Doing Good as a Creative Person (Alexandria Issue #026)
Featured Article
How to Think Differently About Doing Good as a Creative Person — thecreativeindependent.com
“At its least harmful, White Savior Complex causes a lot of money to be wasted in order to, for example, give children sneakers and headphones that are of little to no use to them. At its most harmful, it can lead to an entire country being colonized. Creative Savior Complex works in similar ways: without proper consideration, many of the ways we try to help as creatives may mean valuable resources that could’ve done a lot of good are wasted, or, at its worst, it can lead to people getting hurt.”
More Amazing Reads
Black Lives Matter is Not a Design Challenge
“As with protests and donations, follow the lead of Black activists and artists who have been doing the work. Don’t just jump on the bandwagon of rehashing the same imagery in your unique style. Your intention is good. You want to show the people in your life where you stand on what should be a non-partisan issue (but unfortunately isn’t). You want to show your support, to show that you’re ready to put effort into this movement as an ally. Here’s how you can redirect that energy (in addition to donating).”
Climate Designers Give Themselves a Name and a Purpose
““There is no singular silver-bullet,” says graphic designer and activist Innosanto Nagara. “Not any one single image that you’re going to produce, that’s going to stop climate change.” Nagara hopes the organization can serve as a portal for design professionals working in the industry to connect with other social movements they may not otherwise have exposure to, including groups that have already been hard at work on climate justice issues.”
Connectedness & Complex Systems with Dr. John L. Collins
“Another aspect of productivity — perhaps the most important thing of all to improve productivity and maximise it — is learning to be an active listener, to listen to (and talk to) lots and lots of people and discuss problems and to bounce ideas backwards and forwards; to listen to other people’s solutions to their big challenges, to learn from their thinking such that you can get to rapid deep-thinking around problem solving as if you’re thinking whilst on psychedelics.”
Why Do People Avoid Facts That Could Help Them?
“Information avoidance can be a problem, of course, if it keeps us from learning things that would help us make smarter choices (those regarding our health, for example, or our finances). But declining to learn available information does allow us to forego some of the suffering that knowing the future may cause — and to enjoy the sense of suspense that pleasurable events provide. There seems to be some magic in the maybe.”
The Art and Science of Mind Wandering
“So, when our mind wanders, the default system gets activated. We are not focused on the outside world, we just let our brain generate spontaneous thoughts based on mundane information about ourselves, others, our past, and our future. We experience what some people call a stream of consciousness. We could stop here in our explanation, but things are not so simple. Some researchers have found that mind wandering is not exactly the same as just resting: when our mind wanders, both the default mode network and our executive system are highly active. Does that mean our mind is both at rest and hyper focused? Is mind wandering actually goal oriented?”
What Every Product Designer Needs to Know About Brand
“These days, it pays to know about brand. The rise of startups has created thousands of new brand design opportunities, and people of all disciplines are working to help brands compete in a crowded world. Increasingly, the lines between design and strategy are blurring, and smart designers are developing the skills to nimbly navigate both.”
Design by Design
“Design teams need systems that can bridge three directions: between tools (less to learn, fewer or no file handoffs), between stakeholders (everyone gets access to the same stuff with different levels of permission, from commenting to full-on modification), and across platforms (so nobody is left out if they don’t use platform X). New design environments are helping to bring about this sea change with tools that manage the entire process end to end.”
Using Constraints with Layout Grids in Figma
“While working with Figma, I discovered a powerful way to lay out objects using a combination of Layout Grid and Constraints. The interface of Figma does not indicate a connection between the two, so it can be discovered either by a happy accident or from reading a help article. Luckily, the latter is my kind of fun pastime.”
Resources
Hush
“Hush is your local twitter feed to consume tweets of your favorite people seamlessly.”
Toy Faces 3D Avatar Library
“Toy Faces is a fun diverse library of 3D avatars for your design mockups and personal use. Inspired mostly by ordinary folks and some troublemakers Toy Faces helps your designs to be a bit more fun and diverse.”
3D Hands gestures
“This is free 3D hands gestures library for any occasion.”
A Cheatsheet for User Interview and Follow-Up Questions
“A cheat sheet that helps write interview and follow ups questions for user research and usability test protocols.”
