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Joshua Weiss is a Product Lead at Specno - who help businesses solve a variety of problems. Josh is also an avid gamer, and we chat about not only bridging the gap between the work you do and the things in life you enjoy doing, but also how valuable any type of job skills are and being able to transfer skills into your new role. Josh’s story into where he currently finds himself in life is an interesting one. Be sure to connect with Josh on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-weiss-91a023153?originalSubdomain=za 00:00 Intro 02:33 A quick recap of our live event 06:20 Who is Josh 11:12 Going into gaming to understand the industry 42:32 The thread between what you enjoy doing and what work you do

On this second episode of the Jack Studio series, we are joined by Claire Keet (Creative Director) and Paul Loots (Director of Operations). We continue on from our previous conversation with their CEO Sabeeha and delve more into working with clients and how the Studio managers projects in such a small team of people. Claire and Paul also each walk us through one of their favourite past projects and the unique challenges of each one. Explore more of what Jack Studios has to offer here: https://www.jackstudios.co.za Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:48 Paul and Claire’s journey into a professional career 08:06 Executing projects with a small team 12:29 Adapting organisational structure 19:27 Growing the company by going deeper and giving more value 52:58 Finding the clients that you want to work with 1:00:30 A look at two past projects Music by https://pixabay.com/users/chillmore-25283030 from https://pixabay.com

Sabeeha Banubhai is our first ever returning guest, and we were so elated to talk to her once again. She is our first interview in a series of episodes with the team from Jack Studios, where Sabeeha is the founder and CEO. We spoke to Sabeeha about some of the ins and outs of running a design studio, from choosing clients and delegating a pipeline and tasks, to Alfi’s experience workshopping with the studio. Explore more of what Jack Studios has to offer here: https://www.jackstudios.co.za Chapters: 00:00 Intro 03:02 Mentorship 06:17 What does Sabeeha do 14:12 Alfi’s workshops with Jack Studio 33:00 Expanding the team and growing the business 47:05 The workflow in a design studio 55:36 Choosing clients to work with, and consulting decisions with the team 1:04:32 A moment of reflection Music by https://pixabay.com/users/chillmore-25283030 from https://pixabay.com

Jan Oberholzer is a freelance animator and illustrator. In this episode we once again dive into the world of freelancing and learn some valuable lessons from Jan’s experience from working for studios to eventually starting his freelance venture. We discuss a variety of topics related to freelancing, from choosing work that truly resonates with you, setting boundaries, working with international clients, and what a typical work week looks like as a freelancer. Find more of Jan’s work here: https://janoberholzer.com and follow his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jan.oberholzer/

06:21 Strategy for going freelance and finding clients 07:38 The accident that led him to freelance 12:56 Motivation 17:14 Recovery period 22:06 What exactly does Jan do 32:12 The experience of working with people 37:30 Freelance time management Music by https://pixabay.com/users/chillmore-25283030 from https://pixabay.com

Carly Whitaker is the Head of Culture and Branding at Umuzi - a NPO focussed on providing access to education that leads people to higher level careers. Carly also has a wide foray into lecturing and education including being a PHD candidate as well as a practising fine artist. We talk about a lot of the similarities and differences that exists in the digital and physical design world, take a deeper look into her research on making space for discourse within digital arts, and a closer view on what Umuzi does.

Find out more about Umuzi here: https://www.umuzi.org

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

05:44 Creative practises

09:35 Relationship between artist and curator 

17:00 A deeper look into the research

33:13 Curating digital over physical spaces

34:41 Transition out of lecturing

41:09 A look at what Umuzi does

Music by https://pixabay.com/users/chillmore-25283030 from https://pixabay.com

In this episode we have an interesting conversation with Alexandre Tilmans, co-founder of the Baz-Art Organisation, who shifted into the art space after working in finance and construction before finding a love for craft beer and the creative challenges involved in it. After working closely with street artists, Alexandre started the International Public Art Festival that has soared over recent years. We also touch on other topics, like Alex’s involvement with First Thursdays, building personal and working relationships with the artists, and how to manage your expectations and the reality of doing business. Find out more about Baz-Art and the IPAF here: https://ipafest.co.za

https://baz-art.co.za

Chapters:

