Weekly Digest vol. 3

Retail design may indicate spring on the horizon, but we’re neck-deep in never-ending snow. To be honest though, I’m really okay with it. Don’t @ me.

Aside from snow, this week I have been doing a fair amount of thinking on design. As I continue to practice my illustration skills, I find myself thinking critically about designer vs. illustrator and the perceived assumption that we all know how to illustrate or letter. Reflected in those thoughts are my questions about design thinking and design as problem-solving—has the role of designer shifted to be more about their artistic skills and less about solid design foundations? In a field where designers become famous on Instagram and we all look at the same aesthetics rolling across our feeds, have we started to to prioritize certain skillsets over problem-solving and critical thinking? Or are we simply choosing those methods to execute our work and maintaining the same high-quality of design? I have a lot of questions along this vein and so have been doing a lot of reading. All that’s to say, you might see a few older articles around those ideas in this week’s list—design thinking was a hot topic a few years ago, but I think we could do with another round of criticism these days too.

Here’s some nuggets of articles, videos, and weirdo things to aid you in an incubation of your own: