# Andrew Boardman > Andrew Boardman — professional coach, designer, and author of Dear Designer, a newsletter about creativity and navigating change. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### Copyright notice URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/copyright/ Last updated: 2026-07-10T19:59:13.000Z All visual materials on this site are used in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42). Images are sourced from one of the following: - Public domain repositories, where copyright has expired or does not apply; - Original works created by me (photographs, drawings, illustration); or, - Licensed materials from third parties, used with explicit permission. In some instances I may rely on the principle of fair dealing, as outlined in Sections 29, 29.1, and 29.2 of the Copyright Act, which permits the use of copyrighted material for the purposes of criticism, review, news reporting, education, parody, or satire without prior authorization. Where this applies, I reproduce only as much material as is necessary for commentary and provide attribution where applicable. If you are a copyright holder and believe that any material has been used in a manner inconsistent with fair dealing, please [contact me](mailto:hello@andrewboardman.com) with a detailed request for review and I will assess the matter promptly. My intent is to engage in ethical and responsible discourse on design, art, technology, and history while respecting the intellectual property rights of designers, artists, and content creators. ### Home testimonial URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/home-content/ Last updated: 2026-06-21T18:34:52.000Z > “Working with Andrew was an incredibly valuable experience. His professionalism and insightfulness created a space where I felt genuinely supported and challenged to grow. Rather than simply telling me what to do, he helped me uncover the answers within myself and approach both my career and life with greater clarity and confidence.” — Mo Sabour ### More about Andrew URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/more-about-andrew/ Last updated: 2026-06-26T20:40:53.000Z ## The before times I founded design studio Manoverboard in Brooklyn in 2002, around the time our daughter was born. I ran the studio successfully – with 8 employees at one point – for 20 years before it was acquired in 2023 by Mangrove Web, an exceptional digital agency based in California. Manoverboard was a purpose-driven studio with a mission of creating a better world by design. And it was the first Certified B Corporation in Manitoba, with clientele from across North America. ## Clients - Acumen - Barneys New York - Ducks Unlimited Canada - EQ3 - Generation - Grantham Foundation - Greyston Bakery - IISD - National Screen Institute - McConnell Foundation - The Rockefeller Foundation - Sierra Club Canada ## My resume, lite I graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in English and visual arts. I hold an M.F.A. from SUNY Albany. I am completing an ICF Level 2 Certification in Professional Coaching from Concordia University. I live in Montréal, Québec, where I am learning French as quickly as I can. I do not own a car. I have somehow become a gym rat. I have a beautiful wife and a wonderful daughter. ### Ten accomplishments 1. Currently serving as board member for RGD 2. Fulbright Fellow for study of visual culture in Poland 3. Helped found civil society fellowship at The Rockefeller Foundation 4. Built my first fully accessible site way back in 2003 5. Ran award-winning design studio Manoverboard for 20 years 6. Manoverboard became first Certified B Corp in Manitoba 7. Early advocate for creating a sustainable web 8. Taught design, design theory and design management at university 9. Founded design diversity scholarship with other partners 10. Served on board of GDC (DesCan) MB for 10 years ### About Andrew URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/about/ Last updated: 2026-08-09T13:16:21.000Z Dear Reader, I am a designer, art director and a professional coach. I have been designing for the web for over 25 years, starting with making my own art projects and soon creating large-scale sites for major companies and nonprofits. I loved running my own design studio, Manoverboard. I worked with a brilliant team and we won a ton of awards. When we were at the tippy top of our game, I sold my studio to a larger agency, Mangrove Web, in 2023\. I now serve as fractional creative director there. I still design. I create small, sustainable, beautiful websites for mission-driven organizations. I also help teams with design direction and typographic research. ## Coaching for creatives and knowledge workers What I'm most excited about right now is *coaching*. As a new professional coach, I am focused on supporting emerging designers, creative leaders, and other professionals to navigate the immense cultural, social and economic changes we are undergoing. With experience in nearly every area of the design field – managing a studio and an agency, teaching design at university, and mentoring dozens of designers and developers – I bring calm, clarity and compassion to coaching. ### How coaching can help you Coaching offers us the ability to dive into what you *really* want. Over the course of a few sessions, we co-create plans that are tailored around your goals, your ideas, your needs, your resources and your aspirations. Coaching is about empowerment. It is about catalyzing personal transformation. It is about shaping what a future could look like if we got out of the way. The beauty of coaching, especially for designers, creative leaders and other professionals is that we come to realize this: not that *something* is possible but that *you* are possible. By working with me, we can spark learning, growing and building to create a life that you like. I believe in the power of personal transformation, having experienced it myself again and again and again. > "You have to free your mind to do things you wouldn't think of doing. Don't ever say no." > — Carl Lewis ### How the newsletter can help you My personal newsletter, [Dear Designer](https://deardesigner.substack.com/), is a love letter to designers who are struggling, who are searching, who are seeking change – and those who still want to create something remarkable, new and different. Each week, I write a personal post about design, the rise of AI, the realities and vicissitudes of being a designer, and how design is actually art. My writing starts from a single vantage point: Designers are artists. We emerged 100 years ago from the rise of mechanical reproduction and the decline of the fine arts. Designers are essential to informing a social contract in which we everyone is be heard and everyone has a voice. > “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.” > — William James If I can support you, please [reach out to me](mailto:andrew@manoverboard.com). I'd be delighted to hear from you. Yours, ![andrew signature](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/ab-sign.png) --- *P.S. If you've read this far and are still interested in my background and beliefs, this postscript is for you.* ## My studio in the before times I founded design studio Manoverboard in Brooklyn in 2002, around the time our daughter was born. I ran the studio – with 8 employees at one point – for 20 years before it was acquired in 2023 by Mangrove Web, a digital agency based in California. Manoverboard was a purpose-driven studio with a mission of creating a better world by design, and it was the first Certified B Corporation in Manitoba, with clientele from across North America. ## More background I graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in English and Visual Arts. I hold an M.F.A. from SUNY Albany. I completed an ICF Level 2 Certification in Professional Coaching from Concordia University. I live in Montréal, Québec, where I am learning French as quickly as I can. I do not own a car. I have somehow become a gym rat. I ran two half marathons. I have a beautiful wife and a wonderful daughter. ### Accomplishments - Board member, [RGD](https://rgd.ca/?ref=andrewboardman.com) (current) - Board member, [Canadian Typography Archives](https://www.canadiantypography.ca/en?ref=andrewboardman.com) (current) - Fulbright Fellow, Akademię Sztuk Pięknych, Kraków - Civil society researcher at The Rockefeller Foundation - Designed first accessible site in 2003 - Early advocate for sustainable web design - Adjunct instructor, design and management for 6 years - Founder, design diversity scholarship - President, GDC (DesCan) Manitoba ### Design and art direction URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/home-service-design/ Last updated: 2026-08-08T20:51:01.000Z I also take on select design projects with agencies and nonprofits, creating unique, typography-focused and accessible websites, identities and reports. ### Home statement URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/home-statement/ Last updated: 2026-08-08T20:55:40.000Z With over 25 years as a designer, studio owner, and creative director, I coach professionals seeking clarity, direction, and meaningful change in their work and lives. I also write *Dear Designer* — a weekly love letter to designers, artists, and anyone searching for what comes next. ### Professional coaching URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/home-service-coaching/ Last updated: 2026-08-08T20:57:48.000Z I coach designers and professionals seeking to change their lives and careers. Every engagement is built around your needs, your aspirations and your goals. ### Newsletter URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/ Last updated: 2026-07-02T17:47:08.000Z This is a test of the newsletter page ### About Dear Designer URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/about-dear-designer/ Last updated: 2026-06-20T23:11:43.000Z I’m a ragpicker. I pick things up as I go. I learn what I need and put down what I don't. I am a trained artist but I am a designer by choice — and probably necessity. I took a circuitous path here. I didn’t go to design school. I never learned Adobe’s tools inside and out. I made my first website in 1995 after making zines and artists books. I started a newspaper in high school. I have always loved printed matter (and the store Printed Matter). I also have a romantically realistic view of technology. We need tech — websites, AI and social media — but we also need it to be doing much better by us. ### Design is an artistic practice Even though I ran my own design studio for 20 years, I don’t believe in the church of “user experience”. I also don’t believe in the received definitions of “branding” or, worse, “brand engagement”. Much of this discourse borders on nonsense or, worse, malfeasance: terms that others have foisted on designers to help them extract more money, ideas and resources from "users". I see graphic design as an artistic practice, based on values, standards, and guidelines, and fuelled by the desperately human urge to connect and coordinate. Design is also a spiritual act. Its scientific impulse is better understood than its aesthetic one. We don't know how design actually works. *Dear Designer* is a love letter about design and its storied impulse to change the way that we interpret the world for ourselves and the way we change the world for others. The newsletter is an urgent ask for us designers to go back to basics — things like typography, open discourse, social change, printed matter, and community — and to embrace our own possibility as practitioners. Th newsletter is also a call to withstand the economic forces meant to demoralize designers, to use the tools at our disposal to create art and dialogue, and to resist succumbing to sheer automation. *We badly need designers that can help shepherd us through the next few difficult decades.* Designers need to be better prepared and more fearless if we are to address massive challenges like climate change and social and economic inequity. We need to advance a shared practical and ethical foundation for navigating the hellfires (and heavenly winds) of client work, dealing with the rapid advancements of automation, and supporting one another in our creative work. ### What else? *Dear Designer* is personal. It speaks to the shit I’ve gone through, the things I’m seeing now, and the worries I have for myself and others in the field of design. Designers are excellent at adopting and adapting. *Dear Designer* is my letter of love and encouragement, and a spirited cry of hope, in the face of political and economic adversity and deep social and technological transformation. I hope you'll consider signing up. If you do, thank you for taking a sidewise journey with me. ### A note about writing I do not use AI to write *Dear Designer*. Also, all opinions herein are my own. ### Professional coaching URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/ Last updated: 2026-07-14T14:52:22.000Z _No content available._ ### Privacy Statement URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/privacy/ Last updated: 2026-07-10T17:24:24.000Z My personal site collects aggregate data about its visitors but no information about you or your individual visits here. About one half of all websites today use Google Analytics, a system that places a cookie on visitors' computers to follow you. Google and other culprits of surveillance capitalism, including our social media frenz at Meta (you know, Facebook, Instagram) and TikTok, know more about us than us than we like to think. This website uses a privacy-first, Canadian-based analytics platform called [Fathom](https://usefathom.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) that collects general site traffic but it **does not** place a cookie on your computer and therefore does not follow you around the web. Fathom is GDPR compliant, it does not sell or resell analytics data, and it doesn’t taste bad. In all honesty, I barely look at site analytics. It’s kind of in bad taste. But it can be fascinating! Who knew I had so many fans in Russia! If you have any questions about digital privacy or this website, [please reach out](mailto:hello@andrewboardman.com). *Updated: 10 July 2026* ### Colophon URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/colophon/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T12:54:31.000Z I created this site during the spring and summer of 2026\. It's the third iteration of the site: [version 1](https://web.archive.org/web/20230307215452/https://andrewboardman.com/) and [version 2](https://web.archive.org/web/20251108075316/https://www.andrewboardman.com/) can be found on the WayBack Machine. This site was built with: - Writing: I use a number of different writing and note-taking tools, and often switch back and forth. This site bridged my use of [Reflect](https://reflect.app/?ref=andrewboardman.com) and [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/?ref=andrewboardman.com). - Typography: As a new Montrealer, I like supporting local foundries. The typefaces on this site are from the [Pangram Pangram](https://pangrampangram.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) foundry. - Content management: The site and the *Dear Designer* [newsletter](https://www.andrewboardman.com/tag/newsletter/) is powered by [Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com), a non-profit, open source and carbon neutral platform. - Copy + Paste: That satisfying combinations of ⌘-C and ⌘-P invented by the late [Larry Tesler](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51567695?ref=andrewboardman.com) (z"l). - Design: Design concepts, composites and compositions by me using [Figma](https://figma.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) and Photoshop. - Music: A little bit of a lot of [Aldous Harding](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTgyJ8jWD3M&ref=andrewboardman.com), [Kurt Vile](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMyGCw6li2c&ref=andrewboardman.com) and [Philip Glass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nBE9U7q1Uc&ref=andrewboardman.com) Thank you, also, to everyone who has come into touch with this site in one way or another. That includes my wife, daughter and colleagues who offered guidance and moral support. *Updated: 13 July 2026* ### Coaching pricing URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching-pricing/ Last updated: 2026-09-01T13:38:33.000Z **I am currently taking on a limited number of clients. Working one-on-one, we will craft plans that will empower you.** Each session is 1 hour and we will meet every 2 weeks. Includes email Q&A throughout the engagement. Everything we discuss is 100% confidential. The introductory call is free. ### Michaela testimonial URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/michaela-testimonial/ Last updated: 2026-08-24T17:04:49.000Z > “Working with Andrew was an incredibly valuable experience. His professionalism and insightfulness created a space where I felt genuinely supported and challenged to grow. Rather than simply telling me what to do, he helped me uncover the answers within myself and approach both my career and life with greater clarity and confidence.” — Michaela S ### Mikyla testimonial URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/mikyla-testimonial/ Last updated: 2026-08-24T17:05:24.000Z > “I had the pleasure of being mentored by Andrew during a transitional period of my life after completing my degree, when I had little direction on where to go next or how to get started. Andrew was an invaluable resource in guiding me through those next steps, which has allowed me the confidence and capability to begin my design career. Above all else, Andrew is a kind and genuine person who truly advocates for his mentees' success while always encouraging your voice, exploration, and identity as a designer to remain at the forefront.” — Mikyla J ### Mo testimonial URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/mo-testimonial/ Last updated: 2026-08-24T17:05:55.000Z > “Andrew's coaching is not only empowering and flexible, but also very supportive and empathetic. He always listened very attentively to what I had to say, coming up with good guide questions to move forward. At the same time, he gave me lots of space to feel and be in control, helping me build long-term skills and perspectives to work towards goals on my own. I very much loved his ability to reflect strengths and successes back to me, when I would not be able to notice them.” — Mo Sabour ### Accessibility URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/accessibility/ Last updated: 2026-07-11T19:16:34.000Z I have been building accessible websites since 1997. And yet the great potential of the web's democratizing effects has yet to be reached. It is my great hope that accessibility will be built into the very structure of every site and platform. **This website is designed to be accessible to most people, regardless of their individual abilities.** To the greatest extent possible, this site conforms to WCAG 2.2 Level AA guidelines, which means that its content (text and images) is perceivable and operable by people with disabilities. All content should be accessible to those with disabilities. And yet, we are a long ways from that. A study by StatCan in 2022 revealed that [27 percent of Canadians](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2023063-eng.htm?ref=andrewboardman.com) live with a disability. In the United States, about [25 percent of all people](https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/s0716-Adult-disability.html?ref=andrewboardman.com) (70 million people) report a disability. As someone who has designed and built websites for 30 years, I have seen how the web can be an inclusive place – if we just care a bit more. There is no better quote than this one in 1997 by the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee: > "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." - Web accessibility means real social inclusion for everyone, including those with various disabilities. - The web is a radical approach to information and knowledge sharing: it removes barriers to communications by its very nature. - Accessibility for websites means that disability matters, period. - Web accessibility provides a means for your ideas, your services, your products to reach as many as possible. - Accessibility happens to be good for all users of the web by increasing usability, readability and comprehension. - Society is aging and we all will increasingly need easier access to information. - Those in rural and remote areas of the world also greatly benefit from web accessibility, as pages and systems are built with usability and speed in mind. - Access to the web is considered a human right in [Article 21](https://web.archive.org/web/20251016083619/https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-persons-disabilities) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. ## This website aims to be accessible to most people Creating a website to be accessible only requires a little extra effort. (I designed a resource website with the RGD called [AccessAbility](https://accessability.rgd.ca/?ref=andrewboardman.com) that shows how designers can build more inclusive products.) Here is what I did as of this writing to make this site accessible. - Code and structure conform to Level AA guidelines of [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines](https://web.archive.org/web/20251016083619/https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/) (WCAG 2.2). - Content adheres to the [Four Principles of Accessibility](https://web.archive.org/web/20251016083619/https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/intro#understanding-the-four-principles-of-accessibility) or POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust). - Text alternatives are provided for all images so that people who are blind can read what the images contain. - Text content is large and clear. - There is sufficient contrast between text and background to make sure content is legible and readable. - A visitor can use a keyboard to navigate the site. - The site features no distracting animation or flashing content. - Navigation is deliberate, consistent and clear. - In general, content is written to be easily understood and it is created semantically so that elements like headings, paragraph copy and captions work as expected by visitors. - The site is viewable easily on all kinds of devices, including desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets. - Google's PageSpeed Insights gives the site a score of 100 for Accessibility, Best Practices, SEO and Agentic Browsing. If you have any questions about this site’s accessibility, any suggestions or recommendations about making it more accessible, or any issues with accessing the site’s content, please don’t hesitate to [let me know](mailto:hello@andrewboardman.com). I would appreciate your feedback. *Updated: 10 July 2026* ### Sustainability URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/sustainability/ Last updated: 2026-07-11T19:14:18.000Z On a daily basis, I think of digital products as clean, energy-less objects. They are smooth and slick, polished like shiny rocks and flat front sides. The process of making them is hidden from us. They don’t look like they emerged from the dirty, messy murk of mines, machinery and masks. But it takes a tremendous amount of energy to make the devices you are using to read this on — phones, desktops, laptops, tablets, and wearables. And it takes a lot of energy to power them, too. The homepage of this website uses up 1.4g of CO2 equivalent every time it loads, receiving a carbon rating of B from my colleagues who run [Website Carbon](https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/andrewboardman-com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). The site shrinks image sizes with Ghost and I'm using as little code and other assets as possible. The net outcome is a fast, easy-to-use and green website. As someone who very early started thinking about the digital — and carbon — footprint of personal and business work, I created the website Serving.Green with my team at Manoverboard along with partners Mightybytes and Third Partners in 2016\. Low energy websites, digital sustainability and digital responsibility are increasingly important factors in conversations about design. Websites, social media, AI, and web platforms and apps use a tremendous amount of energy. From the [Sustainable Web Manifesto](https://www.sustainablewebmanifesto.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com): > If the internet was a country it would be the 13th largest emitter between Mexico and Brazil. Here’s what I did to reduce the energy footprint of this site. - Images are converted from JPEG and PNG format to WebP (with smaller file sizes) automatically through the [Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com) platform. - A minimum number of typefaces are used. - There is very little fancy animation or video on the site. - I delete old files from this site to prevent servers from backing them up. - The site is hosted in European datacenters through [Magic Pages](https://www.magicpages.co/datacenters/?ref=andrewboardman.com#infrastructure), which runs on 100% renewable energy. If you have any questions about sustainability or this site, please [contact me](mailto:hello@andrewboardman.com). *Updated: 10 July 2026* ### What is professional coaching? URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/home-coaching-explainer/ Last updated: 2026-08-08T20:59:16.000Z Coaching creates **space for real change**. It's about getting **unstuck**, building new **confidence**, and opening up **possibilities** that you couldn't see before. This summer I'm taking on new clients with **an introductory offer**. ### Coaching page part 1 URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching-part-1/ Last updated: 2026-08-31T18:19:18.000Z I'm a certified professional coach through Concordia University and a member of the International Coaching Federation. My approach is based on over 25 years of experience in design and digital communications — I ran a design studio for 20 years and worked at digital agencies for over five. I understand how the design, communications and web business works, and I know how challenging it is right now. [Book an introductory call](https://cal.com/boardman/15min?ref=andrewboardman.com) --- ## Topics that you might bring to coaching Clients bring a wide range of topics, but very often designers and other professionals are challenged by things like imposter syndrome, speaking up for themselves, finding more rewarding work, building a great portfolio and, of course, worrying about their role and career in a time of meteoric change. A few career-related topics I've heard over the past year or so: - "More and more of my work is being outsourced (or insourced) to AI. What will happen to me if I lose my job?" - "My boss does not listen to me. I have more to contribute to our organization but I'm feeling stuck and unappreciated." - "I need new skills and solid training to stay competitive. How am I going to stay relevant with so much going on?" - "I like designing for the web but I'd like to move into environmental design. I'm in a pretty messy place right now." - "I want to sell my business and become a consultant. But I feel like no one will respect me as a newbie advisor." - "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I've lost touch with the artist that I was. But I know that I want to create." --- ## Posts ### A Declaration of Independence URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/a-declaration-of-independence/ Last updated: 2026-08-31T18:46:35.000Z Dear Designer, I didn’t really “celebrate” the Fourth of July this year, the 250th anniversary of the formal separation of the United States of America from Great Britain. Somehow, it didn’t feel real or important, living in Montreal. Or, like many Americans, I didn’t feel like celebrating at a time when the country is in the process of denying and erasing so much of what makes it truly “great”. But 250 years is a long time, even by the standards of nations far older. And a (mostly) democratic state that manages to hold up over 250 years is worth remembering. I thought I might commemorate the occasion with a thought experiment that is closer to home. So, I ask the question: *What would a “Declaration of Independence for Designers” look like?* Most of us have heard the first sentence of the *second* paragraph of the 1776 declaration. It starts with the statement of (mostly) universal human rights fashioned by a universal being: > We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. But the *first* paragraph is equally interesting. It sets the terms for a natural and protracted social cleavage. > The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Invoking Rousseau, the paragraph presents the concept that our collective interests must predominate in the face of tyranny. We are individual beings, yes, but we belong to, and in, community that is acting for the common good — and we are to be governed *with* our consent. Applied to today, I wonder if, underlying the deep uncertainty, sadness, and anxiety that I hear so many designers, artists, writers, programmers and others experiencing is this: that our creative work has been fundamentally and unwittingly stolen from us. The massive and non-consensual scraping of **all of our work** — and the works of millions of our artist ancestors — has yet to be acknowledged. The AI companies and their backers — VCs, governments, and technology partners — trained their models on everything we have ever put into the digital sphere. Not only did we not get compensated for the theft of our intellectual property – but we are now paying to use the very tools that we helped build. Moreover, we are being told that we had better learn these tools or risk the prospect of being sidelined. More still, AI company CEOs warn that no matter our actions, we will be sidelined. Do we, dear designer, just go about our business and say “what is done is done”? Is there a way to compensate me, you, and the millions of others that contributed to the success of AI models? Is it a matter of acknowledgment of the theft and some form of reparation? Do we even want compensation? And what about the real emotional harms being done? Maybe what we want is *separation*. Perhaps we, creative and knowledge workers alike, want to be simply left alone, to make our work and to continue without increasing corporate oversight. Maybe a declaration of independence for designers could start here: > We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Creators are created equal, that they are endowed with Rights of Authorship, that among these are Integrity, Autonomy and the pursuit of Art making. Yes, it’s a tall ask. AI is too big to fail… But so are we, the creators of the internet and AI, of visual art and written history, of discussion boards, of websites and blogs, of photos and illustration, apps and applications. We, too, are too big to fail. Perhaps it’s time to let the people we elected know. Yours, ![andrew signature](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/ab-sign.png) ### How I Write this Newsletter URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/how-i-write-this-newsletter/ Last updated: 2026-08-24T16:36:16.000Z Dear Designer, In my [last letter](https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/please-write/), I wrote about how important it is for designers to write. One point of clarification. While I think designers can be natural writers, I don’t mean to say that writing comes naturally. I can confirm what every other practitioner says: writing is sometimes painful, always difficult, and usually lonely. Like most solitary sports, it is an act of promise but also real perseverance and persistence. However, one of the things that makes writing a bit easier, at least for me and other writing geeks, are the tools. I don’t know if I’ve ever publicly admitted it, but I *love* writing tools. I’ve tried and used dozens of them. Sometimes this is a means of procrastination. Other times it’s about experimentation. As an early adopter, I’ve used so many writing and publishing tools, that enumerating them here would not be helpful. I used Blogger.com (it still exists) when it first came out in 1999! I was also early to sign up for Medium when it emerged; I gave it up for a long while but I’m still posting [these letters there](https://medium.com/@andrew-boardman?ref=andrewboardman.com). *So what I do use to write this newsletter?