00:00 Intro 04:19 Craft beer and street artists coming together 12:57 Popularising Cape Town’s First Thursdays event 15:05 Working with artists in public spaces and promoting positive social change 30:46 Interesting artist stories and past projects 37:39 Building relationships with artists 43:09 International Public Arts Festival 56:05 Expectations vs reality

In this episode we have another read through and discussion about a design-related article exploring all the roles within a design organisation and how it fits into the leadership hierarchy. Alfi and Steph give valuable insight into how organisations they’ve worked for in the past structured their teams and leadership roles, compared to where they find themselves today.

Find the original article here: https://orgdesignfordesignorgs.com/2018/10/16/the-most-important-role-in-your-design-org-team-lead/ Music by https://pixabay.com/users/chillmore-25283030 from https://pixabay.com

Loux Roets started his own furniture company over fifteen years ago after growing up with a love for working with wood. From doing all the physical, business, and ground work to eventually focussing on the design and prototyping side of things, his team creates pieces of furniture that walk the boundary between practical functionality and functional art. Louw also shares his origin story of how he ignored the risks and fears that would normally hinder you from pursuing your ideas and passions. Find out more about Louw’s furniture on his website: https://www.louwroets.co.za and on his instagram https://www.instagram.com/louwroets/

Music by https://pixabay.com/users/chillmore-25283030 from https://pixabay.com

In our first episode of the year we get to talk to Eli Woolery who is the co-host of the Design Better podcast, a lecturer at Stanford University, and the Director of Design Education at InVision. Eli shares some parallels between practising and teaching design, and what it was like for him to move away from product design and into the realm education and content creation. We also explore the affordances of working within different mediums like physical products over software design, and how the processes can vastly differ the outcome of a product. Eli also shares how he balances his design and teaching roles, and the importance of real-world exposure through industry professionals and businesses teaching and passing valuable knowledge to better prepare aspiring designers for the future.  

Be sure to check out the wide array of episodes on Eli's podcast: https://www.designbetter.co/podcast, find out more about how InVision can help your design: https://www.invisionapp.com, and connect with Eli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijahwoolery/

Music by https://pixabay.com/users/chillmore-25283030 from https://pixabay.com

Kayembe Ilunga is an Associate Director in Experience Consulting at PwC South Africa. He joined us at the UX SA conference for a chat about the companies journey into design and the positive impacts it can have on the world.

Natalia Carvalho is a product designer, and also a guest speaker at the UX South Africa Conference. As a product designer, Natalia moves between UX and UI roles, and thus inspired her talk on working cohesively and integrating departments to better understand and deliver a superior product/service. Natalia also lectures, and talks about the importance of bringing real life experience and examples into the classroom, and how even as an introvert she knows the importance of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

Aalia Coovadia is a Researcher and Designer for Discovery, as well as a guest speaker at the UX South Africa Conference. She gave a talk that continues on from her masters thesis - focussing on service design in the dental care industry and increasing the frequency for patient checkups. Not only focused on the topic itself, Aalia also became interested in the art of research itself, and seeks to bring creative ideas back in the field of generic and analytical research. Aalia is also involved with Ladies That UX, and we get into the positive action that the non-profit has taken over the years.

Steyn Viljoen is the Lead Product Designer / Security at Luno, and one of the guest speakers at the UX South Africa Conference. In his talk he shares ideas about being an optimist when it comes to problem solving, and the three key points of being an optimist; problems are inevitable and necessary for progress, all problems are soluble within the laws of nature, and we can solve these due to the knowledge we’ve gained in the past. We also discuss Steyn’s view on the landscape of the relatively new technology that is cryptocurrency and virtual wallets, and all the challenges that come with creating a platform like that and building trust with your users.

