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Mike’s third lesson—Lean into who you are. Let go of who you aren’t.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Tim’s second lesson—find your voice.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Mike’s second lesson—practice matters more than the result.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Tim’s first lesson—speak with clarity.By Mike LaValley

In this episode from Season 2’s themed Life Lessons To My Younger Self, we unpack Mike’s first lesson--pace yourself.By Mike LaValley

After 3 years and 150 episodes, we believe that the show is due for a change. In this episode, we discuss what you can expect moving forward into Season 2 and why we're making changes to the podcast.By Mike LaValley

A big announcement for the show!By Mike LaValley

What book has influenced the way that you think about your approach to your life and finding clarity to the things that you do? Learn more about Start with Why by Simon Sinek and how it can influence your approach to life, career, and projects in this episode.By Mike LaValley

How much meaning does winning an award have to you? Why do you feel that way about awards? Mike and Tim talk about the application processes, the recognition, and the legacy of awards. They also talk about awards that they don’t think are worth pursuing and about the lack of diversity in many professions, especially winning awards. Learn more about…

Have you ever thought about selling digital products online in a place like Etsy? What kinds of people and designers are on there and what are the differences in the types of products that they sell? Mike and Tim end the episode with advice for people who are interested in developing and selling digital products. Don’t miss out on what Mike and Tim…

How do we identify a toxic work environment and what are some examples of them? How do we get out of a toxic work environment and/or help someone else who might be in one? Learn more about how Mike and Tim identify toxic work environments and their thoughts on getting out of one in this episode.By Mike LaValley

One of the things many designers have been trained to believe is to work through design problems on their own and to only share their completed work. So, why should a designer look for and/or create a peer design group where they could have conversations with others in a similar space about their successes and struggles? Learn more about the benefi…

How do you stay consistent in all of your pursuits, especially the ones that are long term like building a brand or a business? What are some things that can help you stay focused and maintain consistency? Learn more about Mike and Tim’s perspective on consistency and how to maintain it with all of your projects in this episode.…

Should you go back to design school during the pandemic? What are the benefits of going back to school during this time? Learn more about what Mike and Tim think about going back to design school during this time of the global pandemic and economic distress in this episode.By Mike LaValley

At some point in every designer’s career, they face a moment where they feel like there’s so much left to do for a project, but the deadline is quickly approaching. What often leads to these time crunch moments and how can we avoid them? Learn more about the positive aspects of time crunches as well as common causes and how to avoid them in this ep…

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic spreading throughout the world, businesses are feeling its effects on the economy. The stock market is beginning to show signs of an incoming recession with drastic drops. What impact does a potential recession have on the design professions and how can we stay employed? Learn more about the effects of a potential…

How do you keep a team of designers motivated throughout an entire project? What are effective ways of giving all members of a design team ownership of a project? In this episode of Unpacking Design, Mike and Tim talk about how they manage their teams and what they find to be the most helpful and productive ways of working together.…

Have you ever had trouble getting yourself to start a project that you really wanted to pursue? Or spending a lot of time on a project, but never finishing it? These are issues that many designers face for many reasons including lack of planning, time management, fear, doubts, and others. Learn more about Charlie Gilkey’s book, Start Finishing, and…

In order to get better at our pursuits in our lives, we need to know what our current strengths and weaknesses are so that we can embrace the things that work and change the ones that are holding us back. What does it look like when two close friends criticize each other and point out one another’s strengths and weaknesses? How can this help design…

Every year, there are more people entering college with an increase in the number of people pursuing design related fields. Every designer who is now in the profession has had retrospective moments where we all know there are things we would do differently if we had a chance to go back in time. What are some words of advice for students pursuing de…

All designers have ideas for speculative projects that they believe will influence the world in some way. From architectural proposals of new typologies that resolve a humane issue to graphic designs that will become the next iconic image of today’s world and the last bottle that is designed from cradle to cradle, designers always have innovative i…

One of the habits of all designers is the pursuit of free work for family, friends, competitions, and so on. We all have the tendency to want to solve any design problem that comes our way with very little thought to the value of the propositions we deliver. The best example are design competitions where designers actually pay a fee to submit their…

