365 days of design writing: reflections and a new chapter
Today marks my 365th consecutive blog post relating to Industrial Design.
A year ago, I started Sage w/ Design for a few reasons. The biggest being that I wanted to think more clearly and to learn more about design. I enjoy reading and writing, so I thought this would be a good supplement to design work.
Seth Godin inspired the idea for me to write every day by speaking strongly about the benefits. I didn't know how long I would keep it up, it was something that started on a Tuesday and kept going. I figured I’d know when it was time for a change.
I wanted it to be in an old school blog form to distance myself from social media and to create my own personal internet corner. Personal blogs are something I admire about the older days of the web. You can find other designers and writers who do this here: Blogroll.
My personal favorite design blog is by Innovation Designer Yasushi Kusume: Food for Creative.
Overall, Sage w/ Design was an experiment—a personal challenge to delve deeper into the field I love. I never imagined it would resonate with so many people beyond my close personal circle.
I've gained quite a bit from this exercise:
Immersing myself in daily writing forced me to research, analyze and form fast opinions. My understanding of design history, trends and the sheer range of applications out there has expanded vastly.
Breaking down complex concepts into concise blog posts made me a better communicator. I learned to distill technical details in a way that is more accessible.
I feel more disciplined and have a better ability to focus on long-term projects.
The process of finding new topics consistently sparked tons of new perspectives and areas to research.
I connected with readers and got to have conversations about design which is always the greatest reward. This pushed me out of my bubble and made me love design even more.
While I'm incredibly proud to reach this milestone, it's time for a shift. Maintaining this daily pace helped me in ways that I needed it to, however it isn't the most sustainable. Now I want to focus on other projects, but my posts won't disappear completely.
“Learning should take place when it is needed, when the learner is interested, not according to some arbitrary, fixed schedule”
-Don Norman
Expect longer-form articles on occasion, diving deeper into topics that catch my curiosity. Maybe a few shorter takes when inspiration strikes. But it'll be less regimented and hopefully that space will allow for even better work. I believe I want to focus on dissecting kitchen appliances and common household electronics. Tearing down existing designs and reverse engineering them, developing case studies and picking apart histories of products more thoroughly.
Thank you everyone who's followed along on this journey and read many of my ramblings (and boy were there a lot). I've had folks I've never met from all around the world regularly check in with this blog and it’s truly an honor. I can't wait to share my next chapter with you.
For anyone curious, these were the 5 most popular posts of 365:
Frontier technology to practical applications