Alex Oloo, the Head of Design at Absa, was a guest speaker at the UX South Africa Conference. Coincidentally, his brother and our co-host  Alfi sat down with him for a short chat about the contents of his talk on design leadership. Alex shares how he has adapted his style to suit the new norm of business and working from home in the post-covid era, as well as respecting employees as individuals outside of their job. Alex, a frequent speaker, also shares his unique way of how he plans for his presentations and how he uses his natural flow of speech to riff off of a rough idea. Alex also gives some advice for aspiring designers - to create a reading habit.   

Alex’s book recommendations: “About Face: The essentials of Interaction Design” by Alan Cooper; and “The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You” by Julie Zhou.

Schalk Venter is a consultant for Front-end Development South Africa, as well as a guest speaker at the UX South Africa Conference wherein he gave his talk on implementing design systems and how they could go bad. As a frequent speaker on this topic, Schalk often revels in the feedback and discussion that he has with people who have attended his talks, and truly allows his talks to evolve and refine them to a unique experience with each talk that passes. We also revel in the comeback of in-person conferences that inspire conversations between like-minded people compared to online and virtual conferences.

Inez is a Design Director at ABSA, and also co-hosted a workshop together with Danielle Goosen at the UX South Africa Conference. Through her work on the accessibility of the ABSA banking app she became interested in designing for people with disabilities and learning how they interact with technology. For her talk at the conference, Inez and her colleague Danielle Goosen invited members of the Blind SA organisation to participate in the workshop and in live user testing. We also talk about Inez’s entrance into design through an internship and the importance of finding and working with a mentor.

Danielle Goosen is a designer at ABSA, and also co-hosted a workshop together with Inez Patel at the UX South Africa Conference. Danielle first met Inez at a SheCanDo workshop and ABSA graduate programme that involved them working together with developers on accessibility within the ABSA banking app, specifically towards blind people. As we continue on the accessibility discussion we had with Inez Patel, we realise how deep user issues can go and how many companies and applications have only just scratched the surface issues preventing people from using the product to its full extent. We also chat about her experience of the UX conference as a whole, and how the talks (like those on implementing design systems) are so relevant and helpful to her current situation.

Ilan Smith is a behaviouralist, illusionist, mentalist and motivational speaker whose passion for the craft and entertaining others is evident. We explore his journey into the world of magic which started as a kid, and how the passion for the art eventually grew into a career. Ilan details how him and his small team put together shows, as well as delve into some of the social engineering and psychology behind making people see what the want you want them to see. To end the show, Ilan blows our minds by putting on a virtual magic show.

Find out more about Ilan here: https://linktr.ee/ilansmith

Jason Hobbs is a part-time lecturer and academic researcher at the University of Johannesburg while also practising in the field of information architecture, UX, and service design. We chat with Jason about the intricate world of IA and how it relates to the design industry, and then dig deeper into the ideas of sense and meaning making.

Takunda is a marketing and multi-media strategist, as well as a social entrepreneur and radio presenter. We chat about his journey and his work as the founder of The Young Africa Network whose focus is to propel Africa and its people into the future through young entrepreneurs collaborating and developing solutions for African environments.

Katt Pratt is a South African digital artist with an affinity for finer details, neon colours, and unique typography. Katt takes us on the journey of how he found himself being a freelance graphic designer for internationally recognised brands.

Be sure to view more of Katt's works here: https://kattphatt.com/projects & https://www.behance.net/kattphatt

In this episode we get to chat to Carrie Pratt who currently runs the Nexus Leadership Programme at GIBS Business School. She was first involved in bringing awareness of the anti-apartheid struggle to oversees organisations, and since then continues to work towards helping people better their perspective of, and interactions with, the world and people around them.  

You can reach out to Carrie and start a dialogue via email; carrie@vuksa.com

In this episode, Alfi and Steph take a different approach to the conversation by answering a listener’s question regarding big and small corporates competing in a fast moving world of design and innovation.

Kimberley Taylor is an entrepreneur whose software led her to the creation of Loop, a delivery-management software, where she has slowly grown her team over the last five years. Kim’s shares some inspiring stories she has from along the way.

Find out more about Loop here https://www.loop.co.za