The Power of Why? – Episode 099

This week Michelle wants to know about “Why?”. Why is it so important, when, where, and WHY do you ask why when you are designing. We also chat about Fred Armisen, Donald Miller, and Shakespeare, buckle up, lol.

Music This Week:

Michelle’s song: “Graduate” by Third Eye Blind

Brandi’s song: “Lisztomania” by Phoenix

Michelle’s Week:

Michelle started her week by getting to see Fred Armisen live on stage. For those of us who do not know who that is he is a creator of many things. He was a member of SNL for a few seasons and a cast member of Portlandia. So that really blessed her week. Then she got to go to a baseball game with family which was fun even though she is not a huge sports fan. And finally, Michelle’s daughter graduated from PreK! So exciting but Michelle had a bit of an emotional day.

Brandi’s Week:

Brandi is still working on her website. Very necessary work since it keeps breaking. Right now she’s really working on what the goal of her website will be. To help figure that out she has been going through a lot of Donald Miller‘s videos. Also, Brandi wants to start to bring something new to her week, where she brings some new things that are happening in the design world. This week Brandi has heard from Folger Shakespeare Library Podcast that they are bringing VR Shakespeare performances. You can check out that podcast if you want to learn more about it. And Brandi also brought up the Design Observer podcast where they talked about Facebook taking away the blue bar making the APP look so much cleaner. Go and listen to that podcast as well to hear a really cool theory about why Facebook could be making all these changes. 

Takeaways about why:

• Questioning your decisions checks your motives.
• Asking why allows you to have a backbone to understanding what you’re doing. Once you understand it you can then more easily explain it to others.
• Asking why is going to be in every part of the process when you are design problem-solving.
• Asking why is beneficial to you.
• When you are answering why the answer needs to have a non-feelings answer. It needs to have a logical answer.
• Ask why based on your problem. 
• Ask why until you can’t ask yourself why anymore. 
• The deeper you can go with asking why gives more depth to your design.
• Continue down the rabbit hole of why.
• Asking why doesn’t leave the equation, regardless of how experienced you are.

Please rate and review our podcast in iTunes and if you want to support our show please go to Patreon.com/designspeaks we would love it! You can give as much as you want. Every little bit goes to helping us keep this podcast going.

Thank you to Vesperteen for allowing us to use his song Shatter in the Night as our intro and outro music for Design Speaks

This Quarter’s Book:

We are reading and reviewing books on the podcast every quarter!

If you would like to read along, THIS QUARTER, we’ve been reading, The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair.

Want to support us?

Go to Patreon and help support our podcast!

Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any burning questions you want Brandi to answer on an episode at brandi@brandisea.com.

THANK YOU to the ultra-talented  Vesperteen (Colin Rigsby) for letting us use his (“Shatter in The Night”) track in every episode of Design Speaks.

TRANSCRIPTION

Michelle: 00:01 No.

Brandi: 00:02 Oh, you were thinking gills. Oh, well it sounds fishy. She’s trying to do a pun and I don’t understand. I’m just gonna move on…

Michelle: 00:07 Well, there it is…

Intro: 00:11 Welcome to Design Speaks. This lovely podcast is brought to you by a graphic design geek and a regular human being. We here to chat about music, pop culture, cool places, and basically do whatever we feel is relevant.

Brandi: 00:27 Hey guys, I’m Brandi Sea

Michelle: 00:28 And I’m Michelle

Brandi: 00:29 And you’re listening to episode 99 of Design Speak.

Michelle: 00:33 We are one away. If you are bad at math one away from the big 100 it’s kind of crazy.

Brandi: 00:40 You’re going to start saying 100 and something.

Michelle: 00:44 That’s, really? That’s crazy.

Brandi: 00:47 Or are we going to go 1 0 1 episode?

Michelle: 00:49 I like that. I like that.

Brandi: 00:51 It’s like this is Design Speaks 1 0 1

Michelle: 00:53 Oooo. Design Speaks 1 0 1. It’s like the class.