There’s no question about the benefits of living a healthy life and its positive impacts on a designer’s ability to focus and be creative. From food to exercise and amount of sleep, Mike and Tim talk about their personal habits that have contributed to their success so far in their careers and personal endeavors.…

What happens from the time a designer gets up in the morning to the time they go to sleep on an average day? Learn more about what a typical day in the lives of Mike and Tim is like in this episode.By Mike LaValley / Tim Ung

When we think about the work being created at design firms, there’s often a dilemma of ownership that employees face. Who owns the work that’s being produced? The obvious answer is that the design firm owns everything being produced at the office. Can employees also claim ownership if they were an integral part to specific projects? Learn more abou…

When designers enter their profession and start working at a firm, there are some who find themselves with consistent upward movement to higher level roles and others who feel stuck in their position. Many designers who feel stuck are faced with two common options: Do you stay and keep trying to grow? Or leave and enter a different firm?…

What does it mean to stay focused in our lives and what does it look like? In the 21st century, we’re constantly being bombarded by information, tasks to complete, and simultaneously working between multiple projects. What if we distilled 10 of our highest priority projects down to only 1 and spent all of our time completing it? How does time and e…

As a predominantly service based profession, our businesses and livelihoods rely on designing for clients who in turn pay us. What makes a client one that is ideal for our design firm? What can we implement at our firm to improve our client base and dispel their assumptions about our design process?By Mike LaValley / Tim Ung

What does it mean to be authentic with the designs that we develop, products that we create, and lives on social media? How do we maintain ownership of the creative ideas that we share with the world? Today, more entrepreneurs are creating, marketing, and selling products online. Oftentimes, corporations, manufacturers, and individuals copy success…

In this episode, Mike briefly talks about Tim Ferriss’ book, Tribe of Mentors, and asks Tim 10 questions that Ferriss asks all of his guests in his book. From books to one message on a bill board and advice for a young person entering the “real world”. Learn more about Tim through his answers to these 10 questions from Mike and discover why and how…

How do you know if you’re designs will be accepted by your client? What about society? How many times do you ask yourself if your designs are “good enough”? Mike and Tim reflect on how doubt affects us as designers and how they’ve overcome their self-doubts in their lives as designers.By Mike LaValley / Tim Ung

In this episode, Mike and Tim talk about the importance of mentoring others and providing guidance to younger and lesser experienced creative professionals. They share their experiences both being mentored and mentoring others throughout their career.By Mike LaValley / Tim Ung

In this episode, Mike and Tim talk about how they’ve burned out in their lives as creatives. Mike’s personal journey through burnout came from his decade long pursuits related to his career as an architect and his sacrifice of his health and relationships. Tim talks about his close encounter with leaving his life as an architect during his time as …

How does sleep help designers work efficiently, get new ideas, and stay focused? Learn more about Mike and Tim’s thoughts on why sleep is one of the most important components of every designer’s life in this episode.By Mike LaValley / Tim Ung

How can designers come together and address the pay gaps within all design professions? What are some of the implicit biases that we have about white males, women, people of color, and others? In this episode, Tim and Mike talk about the uncomfortable topic of pay gaps within the design profession based on a YouTube video by Glamour Magazine entitl…

In this episode, Mike and Tim talk about what being a designer means to us and how it influences our lives. They talk about how being a designer affect the way that we look at the world through a creative lens.By Mike LaValley / Tim Ung

In this episode, we talk about what it means to fail as a designer working on a project and in general. We discuss the mindset of people who focus on failure versus the ones who think about design as taking steps to achieve a goal. Within those steps, we’re bound to make mistakes that we learn and grow from.…

In this episode, we talk about the influence of Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Crush It!, which has influenced both Mike and Tim’s careers and lives. We talk about what it means to hustle, caring about what we’re putting out into the world, and pursuing our dreams.By Mike LaValley / Tim Ung

Welcome to the Unpacking Design Podcast! We're your hosts, Mike LaValley and Tim Ung and we're excited to share products and ideas from our perspective as designers and architects with you.By Mike LaValley / Tim Ung