The Pragmatic Designers

Hi, we're Desai and Thuan, best friends from architecture school and early career designers on a journey to discover how to build creatively fulfilling and financially sustainable careers. We are super excited to share with you notes from our podcast, and hope you’ll subscribe for bi-monthly updates! In this episode, we talk with Victor Tzen , Senior Architecture Program Manager at Samara . Victor...

In this episode we sat down with Colleen Chang, founder, writer, and builder, to explore her journey from engineering student to co-founder at Tuuli, a AI software start-up enhancing AEC workflows. She shares honest lessons about navigating risk, growth, and purpose. Rethinking Success and Compounding Small Bets Colleen’s story begins during the pandemic, when she realized that the traditional for...

Hi, we're Desai and Thuan, best friends from architecture school and early career designers on a journey to discover how to build creatively fulfilling and financially sustainable careers. We are super excited to share with you notes from our podcast, and hope you’ll subscribe for bi-monthly updates! Why We Started From Cornell studios to Rome apartments, we’ve always collaborated. The podcast beg...

This week, we talk with Thaddeus Lee, a Play Inventor at LEGO’s Creative Play Lab. Have you ever wondered how aesthetics emerge from culture? What does empathy-driven design look like? How do you balance bold ideas with business reality? Whether you're establishing your design values or wondering how to turn ideas into products, this episode is for you! Reimagining Design and Redefining Value “Des...

Hi, we're Desai and Thuan, best friends from architecture school and early career designers on a journey to discover how to build creatively fulfilling and financially sustainable careers. We are super excited to share with you notes from our podcast, and hope you’ll subscribe for bi-monthly updates! This week, we spoke with Hannah Dormido , a multi-award-winning data journalist and cartographer a...

This week, we spoke with Melanie Imfeld, a map design lead at Mapbox. Trained in architecture and urban design at ETH Zurich and UCL, Mel's journey has taken her through master-planning, digital product strategy, map design and team leadership. At every step, she's stayed grounded in curiosity and storytelling, and her reflections offer a compelling roadmap for navigating nonlinear creative career...

In this episode, we talk with Arjun Mahesh , Head of Design at Hebbia—an AI research company helping analysts go from questions to answers in seconds. From Frank Gehry’s office to Kickstarter, Stripe, Verse, and now Hebbia, Arjun’s path has taken him through nearly every type of design role across industries. From Architecture to AI Design Arjun studied architecture and computer science, but quick...

We had the pleasure of speaking with Toby Gail, a product designer at Open Government Products (OGP) in Singapore. OGP acts like a startup within the Singapore government, and focuses on building tech products for public good. In our conversation, Toby shared valuable insights about her career growth, creating products for frontline workers like nurses and firefighters, and building inclusive comm...

In our second podcast episode, we sat down with Je Hyeon Baek , a multidisciplinary project coordinator now working at Zubatkin Owner Representation, a Cumming Group company. Je's story is one of rethinking the role of design after architecture school, and learning how to thrive in a new space—one where relationships, coordination, and curiosity matter just as much as drawing skills. From Design S...

In our first podcast episode, we sat down with Alexander "Alex" Kyaw, an interdisciplinary researcher bridging architecture and computer science at MIT. When Alex arrived at Cornell for his undergraduate, he had barely heard of 3D printers and had never seen a laser cutter. Today, he's pioneering research at MIT that makes complex technologies like AI, VR, and robotics accessible to everyone. His...