Brandi: 00:55 Till It’s 1 0 2.

Michelle: 00:56 Then we start charging. Cause it’s classes

Brandi: 00:58 Till you get to 1 0 4 and then you graduate

Michelle: 01:00 And you graduated

Brandi: 01:01 Speaking of graduating.

Michelle: 01:03 That leads right into my week. Um, but first on today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about why asking why to ask why the power of why and everything involved involved in why

Brandi: 01:14 I thought you were gonna say and everything and vibes. And I was like, oh, that means, Michelle

Michelle: 01:19 No. We are like, at this point of the day in this weekend, it’s the weekend for us. We are like kind of punch drunk right now.

Brandi: 01:26 We’re a little punch drunk

Michelle: 01:27 So tired

Brandi: 01:29 We’ve just been going, going, going

Michelle: 01:30 Which is fun. At least we are having busy, enjoy-full, enjoying,

Brandi: 01:37 Enjoy-full. Sure, enjoy-full.

Michelle: 01:38 See. I’m not in like, I’m not going to cut that because that just, it’s, it is what it

Brandi: 01:42 I actually really like that word. I’m gonna write it down. I don’t know what I’m going to use it for but

Michelle: 01:45 What word was I trying to say?

Brandi: 01:49 Joyful? Enjoyable?

Michelle: 01:49 Joyful! Enjoyable. Enjoy-full. Write it down. Make it a thing. It’s a thing. Thank you.

Brandi: 01:56 It’s officially a thing

Michelle: 01:57 No, this week has been so much fun. And also not a whole lot of fun at the same time, but I’m going to talk about the fun things on Monday. I got to go see, um, Fred Armisen in inaction on the stage

Brandi: 02:11 For the uncultured in our audience

Michelle: 02:15 For the uncultured

Brandi: 02:16 Who is Fred Armisen?

Michelle: 02:17 Fred Armisen is the creator of many things. He was on SNL as a cast member for a few seasons. Um, he was also, he’s also part of a popular TV show

Brandi: 02:27 You may have heard of it

Michelle: 02:29 Portlandia, um, loves Portland and he, and I’m happy to say that he’s just

Brandi: 02:34 Is he from Portland?

Michelle: 02:34 I don’t know if he’s, no, he’s not from Portland. He is, he said it on, he’s from Long Island. He’s from New York. Um, I was like, he said it in his act. What is he? Um, he was from New York, but he loves Portland and I’m just, I’m happy to report that how he is in Portlandia is just how he is in real life. He’s just this really funny, witty, intellectual, weird dude.

Brandi: 02:58 I love it.

Michelle: 02:59 And he’s so cool.

Brandi: 03:00 I’m so jealous you got to go. I don’t remember why I couldn’t go, but I couldn’t go.

Michelle: 03:03 So he, um, me not telling you he was here, was that it?

Brandi: 03:07 No, you told me like two weeks before and then I was like, oh, I want to go with you. And then I think it’s just those that came up. I don’t remember

Michelle: 03:14 That’s life. Um, he had an act comedy standup routine that he’s traveling right now with these touring. It’s called comedy for musicians, but everyone is welcome. And I knew from the title that I was going to love it and I did. It was so good. Um, so I was blessed by some Fred Armisen on Monday. Um, I got to go to a baseball game with the family. I’m not big on sports but turns out

Brandi: 03:41 Yay sports

Michelle: 03:41 Sports! Things are happening out there.

Brandi: 03:43 There’s a ball

Michelle: 03:44 It’s flying in the air. Um, but my, it turns out my dad really likes baseball, so I just

Brandi: 03:51 Which is just something you literally just learned.

Michelle: 03:52 I just learned like we’re sitting at the baseball game, um, obviously

Brandi: 03:57 Could’ve been standing.

Michelle: 03:58 I could have been standing, I guess. We were sitting and he was like, Oh, it’s a submarine pitcher. And I’m just like, is he underwater? Is that why he’s a submarine pitcher? So dumb. And he was like, no, he’s an underhand pitcher. And I was like

Brandi: 04:13 Is that a thing?