* While there are many excellent writing tools out there — ballpoints, Moleskines, Leuchtturm1917, Google Docs, Ulysses, TextEdit, Reflect, Scrivener, and BBEdit to name a few — my writing stack consists of three tools these days. All of them share a few characteristics: they are beautifully designed, they are actively updated, and the developers care about their users. Here they are: 1. [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/?ref=andrewboardman.com). I have stopped and started using Obsidian over the years but it remains a crucial part of how I write and think. I mostly use it to craft a daily note — what I’m thinking about, what I’m worried about, what I’m wanting to do. I also use it to track ideas and topics for this newsletter. I have one document in Obsidian called “!! Dear Designer Post Ideas” in folder called "Writing" with a checkable list. It's a one-stop shop that provides almost zero friction for managing past and future subject matter. Obsidian is free to download and use. And thanks to a huge community of developers, it allows for infinite typographic and dashboard customization. This is also a problem. Once, I spent almost an entire day customizing the platform and I felt like an idiot afterwards. Cross-device syncing can be done via iCloud or a paid Obsidian service. If you use the latter, you can decide which continent you’d like your encrypted data to reside. 2. [iA Writer](https://ia.net/writer?ref=andrewboardman.com). I was an early adopter of iA Writer, too. Most of my actual writing happens here. Like Obsidian, it uses markdown to make writing simpler: bold is two asterisks and italics is one while an h1 is a pound sign. Unlike other minimalist text editors, the beauty of iA Writer is that there is no real styling of content and very little tool customization. You have a choice of exactly *three* fonts — iA Writer Mono, Duo or Quattro. I’ve used all three extensively and Mono is my current preference as it is legible and effortlessly boring. If you are worried about obsessing with typeface minutia, iA Writer quietly tells you to cut that out. Unlike Ulysses and other writing tools, iA Writer is not subscription-based — pay once and it’s yours. 3. [Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com). Once I finish a draft of the newsletter, I read it through and make the larger edits. Then, I’ll wait an hour or a day or two days. I’ll then read it a couple of more times, make fine-tuned edits, throw up my hands and cross my arms. iA Writer has a nice feature which pushes your styled copy straight to Ghost. Once it’s imported, I make final tweaks inside the Ghost publishing panel, check that the various links and images work and do a final preview of the post as both a newsletter and a blog post. I then hit Publish and out it goes. Ghost is a non-profit, open source platform that thousands of people are moving to from Substack, beehiiv and Kit (and maybe Blogger lol). It’s also carbon neutral, a rarity for any platform. There is a free trial but using Ghost requires a paid subscription. That’s the stack. Obsidian for ideation. iA Writer for writing. Ghost for publishing. None of them are individually perfect but, together, they come as close to an efficient and designer-friendly self-publishing operation as I could ask. In all cases, the focus is on making the writing and editing experience as painless as possible. If you have any questions about writing tools and platforms, or how they work together, do let me know. I'd be happy to point you in the right direction. Wishing you a good start to the week, dear writer. Yours, ![andrew signature](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/ab-sign.png) P.S. My [introductory coaching package](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/#investment) is available for one more week. If you have any questions about how coaching might support you, please read my [coaching page](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/) or reach out. ### Please write URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/please-write/ Last updated: 2026-08-17T16:27:57.000Z Dear Designer, There has been a lot of writing about writing lately. Substack, a social paradise for so many remarkable writers, is making it easier for authors to demonstrate that their work is theirs by introducing a new [AI detection tool](https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/50891130623508-How-can-I-detect-AI-on-Substack). LinkedIn, your friendly corporate social platform, introduced a new system to mark potential AI slop as “seems like AI slop”. *The Atlantic*’s [cover story](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/?gift=zxdU7L6MPUzOEbOtX10L6QpoWllJFCNfSLvbRXnNY0A&utm%5Fsource=copy-link&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fcampaign=share) (gift link) this month is about one end result of writing — reading — which the author says is "ending". And *New York Times* opinion writer Bret Stephens is [pleading for us](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/artificial-intelligence-ai-writing.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.6FA.513E.RUBIKXNBZTEz&smid=url-share&ref=andrewboardman.com) (gift link) not to write with AI. By many indications, AI writing makes up 50% of the internet already. It was recently revealed that more visitors to websites [are bots than humans](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/bot-web-traffic-overtaken-human-web-traffic-data-shows-rcna348522?ref=andrewboardman.com). So it’s understandable that these institutions — American media and publishing platforms — are addressing the issue now, before “artificially intelligent” slop becomes, well, 99% of the internet. Let’s set aside the question as to whether newly deputized AI tools can actually police AI. Let’s set aside whether Substack, LinkedIn and Snapchat (also newly trying to curtail AI slop) will survive over the next few years. Why is all of this commentary happening? Because writing still, in fact and in deed, matters. And if we humans are to matter, it matters more than ever. But perhaps a more relevant question is this: in a moment when written content is ubiquitous and reading is on the downswing, *why write at all*? And, more specifically, why should *you* write, dear designer? George Orwell offered up his own [four reasons](https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/why-i-write/?ref=andrewboardman.com) for writing, one year after World War II. Here are four that I hope might resonate with you. In each case, I am referring to writing as a sustained effort — a regular activity that, while it may be occasional, is not recreational. In other words: writing as a *practice*, a means of endeavour, a form of production and divination. First, the act of writing is for *you*. It is a means of giving yourself the precious time to reflect. Yes, you could also smoke a cig, have a drink, go for walk, or do some downward dog. You could draw, dig, game, gawk or golf. There are plenty of opportunities for down time. But writing is one of the very few modes of personal experience in which the creative and emotional output exponentially outweighs our physical effort. Whether it is short journaling or long form blogging, writing offers us weirdos a way to say what we want to say in a way that we want to say it. And it is a form of communications that lasts. No one but you sets the terms for your own writing. And when you offer yourself those terms — the structure, format, voice, audience, etc. — writing is an exercise in decisions, concision, concreteness and culling. Like the practice of design, you are training your mind to work within constraints in order for your work to be freed. Further, and perhaps more importantly, writing, particularly in public, trains you to take emotional risks — allowing you to open your heart in a way that visual communications cannot. Second, writing during a time when our design industry is in flux is an act of personal and political defiance. It is a form of alliance and allowance, a way to argue for what is good or right about the world, or alternatively, a way to rage against the new machine. It affords us a personal spear to throw at those powers that seek to deny our autonomy and our desire to be free of corporate and government interests. Independent writing, whether it’s on a blog, a book or a platform, gives us a little bit of voice, and therefore power, in a sea of growing contagion and crack. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with many younger designers. Whether they were in college, at university or just graduating, most have asked that *singular* question: what can I do to stand out in a field of thousands? There is nothing like a crazy-beautiful portfolio of excellent work, well presented; in my opinion, an incredibly strong portfolio can get you 50% of the way. But along with curiosity and simple kindness, one way to clearly stand out as a designer is to be a writer. Designers who write think. Designers who write relate. Designers who write resound. Rose Horowitch, in the above *Atlantic* piece: > If AI writing is pleasing and convincing, however, it is also unoriginal, often inaccurate, or both. People will therefore need their powers of discernment and comprehension more than ever. They will need to know what they think and how to make their own judgments. These are the exact skills that the use of AI threatens to erode. I know writing does not come naturally to many designers. In Canada and the U.S., designers’ formal and informal education often denies them the chance to develop a writing practice that is entirely their own. (Art history courses are some of the first to be cut – and writing about art lends itself well to writing about anything.) Yet graphic designers are gifted observers of the natural, social and political world. They know how to describe or transcribe through visual or oral means. Writing is another form of description and transcription and I think visual communicators can also be naturally gifted writers. Third, writing, especially in public, is an act of “sheer egoism” according to Orwell (and me, lol). Designers, despite their shy demeanour, *want* to be seen and heard. Your portfolio, your social accounts, whatever — these are not just a presentation of work you did for others (instructors and bosses). They signify you. They represent you. Writing gives you a chance to show off your cleverness, your credibility and your charm. Writing in public creates dimensionality in a way that pretty pictures (and vivid videos) cannot. It rounds out your reality for others. Fourth, writing as a practice is an act of describing our internal world and external place in it. Like all art-making, including graphic design, writing is a way to formalize experience. Orwell called it “aesthetic enthusiasm,” a term Larry David would perhaps appreciate. In writing, words become connected and whole, strung together with new intention and purpose. They describe what is or what could be, or they open gaps in the universe to briefly peer inside. Words traffic in trauma but they also help us see the beatific and the blissful. Words are silent sounds. As designers who type, we visualize the power of letters becoming words becoming sentences becoming paragraphs becoming pages. The fonts we love become even more revelatory. Writing is a formal act of witnessing what is wonderful and a way to wonder about what we are witnessing. In the coming weeks, I will write more about writing. I’ll discuss how I write and some of the tools and techniques I use. I’ll also call out a few designers who write. If you’re one of them, let me know. Wishing you a good week ahead. Yours, ![andrew signature](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/ab-sign.png) P.S. My [introductory coaching package](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/#investment) is available until September 1, after which pricing will go up. If you have any questions about how coaching might support you, please reach out. ### Martyrs, Workers and Winterers URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/martyrs-workers-and-winterers/ Last updated: 2026-08-03T19:25:13.000Z Dear Designer, It’s August and I thought I’d keep it a little lighter this month. Nobody, including me, wants to think about the usual affairs this month. We'll keep it light, okay? I thought I would review a few books that have recently moved me or challenged me in some way. As many of you know, I’m not a beach guy so these are probably not “beach reads”, but whatever. The first is [Martyr!](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/734476/martyr-national-book-award-finalist-by-kaveh-akbar/?ref=andrewboardman.com) (2024), a short novel by Kaveh Akbar and a National Book Award Finalist last year. I picked this book up and put it down numerous times at the bookstore, partly because of the cover, replete with a high contrast black serif type, a bright yellow background, and a little Persian avatar on horseback parading across. ([Linda Huang](https://www.linda-huang.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) designed the fabulous cover and used [Zangezi](https://www.futurefonts.com/daria-petrova/zangezi?ref=16) for the title work, which comes off as playful, unworldly, and strange, just like the story itself.) *Martyr!* is written as a series of vignettes, sometimes telling the story of Cyrus, the son of Iranian immigrants to the United States, who seeks to understand himself, his history and his identity. His search yields compounding results over the course of time — leading up to a visit with a painter / visual artist at the Brooklyn Museum towards the end of the story. What I found mostly beautiful about the story was the poetry itself, interspersed between the vignettes, and the way that the various narrators reflected and deflected those poems through prose. Switching between first and third person storytelling, each of the characters become whole (not always more real but more integral) and we watch Cyrus develop as a person, hellbent on becoming what he feels he was meant to become, as elusive as all of that is for him (and all of us). As a *bildungsroman*, we can’t help but empathize with Cyrus, and his friends and family, centered as they are in a storm that is not of their own making. (We are told that his mother was mistakenly and unsympathetically killed during a U.S. military mission in Iran.) Akbar, who has published his poetry elsewhere, writes every word with precision and care. I loved his occasional pop cultural references, which made the book feel lighter and lovelier. I have become a slower reader these past few years; it took me weeks to read *Martyr!* But it’s actually a fast read in the same way that poetry could be — a tale of personal recovery (Cyrus is in AA) and historical discovery (as a proto-martyr with Persian ancestry). The second book is by the author Alaine de Botton, who has not only written over a dozen books but started [The School of Life](https://www.theschooloflife.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), a publisher and platform that schools you in life. I’ve read de Botton on and off over the years. He is a clear and wonderfully candid writer. But I think his earlier books, like [The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work](https://www.alaindebotton.com/work/?ref=andrewboardman.com) (2010), can also read as pretentious and maybe callous. (I am imagining a time when a respected and conscientious editor at Vintage quietly sat de Botton down and, in no uncertain terms, told him to cut the crap.) Anyway, *The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work* presents, in ten chapters, how people and place come to matter in the work they do every single day – for us. We take for granted the design work that others do — the satellites that connect our calls were made by engineers somewhere, the cookies we indulgently eat in the closet that once sprang from a bakery, the energy that powers are phones trickles from thousands of miles away, etc. For so many reasons, we are extraordinarily lucky to have so much attention being paid to us all of the time, without our always knowing it. In the same way that neuroscientists believe that we would not be able to handle the sheer volume of sensory information the world hands us every second without the filters of our eyes and our brains, we would be overwhelmed if we knew who, where and how every object that comes into our purview came into our purview. De Botton travels the globe in *The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work*, interviewing subjects and photographing objects, a melancholic philosopher examining what makes the world tick while we dress and dream and drive. The chapters are short and sweet and are nicely illustrated with the author's own black and white photography. There is a self-consciousness about both the stories and the images, as if de Botton doesn't belong at an accounting firm, a biscuit factory, or the office of a humble career counsellor. Perhaps he think he’s too good for the role, but really, I think he’s just looking for the social theory angle of the journalistic tale. I’m making it sound more erudite than it is. The book is fun to read and a pleasure to digest. Finally, I’m in the process of reading [Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times](https://katherine-may.co.uk/wintering?ref=andrewboardman.com) (2020) by Katherine May. Like *Martyr!*, I bought this, in part, for the book’s beautiful cover with its sinuous, humanist type set across a single oak leaf in high relief with a white snow-like pattern pitched on an orange background. (Because I ordered it used, I got the much less-good British cover.) May talks about resting and retreating after encountering a series of health issues, financial challenges and breakups. Arriving on the cusp of the pandemic, *Wintering* did exceedingly well; May’s voice is warm and human. It’s often an act of privilege to be able to step back from life’s horrendous twists and turns but I’m curious to see how she handles the onslaught and manages her self-care. I can let you know. That’s it for now, dear designer. Wishing you a good good week ahead. Yours, ![andrew signature](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/ab-sign.png) --- ### Before you jet Another note that my [introductory coaching package](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/#investment) is available until September 1! It's been a pleasure working with a few of you already. If you have any questions about coaching or how coaching might support you, please don’t hesitate to reach out. ### Brand and Print, Brand and Print, Brand and Print! URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/brand-and-print-brand-and-print-brand-and-print/ Last updated: 2026-07-28T15:11:04.000Z Dear Designer, I hope that your week is going well so far. After a hard run on Saturday, the topic for today’s post became more clear — a renaissance of design for brand identity and printed matter. Why is that? I have been reading about and listening to journalists about the advent of Google Zero. What’s [Google Zero](https://www.theverge.com/podcast/970735/google-zero-reddit-ai-publishers-vergecast?ref=andrewboardman.com)? It’s a time, coming soon, when the open web, that beautiful and bountiful system of interconnected websites that I, you and so many others have put at the centre of our design and development work, withers. It’s worse than Doctorow’s [enshittification](https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/?ref=andrewboardman.com#kagi), in which platforms and applications devolve into commoditized content that no longer make sense to the users that have contributed so willingly to them. Google Zero means the slow collapse of indexing (and therefore searching for and finding) unique, independent, or otherwise human-crafted content. The search engine that made money indexing and promoting the web could be in an eat-your-tail tale. It may not be that dire, if you [believe](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/ai-search-driving-more-queries-higher-quality-clicks/?ref=andrewboardman.com) Google. But let’s review? AI machines have scooped up the library of the internet that we built and created over 30 years. Large, highly capitalized companies captured our code, our content and our communities. They are now aggressively looking into our emails, private networks and any unusual platforms that might benefit the beast. The result is a frighteningly accurate and performant AI that is nonetheless astounding. Google, the self-proclaimed guardian of the indexable internet (“Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”) is now pushing its AI summaries on the 92% of us who use their search, thereby obviating the need to scroll. I find myself reading these summaries often and unwittingly — why would I click on a link to some random, potentially spammy website when Google has already done the heavy lifting of researching and presenting the results? The outcome is less human traffic on websites and far more time spent on Google and Gemini. (A number of SEO folks told me recently that web traffic to most of their sites are down by 40–60%; I believe them.) As a graphic designer, what does all of this mean for us? Permanence, as we know, is an illusion of the world. If the web is now in a dissipation phase, there are other signs that digital design may be evolving towards a new state. Social media is being regulated [nationally](https://mashable.com/tech/social-media-ban-children-countries-list?ref=andrewboardman.com) in New Zealand, Brazil and now France. Online newsletters, blogs and sites are becoming simpler and ever more columnar (see *Dear Designer*) for reasons of accessibility to people and GEO. Design platforms are integrating no-code AI solutions into products. And site building tools are cheaper and better than ever. I truly love digital production and the immense and egalitarian reach it offers. I think there will always be an open and independent web, so long as we support and advocate for standards, open source technologies and creative independence. An open web is the only way to project and protect a democratic one. ## But what if? If digital scenarios slide, we still have brand and print. Yes, there will be a day when machines design identities (logos, design systems and standards, etc.) and printed matter. But the likelihood that it will be done well — creating substantial, long-term, strategic, quirky, innovative visual brands and superb printed materials coupled with wonderful content seems less likely. Why is brand and print an exception? Three ideas I can offer: 1. Organizations will continue to need what designers have always offered: clear differentiation, energetic presentation and direct communications. The same logic will apply. Governments, nonprofits and corporations of all sizes will need forward-thinking, crafty and clear-headed designers to build out sustainable products, compelling campaigns and cool kits. 2. AI will become more expensive. We are already starting to see enterprises throttling their platforms for internal users. The $20-per-month-per-person subscription will buy less and less compute, making the human labour and ingenuity of design even more valuable. Coding a site will be cheaper than building out a brand identity and a novel print campaign. 3. Finally, graphic design is rooted in identity and print. Every designer is a link in a sprawling, multidirectional chainlink fence of visual history that connects the printing press to the PowerPoint. Perhaps there will come a day when all things digital are machined and all things analogue are humaned. Design is a fundamentally aesthetic (humane, spirited and empathic) endeavour, not a computational one. Also [this](https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/toolmen?ref=andrewboardman.com), from Mandy Brown: > Intelligence has never been an objective quality that can be ascertained the way we measure the (actually increasing) carbon in the atmosphere. It is a political device that preserves power and care for those deemed worthy of it, and which simultaneously withdraws such care from everyone else. I don’t mean to overstate it. Digital and web will be around for a while. But if I was a young designer today, say between the ages of 25 and 50, a career of focusing on visual identity, typography and print makes a lot of sense to me. Maybe in a few years, it will be more like something out of the *Stranger Things* years (1983 to 1987): printed nonprofit newsletters, quarterly corporate reports and annual product catalogues sent to customers who eagerly open their metal mailboxes, this time to momentarily escape their phones, watches, earbuds and sunglasses? Thank you for reading, dear designer. See you next week. Yours, ![andrew signature](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/ab-sign.png) P.S. You might notice that [Dear Designer](https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/) looks a little different. I’m sending this via Ghost, instead of Substack. If this ended up in your spam, I hope you’ll move it to your primary inbox and add this address to your contacts. And if you’re new here, welcome. --- ### Before you go My [introductory coaching package](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/#investment) is available until September 1! I’m honoured to have a number of folks reach out already. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. ### On mental health, exercise and design systems URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/on-mental-health-exercise-and-design-systems/ Last updated: 2026-07-20T18:07:27.000Z Two years ago, when I first moved to Montreal, I searched out a doctor who could consult about various health issues with me. None of them were dire but I needed guidance. It’s almost impossible to find a physician right off the bat in anywhere these days, but in Canada, it can take a very long time to be assigned a clinician. (The good news: I was assigned a family doctor a few weeks ago — far less time than the 10 years often predicted.) In Quebec, there is a parallel private system and I found a doctor who could help with my two old friends, anxiety and depression. The doctor was wonderful. She talked with me for about 45 minutes, taking down my medical history, asking hard questions about how I take care of myself, and recounting stories about other patients. This was both helpful and inspiring — instead of preaching from the mount, she offered up accounts of what others were encountering and what she and they did to overcome their challenges. She asked me about exercise. At the time, I was running more and I did weights here and there. But I did not have much in the way of a schedule. It was regular but random, my workouts. By the end of our call, she told me that, in the medication department, just to keep on keeping on. That was good to hear. Then she told me something so profoundly simple, so inordinately uncomplicated, that I will never forget it: *“You need to exercise every day.”* It took a minute for me to digest this. She explained that exercise, for me, was no longer an option. Having been to numerous psychiatric conferences, the single most helpful thing that she learned was that exercise was essential for long-term management of patients' anxiety and depression. It sounds so ridiculously straightforward: **exercise every day**. In all my years of therapy, across all of the doctors I saw, the hundreds of self-help books I read, the thousands of Medium blog posts I came across, the podcasts I listened to, no one said this to me in such certain terms. The doctor offered me a gift. And this gift helped me immensely. Since then, almost every single day, I exercise. This past year, I have worked with an online coach to help with weight training, running and nutrition. I use an app to keep track of my workouts, my runs, my walks, and my meals. I also schedule rest days, which usually includes walking or biking. I’m not obsessive about it — and I’m imperfect in applying it every single day. But I *truly* value the regimen and it works for me. > In order to improve for good, you need to solve problems at the systems level. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves. > *— James Clear (*[*source*](https://jamesclear.com/quote/atomic-habits?ref=andrewboardman.com)*)* Creating an exercise program is not unlike building out a design system or a brand standards guide, dear designer. It takes a bit of time to construct what one wants to see in the world — the goals, the standards, the reusable components, the styles, the patterns, and the language that one needs to go forth. A strong design system or standards guide is a reference; it serves as a framework but it is also only that — allowing for variance, it also tolerates adjustment and uncertainty. Ultimately, systems offer us discipline plus consistency. My exercise regime is just that for me. I owe that doctor a world of thanks. I write all of this today because, every once in a while, someone will offer you a gift. It may be inordinately simple and seemingly silly in its initial premise. It may come to you out of the blue or, as in my case, from one's own prompting. Our job is to be open to what comes across the transom, to take seriously what others put in front of us (right and wrong), to listen for clues — and also not to overlook what might be right in front of you. Wishing you a good week ahead. Yours, ![andrew signature](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/ab-sign.png) P.S. You might notice that [Dear Designer](https://www.andrewboardman.com/) looks a little different today. I’m sending this via Ghost, instead of Substack. If this ended up in your spam, I hope you’ll move it to your primary inbox and add this address to your contacts. And if you’re new here, welcome. --- ### TypeQuote, one year on About a year ago, I launched [TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), a small website that offers a daily quote for artists, designers and well, anyone. I have collected nearly 400 quotes since that time. Last week, I updated the site to make it more typographically tight, more legible, more lightweight and more accessible. I also revamped the backend so that I was not on the hook for finding a useful quote every single day for the rest of my life. If you have a chance, [have a gander](https://typequote.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). --- ### Before you go My [introductory coaching package](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/#investment) is open until September 1\. I’m honoured to have a number of folks join me already. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. ### Design, the AI Hype Machine and Shame URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/design-the-ai-hype-machine-and-shame/ Last updated: 2026-07-14T13:14:06.000Z Dear Designer, Hello and I hope you’re doing well. The author Brené Brown defines shame as “the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging—something we’ve experienced, done, or failed to do makes us unworthy of connection.” It is a feeling that can arise all on its own, out of nowhere and independent of our individual actions. Often associated with family or personal trauma, it is manifest in a felt insecurity about the world driven by previous relational dynamics that we may or may not have access to. We feel shame when we say something weird or out of turn, or when we say “thanks, mom” to our friend, or when we insult someone and they overhear the indiscretion. But shame and shaming are also culturally present, especially online, of course. The fear of missing out, the sense that our bodies are never good enough, the terror that we cannot truly “compete” in the marketplace, the malaise of being unable, unsure, or incomplete — these are feelings of shame that our broken cultural contract offers us daily through technology. We are only one image, one email, one post, or one website away from feeling badly, or worse, about our own selves. I felt this deeply in the past week. I’ve been working diligently on my own website for months. [It’s coming along](https://andrewboardman.