It’s very tempting to frame design as solving business problems. I’ve done this myself plenty of times as a shorthand way of getting to understand why we are doing a piece of work, or to step back from someone having a cool idea and asking for design to come in and make it so. It is also a wildly inaccurrate way to think about design.

Problem solving limits ambition, implies there is a formula to follow, and too often gets treated as though problems exist independent of the broader systems in which they appear. Design isn’t a maths problem. Multiple paths exist within a solution space, and finding an answer to a problem doesn’t mean you have found the optimal solution. It also means you have removed the opportunity to innovate as it assumes someone else has already done the work.

Design is messy, playful, and requires a willingness to go to a vulnerable place. You may look a bit silly, and will get lost chasing up dead ends, but the path to good work isn’t ever as straightforward as it seems in hindsight.

Put some time into making my personal website a little nicer. Updates to the type, illustration, and logo to tighten it up a little more visually. Reduced some of the content to focus it more and added a contact form to the footer.

Plenty more to do but it’s a nice bit of progress and I’m enjoying being close to the materials and working directly in the browser.

Today was jam packed. Met a friend for lunch in Iveagh gardens where we had some amazing sandwiches from green bench, before heading to see I saw the tv glow in the lighthouse which didn’t do it for me, and topped the night off with Waxahatchee in vicar street.

I’d seen her play solo last year at the pepper cannister church but this was far more up my street. Full band and a lovely crowd who were respectful and didn’t spend the evening staring at the gig through their phones. Really good support from Anna St Louis too who packed out the venue.

annastlouis.bandcamp.com/album/in-…

To recover from burnout it can take months to years. The feeling is a strange and the experience is non linear.

Think of it like a dance. A few steps forwards, followed by a few steps back while accidentally bumping into things and stepping on toes.

It should be noted that I can’t dance in case this wasn’t clear

Finding a product design job where you are respected, fairly compensated, and able to do work that doesn’t compromise you as a human being is pretty difficult today.

Go give some support to all those who have been laid off recently as companies try to cut costs and corners. A good reminder that work isn’t a family, companies ain’t people, and time is the most precious resource ye have