Michelle: 04:14 Oh I and like he sounded so confident when he said it so I believed it and then I had to look it up later and it’s true. I was like, I was like, I don’t know if he’s lying to me

Brandi: 04:23 You’re like, were you drunk when you made this up?

Michelle: 04:24 Right, exactly. And so it turns out he’s like a big baseball fan and just hid it from me all of his life, my life

Brandi: 04:32 All of your life

Michelle: 04:32 My life and his, no, apparently he told me he like played baseball. I was like, oh cool. I was like

Brandi: 04:40 You’re like, did you do that in a motorcycle cuz I only knew you to be into motorcycles

Michelle: 04:42 Yeah, never once in my childhood did he like steer me or my brother towards sports. My brother like naturally went to football but I never was into sports. I was like, haha, jocks are losers and

Brandi: 04:55 Hey, hey, hey

Michelle: 04:57 Stayed right there.

Brandi: 04:57 Stay in your circle

Michelle: 04:59 Stay in your lane. My Circle Lane, my choir, I’m in choir but I, so I just didn’t ever go that way. But it turns out he really likes it. And then today, my four-year-old graduated from preK

Brandi: 05:15 And you’re tearing up.

Michelle: 05:16 It’s so she so

Brandi: 05:18 Michelle keeps looking at the ceiling, so while she composes herself. We’re also videotaping. We’re, that’s not a thing

Michelle: 05:27 It’s 1999

Brandi: 05:30 We’re recording.

Michelle: 05:31 Yes.

Brandi: 05:31 Video of the podcast starting today. I’m going to try and do it more so you’ll be able to see Michelle staring at the ceiling while she tries to keep the tears away.

Michelle: 05:39 She is so cute and also drives me insane at the very same time.

Brandi: 05:44 Well everybody loved the Burrito story, so

Michelle: 05:47 Yeah. Oh really? Oh, I love it. Um, she, she got all the way through pre k. I read a really cool, um, oh, what is it called? A really cool quote. And it’s not PR, it’s not pertaining to like pre k but to high school. And it said, um, graduating from high school isn’t a big deal, but not graduating is a failure. And it’s just like, oh man, that’s weird how people like, look at that. Like, like if you didn’t graduate from high school, it’s like, wow, you definitely failed. Like that’s weird. I’m not to say that you are a failure if you didn’t graduate, to be honest like, but like that’s how it’s kind of viewed. But the graduating high school isn’t a big deal. So like that like kind of put into perspective for me for pre k, I’m like, I about three weeks ago I went up to um, the people at the front desk at her school and I was like, is there really a big deal if I don’t buy her a cap and gown? Because they’d said it was optional and I was like, can I just buy her like

Brandi: 06:42 Cuz she’s gonna wear it one time.

Michelle: 06:43 One time. Now I have to like force her to wear it for fun.

Brandi: 06:46 Jasmine’s Pre k just loaned them out.

Michelle: 06:49 See I wish they would have, I would have paid $5 for that.

Brandi: 06:51 Yeah.

Michelle: 06:52 Like for dry cleaning or something.

Brandi: 06:53 Yeah they just did it for free or something. Make sure you iron it.

Michelle: 06:55 I’m going to make sure like next year I’m just going to give it to a bunch of people. Like when is your pre k graduation? Okay. Give it back to me on this day. Um

Brandi: 07:03 No, you can rent out pre-k gowns.

Michelle: 07:05 Rent it out and make my money back

Brandi: 07:06 Have a business.

Michelle: 07:07 I really should $5 covers. It covers cleaning. Um, they way she wore it for an hour

Brandi: 07:14 If that

Michelle: 07:14 And it was $25. But anyway, they’re like, they’re like, yeah, if you don’t want her to feel left out, you should probably buy her a cap and gown. And I was like, oh, okay, here’s my money.

