A designer who writes.
I have blogged intermittently since the mid 90s. Thankfully, much of the early teenage angst is lost to time. This collects my writings from this site, an earlier personal website, and some newsletter projects over the years, in mostly chronological order. I also publish new writing here. I publish somewhat more formal writing about content strategy and design careers at Content Career Accelerator.
Amateur bands ask you to demonstrate your excitement. “Hey come on! You guys can do better than that! Get up here! Let’s see some dancing” Pros? They share their excitement. Which eventually infects the audience, and is returned back to them.
I’m not so sure that users should always come first on design projects. Think about it like remodeling an old building. You could go up to all of the people who happen to be near the old building, or who have visited recently, and ask them why they came to the old building and what … continue
I recently spent most of a weekend assembling IKEA furniture. It had me reflecting on experiences with assembling, building, and creating physical things over the years. Here are seven lessons I’ve learned from building things. 1. To not get in your own way. You have to think a few steps ahead with most builds. “Painting … continue
It’s important that the gratitude be organic, not automatic.
I’m nude, what, 30 minutes a day? Tops.
I don’t eat hamburgers for breakfast and I don’t want to hear Pink Floyd north of noon. Pink Floyd after midnight but before going to sleep is acceptable but should be used sparingly.
1) Books. Read them, buy them, gift them. Cover your coffee table, your dresser, your backseat. Steal them from your exes and send them anonymously to lovers and enemies. Arrange them by color or theme or chronology or in a just-so secret way only you understand. Spend all day in a book store and buy … continue
1) A Kokuyo Neo Critz pen case People ask about this thing all the time. It’s much easier to maintain a routine with my notebooks when I always have the same stuff with me — pens, pencil, 3M tabs, a little pencil sharpener, etc. It unzips to stand up as its own pencil cup. A very good travel companion. … continue
1. Notice your mood.
1) Read 40 books. I have this broken out as two goals: read 20 works of non-fiction and read 20 works of fiction. I was in a bad reading slump before 2016. I read, certainly, but it wasn’t a strong habit, and I wasn’t keeping track. I wouldn’t be surprised if I read as few as five books … continue
Or you will, if you subscribe. Personal dispatches from the desk of Scott Kubie, a designer who writes.