I’m in my last 5 weeks at TPXimpact. It’s been so much fun and at its largest, the team was over 120 people. That’s the size of the orchestra required to play Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 ‘an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit’. Fitting, except the orchestra is online and I played a… Continue reading Playing the orchestra: thoughts on a cultural audit for remote design teams
Author: designswarm
Blogging since 2005.
On making choices
My dayjob is largely operational but occasionally, I get deployed on client work. I’ve been working with a client whose design team is suffering from burnout, anxiety, and general malaise. I wish I could say it was all their fault but it isn’t. We’re in this interesting situation where everyone in the industry is trying… Continue reading On making choices
Sunday Scraps #78
I did what I had to do. There could have been more work done. There are always so many interruptions. – David Lynch The David Lynch documentary was interesting / I watched It’s a Wonderful World for the first time (very late to the game I know) and it’s basically a film about a crowdfunding… Continue reading Sunday Scraps #78
The problem with design salaries
As a single person living in London, I suffer from the ‘single person tax‘ and I don’t think we talk about that enough in relation to design salaries. Let’s assume a junior designer role pays £35K (which incidentally is below the Skilled Worker Visa requirement). That’s £2,355.92 after tax. In Zone 3 where I live,… Continue reading The problem with design salaries
On socially distancing from microblogging
I decided to go cold turkey on micro-blogging. I’ve had a Twitter account since November 2006 and at some point owned 12 different accounts. I stopped last month. I don’t know for how long but I’ve gone back to ‘big writing’, ie. working on the second edition of Smarter Homes which I owe myself (and… Continue reading On socially distancing from microblogging
Sunday Scraps #77
Alessandro Baricco was interviewed (the English closed captioning works well) and he posits Western thought is about having just enough memory to keep building, changing, improving, innovating. I liked that. Some more tabs I had open below. Jazz music in Murakami’s novels as curated by NTS / Adding Casa Malaparte to my list of places… Continue reading Sunday Scraps #77
End of year review
Thanks to Prof. Dr. Molly Steenson for initiating this habit in 2005. What did you do in 2024 that you’d never done before? I prioritised holidays and therapy Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn’t make any. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes. Did anyone… Continue reading End of year review
It’s just emotion (or how to have difficult conversations)
I studied design in the early 2000s, a time of brutal design feedback culture. These days, I have at least two to three conversations every week with designers who need some advice on how to share often negative feelings at work. Sometimes it’s because of a personality clash, other times it’s ‘constructive feedback’ based on… Continue reading It’s just emotion (or how to have difficult conversations)
On looking for work (when you’re a designer)
I’ve been reviewing CVs for free for 6 months and supporting a variety of designers looking for work for years now. In a sector that was always (and continues to be) fragile, here’s some things to consider in a job search. Nobody reads, people skim. Giles taught me that in a lecture he gave my… Continue reading On looking for work (when you’re a designer)
Sunday Scraps #76
Wellcome collection’s new exhibition on work / a reciple for ripple bread / the history of the Musée d’Orsay / A Burst of Light by Audre Lorde was written while she was fighting cancer and where she pioneered the term ‘self-care’ / i’ve been enjoying the work of Vegyn / on Google Mail’s pioneering work… Continue reading Sunday Scraps #76