Brandi: 07:26 And then you took the pictures and then you saw the pictures.

Michelle: 07:28 I saw the pictures

Brandi: 07:29 And they are adorable and it was all worth it.

Michelle: 07:31 It’s so worth it. But like that quote from that weird high school thing was like changed my perspective. I’m like, Pre k doesn’t seem like a big deal, but like it’s a big deal to her. It’s like, and it really is like this is the furthest she’s been in her life. And so we made like a big deal out of it for her and she had a good day

Brandi: 07:50 It’s also starting next year. She’s like,

Michelle: 07:50 Oh my gosh

Brandi: 07:51 I lost it for kinder. God help you cause I, I couldn’t hold it together. I was a mess the whole day.

Michelle: 07:57 Just a blubbery mess.

Brandi: 07:58 And I’m like, I’m not the mom that cries. Yeah right

Michelle: 08:00 What am I doing? Turns out you are.

Brandi: 08:01 Turns out, I am

Michelle: 08:02 Like all of the teachers on the stage today for preschool. We’re just like

Brandi: 08:08 I couldn’t see her face when they were talking. I’m like, she’s definitely crying.

Michelle: 08:10 I was tearing up. I was like, don’t cry because they’re crying. That’s stupid. And I would do it anyway, so I tried not to

Brandi: 08:17 Except that’s what you do.

Michelle: 08:18 That’s what I do. I’m an empathetic cryer and then it cry also.

Brandi: 08:21 That’s why I got you a handkerchief for Mother’s Day.

Michelle: 08:22 I know you got me. Okay. This is the best gift I didn’t, I can’t. Oh, I did get a gift from Mother’s. I’ve got a few gifts from Mother’s Day. I got a plant and then I, which I love. I love my brother in law or my sister in law got for me, one of them, my sister in law got it for me. I’m like, oh shoot

Brandi: 08:39 That’s strange for brother in law to get you something like that

Michelle: 08:41 No, he would totally get me plant too, but that’s why I thought it was him originally.

Brandi: 08:44 Okay.

Michelle: 08:45 So she got me the plant, which I love. And then Kelly just got me a lot of like cute things that I would love, like a bath bomb and some face masks, chocolate

Brandi: 08:55 Some you time gifts

Michelle: 08:56 Me time gifts, which it speaks to my soul.

Brandi: 08:58 Good.

Michelle: 08:59 Um, and then you got me a handkerchief of La Llorona. Oh my gosh. La Llorona as well as like a sticker and La Llorona just so you, the public knows is a

Brandi: 09:10 Around here.

Michelle: 09:11 She’s kind of like a celebrity in terms of everyone knows her

Brandi: 09:16 It’s like a ghost story.

Michelle: 09:17 Yeah so.

Brandi: 09:18 Like a local ghost. Local-ish

Michelle: 09:18 She’s called the the English name for her as the ditch witch and um, the sticker is awesome. Maybe I’ll post a picture of it on my Instagram if you want to see it. Um

Brandi: 09:29 Oops, I just went to push up my glasses and they’re not there.

Michelle: 09:31 That’s really funny to watch. Oh my gosh. Um, so yeah, the law you go to on a, she, the legend goes that she pushed her kids into a river and then was overcome with guilt and shame and obviously like

Brandi: 09:50 Not just push them in like, like she drowned them

Michelle: 09:52 She drowned her children and she was just really, really like heartbroken by her decision. And so she was crying and looking for them. And the legend goes that she looked for them until she was gone. And to this day you can hear her crying sometimes

Brandi: 10:05 And wondering the ditch

Michelle: 10:06 And wandering looking for her kids. So it’s a little dark

Brandi: 10:09 Yeah

Michelle: 10:10 But La Llorona, a movie just came out about it.

Brandi: 10:12 A Llorona is also a cry baby.

Michelle: 10:13 Oh, Llorona is, oh, I don’t even know Spanish.

Brandi: 10:15 So that’s why I got it for you. Cause you’re a crybaby

Michelle: 10:18 And it’s perfect. And I had now have a handkerchief from my tears. If only I’d had that at pre k, the pre k graduation today.

