Anyone who's used a pen has used a Bic.

Bic Cristal pens are the gold standard for how a basic ballpoint pen should feel and sketch with.

They're great for laying down heavy or light lines quickly. The price is low yet generally consistent in producing smooth, quality lines.

The hexagonal shape mimics wooden pencils for gripping. A transparent barrel communicates to the user how much ink is left. The small hole in the barrel allows the ink to flow, similar to To-go coffee lids having a second, small hole.

Mid-Century Modern has had a lasting impact with heavy influence coming from the Bauhaus movement.

Bold colors, rounded forms, clean decorations and functionality are core characteristics of Mid-Century Modern design.

Queen's Gambit and Mad Men are good examples of this style. So are products like the Eames Chair, Noguchi table and SMEG products.

My goal is to write something that's analytical and work / design related every day.

Here's what I keep in mind after writing +200 blog posts.

Emptiness allows for new things to emerge.

The empty space of a sponge is what makes it useful. Negative space enforces urgency of a stop sign. Silence lets us hear the unspoken words of another person. The unknown empowers us to imagine new possibilities for the future.

Boredom allows the mind to wander.

Don't bring an umbrella to a brainstorm.

I keep this quote on a sticky note at any desk I work at ever since I heard it on Ted Lasso.

Forcing all ideas to fit within a certain set of parameters can stifle creativity. It's easy to show restraint in group brainstorming sessions in order to not look stupid. But ideas that look stupid at first can be valuable.

The context in how we obtain something can play a pivotal role in how it influences us.

I was around 10 years old when my dad gifted me a small, 2-blade pocket knife for whittling. My grandfather had shown me how to carve wood since I was 4 years old, but I didn't have any tools of my own. Now that I had a knife, I was excited to use it.

I didn't have a block of wood so I spent time practicing how to hold it properly while shaving fallen branches. If I remember correctly, I did carve a wooden turtle with it at some point. It didn't matter to me what exactly I made, I just liked working with my own tool. But it did make me want to explore woodworking more.

Many people today have two workspaces: one at work, one at home.

Laptops and lightweight accessories have never been more prevalent.

Portable products are also a good opportunity to get out of the office, out of the city and into new places. Which can be a valuable opportunity for finding new ideas and gaining a fresh perspective.

ThinkPads are the original, portable workhorses.

They are designed for performance and user function more than most business laptops.

Lenovo bought ThinkPad from IBM in 2005 to enter the laptop market and gain its brand reputation for quality.

Behind every life-changing design there are people who made the choice to carry the weight of tremendous responsibility.

The pacemaker regulates the heartbeat. Implanted in the chest, it monitors the heart's rhythm and sends electrical signals to the heart when dangerous rhythms are detected.

My closest and oldest friends know that I answer their phone calls with, "Ahoy hoy."

It's a Mr. Burn reference from The Simpsons that I picked up on when I was about 10 years old.

Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were the writers behind it. They were obsessed with old timey humor.

The backstory of Mr. Burns answering his phone with, "Ahoy hoy," comes from the invention of the telephone.

Ronald L. Mace is the most important figure for Universal Design.

He was the founder of Universal Design with a focus on products, housing and built environments.

Universal Design minimizes the need for assistive technology. These designs can be used by the masses, not just people with disabilities.

We want everything to be easy to digest. The point needs to come quick.

This is why designers sketch.

To illustrate a complicated idea so it can be understood quickly.

"Product Design" has become a squishy catch all for Industrial Design, UI/UX and Interaction Design.

They're used interchangeably because the lines are becoming increasingly blurred.

Despite a lot of overlap, there are distinct differences. Understanding these differences will be useful for designers finding the right career path and for collaboration with other designers.

Embrava water bottles are my go to because of the little details.

Water bottles were a fun topic to argue about with designers and people who've searched for good ones. All water bottles have one job, but the nuances between them make it easy to love or hate them.

A $5 cup of generic coffee never tastes as good as what you make at home.

A $5 cup of coffee made with quality beans and proper preparation from a kind barista might keep you coming back.

So many factors play in to defining the value of a product. I find it even more challenging to put a price on your value as a designer, especially freelance work.

You can generate images within Google search, but the feature is picky and hidden.

With Google's SGE turned on through Google Labs, you can prompt Google to: Draw a bike with bells and whistles.

This feature dropped last Thursday but there isn't much information about it online.

"People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole."

Seth Godin, marketing expert, wrote this powerful statement in This is Marketing. It's powerful because he's explaining how people prioritize what they wish to accomplish the most.

Designers should focus on what their audience truly needs rather than the product itself. To focus on the outcome the product provides for them. These are the important experiences customers wish for.

A camel is a horse designed by a committee.

It's when a designer and their project's stakeholders come together to design a horse, but direction misaligns, opinions conflict and the outcome is a lumpy, humpy mess of a camel.

Collaborative thinking sounds good in theory, but it leads to inexperienced decisions being made. Stakeholders may focus on features and capabilities, instead of focusing on user needs and experience. As a result, the product is less than the sum of its parts and users find it mediocre at best.