January 2025
Oversharing
In a recent session with my coach Stefan, we talked about how I could be more visible as a leader. One thing I took from it was trying to get back into writing publicly as a way to reflect on my work and process my thoughts.
Weeknotes and blogging have worked really well for me in the past, I’ve just found them quite hard to stick to. It didn’t help that when I last published weeknotes around 2020–21, I decided to use a completely different format every week. Very creative. Not very sustainable. Hopefully a monthly note will feel a bit less forced.
Is doing design in digital less appealing than it used to be?
Maybe ‘fun’ is a more accurate word. I keep thinking about how much the experience of a digital designer has qualitatively changed in the last 5 years. I’m seeing younger designers leaving their jobs so they can do something completely different, go spend less time in front of a screen. I don’t blame them at all. On a bad day I fantasize about the same thing.
Lots of different reasons for this of course: remote/hybrid working; teams spread around the country/world; tools and processes that haven’t really caught up (and may never). There’s not much new to say about the pros and cons of all this.
My early career was characterized by frequent hangovers, anxiety sweats and deep disappointment at the realities of the working world. What kept me going in those years was the enjoyment of learning the craft from some really skilled pros, and working with interesting people from all kinds of different backgrounds.
I think those things are much less satisfying than they used to be. It feels like we’re failing the exact kind of designers we want to hire: community-oriented, creative, collaborative people. Those designers I’m talking about are spending most days alone (whether home or in an office) in front of a big Figma file, dialling into the odd video call, staring at little faces and trying to concentrate… It’s not a lot of fun. And I’m not sure what to do about it.
GDS, but this time it’s GDS
I spent a lot of the last month or so working on things relating to the launch of the ‘new’ GDS and the blueprint for modern digital government. Refreshing our brand, designing supergraphics for the office, making rough mockups of future interactions with government, that sort of thing. A bit like being a junior designer again, but arguably wiser and inarguably older.
Let’s say it was all a faster turnaround than I’d normally like. But we did all the graphic design in-house, and the quality of what we did was really high in the circumstances. Charlotte’s product posters were particularly lovely, hopefully we can get those up on the govdesign Tumblr soon.
Even though you don’t want to work like that all the time, I like to think that each time you pull it off, it shows the value of having a really strong design team in-house (rather than outsourcing to agencies with no context or skin in the game). Huge props to Kuba for organising everyone and pulling it all together.
My life is about to change forever
In one sense, January feels like a good time to restart the habit of writing regular notes. In another sense, it’s a terrible time for me because our baby is due at the end of February. So forgive me if the next few notes are a bit sparse or manic.
Life outside of work has been pretty much all preparing for baby B-T to arrive: decorating, NCT classes (which have been lovely), visits from family and friends, buying shit we need, getting rid of shit we don’t need (any opportunity for a plug).
Time’s felt a bit compressed, but I hope to have a fairly quiet February whilst we await our dear little stranger.
Vicky
The news of the sudden passing of Vicky Teinaki earlier this month was a real shock.
I worked with Vicky on several Design System things over the years. She was a wise and kind person who had so much knowledge and went to a real effort to share it with others. Over the last few weeks it’s been incredible to see how many people’s lives she touched.
Imran in particular wrote a lovely tribute that is really worth reading. Incredibly sad and a huge loss for our community.