Measure once, record twice.

Why I recorded this course twice?!?!

I wanted to share a little behind-the-scenes story about this course—for those curious about the “lore” behind making something like this.

For years, people had been asking me how I work and how I come up with my designs. And for years, I kept putting it off—always prioritizing client projects and personal work instead of creating a tutorial. That changed when the team at Learn Squared reached out. Having a proper structure, editing, and presentation in place gave me the motivation and push I needed to finally make this course happen.

As with most of my projects, I wanted to go big, ambitious, and loud. And I knew the perfect subject: a design that had been sitting on the backburner for years—the garbage truck.

After all, who wouldn’t want to learn how to design one, right?

The First Attempt

After many long days of work, I had nearly 80% of the truck design recorded. That’s when it hit me: the project had become way too ambitious, long, and overcomplicated.

I had approached it as I would my personal work—no real constraints, endless iterations, constant redesigns (I think I reworked the cabin five times, maybe more). In my effort to include as much information as possible, I ended up creating something so bloated that even I struggled to narrate and explain it in a way that made sense.

I realized that if I continued down this path, the course would be overwhelming, confusing, and ultimately not very useful for anyone watching.

Starting Over

So I made the call: start from scratch.

This time, I set myself a new rule—approach the project as if it were 50% client work and 50% personal work. That balance gave me just the right constraints: structured and purposeful like a client project, but still flexible enough to capture the struggles, problem-solving, and decision-making that happen in real design work.

The result was a course that is more focused, digestible, and representative of how I actually work—without dragging on forever or getting lost in endless iterations.

Looking Back

Scrapping that much work might seem crazy to some, but I know it was the right decision. The final design might not appear as visually complex as the original garbage truck, but it still contains all the same processes, challenges, and workflows—just delivered in a tighter, better-presented package.

Creating this course was a valuable experience for me as a designer. Just like you, I’m still a student, and I firmly believe in the saying:

“If you want to master something, teach it.”

To everyone who takes this course and has read this blog—thank you. I hope it gives you some insight into not just my workflow, but also the reality of making a project like this.