Brandi: 10:26 I was like two hours too late

Michelle: 10:27 I know, I was like, all my tears are gone. I’ve got no tears left to cry.

Brandi: 10:31 That’s, it’s not true. I saw them.

Michelle: 10:32 I know, I know. Seriously. So that’s my week. But to go into that, my song for this week is an Oldie but a goodie.

Brandi: 10:40 Michelle’s in charge of music and we’re recording cause my phone is recording.

Michelle: 10:44 That makes sense. Um, so hopefully you enjoy it. I’m going to turn this up. I don’t know how you do this so smoothly. Um,

Brandi: 10:51 Three years of practice girl.

Michelle: 10:52 I know, right? Oldie but a goodie. It’s Third Eye Blind, Graduate.

Michelle: 11:53 You’ve gotta teach me your ways of getting rid of the song, fading it out. So if you don’t know that song, um, welcome to the nineties 97. That’s off of their self titled Album. Third Eye Blind

Brandi: 12:03 That song like gives me the goosebumps.

Michelle: 12:05 The goosies

Brandi: 12:07 The goosies. For those of you who didn’t get all our in-between talk watch the video.

Michelle: 12:15 Yeah. Um, so I just, I just loved that song

Brandi: 12:17 You forgot about it though.

Michelle: 12:18 I did.

Brandi: 12:19 I was singing it

Michelle: 12:19 Yeah I know. I was like wow. Pre K Mitch, they missed out on like a really good opportunity.

Brandi: 12:24 Cuz what was the thing, they changed a little song for the end. What was the song?

Michelle: 12:27 Um, throw my hands up in the air tonight, singing A O. Wanna let or wait or no

Brandi: 12:33 Come on let’s go

Michelle: 12:34 Come on, let’s go. And then they say, um, I want us to celebrate and graduate, and they’d have like little dance moves and then you saying, um, can I graduate? And I was like, they missed out on that solid opportunity.

Brandi: 12:50 They did

Michelle: 12:50 As a mom who grew up

Brandi: 12:51 Instead of just changing the lyrics

Michelle: 12:53 In the 90

Brandi: 12:53 They just had one that already said graduate in it.

Michelle: 12:55 And I look at all of those. I know. Just you can only say that line honestly. Um

Brandi: 13:00 That’s true. That’s legitimate

Michelle: 13:02 Um, but like as all of those teachers, I look at all these teachers and I was like, you, I know you all grew up in the 90s. What, what are you doing up there? So

Brandi: 13:12 Trying to be appropriate. Gosh

Michelle: 13:14 I guess although I had this one really fun memory of, um, speaking of trying to be appropriate and failing, um, we used to go, you and I used to attend these proms, um, there for the radio station that we both worked for.

Brandi: 13:29 They were like, they were like proms for like homeschool kids or kids that maybe went to Christian schools that didn’t have prom.

Michelle: 13:36 Yes

Brandi: 13:36 So it was like an alternative prom

Michelle: 13:38 An alternative prom. Um, and it was tons of fun and we had one of our friends, she was all, she was like interning at the radio station, put together a playlist. Um, no one checked the playlist

Brandi: 13:49 I remember this now

Michelle: 13:50 No one checked the playlist and then semi a jumper comes on, is it jumper?

Brandi: 13:58 I don’t remember which song, I just did it happen it happening

Michelle: 14:01 Semi-Charmed Life

Brandi: 14:01 Semi-Charmed Life

Michelle: 14:02 Um, comes on and I’m like, Oh, I love this song. And then like were like singing along and I’m just like, these lyrics aren’t appropriate. And then I look over at one of the other DJs and he’s just like, “NOOOOO!!!!!”

Brandi: 14:12 Slow motion. “TURN IT OFF”

Michelle: 14:14 And he’s just, and it’s just like, there are some things in here that we can’t, what happened? And it was just like the next song was on so fast after that. And I was like, Dang it, I really liked that song.

Brandi: 14:26 I know.

Michelle: 14:27 And it’s like, it’s not even like a dancey song. It’s just a song that everyone can sing along to because they know the do do as part.

Brandi: 14:33 Right.

Michelle: 14:34 That’s it. But it’s just like mmmm, not appropriate.

Brandi: 14:39 Yeah. It was like my favorite song when I was like 15 and probably hadn’t any idea what, like the majority of it was actually about.

Michelle: 14:46 So good. That’s my week. How about yours?

Brandi: 14:50 Oh, look at you and your calm radio voice.

Michelle: 14:52 We have eight minutes to get through your week.

Brandi: 14:55 Okay. Boy, no pressure. I know since I’m the one that usually likes to talk. Um, so I worked on my website a bit. Um, part of this was, um, it’s, I think I’ve talked about a little bit. It’s necessary because it keeps breaking on me. So I’ve been working on Squarespace. Um, the hardest part about this for me at this point is trying to figure out like what I want the goal of it to be. Um, because like

Michelle: 15:19 The why

Brandi: 15:20 The why is so important. So it’s, I, I’ve been following Donald Miller for a long time. He has. Um, he has this thing called StoryBrand. It’s like a marketing, um, thing. He’s an author. He, he wrote some books awhile back like called Blue like Jazz and Scary Close, um, which are amazing books, but his whole thing is aligns with mine. My, my thinking very well because he’s an author with a marketing platform. So he brings that in and calls his marketing platform story brand because your brand needs to have a story. And so I’ve been trying to work through some of his videos and trying to figure out what my like I know what I do, I know what I sell and I’ve just been trying to work through a bunch of stuff. So what I finally came up with is going to be like on the first, what they call above the fold on the website is going to say

Michelle: 16:11 Is that that little top part?

Brandi: 16:13 Yeah. The first part that you see when you come on a website is a take the guesswork out of the design process.

Michelle: 16:18 Like it

Brandi: 16:19 That’s what I do.

Michelle: 16:20 Catchy.

Brandi: 16:20 Yeah.

Michelle: 16:21 Yeah.

Brandi: 16:21 So it, and it applies to what I do, um, on the podcast because we talked about process here. Um, it applies to how I work with a client. So I’m going to help you take the guesswork out of the design process. So you leave all that stuff up to me basically. So it works on double and when I start putting out like courses and products, they will, all the things that I have will contribute to taking the guesswork out of your design process.

Michelle: 16:46 Love it.

Brandi: 16:46 So it like works on all the levels that they need it too. So don’t working on that. Um, something really cool. I’m going to, I’m going to try and do this from now on to try and like bring a cool like design story or news or something. Um, this two weeks ago I’ve been saving this one out because we didn’t have time last time, but I listened to Shakespeare Folger library, Shakespeare, Folger Shakespeare Library podcast.

Michelle: 17:10 Okay.

Brandi: 17:11 And a couple of weeks ago they had an episode about this. Um, it’s the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company is doing VR Shakespeare performances.

Michelle: 17:21 That’s so weird.

Brandi: 17:22 So yeah. So

Michelle: 17:23 I can’t imagine it

Brandi: 17:24 Check out the podcast. It’s, it’s, I think it’s just called VR Shakespeare, VR Hamlet or something. They do Hamlet and they do a really good job of,

Michelle: 17:33 I want to hear that

Brandi: 17:33 Of explaining something that’s visually a thing on a podcast

Michelle: 17:39 that’s so cool

Brandi: 17:40 Um,

Michelle: 17:40 Oh you

Brandi: 17:41 So cool.

Michelle: 17:41 You know what that reminds me of really, really fast. Jimmy Fallon just played that on played, a different version of charades on his show with Amy Poehler where instead of like acting out what they are doing for charades, they had to like strap their arms down and they had to just shout what they would be doing at each other to like, like I will be, I would be moving my hands up and down and wiggling my hips. So I would b