Hey!
It's week 34 of 2023, and this is my high five:
We continue working on our new Nollie website, and we're currently focusing on the content side of things. As a part of that, we also began looking more into how to potentially promote our services. We could offer a lot to our clients and partners (in a pretty unique way), and we're exploring some ways to showcase/explain it on the site.
I began exploring "productized services" and the latest hype around them to see what was happening. I'm doing my own research and looking into how some of the folks run things these days. This could be something I could leverage personally, or we could use it later at Nollie. Niching down on, let’s say, things like the design concepts mentioned in the previous posts could be interesting.
I'm almost done with my Figma start file; just a few edits to go! A "start file" serves as a template including all the essentials required to start a new design project. It consolidates pre-defined tokens, text styles, frequently used components, basic icon sets, and other assets which may be helpful at the beginning. Recognizing the redundancy and inefficiency in this process, I crafted a file like that for my future projects. This way, I can easily duplicate it whenever I begin something new and streamline my workflow.
While we're talking about Figma, here's another update I'd like to share. Unfortunately, I had to scratch one of my upcoming products. Last year, I made a quick tease in this newsletter about "Spec." It was supposed to be a semi-automated Figma file/plugin helping designers with specifications, but I needed to be faster to release it. The EightShapes Specs plugin, which was released a few months ago, does precisely what I was working on and does so admirably. If you're seeking to enhance your design-dev handoff, it's worth trying. Kudos to the team for such impressive work!
I had an interesting coaching session last week related to fears. Specifically, we discussed fears in our professional careers (as designers/creatives) that often hinder growth, development, and progress. Discussing how these fears can manifest in various ways, such as imposter syndrome, fear of failure, or even the fear of success, was eye-opening. Fear of failure is a big one for me. I'm trying to understand the origin and how to work towards eventually overcoming the fear in the long term. The first step was to list the biggest fears, rank them, and talk about them out loud. It's now much more clear what I need to focus on first.
Have a great week, and talk again soon!
A.
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[This post was written by a human, not AI.]
Links & inspiration
Stuff I'm currently digging:
📱 App - Catchup - A tiny iOS app with gentle reminders encouraging your to stay in touch with your loved ones and friends.
💻 Website - Pact Studio - Minimal studio website. It’s nice to see extra condensed serif font in their brand for a change. Plus, they also have extensive case studies.
🖼️ Posters - PosterLad - I stumbled upon this site on Twitter while looking for posters for my home office. Those geometric ones are fire!
👀 Case Study - Hiro - One of my favorite studios (Porto Rocha) added a new case study to their site. If you love monotype in branding, it will blow your mind.
👀 Case Study - OneDone - Clever and fun product concept of a toothbrush with a toothpaste tablet dispenser. All in one.