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). I was becoming more content with it, not quite proud of it, but feeling like it was starting to represent me, work, ideas, ways of thinking, etc. Even the photo of myself was fine! My *Dear Designer* newsletter was integrated and I was excited to introduce the site. Then I came across a colleague’s new site and I felt two emotions. I was happy that they launched; I know how much work it takes to create anything for oneself. Then, within seconds, there was a mild sense of shame. It wasn’t *quite* envy, which is the desire to have what *they* have; I know enough about myself that I don’t want *their* site or to be more like *them*. (One practical tool that I use to test whether I am indeed envious is this: would I want to be that exact other person, with their problems, their looks, their age, their career, their partner and their ideas? It works every time: the answer is always *no*.) Aristotle thought of envy as a personal response to the good fortunes of other people and as an “evil” emotion, whereas, for him, shame is a feeling of disgrace or having fallen from one’s own higher self-regard. I felt shame. Shame for being a designer that was unworthy of the title. Shame that I had spent 30 years designing websites and identities for others and I couldn’t design a decent one for myself. Shame for making bad decisions about my writing, both the quality and the quantity. Humiliation for being proud of what I had created just a few days ago and then shame for my own dismissal of that quiet and occasioned confidence. I became ashamed of the shame itself. What gave me the right to feel shame for putting something into the world, despite its imperfections? And why should one person’s random design and writing negate my own creativity, self-worth and expression? Why did it only take one glance at a random website to make me as thin-skinned as an August peach? But my own feelings connect to a much larger cultural epidemic, a time of public shaming and shame-making that many of us are experiencing. It is especially formidable for designers in contemporary conversations about AI. Are you using AI, dear designer? Don’t you know that there will be two groups in the near future — the people that know how to use AI and those that don’t have jobs? Are you using Figma’s latest tool AI Workflows? What new technologies and platforms are you testing, exploring in order to keep your resume up to date? Frontier AI models are advancing at an accelerated rate and we are being asked to keep up with the velocity of this transformation. Large employers and corporations are asking us to try out new AI tools, teach them our skillsets, and experiment with outputs. Billboards are [telling our bosses](https://www.creativebloq.com/creative-inspiration/advertising/these-bizarre-ai-billboards-are-a-dystopian-nightmare?ref=andrewboardman.com) to stop hiring humans. Some of us designers, especially those focused on user experience and design systems, are living on a knife edge. But here’s the rub. While this feels new to us, the shaming of workers is part of a 200-year history of industry demanding that we conform to becoming more efficient. We are being asked to shelve the values designers hold most dear — independent thinking, experimentation, artistry and collaboration — in order to tie us to the new machinery of work. We are being told that our livelihoods will change indefinitely and that we better jump on the train now before it’s moving too fast. ### **What we might do to offset shame** There are a few important things to remember here. The philosopher Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, in their book *What is Philosophy?*, speak about shame as a way to go up against dominant social forces — and that artists and writers can resist and refuse shame because they are poetic creatures. > *But books of philosophy and works of art also contain their sum of unimaginable sufferings that forewarn of the advent of a people. They have resistance in common — their resistance to death, to servitude, to the intolerable, to shame, and to the present.* If you are feeling that AI loop — the pressure to use it, the conversations around it, the media hype for it — remember that this is a social phenomenon. It’s not just you. It is a result of a massive PR and marketing machine. Anthropic (the maker of Claude) raised $65 billion in Series H funding a few weeks ago. The companies building and promoting these models have unlimited money to convince us that it’s us or the machines. Think of what you could do with just .1% of that money ($65 million) if it was handed to you, dear designer, to convince others of the value and import of these tools. My guess: probably a lot! Second, there is a bubble. AI may be with us for a long time but it may advance at a slower pitch. A recent [Gartner report](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-1-15-gartner-says-worldwide-ai-spending-will-total-2-point-5-trillion-dollars-in-2026?ref=andrewboardman.com) notes that worldwide spending on AI is forecast to total $2.52 trillion in 2026\. This is a 44% increase year-over-year. Analysts and business reporters predict that these numbers are not sustainable; a global event or set of events can knock this spending down in a matter of weeks. It’s probably some time off, but at some point there will be a correction. The dot-com implosion, which I had a not-fun time experiencing first-hand in New York, was brutal but it also led to better opportunities for designers who stayed the course. Finally, the shadow of shame being cast on us creative workers (artists) right now is not only temporary and manufactured — it is meant to tap into our own fears. Creative individuals are notorious for living with insecurity and impossibly high standards, often resulting in diagnosable perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and skills paralysis. We can be cruel to ourselves; but allowing massive corporations to push the arrow in deeper is crueler still. In other words, the marketers know us too well. The days are long. Your capacity to create is untold. Don’t give in or give up. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ePtB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365.png "signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman") P.S. AI is not evil, though it comes off that way. It is not all-encompassing, though the numerous apocalyptic stories by influencers and tech bros are fascinating. AI offers us options and opportunities and it can leverage our creative intuition. However, the way it is being marketed and sold to us through humiliation, fear, and such conviction is untenable. --- ## **Update: *Dear Designer* is (really) moving** I’ve been talking about this for a while, so forgive me. But this will be the last issue of *Dear Designer* on Substack. In a nutshell, I don’t hate Substack but I don’t want to tacitly support platforms that [tacitly support](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters?ref=andrewboardman.com) Nazis and Nazi-adjacent writing. I’m moving to Ghost, a platform that is driven by a non-profit with a mission to open source publishing. You don’t need to do anything. Moving forward, the newsletter will be sent from Ghost and will be parked under the [Newsletter](https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/) tab on my site. I’ve already moved your email address over. As always, if you no longer want to subscribe to *Dear Designer*, you can opt out anytime. (If you want to sign up for the newsletter, there is a subscribe form at the [bottom of the site](https://www.andrewboardman.com/).) ## **Bonus: My intro coaching package** For the remainder of the summer, I’m offering my professional coaching services to new clients at a discounted rate. You can [find out more information on my site](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/#investment), including how I might be able to help you, how coaching works, what the investment of time and money is, and related questions. If you are interested, I’d be honoured to learn more about your goals, hopes, and dreams. --- If you are new here, *welcome*. Thank you for being a subscriber, dear designer. ### On Quietude URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/on-quietude/ Last updated: 2026-07-10T20:37:19.000Z Dear Designer, It’s been a while. The last time I posted to *Dear Designer* was back in March. Four months is a long time for a newsletter to go silent, especially when this project has felt so vital to me. But I can explain! This past year, I took a professional coaching course at Concordia University, here in Montréal. It was a life-changing experience, learning the theory and practice of coaching in order to help others maximize their personal and career potential. The course was both book-based and experiential and it ramped up steeply this spring. I worked with 29 other students, 8 instructors, and my own private coaching mentor to guide me, correct me, and build up my confidence and capacity to help others as a new coach. I was challenged throughout to listen with great care to others and to listen with equal care to myself. I became, well, pretty **quiet**. (And I’m already kind of quiet! As a kid, I remember people telling me that I had “come out of my shell.” How does one do that at seven? Susan Cain, the author of the book *Quiet*, offers a correction: “Don’t think of introversion as something that needs to be cured.”) The act of listening — as a friend, partner, coach — requires quiet resolve. Quietude, being in such short supply these days, is an act of being and being still. In longer stints, it is about being an unencumbered presence in the face of totality. And in this way, I think quietude is critical to the process of becoming. It is inherent in seeking truth. My coaching training included hours of quiet yet active listening to classmates and to clients, one-on-one, asking questions and exploring answers. One looks for what is emergent, what is transpiring, what is troubling, and what is inspiring. Because coaching is goal-oriented, I also learned to use a framework that excavates what is meaningful in a conversation — and erects what is possible. By the end of our session, a client walks away with a few actions, or a set of tasks, or a plan to move forward and to start their flywheel — or to simply step out. **I’m now taking on new coaching clients.** My focus is on supporting designers, creative leaders, and other professionals who want to change their lives, refocus their energies, or explore new personal and career directions. If that’s you, *please let me know*. Just click reply. I’d be honoured to see if there is a fit for us. --- I’ve also been attending to other things during this period of quiet. I am stepping back from my creative director role at Mangrove Web, now working about a day a week to support the team and develop projects for clients. It’s been a great honour working at Mangrove these past few years — and I’m now focused on working as a solo coach and taking on freelance design projects. Slowly (sometimes agonizingly so), I am rebuilding my personal site at [andrewboardman.com](https://andrewboardman.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). It will be more visually engaging (promise), but for now, it houses a bit content about what I’m doing. I will also be posting the *Dear Designer* newsletter there; you can already find earlier posts from Substack migrated over. I’m planning on bringing *Dear Designer* back on a weekly basis again. The content will continue to explore what it means to be a graphic designer (née artist) today and how we might think about the meteoric changes most of are witnessing. I’ll examine what may be on the horizon for us and how we might handle it. I will also continue to explore what I believe makes graphic design in particular so meaningful and culturally important: design is an aesthetic exercise that [stems from mystery](https://deardesigner.substack.com/p/design-and-mystery) while fulfilling [unconscious societal needs](https://deardesigner.substack.com/p/design-against-darkness-vigilance). More soon. Wishing you a good start to your week. Yours, ![Andrew (signature)](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/andrew-signature-3-2.png) --- ## Quote of the Week “Beauty is not caused, It is. Chase it and it ceases. Chase it not and it abides.” — Emily Dickinson ([TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?id=beauty-is-not-caused-it-is-chase-it-and-it-ceases-chase-it-not-and-it-abides&ref=andrewboardman.com)) --- If you are new here, welcome. Thank you for being a subscriber, dear designer. ### Do Not Panic URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/do-not-panic/ Last updated: 2026-06-21T19:20:30.000Z Dear Designer, I am still sitting heavily with my last two posts. They came in quick and dare I say, rapid fire, succession. The first was an immodest prediction about the future state of design and extrapolates where designers might sit or stand in that future. The second was a more longitudinal exploration of what might happen to design and digital tools and systems when traditional user experience gets replaced by agentic systems and oral inputs replacing visual and manual ones. Both pieces leave me feeling a bit badly. I stand 100% behind the prognoses. And, while my feelings and fears these days may stir from the lizard brain of millennia past, those posts are honest if a bit hyperbolic. But more importantly, they come from a place of caring — for the design profession to which I have dedicated most of my career through teaching, volunteering, mentoring, writing, and running a studio and agency. They also come from a place of compassion and concern for designers, the artists of the everyday and the truck drivers of the culture industry. No one knows where all of this automation and machine outsourcing goes — predictions about economic collapse, social upheaval, and human extinction have befuddled us for centuries; scary scenarios and frightening stories are, after all, probably 10% of the new and old testaments and they certainly make up a lot of the German children’s stories I read as a kid. While my thinking may come across as pessimistic about design and scornful about our digital overlords, I’m not despondent. I am coming to this work not from a place of optimism but of *idealism* about what the future holds for us, dear designer. There are many sunny possibilities for every kind of design, even and despite the rise of commoditization and AI co-creation, and I think it’s important for designers to explore new and old ideas and possibilities as they prepare for change. I offer up below a few recommendations or ways of thinking about your own path as a designer or creative individual. (And after this post, I’m going to do my best to focus on other things that are a bit more concrete — wellness over worry, typography over turpitude, mystery over mayhem, and tools over technology.) ### Invest in yourself I’ve mentioned this before but it was the best advice my accountant could have ever given me twenty years ago. Designers and knowledge workers all over the world are thinking about this great acceleration in which AI is turning a corner at breakneck speed with us HODL in the back of the car. It’s not fun or funny to be whipsawed and to feel like we have no control except to “master the AI tools.” Yes, mastering the AI tools is fine. Yes, you should probably spend some time creating a website or digital app using AI. Yes, you might explore what AI can and cannot do based on your own interests, needs, and ideas. But fully *embracing* AI as a way of doing design, thinking about design, creating imagery, or building skills is also and absolutely the wrong way to go. There are no long-term “skills” for you to master with these consumer-level AI tools currently available. Seriously, what are you going to do? Become an expert vibe designer until the next release makes the prompts you learned obsolete? Sure, create something useful or interesting for yourself — a little todo app, a cool CRM, a financial dashboard, etc. But when the advice from Silicon Valley is to “learn how to vibe code” in order to be prepared, you know they are simply buying themselves time. A decade ago, we were told to “learn how to code” and that advice should have also fallen on deaf ears. Instead, we designers should be going backwards in skills development and knowledge acquisition. Read actual books about design. Old books about art and design history. Learn how to typeset an article and then publish it someplace. Design a font. Create a site dedicated to your sideline. Take photos. Draw. Paint. Write. These are not merely skills to master. They are lifelong investments in your design-self that won’t hold a single candle to “learning to vibe code”. These are foundational personal capabilities that AI can never take away from you. Each of these skillsets and modes of thinking are founded on thousands of years of craft and community. And they offer material lifelines to your future self. Invest in your capacity to think, create, and dream. It is your truest birthright. ### Re-examine values In this wild age of hyper-speed breaking (and often distressing) news, knowing what you stand for can create spaciousness and calm throughout your life. It will also ideally provide porous boundaries that you can stand behind when and if you need to emotionally protect yourself. A few years ago, when lying on the floor with panic attacks and really unable to see where I was haded, my therapist asked me to look again at what is foundational. - What gives you hope? - What do you stand for? - What makes you most angry? - What would you put your life on the line for? - What do you care about more than anything else in the world? These are not easy questions for me to answer and I assume they are not easy for anyone. But grappling with these questions today, in a deliberate and even formal way, should theoretically help elucidate what you are most excited about, what you most want to accomplish, and what you most need to tackle soon. There are endless courses, books, frameworks and videos about finding your why. Simon Sinek and Mel Robbins are two popular and good places to start. But you might also want to read Parker Palmer or Gabor Maté. It doesn’t really matter where or how you tackle the question of values. Perhaps just pen and paper? Writing them down in Apple Notes is good enough. Here are mine. While imperfect works in progress, they have pretty much stayed true to me over the years. 1. Prioritize family. 2. Stick with friends. 3. Be a mensch. 4. Listen. 5. It’s not about me. 6. Notice super-connection. 7. Stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. ### Explore mystery There is an opportunity before all of us every minute of the day, including while we sleep. It’s obscure and seems arcane. But we are each of us part of something much broader than our meagre minds can contemplate. We are ashes. Star dust. Clouds. We are also composed of a universal momentum that is independent of us, wholly uncontrollable by us, and embraced by everything else around us. Trying to notice this is hard. But also, everything? Palmer, in his book [Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation](https://couragerenewal.org/library/let-your-life-speak-listening-for-the-voice-of-vocation/?ref=andrewboardman.com), writes: “Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.” Listening to our lives is the work of each of us but I submit that it is even more critical for us designers and creative oddballs. There is nothing truly known about the universe’s unfolding. We are composed of a series of educated guesses and strong hunches strung together on a hot filament. It’s a short high wire act between the Big Bang and our final farewell, this life. The great philosophers tell us that deeply acknowledging, exploring, or imagining what it must be like to transcend this space, to be a squirrel, or to live with equanimity is our heritage. And yet we often do not or cannot make it a priority or, for whatever reason, are not alive to the possibility of mystery and interconnection. I think most designers and creators actually are. We figure everything out in real time while simultaneously making sense of the past, planning for the future, and offering educated guesses today. We know what it means to create something from nothing, to stare at a blank canvas and to make a single mark, to live with uncertainty, and to create bridges to nowhere, for now. We are deeply conditioned to know what we don’t know. And when we cannot find answers, we sit in the silence of the unknown for hours, days, or weeks until some answer is manifest (or we just Google it). But this is our job. Our role as designers and creators is not simply to solve problems but also to translate stories, transmit ideas, and talk with others. Wishing you a good start to the day, the week, and the month. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ePtB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365.png "signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman") *Note: This post was not written by or with AI. I’m seeing these little conditional clauses everywhere. My promise to you, dear designer, is to have my own thoughts visit your inbox, hopefully for the better. I do not use AI for image generation (except in those yucky first few struggling Dear Designer posts). All photos, drawings and doodles are mine. Other images are credited. I do sometimes use AI, however, to help me create a catchier and more searchable post title. If you have any questions, please let me know.* --- ## Quote of the Week > “Attention taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.” > — Simone Weil ([TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?id=attention-taken-to-its-highest-degree-is-the-same-thing-as-prayer&ref=andrewboardman.com)) ### On the Inevitability of Design Changing Forever URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/on-the-inevitability-of-design-changing/ Last updated: 2026-02-13T16:42:50.000Z Dear Designer, I have had a hard time putting into words what I’m thinking and feeling about the fragile state of graphic design these days. I am seeing definitive, dramatic and dire signals flashing. Young designers I am speaking with are having an increasingly hard time finding entry level position. Older designers I know are either cutting back their time or looking for alternative avenues for their careers. Large so-called creative platforms (Adobe) are increasingly focusing their marketing efforts on non-professional communicators who can build something in minutes instead of days. Meanwhile, AI tools now have the capacity create a website in minutes. As an experiment, I took Claude Code for a spin recently. The new Opus 4.5 has become one of the key indicators of overall [AI progress](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/podcasts/hardfork-grok-crisis-claude-code.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.JFA.WtYh.G5Jx6NPls4ON&smid=url-share&ref=andrewboardman.com) for designers, coders, and programmers — and I needed to know for myself what was and wasn’t possible. In less than one hour, I built a static browser-based app for myself that was every bit as good as other programs that were built over months and years by multiple designers and programmers. It’s not important right now to reveal what the app is or does — the fact is that that I, a person with old school coding skills and 25 years of interface experience, could build something helpful (to me) with an excellent user experience and a relatively sophisticated typographic presentation. Even more powerfully, I asked Claude to create a roadmap for this tool — and it created 10 steps for me to take with an estimated timeline for completion that was in hours. This is just the beginning of AI becoming a revolutionary force for building digital tools, applications, websites and interfaces. AI is doing the same thing for thousands of others in Figma, in Canva, in Replit, in Framer. Yes, most of what I have seen from tools is rudimentary and unoriginal. They suffer from a lack of craft and consideration — but they work. They work. We need to truly wrap our heads around how technological inevitability in design ideation and production is going to impact what we, dear designer, contend with every day. In the midst of great uncertainty, there can also be tremendous clarity: mostly, it is the acknowledgment that change at this pace is certain. So, I submit to you three scenarios, each of which both confound and concern me, that contest the field of graphic design and its future practice. I stand by my [assessment back in March 2025](https://www.andrewboardman.com/design-at-the-crossroads-a-shifting/) that the design profession will divide roughly into small and large practices over the next 3 to 5 years. But I am presenting these three future scenarios because I also think it’s important to map out longer term projections with which, despite being fraught or familiar, we can map our responses. Each of these are may be seen as mutually reinforcing and there is likely some overlap among them. But I’m also doing my best to draw bright lines between them so as to imagine the scope of these systemic changes in their impact on the design profession. ## Scenario 1: The Fully Realized Development of Democratic Design Since the birth of commoditized design platforms like Squarespace in 2004, it has become both faster and easier to craft digital products that meet the demands of commerce. (Macromedia Dreamweaver, launched in 1997, was its predecessor.) In so many ways, Squarespace, Shopify, Wix and Webflow have been a boon to designers everywhere, who could become “partners”, specializing in those platforms’ proprietary solutions and creating relatively custom solutions for a range of client types. With graphic design needs increasing exponentially, and with business demanding measurable and realistic results from their digital investments, more and more agencies, studios, and freelancers have tied their sails to these platforms. Like any relatively inexpensive but useful product (coffee), as audience demand grows, commodity markets rise to meet demand. But coinciding with this scenario is a democratization of design, a ubiquity that currently lunges toward totality. As AI penetrates and then permeates every single design platform, we will witness the growth of a much more democratic system of design delivery in the next 5 years. Trained or otherwise professional graphic designers will assist other designers in using these tools, acting as directors and managers who oversee what we deem a humanistic profession. Organizations will rely on internal team members who are interested in design to create strategic and necessary products, campaigns, and resources. In others words, design will be much the same as today but with far more democratic / popular impulses. Design itself will not go away in this scenario. But it will be reshaped as a delivery vehicle, a tool of commerce and production that everyone uses (and, yes, abuses). The designer still standing in the midst of this flattened scenario is a talented F1 driver. They will thrive on the thrill of the fast and the furious and will need to become ever more excited about the excitement. Here, the designer becomes an engineer, focused on efficiencies, helping to create new modes of presenting visual ideas while doing their best to humanize experiences. The Constructivist trope in which art is fully in the service of industry becomes ever more realized but, of course without political or revolutionary impulses. Design is democratized but also fully neutered. ## Scenario 2: The Death of Design A further extrapolation presents a more dire one. Let’s get this one over with. Graphic design, along with most other fields of design endeavour (architecture, service and editorial) no longer exists. It goes away. Everything goes away, eventually. We believe we are a permanent fixture in the universe because of our very status as existing beings. But we all know nothing lasts, including ourselves, our loved ones, and the very profession to which we most identify. Until around 1910, horse and buggy drivers made a decent living and prided themselves on their ability to navigate dirty streets. There are probably a few dozen of those people in existence today. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, the maker Claude, recently [wrote](https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology?ref=andrewboardman.com#4-player-piano) that “AI could displace half of all entry-level white collar jobs in the next 1–5 years, even as it accelerates economic growth and scientific progress.” I put a huge discount on Amodei and other Silicon Valleys bros who have learned to use their dire predictions as PR talking points. However, if we put some credence into his predictions, we should *also* take into consideration the ramifications of the half-life of this event. If what Amodei says is true, Imagine that every few years, entry-level jobs are halved and then halved again. In one decade, we have slices of knowledge work so thin that we can hardly see them. This is the end of design as we know it. We would join a long list of other highly esteemed and highly educated workers, including radiologists, programmers, writers and thinkers of all stripes. Schools of higher education would likely go away entirely. Young people would study the liberal arts at their own financial peril. Music would be made by marketers. Movies would be made my machines. Electricians, plumbers and other technicians would diligently follow the plans of the artificially intelligent. Blue collar workers would be paid extraordinarily well while white collar ones will not. Universal basic income would kick in. We would have so much time on our hands that the notion of work would change fundamentally — and beyond what we can humanly imagine right now. ## Scenario 3: Design as Defiant Project There are those who think that an AI bubble will [pop](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur?ref=andrewboardman.com). AI is only as good as the energy we have to fuel its growth. Circular investments among AI companies are creating market jitters. Chip production and large server farms will become increasingly difficult to manage. AI subscriptions are not keeping pace with expenses. There is nothing inevitable about technological change and prognostications are just that — educated guesses built on pundits’ childhood traumas, historical misreadings, and too many tea leaves. There is a third scenario which is more sunny. In this plot, independent designers are fewer and farther between. AI wreaks initial havoc but not as much as we might have thought. And indie designers, as well as many studios and agencies, thrive. Yes, it is hard to start, run, and manage a small business, whether in Canada, Europe or the United States. Add to that the dysfunction of regulatory regimes (tariffs and taxes), the rise of inputs costs (food and housing), and the destabilizing nature of project-based work (one offs), and the realities of sustaining an independent graphic design business become ever more real. As well, design students are not taught how to run a small business or how to create new values within tired and tried markets; in so many ways, students are left to flounder, thrown to the turbulent tides to make their way. But in this scenario, there is also an opportunity for the far-thinking, unconventional, and hardworking designer — the individual who considers the noise of technological progress as just that — noise. Sitting in the midst of discontinuity and confusion around the changing state of design, this design professional takes no prisoners. They fundamentally focus on what moves them — personal values, a given technological outlook, an idealistic commitment to their illustration, a typographic outlook, or some other curious speciality that demonstrates commitment to craft. Here, the massive winds of change whip up against those windows of the designer’s studio. And yet, tucked within, they safely build an independent aesthetic and technical practice. Their work may acknowledge and grapple with the rise of artificial intelligence and the market economy but their mission is steadfast, dedicated to a vision of success for themselves, their art, and their clientele. Clearly, this is the scenario that I most wish for, and even long for. It is design as a continued expression of artistic production, typographic craft, and visual invention. It hearkens back to the 3,000 year history of individual aesthetic commitment — the artist (or small group of artists) and their studio from which the modern design profession partly emerges. There may be fewer designers there. But the work that will come to them will be meaningful for themselves and momentous to those who engage with them. They will thrive as artists of the everyday, despite or because of it all. Wishing you a good week ahead. ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365.png) --- ## Quote of the Week “The opportunity of a lifetime is to pick yourself.” — Seth Godin ([TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?id=the-opportunity-of-a-lifetime-is-to-pick-yourself&ref=andrewboardman.com)) --- P.S. If you have the means, and interest, consider supporting this endeavour with a paid subscription. It would mean so much to me. (I am planning on moving to Ghost soon and subscriptions will carry over there when I do.) [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### In Defense of Rest and Resetting URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/in-defense-of-rest-and-resetting/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:38:28.000Z Dear Designer, A few folks have been asking me what I’m doing during the holiday break. The short answer is nothing. Most of my days and weeks during the past year as creative director at Mangrove requires tremendous and alternating amounts of courtesy and cortisol. Couple this with school part-time and keeping myself healthy, and there has not been a lot of time for real rest. So this holiday, I made relative non-activity not a goal itself but the prerequisite. The longer answer is that I’m focusing on three things as preparation for the new year, which I expect will bring changes in my work, my professional life, and *Dear Designer* itself. I’m no Oliver Burkeman or James Clear. However, for what it’s worth, here is what I typically do each December to usher in the calendar year. **Rest**. I typically get up at 6:30 am. The past week, I have slept in until 8:30 or even 9:00\. It’s late for me and it’s upsetting my circadian rhythm in the wrong direction. But my body needs deep rest and the only way I know how to do that is to lie in bed as long as possible without it feeling like I am bed rotting. After only a few days, I have noticed that my skin is ruddier, my eyesight is more finely attuned, and my bones do not ache. I often have problems sleeping. However, giving my one body the chance to lay down, unencumbered by alarms and alarmist news is a true gift. *Sidenote*: I can also feel my brain melting slightly. This partly explains the brevity of this issue. **Reset**. I take about half a day to unsubscribe from as many email newsletters that I can. (Don’t get any big ideas.) As a newsletter nerd, I over-subscribe to newsletters over the course of the year, searching for that singular writer that speaks most to me, or that organization to which I most connect. Fully over-subscribed, the solution is to get back to Square Ten: keeping just 10% and let the rest go. I will also review my massive inbox and delete the previous year’s worth of breathless and incredibly important email updates and promotions. These emails no longer serve a purpose and sit on servers that need to be powered for eternity. Deleting them feels like doing some small good. *Sidenote*: if you use Gmail, here are two **magical** search operators — simply paste either one into your search box and up will surface all emails from that category that are older than a year. Select all, delete, breathe. ``` category:updates older_than:360d ``` ``` category:promotions older_than:360d ``` **Reorg**. Related, I will spend time sorting through hundreds of files, tasks, applications, and authorizations and proceed to reorganize, delete or defer. I split thousands of files across numerous secured local and cloud accounts, including my desktop, iCloud, and Google Drive, allowing me to find what I need relatively easily. I use Todoist to manage my multitude of tasks, both profane and promising, and I’ll reorganize and reschedule to straighten and simplify. I also plan on consolidating various Mac and online applications. I am always looking at note-taking tools and platforms to become a better organized human being but mostly, it’s just technological voyeurism. *Sidenote*: at some point, I’ll share the system I use to write, research and produce content. Meanwhile, I want to wish you a very happy new year — one that is filled wonder, with days full of awe and peace and mild organization. And I hope you’ll keep *Dear Designer*, dear designer, in your inbox. See you soon. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-1.png) ### We Need You More Than You Think URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/we-need-you-more-than-you-think-and-this-headline/ Last updated: 2026-06-21T19:31:27.000Z For years, design was treated as a finishing touch. Something added at the end to make things “look nice.” That era is over. Today, designers are not decorators. They are problem-solvers, system-thinkers, and translators between complexity and clarity. And whether people fully realize it or not, we need designers more than ever. The world is noisier, faster, and more crowded than at any point in history. Products compete for attention. Ideas fight for seconds of focus. Interfaces grow more complex while users grow less patient. In this environment, design is not optional—it is the difference between being understood and being ignored. ### Design Is How Ideas Survive A good idea that cannot be understood might as well not exist. Design is the mechanism that allows ideas to move from the mind of the creator to the mind of the user without distortion. It shapes how information flows, how choices are presented, and how meaning is constructed. This matters far beyond logos and color palettes. Design determines whether a product feels intuitive or frustrating, whether a website builds trust or suspicion, whether a message invites action or gets dismissed. In short, design decides if something works in the real world. ### Complexity Is Rising, Not Falling Technology promised simplicity, but it delivered layers. More tools, more settings, more options. Someone has to make sense of that complexity. That someone is the designer. Designers reduce friction. They turn abstract systems into human experiences. As software, services, and digital platforms continue to expand into every part of life, the need for thoughtful design only grows. Poor design doesn’t just look bad—it wastes time, causes errors, and quietly pushes people away. ### Design Is a Strategic Function Now The most successful companies no longer treat design as a downstream task. They bring designers into the earliest conversations. Why? Because design shapes decisions before anything is built. Designers ask uncomfortable but necessary questions: - Who is this really for? - What problem are we actually solving? - What can be removed instead of added? These questions save resources, sharpen focus, and prevent costly mistakes. That is strategic value, not aesthetics. ### It Extends Further Than We Admit This importance doesn’t stop at products or brands. Design affects education, healthcare, public services, and communication itself. Forms, signage, dashboards, learning platforms—these are all designed experiences. When they fail, people suffer quietly. When they work, life feels easier, even if no one notices why. And yes, this extends from here to there, and further still. As systems scale and global audiences grow, design becomes the common language that holds everything together. ### The Bottom Line Designers are not asking to be admired. They are asking to be taken seriously. The work they do determines how smoothly the modern world functions. Ignoring that is expensive. Respecting it is an advantage. We don’t just need designers to make things look better. We need them to make things make sense. And that need is only going to grow. ### Stop Waiting to Be Picked for a Design Job URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/stop-waiting-to-be-picked-for-a-design-job/ Last updated: 2026-01-19T05:40:15.000Z The old path was simple: learn the skills, build a portfolio, apply, wait. Maybe someone notices you. Maybe they don’t. That model is breaking down, and designers who keep waiting to be chosen are quietly falling behind. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: no one is coming to pick you. And that’s not bad news—it’s freedom. ### Permission Is a Trap Waiting for a design job is often disguised as being “responsible.” In reality, it’s hesitation. You delay making real work because you’re waiting for approval, validation, or a title to justify your effort. But the market doesn’t reward potential. It rewards visible proof. And proof only comes from doing the work, not asking for permission to start. ### Create Your Own Thing, Hell or High Water The fastest way to be taken seriously is to take yourself seriously first. Build something that didn’t exist yesterday. A product, a website, a tool, a concept, a redesign—something real that solves a real problem. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to exist. When you create your own work, you control the brief. You define the constraints. You make the decisions. That process teaches you more than any hypothetical assignment ever will. ### Jobs Follow Momentum, Not Resumes Hiring managers don’t just look for skill. They look for energy, clarity, and direction. Designers who are already building tend to attract opportunities without chasing them. Why? Because momentum is visible. A living project says more than a polished PDF ever could. It shows how you think, how you adapt, and how you finish things. This is where it extends further than people expect. Side projects turn into clients. Experiments turn into startups. Personal work becomes professional leverage. ### The Industry Has Shifted Design roles are no longer limited to companies with open positions. The internet removed that gate. You can publish, ship, sell, and distribute without anyone’s approval. That means the responsibility is on you. If you’re not working on something, you’re choosing stagnation. If you are, even imperfectly, you’re building optionality. ### The Bottom Line Waiting to be picked is comfortable, but it’s passive. Creating your own thing is uncomfortable, but it compounds. Stop framing your career around acceptance. Frame it around output. Make work that forces the world to react instead of asking it to decide. No one needs to pick you when you’ve already started. ### Keep Moving URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/keep-moving/ Last updated: 2026-01-19T05:41:07.000Z Stopping is seductive. It feels like rest, reflection, even wisdom. But more often than not, stopping is just momentum dying quietly. Progress doesn’t usually collapse in dramatic ways—it fades when movement slows enough to feel harmless. Things need to keep going. Not perfectly. Not loudly. Just forward. ### Motion Is the Only Real Advantage Talent stalls. Motivation disappears. Plans fall apart. The only consistent advantage is movement. When you keep moving, you stay in the game long enough for conditions to change. Most breakthroughs don’t come from brilliance. They come from endurance. From showing up on days when nothing clicks and doing the work anyway. Movement creates surface area for luck, insight, and opportunity. ### We’re All That We’ve Got No one is coming to push the wheel for you. Support helps, but it’s unreliable. Systems fail. People leave. Circumstances shift. What remains is your ability to take the next step even when the path isn’t clear. This isn’t about isolation. It’s about responsibility. If things are going to continue, someone has to carry them forward—and that someone is you. ### Small Steps Beat Big Pauses Waiting for clarity is a trap. Clarity follows action, not the other way around. One small move today beats a perfect plan tomorrow that never happens. Write the draft. Ship the update. Make the call. Fix one thing. Then another. This is how progress actually works—quietly, incrementally, without ceremony. And yes, this extends further than it first appears. Careers, relationships, skills, and ideas all obey the same rule: what keeps moving stays alive. ### Movement Is Not the Same as Speed Keeping moving doesn’t mean rushing. It means refusing to freeze. You can move slowly and still be progressing. You can rest without quitting. The line is simple: don’t stop long enough to forget why you started. ### The Bottom Line Momentum is fragile. Protect it. You don’t need confidence. You don’t need certainty. You need motion. Keep going when it’s boring. Keep going when it’s hard. Keep going when no one is watching. Things don’t finish themselves. Keep moving. ### In Praise of Boring (Design) URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/in-praise-of-boring-design/ Last updated: 2026-07-17T20:20:16.000Z *Prologue*: Thanks to you, dear designer, my post [The Time for Yourself is Now](https://www.andrewboardman.com/the-time-for-yourself-is-now/), garnered 45 likes and comments, each of which I promised would generate $1 for Wikimedia. I donated the [$50 to the Wikimedia Foundation](https://paypal.com/donate/?hosted%5Fbutton%5Fid=N2Q4GPATEWUK6&source=url) as a show of solidarity with their project of keeping information free, alive and objective. Thank you to everyone who read, liked, and commented. Also, it’s been a noticeable while since I’ve written. I’m committed to this newsletter project — enough that I am planning a move to a new platform ([Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com)) in the coming months. I like Substack. But it’s beginning to go off the rails and I can see a near future where it will not be able to sustain itself as it continues to [enshittify](https://lorrainewilson.substack.com/p/preparing-to-leave-substack). Ghost is more independent than Substack, is not taken with [Nazis](https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/04/substacks-algorithm-accidentally-reveals-what-we-already-knew-its-the-nazi-bar-now/?ref=andrewboardman.com), and is less a social network (which are exhausting me) than a nonprofit publishing platform. I’m getting there — and I promise not to ghost you. --- Dear Designer, When I was about 14 years old, I remember receiving an insult that stuck deeper than I would like to admit. I was hanging out with a “friend” at their house, listening to various albums — probably a combination of “The” bands before “The The” (The Doors, The Who and The Stones) — in his huge bedroom in this huge house on the wealthy part of town. And in passing, my friend said I was boring. *Boring.* Yeah, I know my last name is Boardman haha. It’s funny but not the point. I probably should have been expecting that at 14 and, perhaps now, it should mean much less to me than it did or does. But to be called “boring,” for me, is a stabbing that cuts clear through the ligaments, into the muscle, and then the bone. Maybe I was *boring*. I don’t remember where the insult came from exactly. I certainly did not think of myself as boring. Like a lot of independently directed kids, I thought I was pretty cool at 14. Why does “boring” get such a bad rap and why was I so pained — even to this day? First, even in the 1980s, our crazed culture demands a certain level of expressed individuality. Sometimes this devolves into a kooky cult, as we witness with today’s outlandish followings of political leaders and social influencers. We love people that stand out, stand up, and have something (seemingly) important to say. We adore the public speaker, the creator, the meaning-maker, and the debater. Even the most high brow among us celebrates individual genius and we genuflect before great artists. (A recent book from Harvard Business Review Press is entitled [There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift](https://store.hbr.org/product/there-s-nothing-like-this-the-strategic-genius-of-taylor-swift/10772?ref=andrewboardman.com).) We are told that each of us is “unique”. But if we take that apart, of course, this means that none of us are really unique. And to say we are all truly unique may stretch the truth *just a little*. We are, in fact, mostly and deeply the same, with the same wants and needs, the same demands, desires, and dreams. We are alike more than not. Hospitals, banks, and supermarkets all work because we have the same health, financial and nutritional needs. In the grand scheme, we are the same by and large — different in the same way that individual ants and alligators and aardvarks are different from one another. The culture of capitalism tells us each of us is idiosyncratic and we are brought up to each feel demonstrably different from everyone else. But we also know that subjectivity is mostly constructed through language. Talk with anyone — and we quickly find that we are alike the vast majority of the time. It is really the presentation of language, or social expression, that makes us look and feel unique or special. In this way, it could be said that we are all boring! We are individually the same, each of us making up a whole through the expression of minute differences. Second, being assigned the characteristic of “boring” may mean and lead to other unpleasant things. Be called “boring” can indicate that you are also “bored” — a stasis that connotes a lack of intent, lack of interest, and even lack of integrity. A person who is deemed *bored* is often cajoled by friends and family into finding a hobby, creating a work of art, or simply getting outside (I hear my mom right now). Being “bored” means that you are judged (and presumed guilty) as being underwhelmed by the world, aimless in apprehending it, and inured to its enchantment. Being bored means that you are also, by all intents, useless. And lord, we well know how the indolent and useless are often treated in our society (the addicted, unemployed, poor, unhealthy, migrant, or unhoused). The boring are dull and the bored are dullards. The real problem, dear designer, is that we’re all boring. And we’re also all individually incredibly important and powerful and beautiful. Every ant, alligators, and aardvarks is key to the survival of their families, communities and descendants. ### So what does this all have to do with design? Lately, I’ve stumbled across a new/old trend of website design, which might loosely be called *boring*. These sites share a few characteristics. All of them are by and for individuals. All of them are grappling with key design-communications challenges. All of them handle ideas typographically and with great attention to detail. All of them deliver simplicity and the confidence that accompanies visual presentation of written ideas. All of them manage to connect with generosity and encouragement, despite or perhaps because of, their minimalist ethos. All of them are individual designers / writers who belong in and write for community. And all of them connect to a rich and varied tradition of using personal but minimal design to explore space, light, time and meaning. I would even go so far as to say that each of these designers go beyond their own “individuality” to express what is greater than all of us — an ineffability, presented simply. They showcase their written ideas as an act of visual creation that echoes our short existence in the vast eternity of the universe. Before I present a few concrete website examples of this minimalist design direction, I thought I would foreground them with a number of great boring (I mean also minimalist) artists of the 20th century. ### Mark Rothko ![painting of orange and yellow ](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/b8eff487-7258-4f95-a58c-570a2022eccb_748x980-jpeg.jpg) **Orange and Yellow*, oil on canvas by Mark Rothko, 1956; in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York. Credit: [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mark-Rothko?ref=andrewboardman.com) Probably the most important of all colour-field abstractionists is Mark Rothko, a mid-twentieth century painter who created large canvases that show light and dark, beauty and horror, simplicity and complexity in a visually vital way. The paintings are examples of an individual artist contemplating civilization through mythology, history and the potential for transcendence through attention. I have seen many of Rothko’s over the years and they are oddly and strikingly *boring*. They contain everything and nothing. Rothko noted that “my paintings’ surfaces are expansive and push outward in all directions, or their surfaces contract and rush inward in all directions. Between these two poles, you can find everything I want to say.” ### Agnes Martin ![painting in gold that shows grid lines](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/c962e7e5-afef-4168-93ab-f913fa90c75c_2000x1998-jpeg.jpg) **Friendship,* gold leaf and oil on canvas by Agnes Martin, 1963; Credit: [MoMA](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79842?artist%5Fid=3787&page=1&sov%5Freferrer=artist&ref=andrewboardman.com) Born in Saskatchewan, Canada, Agnes Martin moved to New York in the 1950s and became one of the most important abstract artists of the century. But unlike other like-minded painters who dabbled in Jungian and Freudian tropes, Martin created works of art that combined Zen Buddhism with American transcendentalism. She wrote that painting [was](https://www.moma.org/artists/3787-agnes-martin?ref=andrewboardman.com) “a world without objects, without interruption… or obstacle. It is to accept the necessity of… going into a field of vision as you would cross an empty beach to look at the ocean.” She subscribed to the beauty of banality — where we are all held, past, present and future. ### Barnett Newman ![painting in red and blue and yellow](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/237787fa-f68f-4943-84b3-025ae3f2fc7e_1448x2048.png) **Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue I*, oil on canvas by Barnett Newman, 1966; Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Who%27s%5FAfraid%5Fof%5FRed,%5FYellow,%5Fand%5FBlue%5FI.svg?ref=andrewboardman.com) Like Rothko and Martin, Barnett Newman was born over 100 years ago to an ordinary family but he went on to create works of great importance and power. Most of his paintings after 1948 (three years after World War II) consist of large colour fields punctuated with what he called “zips”. The zips were bold lines of contrasting or bright colour that he described as being informed by a nuclear blast and the creation of existence. Newman saw his work much like Rothko, presenting the ineffable as a single human — minimalism as a universal expression by a unique individual. Each of us are living moments and we inhabit a shared fusion of everything that is, ever was, and will be. ### Boring websites Okay. So here are some of the “boring” sites I’ve encountered lately. I’m not going to over-explain them. Instead, I’m going to present them. Each of these sites represents an individual who stands tall one day and lays flat the next. Each offers something, to my mind, enigmatic and thrilling in their confidence and love for the art of the everyday. Each delivers a spirited conversation that reflects the author’s imagination and diverse interests. The focus on type and typography is not accidental; these sites fire their thoughts with beautiful fonts and fine typesetting. ![minimal website with black text on yellow](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/bfe33c10-c3fb-4f0e-8cf9-2a37806b41f0_2580x1962-heic.jpg) Steph Ango’s [website](https://stephango.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) ![minimal website with black text on beige](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/5ae2b735-9554-4c5a-98e7-c4ed4387bd3e_2580x1962-heic.jpg) Naz Hamid’s [website](https://nazhamid.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) ![minimal website with black text on grey](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/34da10be-fa8e-4e65-ab74-9c693f8b52f8_2580x1962-heic.jpg) Robin Rendle’s [website](https://robinrendle.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) ![minimal website with black and colourful text on beige](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/5256c24e-d720-412e-b9d7-1cfc4ff38629_2580x1962-heic.jpg) Rach Smith’s [website](https://rachsmith.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) ![minimal website with red and black text on grey](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/da288324-1c38-430d-a181-4aa7da0f1a92_2446x1962.png) Erin Kissane’ [website](https://erinkissane.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) ![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/a23f49a6-7c1f-4c88-93bf-8f713b6d017b_2266x1954.png) Mandy Brown’s coaching [website](https://everythingchanges.us/?ref=andrewboardman.com). ![minimal website with white text on dark grey](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/38a7fd8c-2399-4430-97d2-19afaa44e664_2446x1962.png) John Gruber’s [website](https://daringfireball.net/?ref=andrewboardman.com) ![minimal website with white text on black](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/fe9518cd-6e19-4478-ae97-3f47a785c59f_2446x1962.png) Frank Chimero’s [website](https://frankchimero.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) Giving thanks, and wishing you a very good week ahead. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-2.png) --- ## Image of the Week ![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/97c0f873-0a60-4831-a448-201b979aa309_5712x4284-jpeg.jpg) Our two cats, Peter and Minou. Credit: Author Moving forward, I am retiring this section. It was cool to highlight works of art and design from the annals of history. But doesn’t it make more sense to spend time finding images that support the posts themselves? Yes, yes it does. 🫩 ## Quote of the Day “The problem of a painting is physical and metaphysical, the same as I think life is physical and metaphysical.” — Barnett Newman ([TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?id=the-problem-of-a-painting-is-physical-and-metaphysical-the-same-as-i-think-life-is-physical-and-metaphysical&ref=andrewboardman.com)) --- [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### The Time for Yourself is Now URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/the-time-for-yourself-is-now-2/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T18:24:00.000Z *Prologue*: As you probably know, [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main%5FPage?ref=andrewboardman.com) is a treasure and a trove of excellent, important current and historical data. It provides objective-as-possible, timely, useful, and accessible information to anyone and everyone, all of the time, anywhere and anyhow. As you also probably know, Wikipedia is under a [lot of pressure](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/magazine/jimmy-wales-interview.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.vE8.vSGs.6jg%5F6VEQrOCg&smid=url-share&ref=andrewboardman.com) (gift link); visits to the platform are down because of [AI usage](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wikipedia-traffic-down-as-ai-answers-rise/558803/?ref=andrewboardman.com) and right-wing politicians and [influencers](https://theconversation.com/grokipedia-elon-musk-is-right-that-wikipedia-is-biased-but-his-ai-alternative-will-be-the-same-at-best-267557?ref=andrewboardman.com) are calling for its head. In a direct show of support for Wikipedia, **I’ll donate $1 to them for every heart or comment on this week’s post (up to CA$100.00)**. You don’t have to actually *like* this article to click the ♡ below. Thank you in advance. --- Dear Designer, A few weeks ago, I wrote a post called [Stop Waiting to Be Picked for a Design Job](https://www.andrewboardman.com/when-you-cant-land-a-design-job/) that called for designers to rethink their professional relationship with employers. The post received a lot of interest and even generated a few calls — and I wanted to expand upon it, especially since last week’s post [Wild Life](https://www.andrewboardman.com/wild-life/) was well, wild, freeform and abstract. I want to Dear Designer to be both these things together — an emergent theory of what it means to live a creative contemporary life amidst AI and complexity **and** a series of pragmatic acknowledgements and recommendations for getting paid to live that creative life. I like to think on the best of days Dear Designer will be of assistance to designers alternatively skating and skirting those lines. So, let’s talk pragmatics and more rational futures. ## There is no better time to invest in your self To state it plainly, right now is the time to become the designer you have always wanted to be — on your own amazing terms. If there was ever a time to go out on your own, to become a freelancer or a solopreneuer, or even to start a small studio with other likeminded designers and technologists, now is that time. *How am I so wildly sure about this? Why is the timing so right?* In the year 2000, right before 9/11, I worked in Soho in New York as a design researcher and strategist at a large and early digital agency. Our fancy loft offices were about a mile from the World Trade Center, which unfortunately made me a witness to the attack. My wife, who worked on the Upper West Side, was pregnant at the time with our daughter. I walked 80 blocks north to see my wife and, thankfully, we made it home safely by around 7 pm. But in the economic aftermath of 9/11, I lost my job not once but twice. The dot-com bubble, which we all knew we were experiencing before the attacks, fully collapsed and, with it, the many agencies and businesses that were being kept alive by debt and financing. My employer, Oven Digital, buckled under the financial strain and hundreds of people at our offices lost their employment. It was a scary time. Our daughter was yet to be born and the smoke and ashes of lower Manhattan were flying, as were military jets and police helicopters seemingly everywhere. I and thousands of others were out of work, there was talk of world war, the U.S. Mail was being tainted with anthrax, and our savings were dwindling. *What kind of world were we bringing our daughter into?* A few weeks later, my wife and I were sitting at a cafe in the West Village and I suggested that, instead of looking for non-existing jobs, I should start my own damn design business. I mean, what Oven was doing didn’t seem particularly special or hard to me — we built large websites for hundreds of thousands of dollars. How hard could it be for me to do that with a few other highly skilled folks? I somehow convinced my wife that it was a good idea — or she simply had much more faith in me than I had in myself. And so, I started doing the first thing that all young, budding designers do — I looked up domain names. A few weeks later, I registered manoverboard.com as well as an LLC in that name and I got to work. My first client? A woman in Queens who needed an email newsletter template and who had exactly $100. That’s how I started Manoverboard, my design studio I ran for 20 years. *Why am I telling you this?* Because those times were difficult — as they are now. Design and tech jobs were scarce — as they are now. I did not know if the Internet was a fad or a public utility like electricity — and we still don’t. There was the real threat of global instability — as there is today. My family and friends were living in both precarity and peace — like so many of you are right now. But here is the important thing: I started my little design business in 2000 not out of fear but out of hope. I knew that I could create something that was entirely my own. I had zero dollars and an old computer but I knew that I could build a business that would help others — if I cared. I saw that nonprofits were especially struggling to get themselves online and I set it upon myself to focus on them first. I could inject my own values and interests into the work, which would be **my** work. Instead of others getting the praise and recognition, it would be me receiving the adulation and account. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t know about so many things — how to balance the books, how to negotiate a contract, how to find the next client. But I figured it out via sheer curiosity and asking for a lot of help from others. ## Why you and why now? In addition to the distinctive economic and political similarities between 25 years ago and today, I’ll give you three reasons, dear designer, why now is your time to start that design business. 1. **Salaries have not gone up in 20 years.** There is a reason why food is so expensive, housing is outrageous and savings are in the crapper. It’s because salaries [have not kept up with inflation](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/us-wages-vs-inflation/?ref=andrewboardman.com). A $15 restaurant meal in 2005 would [cost](https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/inflation/?ref=andrewboardman.com) approximately $25 in 2025\. A one-bedroom apartment that cost $2,000 per month in NYC in 2005 would cost approximately [twice](https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/rent-growth-since-1960?ref=andrewboardman.com) that in 2025. I’d love to say that designers’ salaries have kept up with inflation but, sadly, that is not the case. According to Claude (your mileage may vary but this seems accurate to me), the average graphic designer in the U.S. made approximately $51,600 in 2015\. They make betwee $53,000-$61,000 in 2025 — representing a 3-19% increase while inflation rose during those ten years by over 30%. Designers have lost significant purchasing power. If you want to increase your take-home pay, the likelihood of double-digit raise at your current employer is unlikely. 2. **Most employers are unreliable at best.** When and if the next recession occurs — and there is an increasingly likely chance that it will take place within the [next year](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/major-bank-issues-warning-93-193000113.html?ref=andrewboardman.com) — employers will be no different than they were in 2000, 2008 or 2020\. They will shimmy and shake and then will have to let people go because the underlying financials simply won’t parse. And it’s not employer’s fault for the most part — but it will feel that way to you if you are let go, like I was. There is plenty of irrational exuberance in the market, driven largely by AI and the circular investments that chip companies, platforms, and private investors are demanding. To me and [others](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/porterstowell%5Fthe-ai-musical-chairs-moment-what-happens-activity-7370926492425383936-VyKW/?ref=andrewboardman.com), it looks like musical chairs, with highly leveraged players trying hard not to be the last person to sit down. How do you escape the vicious circle? Simply step out of it. Become your own square (or triangle, or whatever). 3. **AI will change communications — but not all visual design.** We are in the midst of a mild to major revolution in how we communicate, who we trust, and what work is done by people and machines. Visual design of all forms and flavours will be changed, though it’s hard to tell how right now. I’m very worried about the writers, strategists and researchers I know who contribute to creating effective and impactful communications every single day. What I’m less clear about is how AI will redefine the tooling, ideation and production of design. Yes, there will be an increase in templated systems and default tools and technologies. Yes, graphic design will become further commoditized by platforms like Canva, Adobe and Squarespace who, despite their pretty PR pronouncements, care about designers approximately this much: 0. Digital design will continue to thrive. Online communications, applications, websites, social media and digital commerce will change but we will still need designers at the helm to make design actually work for people. The underlying need for visual design excellence, I think, will not go away any time soon. Designers who provide typographic and visual substance will be able to name their price when the AI dust settles. *Sure, I could be wrong. But I don’t think I am.* If you could run your own design shop, what it would look like? If you had 8 hours to design tomorrow, what would emerge? If you were laid off next week, what kind of design interests you the most? *As always, keep moving. May the wind be at your back.* Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-3.png) P.S. A few related articles that might be relevant here: - [Personal Business](https://www.are.na/editorial/personal-business?ref=andrewboardman.com) by Charles Broskoski, a reflection on why running a company that is uniquely yours can fuel you, perhaps forever. - [Artists are losing work, wages, and hope as bosses and clients embrace AI](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/artists-are-losing-work-wages-and?ref=andrewboardman.com) by Brian Merchant, a piece about some folks that have lost work. - [Choosing friction](https://phirephoenix.com/blog/2025-10-11/friction?ref=andrewboardman.com) by Jenny Zhang, who talks about AI as a vehicle for reducing friction when friction is what makes sparks. --- ## Image of the Week ![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/bf724da4-ca18-4f4a-9855-8c5ea7fa196d_677x1154-jpeg.jpg) Mechanical male servant, modern-day Diyarbakır, Turkey (1206). Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mechanical%5Fmale%5Fservant,%5Fprobably%5FAmid,%5Fmodern-day%5FDiyarbak%C4%B1r,%5FTurkey,%5F1206%5F%28Ms.%5FAhmet%5FIII%5F3472,%5Ffol.%5F121v%29.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com) The Muslim polymath Badīʿ az-Zaman Abu l-ʿIzz ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ar-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206) invented dozens of objects, including an [elephant clock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant%5Fclock?ref=andrewboardman.com) in which a large timing mechanism in the shape of an elephant indicated every half hour using cascading water and various parts. Al Jazarihat wrote “The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices” in Arabic — he is considered to be the inventor of robotics. I love this image above, dated 1206\. It shows a mechanical “male servant” beautifully robed in a green patterned frock with purple sleeves and a golden cup in one hand and a fish in the other. The red leggings match his hat. From what I can understand, this robot is meant to serve future guests. From what I can also understand about the future of robotics, I can only hope someone as cool looking as him will be feeding me when I am very old. --- ## Quote of the Day “We all do what we can So we can do just one more thing We can all be free Maybe not in words Maybe not with a look But with your mind.” — Chan Marshall / Cat Power ([TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/quotes/we-all-do-what-we-can-so-we-can-do-just-one-more-thing-we-can-all-be-free-maybe-not-in-words-maybe-not-with-a-look-but-with-your-mind?ref=andrewboardman.com)) --- Thanks for reading and reading this far. If you would like to subscribe to Dear Designer, dear designer, please please do: [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) And don’t forget about Wikipedia. Click the heart button or leave a comment. **I’ll donate $1 for every heart or comment on this week’s post (up to CA$100.00) to Wikipedia Canada.** ### Wild Life URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/wild-life/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T18:24:01.000Z Last month, I began an intensive 10-month real-life/in-person course to become a professional coach. I’m with a cohort of 30 other students from around Montréal and throughout Canada who are seeking a kind of inner jujitsu — an intentional life change to help others make intentional life change. Coaching has both a bad name and a good one. Anyone can coach. You can coach yourself. Your mom was probably coaching you when you didn’t know it. But what I’m learning is not therapy-lite: it is actually disciplined practice of helping others find alignment and new meaning. Coaching is about helping others find a more fulsome kind of fulfilment, giving others a chance to learn to lay down and then to re-learn. For me, it’s about offering up the golden sun when it is hidden by the greyest of clouds. I have worked with numerous coaches over the years and almost every one of them left me with meaningful, even monumental, options and direction. I have been supported by a life coach, a number of business coaches, and a career coach. Coaching is an offering. Mostly, it’s a conversation, a current that helps cut large mountains through small rivers. Being a coach, for me, is a kind of confession, as well — a projection of possibility into the arms of another. My goal, which I’ll be talking more about, is to help designers, art directors and creative founders — and other entrepreneurs, freelancers, and oddballs — to build the next stages of their lives, wherever they are at. — Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean— the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down— who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Though it’s fall here, I think it is an appropriate time to recall the poem *The Summer Day* by the great [Mary Oliver](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-oliver?ref=andrewboardman.com). This poem is often quoted by people seeking some kind of personal and spiritual growth — and those last two lines are often highlighted, especially by coaches. *Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?* It’s not meant to be trite, but I know it can land that way. I suggest reading it again. And perhaps ask yourself the actual question, without answering it: *What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?* — And yet, it’s the other line that won’t leave me: *Tell me, what else should I have done?* As a designer, it is a privilege and a problem to know that you can course correct. We choose green but realize later it must be grey. A photo wrongly cropped becomes an illustration rightly placed. We choose a pattern with meanings hidden from us in the unwise moment, meanings revealed later to be forsaken. We make micro-choices in the typefaces we pick, the design systems we build, our choice of tools and plug-ins and frameworks and illustrations and icons and scales and suites and structures. And our endless options can feel like they amount to nothing at all. The illusion of infinite edits belies a dread that they might not add up to much. *What else should I have done?* As I have [mentioned previously](https://www.andrewboardman.com/imposter-syndrome-definitively-ends/), I could have and should have done so much better with my one precious life. There are so many regrets piled up about my one wild life that I sometimes stand on top of them like a precipice. I can see dusk for miles. But there is no Command-Z in how the stars move, at least as far as we know. — It’s a funny thing, our careers. Under the seemingly stable sign of late capitalism, we are allowed to make endless changes. Nearly anything can be changed with great alacrity. We can change cities, change wardrobes, change avatars, and change partners. We can change homes, hours, and happenings. In the early mornings and evenings, we change our brain chemistry through additives and various addictions. But we are not allowed to easily change careers. Despite the fact that we can learn anywhere, alone and together, with access to nearly every thing that humanity has commonly collected, we can’t go from one occupation to another. We can’t simply change our work and become that worker we’ve always wanted to be. Or, we can, but it takes time and courage and organization. A few years ago, I was teaching design at a wonderful college in Winnipeg. I struck up a conversation with one of the instructors there who professed being exhausted by teaching after 25 years. They were awaiting retirement or, perhaps, retirement was awaiting them. I understood. I confessed that I, too, was exhausted by managing a studio for 20 years. We joked that we should switch bodies. A Freaky Friday for the middle aged. And why not? Theoretically, exchanging careers would not have been that difficult. The instructor could have done my job with about a month of training — and I, theirs. But it doesn’t work that way. Our lives feel ground into the grooves of pirouetting platters and we are forced to replay the same tunes over and over again. We treat our lives and our livelihoods like machines instead of the wilderness in which we actually reside. — For designers, we can make daily changes to our work and the tools we use. We are easily absorbed by the absurd — the latest listicle and the laughable lol. But I have also always thought that designers can do anything. A while back, I confessed to a friend of mine that, having worked with so many clients over the years, I could probably run a Fortune 500 company. This is less braggadocio than you might think. I’ll bet that you, too, could run a massive company, if that’s what you wanted. Designers are built to flex and when not following, they lead fluently. — Maybe what matters, dear designer, is not creating a life of design — but designing a life. It’s about finding your own calling, listening for what calls from the wild, if you will. I’ll leave you with one more question that a coach asked me once. *What do you want, most of all?* Warmly, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-4.png) --- ## Image of the week ![type specimens showing different fonts and elements with black text on beige background](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/012ad63d-391d-4ad2-94d6-6563f53f1411_1280x804-jpeg.jpg) Specimen by William Caslon IV showing his Two Lines English. Credit: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-serif?ref=andrewboardman.com#/media/File:Caslon%5FTwo%5FLines%5FEnglish%5FEgyptian.jpg). Maybe you saw this type specimen in design school? At the very bottom of this seemingly straightforward image we have “Two Lines English", the first sans-serif type for the Latin Alphabet. We tend to think of sans serifs as “modern” but this document, from 1816, indicates that we have lived with the sans for a long time. It’s not clear exactly how or why Williams Caslon IV decided to create this sans serif here, which was never put into production, but the monoline letters and circular “O” are still, to me, head-scratchingly beautiful. I particularly love that jaunty “J” and the abbreviated “JUNR”. I want to be a “letterfounder”. --- ## Quote of the day “Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” — Mary Oliver ([TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?id=instructions-for-living-a-life-pay-attention-be-astonished-tell-about-it&ref=andrewboardman.com)) --- Thank you for reading. I’m honoured to be in your inbox. Wishing you a good week ahead. And Happy Thanksgiving to those in Canada who are celebrating. If you were forwarded this email and you’d like to read more, please: [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### The Beauty and Power of Mr. Tambourine Man URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/the-beauty-and-power-of-mr-tambourine/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T18:24:02.000Z Dear Designer, This past weekend I went to a show of one of my long-time fave bands, the improbably named Brian Jonestown Massacre. It’s not death metal, nor is their music morose or overtly political. But it is led by the virtuosic and prolific Anton Newcomb (who happens to be my age) and who is the world’s worst perfectionist (besides me). Between nearly every song of the [two-hour Montréal set](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmBqzC5hw5M&ref=andrewboardman.com), the sunglass-visored bandmates would take a drink, futz with their daisy-chained guitar pedals, get another instrument, adjust their shoe gaze, and wait patiently for the next tune to be kicked off by Anton. There was never an awkward silence because, as anyone who knows the band also knows, this is how the band operates and has operated since day one. (If you’re interested in BJMs backstory, watch the updated [Dig XX](https://tv.apple.com/ca/movie/dig-xx/umc.cmc.19lfmae2gryqb5o4sejsoj528?ref=andrewboardman.com) (2024) doc, which traces the band and its outrageous and internecine warfare with those Dandy Warhols; *Dig* is widely considered one of the best music movies ever made.) Anton doesn’t do average. He cares about creating sound that soars. He makes art that matters to him. He does not take any bullshit from his band or his audiences. It’s not easy to love him but BJM fans know that, more than anything, Anton cares about his work. And therefore, we admire Anton. It’s not always pretty. Anton sometimes yells at his bandmates because their timing was off or a guitar was tuned wrong. Other times, he has [tackled them](https://loudwire.com/brian-jonestown-massacre-bandmates-brawl-onstage-tour-dates-canceled/?ref=andrewboardman.com) to the ground. He might decide to go off stage. It’s not always pretty, but for him, the songs matter more than the singers. ### It’s about excellence I’m not excusing Anton or his antics. But he exemplifies a generational sense that what you put out there in the world matters a lot. **A lot.** It’s not really about perfection for Anton and the band. It is about **excellence**. Greatness even. It is about making music that no one else can make. It is about building sonic beauty and aural boundlessness. (If you like, listen to [the last song](https://youtu.be/xmBqzC5hw5M?si=kKujFu2x1xW99CBC&t=5656&ref=andrewboardman.com) with the sitar player; you might be forever transfixed.) It is about delivering work that works, matter that matters, art that achieves. Like all die-hard BJM fans, I not only sympathize but I identify deeply with this aesthetic idealist. There is good. And there is great. The cultural garbage out there is riotous. Influencers, content creators, makers and machers — the effluent that is spewed into our cultural reservoir today poisons the well. And as if that’s not enough, we now have a scourge of AI bots and AI tools that are driving mechanistic success. Instead of the hard work that it takes to create, construct, or craft, we are getting used to crap — worse yet, we are being told that the sparks of the simulacrum are our new reality. Designers and artists are inundated with templates and tricks. Endless online courses and companies teach you to try new things. In two hours, you can be a better creator. It all creates productivity gains for business and content for monopolies but it makes for deeply unoriginal and underwhelming work. I think there is a better way. ## **The one in the middle is Mr. Tambourine Man** While all of this mussing and musing goes on between BJM songs, there is one band member who holds centre stage — Joel Gion. A talented musician in his own right who has made numerous albums, Joel is known as the tambourine man. While it looks ridiculously easy, Joel does the hard work of standing up there in the middle of the stage, calmly holding space for the music and whatever comes next. He plays tambourine impressively, impassively, impishly. He is the steady rock in the rock and roll. Seemingly, nothing phases him. Anton, for all of his mercuriality and impetuousness on stage, treats Joel with kid gloves. Joels holds the band together with his calm, his stage-high stare, and his precision strikes of the tambourine. Joel embodies the greatness of the music but without the emotional fanfare. He takes the work just as seriously as Anton does. But he does it through persistence and pride — and less personality. ### How does all of this apply to design? For me, dear designer, it’s about maintaining order amidst the chaos while focusing on that which is possible. It is about showing up again and again, protecting what is important, which is the show going on. We are surrounded by the misoriented and the disoriented, despite the fact that most are well-meaning. The information needs signal. Our job is to hold steady. Some of our songs are going to be great. And most of them will be memorable if we hold the line and hit the drum. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-5.png) --- ## Image of the Week ![black illustration of forest on beige paper](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/37601a33-9ab5-4c9e-8c16-0ae1390149d7_370x366-jpeg.jpg) Small frontispiece and illustrated initial letter (1919) for a fairytale book. By Friedrich Heinrich Ernst. Credit: [Public Domain Review](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/illustrated-initials-from-a-german-fairytale-book-1919-edition/?ref=andrewboardman.com) We are starting to see more and more real illustration these days. It’s a welcome turn of events, as photography becomes [tricked out](https://www.andrewboardman.com/design-without-photography/) and AI-generated images are pasted up everywhere like bad stickers. This is a beautiful drawing by German illustrator Freidrich Heinrich Ernst for *Deutsche Märchen seit Grimm* a fairytale book published in 1912\. I love the use of dark black ink, the three dotted lines to represent bark, the scary hand-drawn hand-like branch forms, the ghost house in the distance, and the childlike drawing of the pine tree at left. Take a look at the [other drawings](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/illustrated-initials-from-a-german-fairytale-book-1919-edition/?ref=andrewboardman.com) in this collection; they are replete with demi-magic and dark mayhem coupled with familiar rest and repose. Each little illustration speaks of a world of the past and yet they are little presents about presence — time slowing to the level of every drawn detail. --- ## Quote of the Week “You can’t reach these extreme highs without these extreme lows.” — [Joel Gion](https://typequote.com/?id=you-can-t-reach-these-extreme-highs-without-these-extreme-lows&ref=andrewboardman.com) --- Wishing you a good week ahead. Thank you for reading, dear designer. Please leave feedback in the comments below. Reach out anytime. If this was forwarded, you can grab your own subscription by clicking this thing. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Where I’m Heading URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/where-im-heading/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T18:24:03.000Z Dear Designer, It’s been about ten months since I started *Dear Designer*. It’s been my honour to put my weirdo ideas into the world and to have others, both weird and not, accept those ideas in their inboxes. I’m planning on doubling down on the writing, and work even harder to create a newsletter that will be of value to you, dear designer. My focus will be increasingly on addressing the opportunities and struggles of designers in a changing and challenging social environment. But I thought it might be interesting to share a little bit about the hows and wherefores of this newsletter and where I’m struggling to grow and to reach more people. ## Writing is a daily activity, even when it’s not I know this only finds you every week or so. But I actually find myself thinking about this newsletter every single day. Sometimes, it engrosses me. On those days, I’ll write notes or do some research or plan new posts. On other days, I may be less obsessed about the writing but I’ll stress about you, my reader, and how design is changing dramatically and where we might head together. I am genuinely worried about how various present and subterranean crises are dividing us designers from ourselves and from one another. These include generative AI’s transformation of our tools, the routinization of tasks that mask our commitments to values, the growing coarseness of our visual discourse, and the dearth of jobs in a market that values platforms over people. To give you (and I) a sense of where my head is at, I thought I would frame some of my thinking in terms of various dichotomies. Polarities, despite their negative political connotations, provide useful framing devices for challenges; sometimes it’s helpful for me to position my own challenges in light of best versus worst in order to imagine what might emerge as plain old medium-good. # My newsletter challenges in oppositional form ## Conceptual vs Practical While my training and writing proclivities tend to be sadly and slightly academic, I really want this newsletter to speak to any graphic designer. How can I use language in a way that connects to folks while also staying true to my own voice and interests? How do I make sense of what is happening while also creating a newsletter that helps the most people possible in a very challenging design market? For example, I am developing ideas for a number of useful digital “products” like a workbook to create a better portfolio and a short guide for those seeking jobs who are just out of school. I was able to bridge this conceptual-practical gap when teaching at the university and I want to bring that learning to more people here. Please stay tuned for more details about these products and, *more importantly*, do let me know if there is a particular and practical topic of interest that you might want me to cover for you. ## Audience vs Authenticity While I desperately want *Dear Designer* to be helpful to individual designers, I also struggle with reaching a larger audience. After all, who doesn’t want a smashing audience these days? There are influencers selling eye shadow application who have hundreds of thousands of followers while many lowly newsletter writers connect with a handful of folks. It makes no sense — and yet, and yet, there are dozens of people on Substack, Ghost, Beehiiv and Medium who are also rapidly growing their audiences with no advertising, no videos, and no fancy fanfare. How do you keep your writing personal and honest while also ensuring it’s useful and deliberate in a cacophony of social media that tends towards the fake and fallow? I’m sure that I can thread this needle because others ([Joan Westenberg](https://www.joanwestenberg.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), [Erin Kissane](https://www.wrecka.ge/?ref=andrewboardman.com), [Ethan Marcotte](https://ethanmarcotte.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com)) do this so, so well. I and we are fortunate to have excellent online writers to emulate. This was not the case five or ten years ago to be honest. The meteoric rise of this platform (despite its ethical flaws) and others like it allows me to ask this question. ## Free vs Paid My vantage point is and will always be built around the indie web, which is where I started. I believe in independent, free, open, and unlimited expression, whether it is in print, online, live or some admixture of the three. And while I ran a business for 20 years and continue to help drive agency growth today, I find it queasy-making to sell my own “content”. I believe in offering ideas freely. But like all weirdo writers, I need money to live and grow and shape the next stage of this newsletter. I don’t like the idea of creating false stratifications through tiered newsletter offerings — but I do want to be able to be paid for this work I’m doing. ### Going paid (as of today) Today, I’m opening up paid subscriptions to *Dear Designer*. To be clear, the newsletter will remain free at least for the time being. But anyone who wants to support my efforts will be wildly rewarded with my utter gratitude and a few other perks. I’ll be creating a shorter weekly newsletter to all paid subscribers about two areas which I find both most important and most helpful 1. **Al and Design**: My personal take on how Al is actually showing up in design from a practical and ethical standpoint. 2. **Personal Practice**: Short lessons from my work and career with a focus on ethics and typography. To be clear, *Dear Designer* will still be free. But paid subscribers will get a little something something more. **You can upgrade by going to the** [**homepage of this newsletter**](https://deardesigner.substack.com/publish/payments)**.** ### Social vs Spiritual I believe that design is an inherently spiritual endeavour. I know I’m a little odd that way. But design has to be about more than information and ideology. Yes, it is a political act to create new communications and to put ideas into the world. But design, with its deep roots in aesthetic investigation, metaphysical inquiry, religious metaphor, and semiotic history is also a fully psychic practice. Design cannot be just about what it looks like and how it is received. It is also a form of mark-making that digs into and dramatizes and wonders and worries and thrills and trills. Our profession is much more than the sum of its parts — and one of my challenges is how far to profess, how far to press, and how far to stress in promulgating this arcane idea. ### Minimalist vs Maximalist I am planning on revamping my own portfolio site using Ghost and bringing a new journal there to the surface. That blog may be slightly different than *Dear Designer*; it will complement what I’m trying to do here. At some point, my plan is to bring *Dear Designer* over to Ghost, which is open source, nonprofit, and part of the growing [fediverse](https://www.theverge.com/24063290/fediverse-explained-activitypub-social-media-open-protocol?ref=andrewboardman.com). This move may take six months or a year and, in the meantime, I’m trying to figure out how to keep this project of supporting designers minimal in personal effort and maximal in designer reach. I am also potentially bringing in other platforms like Gumroad, Kit and Tally to grow this newsletter, depending on how my strategy and planning continue to evolve. *And depending on what you, dear designer, tell me along the way.* ### Me vs AI I do not use generative AI to write *Dear Designer*. There are dozens of people on this platform and [elsewhere](https://every.to/working-overtime/i-taught-claude-every-s-standards-it-taught-me-mine?ref=andrewboardman.com) arguing persuasively that writers should use AI to create and create quickly. **I refuse to do that.** Why would you want to be a writer if you don’t want to write? Do you value your ideas enough to write them? Do you want to learn from writing or just put words into the world? AI provides the most critical challenge to creating since the advent of the printing press. For but me, writing helps me to think, to study, to obsess — and to let go. AI is, at its best, a writing crutch. But I also refuse not to use AI. I will use AI on occasion for research, ideation, planning, and critical thinking. AI can be helpful to pressure-test some of my ideas. It can offer new perspectives on where I might focus my energies. And it can introduce new organisms into the Petri dish that is my brain. ### Thank you Again, I want to thank you for being a subscriber, dear designer. If you have any thoughts on the above, please consider putting them in the comments below. And if you want to support this little project through a paid subscription, I’d be ever so grateful to even more in your inbox. Wishing you a good Labour Day week ahead. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-6.png) ## Image of the Week ![brown and white poster showing v various clip art and fonts to advertise an amusement park -- very fun and very unsettling](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/3e5c3ccd-a8e3-443e-b7fe-60d8a2a5cb87_562x718-jpeg.jpg) Labor Day Poster (1972), Dorney Park, Allentown, PA. Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1972%5F-%5FLabor%5FDay%5FPoster%5F-%5FDorney%5FPark%5F-%5FAllentown%5FPA.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com). Growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, you couldn’t help but not hear about Dorney Park, an amusement park in Allentown. I think I went a few times with my family as a kid but it was very, very strange. I probably became an early fan of David Lynch because of Dorney Park. You can get a sense of what it was like from this poster advertising Labor Day Weekend. “Free Ox Roast”? “The Original Rube band”? “King & Queen of the Apple Butter Party”? “Sauerkraut Village”? “Schnitzing Party?” Big clown head? I am positive that Dwight Schrute went to Dorney Park as a kid. Founded in 1884, even the name “Dorney Park” gives me hives. ## Quote of the Day “If you have not yet learned the skill of absorbing rejection, court it deliberately: Apply for some jobs you *really* don’t think you’ll get so you can learn to decouple ‘no’ from surprise and dejection.” — Cate Hall ([1 September 2025](https://typequote.com/?id=if-you-have-not-yet-learned-the-skill-of-absorbing-rejection-court-it-deliberately-apply-for-some-jobs-you-really-don-t-think-you-ll-get-so-you-can-learn-to-decouple-no-from-surprise-and-dejection&ref=andrewboardman.com)) **Note**: I started [TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) about in May 2025 to collect and share inspirational and otherwise opinionated quotes from and about designers, artists and writers. Every day, a new and unproven quote appears on the site. These are not automatically generated, however; I *literally* copy and paste quotes I find across the web into this website — and I do my utmost to find a true attribution and source for every one of them. Moving forward, I’ll re-use the quote of the day from TypeQuote here. That way, you can more easily find and share that quote — and perhaps discover a few others along the way. --- ``` To share this post with someone, here is a tiny, little button 4u 2 use. ``` [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Keep Moving URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/keep-moving-2/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:41:00.000Z Dear Designer, I’m on vacation this week but I wanted to write a lighter post for a lighter day to you, my fellow designer and artist friend. Anyway, **cringe** is in, so… I have been thinking about how we might maximize our impact through the skills and resources that we already have. The ones that are already sitting there, waiting to see the light of day. The magnitudes that already ready. This self-critical filter (or the crisis-generating perpetual slip of self-confidence) is something I suffer from very often. If I just knew one more thing or read one more book or took one more course, then, **then**, I would be a better writer, designer, maker or monkey. “I’m only 10 steps away from starting to write this new piece.” “I’m 5 steps away from creating that journal.” “I’m 2 steps away from applying for this program.” “I’m 1 step away from completely re-organizing my life.” Do you know it took me eight months to *start* writing Dear Designer? Two hundred and forty days of complaining to myself — and others. ### I know you I do. Designers suffer from wanting to be seen while hiding in the shallows. We uphold unacceptable procrastination tactics. It’s why folks like Seth Godin and Austin Kleon and Suleika Jaouad have books and careers. They write to an audience of a single creative soul, replicated by the millions. But following their advice, or mine, is different from following your own, which is the only one that matters. How can you use what you have — your beautiful, G-d-given talents, your years of learning coupled with your ideals and values — *now* in order to create the thing you most want in the world? How can you build your own shop, ship that new idea, or craft that new project, without buying that new desk, getting that new tool, or finding brand new inspiration? How can you build a little more community, create a little more kindness, snare a modicum more peace by leveraging what you own *now*. ### It’s in you Everything is already before you. Take 25 minutes today. Spare the new pomodoro tool and make that thing. I know it’s in you to create. Because it’s in me. It’s in us. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-7.png) P.S. If you haven’t already, subscribe to get this in your inbox every week. Dear Designer is for designers who are worried — and shouldn’t be. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) --- ## **Image of the Day** ![the full New York City 1972 subway map with lines indicated and a key at the top](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/09ca4430-4021-44c7-a02e-9af600c5b398_1817x2165-jpeg.jpg) The full 1972 New York City Systems Map. Credit: [NYC Subway](https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/system%5F1972.jpg&ref=andrewboardman.com) New York City recently [**redesigned its subway map**](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/28/nyc-new-york-subway-map?ref=andrewboardman.com) for the first time since 1979, almost my entire life. I lived in New York for eleven years and that old map is still embedded in my brain. But [**the new one**](https://www.mta.info/map/5256?ref=andrewboardman.com) by Michael Hertz Associates, is a stunning work of informational art and it is strikingly similar to that wonderfully **controversial** one from 1972 designed by Massimo Vignelli. The map is not the territory — but it often is the terrain. Even in this day of Google Maps and bio-mechanically automated directions, it’s a pleasure to know that maps, in fact and with infatuation, matter. --- ## **Quote of the Day** “Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.” \~ Seth Godin --- Thank you for reading Dear Designer, dear designer. Wishing you a good, peaceful week ahead. ``` If you want to share this post with someone, here is a little button. ``` ### Stop Waiting to Be Picked for a Design Job URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/when-you-cant-land-a-design-job/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:41:09.000Z Dear Designer, I’m on a number of design-related Slack channels and I am most upset and unsettled when I see following message. “It’s been six (or eight or 12 months) and I cannot for the life of me find a job in this design profession.” Most of the folks posting this are either young and right out of school or they have 2 or 3 years of experience working at an agency or doing in-house work. If there are three designers per month with this kind of message, there are probably 3,000 others experiencing this same challenge. Behind each of these messages is a person who is questioning their worth, their educational path, their capacity to contribute and their future growth. These are designers who are doing what they are supposed to do: applying to jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed and reaching out to agencies and corporations on their respective websites. They are either getting no responses after submitting their resumes or they receive a kind email explaining that they will hear back if the organization is interested. In some cases, AI is doing the actual vetting and job applicants are receiving emails three seconds after sending their resume with a response of “your experience does not meet the needs of the advertised position.” What does it mean to be a young designer in this moment? How does one think about their purpose having done “all the right things” by going to school and getting good grades and working days and nights to build a portfolio? ### It’s all very upsetting I’ve been designing for 25 years and I have been relatively fortunate. (For transparency, as a founder, I have also had the privilege of sleepless nights, panic attacks, stick handling law suits and dealing with negative cash flow, but those are for another time.) Over my career, there has been incredible forward momentum. Moving from print to brand to HTML to mobile to content management to collaboration, design has provided an overall upward trajectory for me and many of us weirdos. With the rise of automation and AI, will this trend continue? Will we see designers suffer or soar? I think we will *soar*. Design — defined for our present purposes as an application of visual and technical tools for digitally communicating information — will continue to grow and we will continue to need highly talented, committed, skilled and ethical designers to fill the ranks. There will continue to be websites, applications, platforms, systems and brand ecosystems to craft, build and maintain. We will increasingly need UX designers to think strategically about crafting thoughtful, engaging and unique digital solutions that can be coded by machine, by others or by themselves. ### And yet you will be okay The upward trend line that we have seen for the past half century will continue skyward. But it will be more measured, modest, and clearly defined by an increasingly rationalized market for digital products and systems. How do I know this? Let’s look at the markets. Figma, the tool of trade that most designers are embracing, [went IPO](https://www.wired.com/story/figma-ipo-dylan-field-interview/?ref=andrewboardman.com) last week. Buyers are generally bullish. Adobe’s stock continues [to advance](https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/goldman-sachs-reiterates-its-buy-rating-on-adobe-keeps-pt-at-570-1586978/?ref=andrewboardman.com), despite me not liking Adobe. Squarespace has a [3% share](https://www.stylefactoryproductions.com/blog/squarespace-statistics?ref=andrewboardman.com) of the global CMS market. Many newish content management and builder tools (some with no-code) are growing online — Framer, Canva Sites, Super, and Carrd are all holding their own. Yes, these products are ostensibly made so that the average person can make a site in a day. But remember that that is not your audience. The growth of Ikea does not mean that we no longer need carpenters. ## So how do I get a job, dude Right, that’s the question. And here is my answer. Don’t. I know that sounds super annoying and uber-privileged. But I do mean it. Don’t get a job. Don’t bother applying for jobs right now. Don’t waste your precious time sending out your portfolio to yet another faceless company. Applying and getting summarily rejected is a recipe for growing frustration and gnawing self-doubt. It will only lead to further feelings of insecurity and disgust, when in fact, you’re a talented designer. You are. You came this far in design and you will shine. ## Go it alone, for now You need to eat. And I want you to eat. More importantly, the world needs you to make the art of the everyday. We need strong, talented, clear-headed designers to make a difference in this world. For anyone either unemployed, just out of the education gate, or thinking about switching job, I encourage you to think differently about this crazy market. And my recommendation is this: **go it alone**. Forget about working for a company. At least for now. Companies will come and go. They will hire and fire. An agency will build products and then decide they are suddenly switching platforms. A studio will obtain a big new client and that client will go bankrupt. A nonprofit will need communications help and then lose their federal funding. A major corporation will downsize their comms team as soon as the economy turns a tiny bit yellow or they figure out how AI works. ### Going it alone doesn’t mean going lonely I know that going freelance may not be for everyone. You want a solid floor under you. Benefits. Colleagues. Lunch. Snack. Drinks out. Those design jobs do exist and will continue to exist but they will be less plentiful and you’ll be subject to the whims of the economy. *Instead, make a go of it on your own.* Become an incredibly valuable designer that other people want to hire to build amazing things. You can give it whatever name you want: freelancer, solopreneur, contractor, founder, owner, provider or worker. You can be a graphic designer, graphic artist, user experience strategist, web developer or just plain old designer. Redesign your career so that you can work as a sole contractor with agencies, developers, businesses, nonprofits or other designers and continue to build out your portfolio and resume. You have the opportunity to gain more work, wealth and wisdom. There is freedom in freelance. In the next issue of Dear Designer, I’ll explain more about how you might start thinking about this in detail. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-8.png) --- ## Image of the Week ![poster of sun coming up over mountains with text that says to-day buy that liberty bond](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/270afa67-5b21-42fe-b99a-d03f07fceda6_669x1024-jpeg.jpg) To-Day—Buy That Liberty Bond (1918) by Kathleen Walsh (1903-1989). Credit: [Shirley Wajda](https://shirleywajda.com/2019/05/06/a-crudely-drawn-big-idea-on-researching-posters-generally-and-on-a-high-schoolers-world-war-i-propaganda-poster/?ref=andrewboardman.com) In the First World War, design was leveraged by governments to attract soldiers to the war front, rally citizens in the U.S. and Europe to the war effort, and bring in new money (“liberty bonds”) to support the war machine. The birth of modern-day propaganda is directly tied to the advantages that mass communications and super design offers the state and its subsidiaries. This is a beautiful poster designed by a ninth-grader in 1918 in a public contest. The artist, Kathleen Walsh, was featured in the *Boston Globe* on September 23, 1918, only six weeks before the war’s end. The poster feels honest and young, with its lowercased letters and sunrise eyes. I especially love the hyphen used in “to-day”. --- ## Quote of the Week *The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.* \~ Denis Gabor --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. Wishing you a good, happy week ahead. And please leave a comment if you like. If you want to subscribe to this newsletter, here is a button. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Words Will Win URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/words-will-win/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:40:45.000Z Dear Designer, A good friend of mine asked me a question last week that gave me pause. “If you were 30 years old, would you pursue graphic design as a profession?” It’s a profoundly important question. I didn’t study design. I went the art school route and was fairly successful until I wasn’t. It was only when my wife and I decided to have a family — and when I was laid off in a massive post-9/11 recession — that I thought about design as a career. I had always designed and made visual objects but I jumped head first into design in my early 30s. (I hit my head at the bottom of the pool a few times.) The length of time to answer my friend’s question in my gaping hesitancy to respond was noticeable. Would I pursue graphic design if I was 30? ### Saying *yes* to design. I said *yes*. At least for the next five years — and anyone predicting a world beyond that in a time of momentum and madness has to have a last name of either Kurzweil or Lama. I don’t see graphic design going away any time soon. It cannot. It will be with us. Design jobs, including freelance, in-house, and agency work will continue to be available. I wrote about this in a few previous issues. [Design at the Crossroads: A Shifting Economy of Digital Creativity![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/e8567a3a-9529-4f1c-9c63-8f924c0e1ef3_1280x1280.png)Dear DesignerAndrew Boardman![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/ee581188-1256-46c9-aff8-ee716741a544_5712x4284-heic.jpg)](https://www.andrewboardman.com/design-at-the-crossroads-a-shifting/) [Let the Robots Chatter, but Keep Designing![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/e8567a3a-9529-4f1c-9c63-8f924c0e1ef3_1280x1280-1.png)Dear DesignerAndrew Boardman![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/82b4258f-ea1a-4cbf-93f3-6be1bfc16936_3880x2970-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.andrewboardman.com/let-the-robots-chatter-but-keep-designing/) [Designers Don’t Need AI to Design![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/e8567a3a-9529-4f1c-9c63-8f924c0e1ef3_1280x1280-2.png)Dear DesignerAndrew Boardman![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/5371948f-6b7b-484d-b1ce-b1540c7cb554_3569x2497.png)](https://www.andrewboardman.com/designers-dont-need-ai-to-design/) ### AI will not destroy design. It will not. But there is a good chance that good design — and by that, I mean innovative, high-minded, strategic and forward-thinking graphic design — will change. Perhaps even for the better. One path forward is to embrace constraints as a designer by driving into what design does best — build real and lasting connection with others and an organization, a brand, a state, or a community. If we look at the current state of photography in a graphic design context, we see a mishmash of grotesqueries driven by a metastisization of technological adoption, the ubiquity of image-making devices, the rise of online stock factories, and the capacity for generative AI to dream up literally anything. Taken together, I believe that we are starting to see designers eschew the photographic and the plainly imagistic — and the rebirth of written content that is meaningful and even magical. In other words, authentic (a word I myself try to eschew). Yes, I know that that copy will be and is generated by LLMs in graphic design applications. Yes, I know that most people (including you and I) will increasingly find it difficult to distinguish good writing by an AI from good writing by a human. But we should put that aside, as we think about what design looks like for the next five years. And I think it’s *typographic*. ## The web was words In the beginning, there were words. The Internet began as a text-based system of interconnected computers. It was an index. A catalogue. A well-reasoned, curated construct of human ingenuity, the start of a collected striving, all set in text. Not necessarily beautiful then — but fascinating today. ![Screenshot of webpage showing many different links -- agriculture and computer science and law, etc. to important pages on the then internet](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/2d37b43b-a172-4816-99aa-15d2cd750c73_830x580.png) World Wide Web Virtual Library, 1991\. Tim Berners-Lee compiles this index of websites in 1991, called the WWW Virtual Library. It kind of looks like… Google. The World Wide Web was first made of (blue) words. Later came icons and images, illustrations and lines, Flash and all kinds of flotsam — a flurry of visual ephemera piled up and piled on. It was beautiful madness, the web. It still is. ## There will be words But the indexical structure that made up the early web and that gave rise to search engines, SEO, and technical stability is now going away with AI. The totality of our collective digital intelligence has been sucked up by the great thinking machines and, in that vacuum bag is our culture and our capabilities. The web that have we have designed and built, the web of words and images, of ideas and ideals and information, is part of the great expansion that is artificial intelligence. (The intelligence of LLMs is not artificial at all; it is all too human. And it was stolen from us by a few trillion-dollar companies.) Moreover, as people continue to shift from searching the web to asking a bot what to do, how to act, where to go, who to be, and why to live, the LLM’s will grow. And what the LLMs will need is not pretty websites but text-based ones. If people are searching on LLMs, they won’t need the web. They will just need a pretty interface where they can write and read. ![screenshot of open ai website with a chat window and links to main areas on the left](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/9c073b3d-2708-4542-b6ac-1fd87b74dd6d_2150x1378.png) The web in a nutshell. Screenshot of OpenAI’s interface. So, if I my logic is correct, the ultimate future of the web — and the end state for web design — will be plain pages of text. Mark Zuckerberg in his infinite wisdom made this clear a few days ago with his (not particularly well-written nor [perceptive](https://www.techpolicy.press/mark-zuckerberg-is-out-of-ideas/?ref=creativerly.com)) [blog post](https://www.meta.com/superintelligence/?ref=andrewboardman.com) that looked like it was written in MS Word. ![screenshot of yuck's blog post set in some kind of black times roman on white but not really](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/bd13b5b1-b583-42cd-9178-0ae6bf96b43f_2044x1894.png) Zuckerberg trying to look cool, this time as a blogger (July 30, 2025) ## Typesetting matters Until that time, when everything web looks like Z/Yuck — and I think it’s at least eight years from now — it’s worth thinking about words. Going to back to typographic basics is key. Dear designer, we need to start afresh and think about text, type and truth. *How are you using your words? What do they look like? How are they reading? What are you doing with them? How are you styling them? What makes your copy readable? How is your text legible?* *Who is reading? Why are they reading this? Should they read more or less? If it’s more, how much more? If it’s less, how can you minimize?* ### Text and trying Rethinking our relationship with text and type can be invigorating. Constraints, like me, is your friend. **Type alone can do almost all of the work of design — emotional, informational and experiential.** For your next project, consider using type only. I’d love to see it. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-9.png) P.S. Last week, I talked a little bit about having a new pricing tier here for people who want access to certain paid projects. I am still considering this. But I should mention, I am also considering moving to Ghost, a nonprofit Substack alternative that just released a massive new [update](https://ghost.org/6/?ref=andrewboardman.com) and is starting to build community and not just platform. And they don’t have as many [Nazis](https://www.usermag.co/p/substack-sent-a-push-alert-promoting-nazi-white-supremacist-blog?ref=andrewboardman.com) there. --- ## Image of the Week ![screenshot of the NHS website showing health a to z index](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/f28b1051-dae7-42b8-8dfe-bff9d688480d_2470x1894.png) Yes, another index. The NHS website’s A to Zed. Boring, but so, so helpful, the U.K.’s National Health Service website is a model of constraint and conscious design. When I had real health challenges a few years ago, I relied on [this site](https://www.nhs.uk/?ref=andrewboardman.com) to guide me about medications, symptoms, and good questions to ask my doctors. I literally trusted it with my life. There is not too much higher praise than that. --- ### Quote of the Week *Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design; it’s decoration.* \~ Jeffrey Zeldman --- Thank you again for subscribing, dear designer. If this newsletter was forwarded, you can get your very own subscription by pushing this button. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) You can also share this post with this here button. ### Design without Photography URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/design-without-photography/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:41:32.000Z Dear Designer, In the [last issue of Dear Designer](https://www.andrewboardman.com/against-photography/), I argued that not only is the continued mass use of photography a scourge on the planet — but that designers should consider refraining (or even reframing) their use of it. Yes, there is a bit of a modest proposal here. I do not expect photographers to close up shop, for designers to walk away from their smartphones, or for communications professionals to employ hand-illustration for every project. However, photography is and will continue to be a real challenge for us. More servers, more energy, more computing power is used every single day to store, manage and deliver these images online. Attention drain because of photography and video overuse on social media is increasing, especially on the youngest and most impressionable. Our AI overlords are pumping out terrible, ugly, and ridiculous mashups of our collective previous photographic efforts, only to put more strain on our electrical grid and our precious souls. We are entering an era of peak photography, in which nearly every single thing that can be photographed has been photographed. One colleague emailed me a few weeks ago that perhaps we could delete all photographs on all servers and, instead of shooting the same damn thing (a cup of coffee on a desk, five multigenerational colleagues looking over a computer screen, etc.), we can just source images from a library of Babel. ### We can do better We can do better than photography in many, many communications instances. Perhaps we invoke the Pareto principle: can we get to the point where 80% of our design work does not use photographs of any sort? What the hell would that look like? I contend that it will looking freaking fantastic. Can I challenge you to try? **What does design look like without photography?** A few ideas. ### Draw your shit There is no better way to connect with the visual world than drawing it. The power of observation is honed so finely, so completely and so beautifully when a an artist/designer sits down to draw it. Light and shadow come to life. Textures are rendered into planar form. Outlines and shapes are crafted into functioning two-dimensional realities. A still life is nothing more than life, truly, stilled. Drawing is a the world’s way of saying look at me. We gain so much from the subjective observation of dimensionality. With time, we gain insight into our own deft and sloppy proclivities, learning how we see the universe which is limited in scope only by us. A mistaken pen stroke, an ink splotch, a broken pencil lead pushed too heavily into the page. These challenges become more formal reinventions, incorporated into the drawing itself. I think about Philip Guston’s drawings and paintings, whose every mark was erudite yet crassly inaccurate and crude — because his universal interpretation was trying, faulty and grotesque. ![photo of detail from Philip Guston painting](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/6b587226-2e72-4538-b97f-6b58fa4e7491_4729x3546-jpeg.jpg) Detail from painting by Philip Guston. Taken by author. Drawing gives the an ungridded world new form. What would your designs look like with drawings (your or others)? If you can’t draw or won't draw, would you hire others to illustrate for you? (Yes, I recognize that illustrations become photographic objects in digital form. But illustrations are also lighter in weight and take up less space on our ballooning servers. Drawing is also truly unique, unlike much photography.) ### Fonts, type and typography Who said that any given design needs to have a photograph, or even a drawing? Nobody. What if your design simply used fonts, type and typographic flourishes to get your point across? What if every page of your website consisted of beautifully set type using one font — or maybe even 20 fonts? And who made the law that you can only use two fonts (e.g. a paired sans serif and a serif) in a brand, website, article, book or newsletter? Would the monotony of one typeface bore your audience? What if it was set at many different sizes like [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) does? Would a huge variety of typefaces in a project overwhelm or distract? Would using type with many different sizes and placement provide better hierarchy and add curiosity and courage to the messaging — and help ensure that ideas are coming across more logically, uninterrupted by the presence of added images, galleries and visuals? Would your work look more compelling and unique with type only? Would your client appreciate the clarity and consistency of seeing a design that only used their words to more full effect? And an interesting productivity question. Would your work be easier or harder without photography? Would it be more pleasurable to design and create anew? Would your time being spent researching appropriate typefaces (more than 250,000 on the web) offer new learning opportunities about typography and type design? The saying “a picture is worth a thousands words” was first illustrated in this advertisement in Ohio in 1913 in the *Piqua Leader-Dispatch* newspaper. No photos. Just 94 words. And a nice rounded black border. ![ad from newspaper with black text in different fonts with black border](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/40983ff8-c639-4f94-b95f-51e99879fcdc_386x450-jpeg.jpg) One Look is Worth Much, Much More Than 94 Words. Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1913%5FPiqua%5FOhio%5FAdvertisement%5F-%5FOne%5FLook%5FIs%5FWorth%5Fa%5FThousand%5FWords.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com) ### Shapes, shapes and more shapes Back in the early days of the web, a triangle shape would need to be drawn in Photoshop and integrated as an image on page. You can still do that, of course. But with [CSS](https://css-shape.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) and [JavaScript](https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5%5Fcanvas.asp?ref=andrewboardman.com), we no longer have to draw digital images — it can be done in code. Code renders quickly. It allows for animation and transitions and wonderful hover effects — all features that can be used to control a user’s experience and to highlight, present or showcase content. Shapes, buttressed by colour, grids, and good art direction can offer more to a website, book, magazine article, or product than photography. In some cases, a given shape or set of shapes can offer ambiguity and visual poetry that a plain old photograph cannot. In other cases, a shape or shapes can offer clearer insight, offering the visitor assurance. \~\~\~ Try to design without photography. See what happens and let me know. I’ve learned that not using photography in my projects can be liberating. There is tremendous beauty in constraint and redefinition. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-10.png) --- ## TypeQuote Updates and Paid Features A few quick notes. First, I’ve spent a lot of time working with my developer to refine [TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?id=in-life-we-cannot-always-control-the-first-arrow-however-the-second-arrow-is-our-reaction-to-the-first-the-second-arrow-is-optional&ref=andrewboardman.com). It’s come a long way in a short period of time. This is a new website that features one quote by one author every single day. So far, a few months of quotes are published and my goal is to make the relevant to designers (nee artists) and others who may need inspiration or just a tiny little pick-me-up. You can easily share quotes with others using the little share button on the bottom right. If you want to share on social media, previews should be working across platforms. And if you have a quote you’d like to feature, please let me know by responding to this newsletter. Second, I would like to offer additional features to paid subscribers to [Dear Designer](https://deardesigner.substack.com/). Right now, this newsletter is entirely free and the vast majority of it will remain that way. But I would like to earn some money from publishing and I have a number of ideas for paid features, including support guides for designers who are struggling, monthly chats with other designers, and workflow insights into how I work. I’ll have more about this in the fall. But, in the meantime, if there is a paid feature you might like to see, dear designer, please let me know. Thank you for being a subscriber to Dear Designer. (I recognize that I’m on a bi-monthly schedule instead of a weekly one right now. Summer in Montreal is my only excuse.) --- ### Image of the Week ![mechanical drawing of numerous objects in black and white](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/e1a28503-7074-4973-9608-2eb6a54c5f34_1024x518-jpeg.jpg) Three drawings by Francis Picabia. (left) **Le saint des saints c'est de moi qu'il s'agit dans ce portrait* (1 July 1915); (center) **Portrait d'une jeune fille americaine dans l'état de nudité* (5 July 1915): (right) **J'ai vu et c'est de toi qu'il s'agit, De Zayas! De Zayas! Je suis venu sur les rivages du Pont-Euxin* (1915). Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francis%5FPicabia,%5F1915,%5FNew%5FYork..jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com) One of my fave artists is Francis Picabia. Born in 1879 in France, Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia moved between movements fluidly — from Impressionism to Dadaism to Cubism to Surrealism. He did it with panache and joy, poking fun at commercial culture while also writing visual poetry and experimenting with type, painting and drawing and collaging. In this set of drawings from 1915, Picabia diagrams machines that look like they came out of a machinist’s manual but are actually working poems. Strange, delightful and unproductive images that look so, so 2025. --- ### Quote of the Week *The aim of art is to get us to dream, just like music, for it expresses a mood projected onto the canvas, which arouses identical sensations in the viewer.* \~ Francis Picabia --- Thank you again for subscribing, dear designer. If this newsletter was forwarded, you can get your very own subscription here. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) Here is the same button for effect! [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) You can also share this post with this button. ### Against Photography URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/against-photography/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:41:44.000Z Dear Designer, Over the past few weeks, I’ve been going back and forth about buying a brand spanking new camera. Yes, I have a late model iPhone with a decent camera. And I have a number of decade-old digital and film cameras sitting around, mostly collecting dust. And I realize that the best camera is the one you actually use. After a lot of research, I settled on what the kids are buying these days — the pocket-friendly, highly versatile, and good-looking Fujifilm X100VI. And why not? I have been shooting since I was 12 years old. I had a darkroom in parents’ basement when I was 15, developing my own black and white film and arty prints. In grad school, I taught photography to fine arts undergraduates for a a couple of years. I loved teaching photography. I love photography. I have even loved photographers. I deeply appreciate photography in all of its complexity, nuance and silliness. I [spent](https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/24984-annie-leibovitz/?ref=andrewboardman.com) [years](https://www.manray.net/?ref=andrewboardman.com) [studying](https://www.artnet.com/artists/diane-arbus/?ref=andrewboardman.com) [the](https://bruceweber.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) [greats](https://moholy-nagy.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com). I have nearly 50,000 photographs in my library. And I shoot with my iPhone almost every day. But something recently shifted for me. I have been trying to figure out how to write about this. Photography, brilliant, brash, and bracing, has become a scourge on our planet and for our souls. And I think it’s high time that we designers fundamentally reconsider its use. In fact, I believe we should stop using photographs in our work. ## A manifesto against photography Some 50 years ago, the philosopher Susan Sontag wrote a very important essay called “On Photography” where she presciently recognized the immense power that photographs were having on our culture, on capitalism, and on our capacity for compassion. She tore the veil of the good times that photography tries to engender. Sontag wrote that photography and the machinery of photographic reproduction (including that silicon device in your pocket and those videos it turns out) turns all subjects into objects: > Like guns and cars, cameras are fantasy-machines whose use is addictive… there is something predatory in the act of taking a picture. To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. This form of reification was not new. Feminist critical theory explored it concept for years. The male gaze, the raw objectification of women, the misconceived concretization of the world through ideology… these are old and well-worn tropes. But today, we march towards new digital frontiers in which intelligence is made artificial, in which servers are spies, and in which truth is in turmoil. If Dear Designer is a project of praxis — a public combination of design theory and practice — I offer the following points as a preliminary manifesto against photography. 1. We are saturated in photographs. There are 5.3 billion photos shot every day, globally. The vast majority of these images will never be looked at again. We are not swimming in images — we are sinking in them. 2. Storing photography is irresponsible. There are now 15 trillion digital images in existence. All of them are sitting on server farms, which use massive amounts of electricity to maintain, back up, and cool. 3. There is nothing new to shoot, except for people and events. Everything has been photographed a billion times. Documenting our every move for others creates more yearning, anxiety and restlessness. 4. Photography fuels a rapacious tourism. Social media has created fossil-fuelled global vacationing, leading to cities that can afford tourism but not human habitation. Venice is empty of people and full of visitors. 5. Photography lies. A photograph is always already a poor interpretation of the real. But we accept the opposite. With further advances in technology, it will be impossible to tell what is objectively true. 6. Photography is an extractive activity. A photograph takes our collective reality and makes it unchanging. It shrinks our time into discrete experiences without offering greater hope for a better future. 7. Cameras create vast waste. 1.4 billion phones (e.g. pocket cameras) are produced every year and 5.3 billion phones are disposed of. We cannot continue to make and export our e-waste indefinitely. 8. Photography is disrespectful and often grotesque. Pornography and violence on phones exploit our humanity. They take away our attention, our energy, and our courage to connect. 9. Photography stylizes poverty, race and kindness. While written language makes it hard to trivialize social challenges, photography makes issues paper thin, reinforcing our indifference and indecision. 10. Photography promotes globalized consumerism. Online commerce infatuates because every image is a substitute for the object. We buy needless objects because of the mass presentation of needful images. 11. Surveillance capitalism demands photographic acceptance. The cameras in our pockets are also tools for the mass monitoring our locations and behaviours by corporations and governments. 12. Photography offers undemanding communications. Photographs offer easy and fatuous production. With the rise of AI, we are left with mass-produced visual crumbs and impoverished imagery. ## So what are we left with? Without photography, what is left for designers? Can the graphic trifecta of text, image, and structure survive a world in which we reduce our dependence on photography for communications? *Yes.* *We can live without photography.* Excellent design can be realized without photography. If I have a goal here, it is to resurrect Sontag’s arguments against photography, and to challenge our dedication, devotion and desire for all things photographic… leading to a new ethical framework for design. In the next Dear Designer, I will try to outline the options and opportunities that exist for us if we choose to abandon, even experimentally, the use of photography. Meanwhile, thank you for reading. I’m very grateful to have you on this road of recovery and discovery with me as we explore the near term future of design. And to my photographer friends and colleagues, I say keep shooting. I love you. And no, I’m not buying that Fujifilm X100VI yet. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-11.png) --- ## Image of the Week ![an image of a postcard with the number ten in various forms with two hands holding up ten fingers and text below](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/de0b95f8-c238-412a-b5a4-7f768733d3f4_2500x5712-jpeg.jpg) **That’s the 2% limit!* (1963). Cooper & Beatty, Ltd. Design by Anthony (Tony) Mann (1927–2013). Credit: [Canadian Typography Archives](https://www.canadiantypography.ca/archives/items/lthats-the-2-limit-postcard-cooper-beatty-tony-mann-c1963?ref=andrewboardman.com) In 1963, Canadian designer Tony Mann created this little postcard for clients at Cooper & Beatty, an agency in Toronto, to let them know that invoices paid within ten days would receive a 2% discount. The top of the card shows seven different ways to represent the number 10: numerals, text, math, symbols and icons. There are probably a dozen more ways but, set in Standard Medium (Akzidenz Grotesk), the idea comes across perfectly. The bottom of the postcard explains further in more pointed and funny, if gendered, language. I appreciate the negative space, giving the designer power, and us, pause. --- ## Quote of the Week *Cameras define reality in the two ways essential to the workings of an advanced industrial society: as a spectacle (for masses) and as an object of surveillance (for rulers). The production of images also furnishes a ruling ideology. Social change is replaced by a change in images. The freedom to consume a plurality of images and goods is equated with freedom itself. The narrowing of free political choice to free economic consumption requires the unlimited production and consumption of images.* — Susan Sontag, from “On Photography” (1974) --- **There are nearly 400 subscribers like you on this list. Would you mind sharing this with another designer or artist friend?** I am trying to get to 1,000 subscribers. Thank you. Oh, and if you would like to subscribe now you can do that here, too. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### The Climate is On and We All Know Where the Switch Is. URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/the-climate-is-on-and-we-all-know/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:42:35.000Z Dear Designer, I woke up in the middle of the night and the oven light was on. I didn’t know how to shut it off. I looked everywhere — on the oven’s dashboard, under the lip of the dashboard, above the oven, near the oven. I even opened the oven and thought, maybe there is switch *inside* the oven. We recently moved (10 months ago) into a new apartment and I have still not figured out where all of the switches and dials and doohickeys are. And here I was, at 3 am, my wife away, and the stupid oven light was *on*. I opened and closed the oven door and the light, maddeningly and mightily, persisted to stay on. Despite my willing it to go away! I hit the head and then went back to sleep. In the morning, I had a better look at the dashboard and here is what I saw: ![input for an oven, including a number pad and other buttons like start, stop, off, etc.](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/28738584-f563-467c-91c4-d3e0c11969c7_4100x5126-jpeg.jpg) In plain (dusty) sight. Credit: Author Can you find the oven light button? Is it obvious or is it hidden? On most keypads, the bottom left-most key is reserved for the star or the asterisk. Yes, there is the oven light. And, after pressing it, yes, the light went off. Why this dumb, long-winded story of my own incompetence? In part, this is a tale of an anonymous appliance dashboard designer who figured it would be a good idea to jam the oven light switch in a spot some people would miss. Yes, design, by design, is a delicate act. But my larger point is that solutions are often right in front of our noses — despite or even because of bad design decisions that others make. We just need to look a little bit harder, for ourselves — and, preferably in the light of day. ## What does this have to do with climate change, dude? In my previous post I wrote that climate change is not going away, despite our own best wishes and hopes and the ongoing maximization of quotidian complexity accompanied by attention decay, bad state actors and the rise of non-human intelligence. A recent report shows that we are [thirty-six months away](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4l927dj5zo?ref=andrewboardman.com) from never going back to a planet that was 1.5 degrees Celsius cooler. What are we supposed to do if we want to address climate change amidst all of this, dear designer? Well, there are a lot of resources available. I want to call out a few to start your journey around designing for sustainability and then I’d like to do what I do best — editorialize. First, my good friend, Tim Frick, wrote a book called [Designing for Sustainability](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-for-sustainability/9781491935767/?ref=andrewboardman.com) many years ago. Tim is considered one of the leading voices in calling for the ethical creation of digital products and few folks understand the theoretical and practical implications of addressing climate through design-oriented technology better than him. Tim’s blog post [Is Your Digital Marketing Strategy at Odds with Your Climate Strategy?](https://www.mightybytes.com/blog/digital-marketing-strategy-climate-strategy/?ref=andrewboardman.com) is an excellent primer on how sustainability can be built into every action you do — from planning websites, to writing and managing content, to designing, developing and hosting your project. The post brings forth this salient quote by Gerry Govern: > When it comes to information and data, we have been sold the lie that it’s all in the Cloud, that it’s ethereal and immaterial. Digital is physical. Storing the current amount of data we have requires about 70 million servers. Each server caused between one and two tons of CO2 to manufacture, before we even consider the massive quantities of energy to run them, and the even more massive quantities of water to cool them. (I have had so many conversations with clients over the years that are surprised to learn that their website, email and Instagram usage have carbon footprints. They do because even electrons are physical entities.) Another superb resource, the Sustainable Web Design, was developed by both Tim and my wonderful colleague Tom Greenwood a few years ago. It offers up 94 clearly written [web sustainability recommendations](https://sustainablewebdesign.org/guidelines/?ref=andrewboardman.com), neatly annotated and beautifully presented and which align with high level design topics like UX, development, hosting and strategy. If you are a digital designer, this is an excellent place to dig in and drill down. The site starts by presenting this nugget on its homepage. > The internet currently produces approximately 3.7% of global carbon emissions, which are rising in line with our hunger to consume more data. Increasingly, web technologies are also being used to sow discontent, erode privacy, prompt unethical decisions, and, in some countries, undermine personal freedoms and the well-being of society. Finally, sustainable design is only one part of a large framework sometimes called ethical design. (And to raise the stakes, I like to think about the totality of collective design issues as design consciousness, which I’ve [written about earlier](https://gornisht.substack.com/p/design-consciousness-sort-of-explained).) To be a good steward of the environment as a designer means also being conscientious of how digital products are being used by, for, with and against us. A recent book called the [The Ethical Design Handbook](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/printed-books/ethical-design-handbook/?ref=andrewboardman.com) by Trine Falbe, Martin Michael Frederiksen and Kim Andersen is a superb guide that makes the business case for ethical design, embedding sustainable and ethical design practices into your work, and providing real world examples of how surveillance capitalism and dark patterns exist and how they can be addressed at a corporate or organizational level. The book discusses sustainable design at a systemic level, examining personal safety, mass manipulation, ethical governance models and respect-driven design. This quote from the book chilled me. > As Cracked Labs, an independent research institute and creative laboratory, states in its report about “Data Against People”: Systems that make decisions about people based on their data produce substantial adverse effects that can massively limit their choices, opportunities, and life-chances. ### Okay, now what, ‘Drew? I started to compile a short list of all of the activities a designer can do to start a path towards climate-conscious design, production and thinking. The list became ridiculously long and it’s hard, at least for me, to disentangle the emotional substrate of everything that needs to quickly be done from the practical, hard and painstaking realities of sustainable design. This is in line with what [Effective Altruists](https://www.effectivealtruism.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com) contend with — that we lionize and passionately fund solutions to the most urgent of social issues of our time, when our resources would go many times further if we approached these issues rationally. For instance, $100 spent on a local organic gardening initiative would go much farther feeding food insecure children in Burundi. So, if you’re new at this, here is how I suggest approaching sustainability and design. 1. **Read through the articles, books, and resources above.** These are foundational and the links they offer will help you to set sail on a unique path that follows your heart and adheres to best practices in sustainable digital design. And make sure that that path is *unique*. Find a way to bring what you love about user experience, design, illustration, coding, writing or advocacy and build out your own *personal* framework. Then, find the others (see #3 below). 2. **Revisit the natural world in your own time.** This is not about forcing yourself into some millennial paradigm of forest bathing or those more insane versions of outdoor adventuring like “coasteering” or [volcano boarding](https://www.suitcaseandi.com/volcano-boarding-nicaragua/?ref=andrewboardman.com). I’m talking about taking a walk, in a park maybe, without your smartphone or your camera. Or with — if it makes you feel better. Being consciously outside, when weather allows, provides your mind and body with instantaneous and multiple means to understand your deep interconnection with the environment — and the power and fragility of your function on the planet. 3. **Talk with another designer.** I know this one sounds frightfully easy, but it’s not, especially for some. Designers are mostly nerdy introverts and we tend to stick to ourselves. By reaching out to another designer, and asking them how they are feeling about the 35C/95F degree weather you’re experiencing today, a conversation about climate anxiety, inertia, privilege and possibility can open. Let’s face it — you won’t land on any quick solutions. But you will feel better knowing that you share this planet with designers who struggle with anxiety, inertia, privilege and possibility. Thanks for listening to this ramble. Stay cool. Until next week. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-12.png) --- ### Image of the week ![Mother Earth figure holding back the polluters with text people not polluters](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/619b285e-4c32-45f1-a5fd-d5643d9673a4_3300x2550-jpeg.jpg) People Not Polluters. Poster by [Sanya Hyland](https://www.sanyahyland.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). The Global Climate Strike movement that started in 2019, and which I supported in small ways, remains a powerful model for organizing and gave artists and designers a prominent voice. This poster by Sanya Hyland, an illustrator and printmaker based in Boston and Mexico City, presents the scale of what might happen if we join in with Mother Nature and protect our communities and homes. It is both strident and stirring and I love how Hyland builds a set of powerful stories here through hand lettering, a few colours, and off-kilter sizing. --- ### Quote of the week *A state of half-ignorance and half-indifference is a much more pervasive climate sickness than true denial or true fatalism.* \~David Wallace-Wells --- **Would you mind sharing this with a designer or artist friend?** I am trying to get to 1,000 subscribers, after which something else will assuredly happen! If you would like to subscribe now you can do that here, too. Thank you! [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Climate change isn’t taking a break URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/climate-change-isnt-taking-a-break/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:42:44.000Z Dear Designer, I’m taking a break from writing about design and AI this week because, well, there are equally important things to discuss than the slow burn of our existing careers and the glib divinations of our technology overlords. For instance, there is this thing called climate change. And I think it’s important not to just talk about the climate crisis but to talk about how and why we designers are not talking about the climate crisis. Yes, we are facing a massive transition to AI-driven design and content creation. Yes, agencies like the one I am helping to lead are likely going to feel the brunt most fully in the next few years, as the three most core endeavours of agency work — design, writing and coding — will be transmogrified by the systemization of visual production, the emergence of not just good but excellent copywriting, and the creative mechanization of development tools for coders. And, yes, as I have written previously, [independent designers are well positioned](https://www.andrewboardman.com/design-at-the-crossroads-a-shifting/) to move into better or adjacent positions when the time comes. The conversation around AI and the slowing economy, while *extremely* important, is also, yet again, another distraction — not unlike what the fossil fuel industry has been foisting upon us over the past 50 years. Truly, the timing of global authoritarian impulses and the rise of AI couldn’t be worse for climate communications and addressing the crisis that is underfoot. ### Wait wait, why is climate important again? There are so many reasons. Among them, climate change will: - Herald the spread of more infectious diseases around the world. - Create more extreme weather events like forest fires, floods and storms. - Accelerate the mass loss of thousands of species. Polar bears included. - Change agriculture patterns, changing how food is grown. - Produce heat waves, pollution and smog, increasing respiratory illnesses. - Potentially derail a future where AI abundance can actually help all of us. So, how has the climate crisis been brushed under the bed by us designers, developers and communications folks? First, there is a fever chill around truth-telling in North America. The oligarchs that assumed power are rolling the snowball down the hill and it’s picking up speed and volume every month. Policies from the previous administration — and in fact, the great [climate bill](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biden-signs-historic-climate-bill-as-scientists-applaud/?ref=andrewboardman.com) that was passed by Congress a few years ago — is being dismantled or pushed aside. Scientists are losing funding to continue their research around weather patterning, green energy, and urban conservation. Social justice and community initiatives related to climate are being shelved. Projects in academia related to climate, including studies of climate migration, agriculture, and water security, are being reduced or eliminated. The chill is real. Just talking about it can put one’s federally-funded work in the U.S. in jeopardy. Here is the current White House on [protecting us from green energy](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/protecting-american-energy-from-state-overreach/?ref=andrewboardman.com): > *My Administration is committed to unleashing American energy, especially through the removal of all illegitimate impediments to the identification, development, siting, production, investment in, or use of domestic energy resources — particularly oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources.* In Canada, climate is [technically](https://liberal.ca/cstrong/build/?ref=andrewboardman.com#building-a-clean-economy) on the present government’s agenda but provinces are more excited about new pipelines, jobs, and money than adaptation and migration initiatives. The Liberals’ on this subject: > *From the mining of minerals and metals, to harnessing clean energy, fueling oil and gas production, harvesting forests sustainably, and advancing aquaculture, the workers and businesses in these sectors are the backbone of our economy.* Second, in addition to the chilling effect from governments and the fossil fuel industry, we are now encountering complexity on an order that was unseen just a few years ago. Again, it’s not just corporations and governments changing the language of the game — it is an acceleration of age-old industries that are newly converging under the sign of market capitalization. This includes the interpenetration of technology, education, politics and culture in ways in which new meaning cannot be made fast enough for us to understand, let alone communicate, its effects. In other words, we are part of an ever faster moving ship, driving us to who-knows-where. *The disorientation you are feeling, that head-spinning momentum of our collective capture, is real.* ### But we designers have it figured out, right? Designers, like most ordinary folks who want to see the world improved during their watch, require consistency, regularity, and stability in order to embark upon concerted changes that require concrete and communal effort. As information becomes more widely unverifiable, as knowledge becomes increasingly commodified and confounded within private AI platforms, as expertise moves from a valued composite of earned knowledge and dedicated service, we are beginning to live in a rarified ideational environment in which everything is everywhere all at once. Designers, as rational actors, are having a difficult time professionally conversing because the public conversation itself is becoming either too complicated or irrational. Even mainstream liberal media are not addressing climate and the number of folks searching for these terms has [decreased](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=climate%20crisis&hl=en&ref=andrewboardman.com). Finally, designers are not talking about climate change because we don’t have the communities of interest required to embody and advance those conversations. I am a new and proud board member of the [RGD](https://rgd.ca/?ref=andrewboardman.com) (a Canadian association of graphic designers) and I am honoured to serve in that role; and yet, climate is rarely a topic of conversation of late. The AIGA, its larger American counterpart, barely scratches the surface, with the last online communique about climate occurring in 2021\. On the AIGA’s online journal called [Eye on Design](https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com), here are the core featured topics: ![screen of menu from eye on design](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/06697a66-eab1-48bc-9eb0-4ee9cd5f1b35_1745x725.png) Zero mention of **climate**, **environment** or **sustainability**. ### Why does climate change matter for designers anyway? But also, who cares? Why are we even talking about climate change? We are facing technological and economic upheaval — shouldn’t we designers let climate activists deal with climate change? There are three very practical reasons that climate matters to us, or should. First, designers — as the artists of the everyday — have outsized influence on what we make, buy, trade, own, collect, eat, and communicate. We have untold and unsung impact on consumerism, public safety, media and information sharing. We are the first responders when it comes to making ideas public — for and by our employers, our communities and ourselves. Second, designers — as motivators, marketers and communicators — have outsized capacity to change the way we work. We do have power. Most of us are young and advantaged by education, access to information, and the capacity to share our stories. Many of us are independent, motivated by social progress, and find ourselves connected to narrative and making things plain. Finally, wherever there is a dearth of truth-telling and conversation, there is opportunity. The climate crisis is, unfortunately, an entity manufactured by the great powers of modernity — national governments, fossil fuel industries and public complacence. But there are also ground-level actions that you can do to make a difference now, to distinguish yourself, to advance your career, to add to the conversation, and to support a cleaner future. How can our design consciousness extend to climate? And what can we do to focus on climate conversations? That’s for next week. Please let me know your thoughts about climate in the comments below? Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-13.png) --- ### Image of the week ![painted leather fire hat -- showing an eye in the clouds with the word vigilant in gold](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/2048db65-da7c-4a0a-8c28-e15291309068_1200x798-jpeg.jpg) Vigilant Fire Hat, National Museum of American History (1810-1806). Credit: [National Museum of American History](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah%5F1318717?ref=andrewboardman.com) Last week, firefighters were putting out horrendous forest fires across Canada. Their equipment has not changed tremendously in a few hundred years. Before the shell shaped helmets of today, individual fire fighters would paint their own hats using all kinds of religious, allegorical and unique fire company iconography. Here we have a fire hat from the early 1800s with a hand-painted “eye of providence” — an all-seeing eye that is truly “vigilant” (and a tiny bit scary). Here the word refers to the Vigilant Fire Company in Philadelphia. It doesn’t look like much in the way of protection but I am sure that any old hat offers some defence to brave folks who rush into buildings. --- ### Quote of the week *What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.* \~ Jane Goodall --- **Would you mind sharing this with a designer or artist friend?** I am trying to get to 1,000 subscribers, after which something else will surely happen! If you would like to subscribe now you can do that here, too. Thank you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Are We Designers Essential Workers? URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/are-we-designers-essential-workers/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:42:54.000Z Back in the early days of Covid when we watched parts of New York City fill up with refrigerated trucks, when sirens made you sit up twice, and when news dripped with dread, we learned about where our food came from. Turns it out it was farmers and factories. We also learned about the people who stocked our store shelves with toiler paper, the folks who went to work to bake our bread and make our meat, and the nurses and doctors that risked their lives to keep us healthy. We called them essential workers because they were. *They still are.* It’s easy to forget just how amazing and how amazingly fraught our social infrastructure is. We already have. At the end of February 2020, I was on a week-long visit to New York and Philadelphia to visit friends and family with my daughter. We were everywhere — on subways, at museums, with friends, in restaurants. Ten minutes into the news broadcasts there were stories about a virus in Wuhan and the thousands of people getting sick. But that was China. Experts and many reporting journalists said that it will probably be under control by the time it comes to North America. When we got back to Canada, my daughter was incredibly sick, having a very difficult time breathing. She was afraid to go to sleep because she didn’t know if she would wake up again. We thought it was a bad flu. She recovered, thank G-d. I got sick about a week later, landing me in the ER. I recovered, too, and I was never more thankful for those essential workers that came for me — the emergency responders in their gleaming white beautiful chariot ambulance. All of this is prologue to the question: **Are designers essential workers?** I am asking this question because there is the potential for *another* highly disruptive vector of collective change approaching us soon. It could be avian flu, accelerated climate disasters, or variable social unrest. And it may be artificial intelligence and its lovely new agentic form that is vectorized. I take all Silicon Valley pronouncements with three tablespoons of salt and two of apple cider vinegar, but last week Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic and the maker of Claude, [said](https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic?ref=andrewboardman.com) that AI could wipe out 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs and create unemployment of 10 to 20% in the next couple of years. There are signs that LinkedIn and other job sites are experiencing declining job listings. Amodei says: > *Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balanced — and 20% of people don't have jobs.* He goes on that governments are not talking about it, apparently afraid of their own shadow. Perhaps politicians are concerned about inadvertently panicking people and are frightened that whatever steps they take now will be incorrect, or worse, will ultimately undermine more useful responses to come. Perhaps, they are not worried, as that predicted future is still years away. Designers are white-collar workers, despite the fact that many have emerged from blue-collar families. So, if the government wants to stay ahead of this, what should they be doing for white-collar workers — and for us, dear designer? And do we even deserve government support? In other words, are we *essential*? On a [now-archived page](https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/crtcl-nfrstrctr/esf-sfe-en.aspx?ref=andrewboardman.com) of the Canadian Government website, the National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure classified essential workers according to these ten sectors during Covid-19: 1. Energy and Utilities 2. **Information and Communication Technologies** \[bold mine\] 3. Finance 4. Health 5. Food 6. Water 7. Transportation 8. Safety 9. Government 10. Manufacturing If this list still stands, slightly more than five years after the virus’s hellacious entrance on the world stage, are we designers still in that second category? We take information and communicate it to others using technology, right? We do. But what if AI is doing that? Then how *essential* are we designers to the “health, safety, security or economic well-being of Canadians and the effective functioning of government”? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that, if Amodei is right, most of us will *not* be deemed essential. — I asked the AI what it thought about all of this and how it would finish the essay. Having used the various chat GPTs over the past few years, I now consider AI to be almost autonomous and nearing sentience, if not consciousness. (More about this another time.) More importantly, I didn’t like the answers the specific GPT gave me. It was not because I think it was wrong — but because I think it was right. In a voice that sounded eerily like my own, I got this. > **We might not be essential workers, but we can choose to do essential work.** Not all design is equal. Making another optimized landing page for a shady crypto startup isn’t the same as designing accessible interfaces for government services or climate resilience tools. We get to decide whether we’re doing essential work — even if we ourselves aren’t officially recognized as such. And this. > **Let’s redefine “essential” on our own terms.** If governments won’t include designers in their lists, maybe that’s fine. We can build our own definitions — rooted in service, sustainability, equity, and care. But the AI was too much for me. It’s techno-optimism feels hollow — like it found a way to unwittingly gaslight me. We are not all going to be just fine. Most of us will. Not all. The AI is too powerful and too fast to paper over the cracks in our economic infrastructure. There is a grief here about our livelihoods and our work, our professional friendships as well as our capacity to understand. But as Jim Morison once said, “No one here gets out alive.” ### It can all be better than this So this is what I want to say. Maybe you were not born on this planet to be a “Social Media UX Design Lead” or a “Data-Driven Interface Experience Director” or a “Digital Analog Board Designer ” (a real post). Maybe, just maybe, your parents came together to give you this life so that you can be a force in other ways. To be a small yet gleaming star. To be a kind soul to every person you meet and to change their lives. To course correct just one person, shifting their unique momentum toward new perspectives and possibility. Maybe, just maybe, we weren’t meant to pay city, state, provincial, sales and federal taxes as well as an accountant to file those taxes. (I am pro-distribution of wealth but our tax regime is byzantine). Maybe we weren’t meant to pay Google for Gmail. Or to focus on personal productivity systems. To make coloured buttons in Figma. To click. Even to type. To be part of a machine that fascinates to distract and that orients towards anxiety. Maybe we were meant to be imperfectly perfect, the way you are now. I know this alternative calculus for our individual design lives doesn’t pay the bills. It’s incredibly hard to think that design may not be there as a profession for us. I still think it will — for many. But the odds are that the profession will change dramatically, again. Remember, there were thousands of paste-up artists in newsrooms in the 1950s and 1960s. They took printouts from others and put them into action, pasting them into place to create newspapers that were distributed to millions. There were also thousands of Linotype operators who sat in front of their huge 90-character keyboards every day in order to set in type all the news that was fit to print. I’m not making excuses for the techo-optimists, our AI overloads. They can afford to be utopian because the levers are in their hands, in the same way that all owners of capital have felt. But if there is a [great hollowing](https://sonderuncertainly.substack.com/p/shits-gonna-get-so-fucking-weird) (warning — click link only if you have time to descend quickly), perhaps a new social order will emerge that is better, more humane, more local, more free — and less administrative, less extracting, less unjust. No social arrangement stands long. But what took hundreds of years to change previous to the 19th century is now taking jut dozens of months or even weeks. We are not built for breakneck speed, designers and artists especially. We are witnesses to warnings and there is a lot we can do to mitigate and manage — but also much that we cannot. We need solidity and calm and also time to craft and to cry. Truly, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-14.png) --- ## Image of the Week ![postcard featuring foods and a scale for the restaurant Florent in NYC](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/5a4a5d7f-1e5f-40b3-8379-8d4fa2bc1242_1024x722-jpeg.jpg) Postcard, Restaurant Florent. Designed by Emily Oberman. Design Director: Tibor Kalman, offset lithography; 10 x 15 cm (4 x 5 15/16 in.); Gift of Tibor Kalman/ M & Co.; 1993-151-285\. Credit: [Cooper Hewitt](https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18644315/?ref=andrewboardman.com#image-rights). So many **postcards**. In the 1980s and 1990s, before email newsletters and social, we had printed matter. This is a brilliant postcard by [Emily Oberman](https://www.pentagram.com/about/emily-oberman?ref=andrewboardman.com), who once worked for Tibor Kalman’s agency M & Co. and who now is at Pentagram. Florent was located in the meatpacking district of Manhattan back then and was considered by *New York Magazine* as the “hottest downtown eating spot” and a key spot for many New Yorkers in the gay community. If the design of the place was anything like the design of the postcard, it must have been fantastic. Whether Florent was open at 4:30 am for coffee — that I do not know. --- ## Quote of the Week *None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after thought. Eat the delicious food. Walk in the sunshine. Jump in the ocean. Say the truth you're carrying in your heart like hidden treasure. Be silly. Be kind. Be weird. There's no time for anything else.* ― Nanea Hoffman Note: if you seek a ***Quote of the Day***, may I suggest my new [TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com)? --- **Would you mind sharing this with a designer or artist friend?** I am trying to get to 1,000 subscribers, after which something will surely happen! If you would like to subscribe now you can do that here, too. Thank you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### A Tiny Solution to the Zettabyte Era: TypeQuote URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/a-tiny-solution-to-the-zettabyte/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:43:18.000Z Dear Designer, There are about 2 million words in the English language. Approximately 170 million individual books have been published, with a shocking 11,000 new books coming out every single day. Harder to estimate still, but there are maybe 1 trillion words on the internet. And on that internet, there are approximately 180 zettabytes (each zettabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) of data, including photos of kittens and videos about making espressos in Teslas. If you wanted to download the entire internet, it would take you, oh, about 2 billion years. ### We live in the **Zettabyte Era**. How do we make sense of this inundation? How do we come to terms with so much “content” and so many people and organizations demanding our attention, our time, and our energy? Moreover, how do we designers and artists protect our precious minds and our expansive souls, as we absorb not just the digital universe but the vast and unfolding rhythms and relationships that come to us and confound us. One answer is **lessening**. Reduce our exposure to the zettabytes. Increasingly attenuate our attention to what corporations shove in front of us. And to become the teacher to ourselves that we wish we always had. This week I launched [**TypeQuote**](https://typequote.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), a new website that will publish one highly curated and highly opinionated quotation each and every day. It’s designed to be an everlasting machine for quotation marks. Why would I do such a thing? Three main reasons. 1. **Curated content.** I have always loved good quotations and I worship the great ones. While there are dozens of quotation sites out there, most of them suffer from feature bloat, truly terrible user experience, or just plain overwhelm. Many of these sites are just meant to serve up ads or clock your whereabouts or sell books. Finding a good quote for a newsletter or sharing on social media can be exhausting — I can often feel my own anxiety rise as I get deeper into the search for the perfect one. And half the time you don’t even know if the person to whom a quote is attributed is even accurate. For instance: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Often attributed to Albert Einstein or even Benjamin Franklin, [**some form of this quote**](https://www.history.com/articles/here-are-6-things-albert-einstein-never-said?ref=andrewboardman.com) actually goes back to the 19th century. On TypeQuote, I’ll indicate the original source (URL) for each quotation. Where I can’t, I’ll do my best to fact check it. 2. **Inspiration and provocation.** Nearly every piece of fresh content today, when it’s not meant to inform, is meant to either intrigue or provoke. That’s how attention and money are won. But most of the time, what we read, or are being subjected to, are either drivel or dross. In my wanderings online and off, I will be looking for quotes of under 100 words that make sense of the world in a very different way. They may inspire, anger, or argue but hopefully they will just work. Yes, I am sure that TypeQuote will also feature treacly, timeworn and threadbare quotes. And I apologize in advance for that — sometimes an oldie is also a goodie. But I’m going to do my best to find quotes that are fresh and on the frontier of fun or factuality. 3. **Expectation and aggregation.** There are a few newsletters (probably five) that I cannot wait to receive each week. There is something both profane and profound about awaiting regularly published content. On the quotidian side, there is the background anticipation of waiting and, when it arrives, there is this little hit of dopamine that resolves the tension or feeling of pre-loss. On a more esoteric side, we get to bear mini witness to the presence of a new communication with someone else across time and space. For TypeQuote, that delivery is doubled. While I myself am copying out and posting these quotations, the words themselves are written by others. Some are contemporaries. Some have passed. Some are well-known, while others more obscure. I like the idea that readers can find a new quote daily and receive it like a letter from beyond. At some point, I’ll probably have an automated newsletter and an RSS feed. TypeQuote is also meant to grow over time, compounding like any microblog. I am committed to running this over the next few years — and search, archives and other features will probably be added, at some point. Oh, there is a built-in sharing tool at the bottom-right of posts Much ado about nothing? Probably. **TypeQuote** is free. It is built to be extremely lightweight, using very little energy, and therefore, the site is light on the environment. It’s accessible to those with visual and other disabilities. It doesn’t track you or set cookies in your browser. It’s easy to navigate — you can arrow-key left and right through the quotes. Many people helped to make this happen. This site was lovingly developed by Vincent and Filippa of Calotte, a sustainability-minded dev studio based in Québec. It runs on Kirby, a lightweight CMS that keeps things speedy by storing everything as plain text. The typography blends Good Type Foundry’s bike-friendly GTF Rouleuer with Klim’s sophisticated Domaine Text and Grilli Type’s oddball GT Alpina. If you have a quote you’d like to see featured, please let me know, dear designer. As always, thank you for reading and thank you for your feedback. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-15.png) --- ### Image of the Week [![drawing of a centaur made up of roman words in body and soul](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b1945ddf-0e53-40c3-b93e-a2d8bad7c629_667x800.avif)](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/aratea-making-pictures-with-words-in-the-9th-century/?ref=andrewboardman.com) Sometimes words make images, not just describe them. In this stunning [example](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/aratea-making-pictures-with-words-in-the-9th-century/?ref=andrewboardman.com) from 820 AD in Northern France, we see a Roman astronomy text from the first century BC applied to a centaur, the sign of Sagittarius. I love how the text carefully undulates through the legs and the tail, giving the half-man, half-horse a feeling of movement walking across the ground of larger text. The text flattens the body while the drawn parts create depth and texture to the centaur. The drawing leaves plenty of white space and plenty to the imagination. --- ### Quote of the Week *He wrapped himself in quotations — as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.* \~ Rudyard Kipling --- **Would you do me a favour and share this with a designer or artist friend?** I would be grateful. I am trying to get to 1,000 subscribers, after which something else will surely happen! If you want to subscribe you can do that here, too. Thank you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Designers Don’t Read Books (at Work) URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/designers-dont-read-books-at-work/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:43:30.000Z Dear Designer, I had an incredible, luxurious and odd studio space for over ten years. We called it the tree house. Built on top of a century-old mechanic’s garage just a few meters behind restaurants and storefronts, I was the first tenant in this custom timber frame building that looked like it could withstand 350 mile an hour winds. ![four people sitting and looking at the camera in a wood studio](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/a9faba2b-0847-46c6-b258-012edb247304_1600x1067-jpeg.jpg) Me and the Manoverboard team in our treehouse in 2019\. Taken from the blog post [Leaving Morley](https://manoverboard.com/blog/leaving-morley/?ref=andrewboardman.com). A red steel roof protected us from the elements. Me and five or six designers and developers had desks near a bright, day lit window where we could watch the snow, the rain, the wind and the world. I had my own private office, a place of quiet refuge that I never felt like I quite deserved. It was weird to be separated from the rest of the team but, as the principal of the studio and its resident sales dude, it was wisely beneficial — I could keep the many private phone calls related to client development, partnerships, money and management private. Within that little office, I had shelves and shelves of books. Most of them were related to design. Others were about running a B Corporation and a conscious company. Still others were about typography, design history, branding, organizational innovation, self development, and managing in a world contested by commerce. There were hundreds of books. Do you know how many I read during the daylight hours? Fewer than a dozen. And I can easily count on two hands the number of days that I spent reading those books between my work hours of 8 am to 6 pm. Let’s do a calculation for a more exacting science. That’s 10 hours per day x 5 days per week x 45 weeks per year x 10 years = 22,500 hours spent at the studio. If I read 10 days, that amounts to less than .01% of my work life with my head in a book. I love books. I buy books. I’m a measured reader but I read books all of the time. Well, at night or on weekends and lately, in the morning before work. ### So, why didn’t I read books during working hours? (Note: By books, I mean paper books. While many read books on a device or by audio, I’m talking old school, wood pulp pages bound with covers and glue.) First and foremost, the knowledge industry (adjacent to the culture industry but spiked with invention and ideation instead of entertainment), no longer allows for reading books on company time. That sounds weird, especially since I owned my own studio. But it’s true. Look around your office. Visit a co-working space. Go to any cafe. Unless you’re in a library, the number of people visibly reading a book during the day is near zero. It’s not that we are not “allowed” to read. We designers read all of the time — on a screen or perhaps on a printed 8.5 x 11” sheet of paper. But, today, we are expected to learn, think and create on the same devices that we use to read. In other words, the activity of modern knowledge acquisition by workers is built around a highly circumscribed culture of media discrimination. Basically, we are expected to learn on the same tools that we use in order to produce. Our culture valourizes digital as professional pursuit. What is this about? I suspect it’s about a kind of mutually enforced alignment around productivity. If someone is seen reading a book, it must be for “pleasure”. The person isn’t “working” per se; they are “enjoying themselves”. They are being spirited away. They are “relaxing”. They are not adding to the economic activity of our digital environment — instead, they are taking time for “themselves”. This is insane. G-d forbid that you are caught reading a book on productivity and efficiency at work. The second and related reason, we don’t read at work is the acute perception that book reading means time is being wasted. We are no longer allowed to “abuse” or “squander” our own time. Stoicism is a popular conceptual framework for personal growth and self development these days. Many authors have built a very good living telling us to be stoic and strong, to hold on with quiet determination, to manage our lives with quicksilver and a dash of mercury. Quotes by Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus (respectively) appear in our feeds: *Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, do good.* *How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?* While there are clear benefits to Stoicism such as living to day as if it’s your last, the internal pressures required to make every hour productive is a conservative feint. I can tell you that it hurt me. During those ten years of running Manoverboard in that fine, fine studio, I overworked myself, sometimes driving myself into a muddle, or a puddle, depending. I thought: I cannot waste a moment or I will lose out on an opportunity, reduce my social impact or authority, or worse, disappoint my team and our clients. This is a fool’s bargain. I was the fool. Reading a hardcover book during the day felt like I was putting me over the machine. So I didn’t do it. The machine, and, I suppose, the economy, won out 99.99% of the time. The third reason people don’t read during the day relates to attention. There are innumerable (ahem) books, on the attention crisis, starting with Nicholas Carr’s celebrated *The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains* (2010), which is ruining our capacity to focus, to maintain interest, and to persist in learning. Carr writes of early media theorist Malcolm McLuhan: > What both enthusiast and skeptic miss is what McLuhan saw: that in the long run a medium's content matters less than the medium itself in influencing how we think and act. As our window onto the world, and onto ourselves, a popular medium molds what we see and how we see it—and eventually, if we use it enough, it changes who we are, as individuals and as a society. "The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts," wrote McLuhan. Rather, they alter "patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance." The showman exaggerates to make his point, but the point stands. Media work their magic, or their mischief, on the nervous system itself. There has been some reevaluation of this theory lately. Historically, every technical innovation since the Renaissance has created untold cries of worry. Maybe it’s not attention deficit disorders or digital devices that are keeping us from books but the sheer number of activities simultaneously available to us knowledge workers. Maybe there are just too many wonderful ways to spend an hour. But I know that my attention span is diminished. On a good night, I can read for 30 minutes before falling off. If I’m outdoors, I can read longer — perhaps 1.5 hours; there is usually no fridge, computer, or other pleasurable distractions. If I’m inside, on the couch or chair, I can clock an hour before becoming either bored or bottlenecked. The attention economy is a real issue that deserves our attention. Corporate monopolies, advertisers, and device manufacturers outpace each other to compete for our 1,000 minutes of awake time. Americans [spend](https://explodingtopics.com/blog/social-media-usage?ref=andrewboardman.com#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20latest%20available,on%20social%20media%20than%20Americans.) about 2.25 hours per day on social media. Canadians spend fewer hours, at around 1.5 per day. But worldwide, these numbers are increasing, thanks to Facebook, TikTok, X, Instagram and Snapchat in that order. Or maybe not. According to Publishers Weekly, after two years of mild declines, print book sales saw a [1% increase in 2024](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/96842-print-book-sales-saw-a-small-sales-increase-in-2024.html?ref=andrewboardman.com)! More people are buying books, especially adult non-fiction, the exact types of books that designers might be reading during the day (or evening, and night). I’m heading to a design-focused bookstore this week. Maybe see you there, dear designer. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-16.png) --- ### Bonus: Announcing TypeQuote ![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/378ed854-bc9a-4f38-b6bd-20d84da8e511_2185x1186-heic.jpg) I have always loved a good quote. A great quote is even better. It can challenge your every fibre and inspire our every move. As a bonus feature for subscribers (I know, there aren’t too many), today I am launching [TypeQuote](https://typequote.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), a project I’ve been thinking about for years: a site that features quotations that I love or that I think are important. Each day, a new quote will appear, automagically. The site will feature quotes, long and short, good and great, about design, typography, books, writing, existence and cats. In the next issue of Dear Designer, I’ll explain and explore TypeQuote. Stay tuned. --- ### Image of the Week ![cylinder with or you will not be able to read this printed in black and white](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/0816d0d2-7c5b-4ed3-ae95-c0d88a80a5f4_946x405-jpeg.jpg) Image from **Cryptography: or the History, Principles, and Practice of Cipher-Writing*, by Frederick Edward Hulme; 1898; Ward, London. When I was eight, I came up with a system of secret letters that I could use to communicate with one of my friends. Each letter of the alphabet had an odd and corresponding made-up glyph. I found the cheat sheet a few years ago but I’ll have to dig it up again. I love the above illustration from a book called [Cryptography](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cryptography-or-the-history-principles-and-practice-of-cipher-writing-1898/?ref=andrewboardman.com) by Frederick Edward Hulme (1841–1909), an artist and naturalist. Here, Hulme shows a piece of paper that is wrapped around a certain size cylinder that allows the reader to decipher the message. If the cylinder is smaller or larger — or, if the prospective reader doesn’t recognize the feint — all you see are a bunch of lines or half letters. First mentioned in the 7th century BC, the [scytale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scytale?ref=andrewboardman.com) may have been used for authentication and not critical messages. Perhaps it was too easy to break by those Greeks, who had more time on their hands and fewer screens. --- ### Quote of the week *Rationality is what we do to organize the world, to make it possible to predict. Art is the rehearsal for the inapplicability and failure of that process.* \~ Brian Eno --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. **Would you do me a favour and share this with a designer or artist friend?** I would be grateful. I am trying to get to 1,000 subscribers, after which something will happen. If you want to subscribe you can do that here. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Designers Don’t Need AI to Design URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/designers-dont-need-ai-to-design/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:43:48.000Z **First, a big old welcome to the dozens of new subscribers to Dear Designer. I’m tickled and honoured that you’re here.** I hope you like what you read and see. If you don’t, let me know. If you do, let me know. I’m really open to any feedback. Here goes. --- ![Jackson Pollock painting surrounded by scribbles](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/5371948f-6b7b-484d-b1ce-b1540c7cb554_3569x2497-2.png) Scribbles. Credit: JP and [AB](https://substack.com/@andrewboardman?ref=andrewboardman.com) Dear Designer, I’m reading both (and multiple) sides of the AI conversation and the complexity is maddening and deep. The clouds move in and then they move out, the light in hot pursuit of putting heat on the subject. The air is heavy. One global analyst shows that we are heading toward economic devastation and a time of untold social depravity. Another presents a future as one that, while imperfect, presents us lifted from the rigours and ridiculousness of a life of modern task management. And yet another shows that we will enter a period of high dalliance, happiness and pleasure. For us designers, I think we should start the question with a therapeutic one. ### **What is it that we want?** What do designers *want* from our chosen path and our imagined future? If we start from here — from *desire and hope* — we have the opportunity to interrogate what generative AI and LLMs offer and discover what we might want to learn from them. In contrast, starting from *need* is what the AI corporate overlords are asking of us. They, for the most part, are addressing corporate, shareholder, and market needs, framed by and connected to revenue, profit, and audience share, respectively. Two caveats before we jump in. First, despite having a darker outlook as a younger man, I now jump into a conversation about the present moment with less focus on human precarity, which is indeed real and getting more frightening, and more focus on human potentiality. I don’t see the world through rose coloured glasses, but what is shocking to me, right now, is that we could be on the precipice of creating a more humane, sustainable, peaceful, stable and unhurried world of work — if, the right mix of state, organizational and bureaucratic actors were in place. (Rutger Bregman, who in 2019 [**berated the billionaires**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mG-r%5F3eRCw&t=1336s&ref=andrewboardman.com) in Davos to “stop talking about philanthropy and start talking about taxes” apparently aligns here. I’m interested in reading his new book called [**Moral Ambition**](https://rutgerbregman.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), which makes a case for people to create legacy careers around societal benefit instead of professional ones that build personal wealth.) Second, while I’m only one designer with a particularly digital and social democrat bent, I am taking a stab at answering with the hope that it will open up a conversation around what it is that you, dear designer, need from generative AI, LLMs and other non-human intelligence models. Finally, there are those of you will say, and rightfully so, that you don’t need AI and that you want nothing to do with it. That AI is wasteful, resource intensive, grotesquely non-private and job killing. I sympathize 100%. The problem with a fully anti-AI stance is that the horse left the barn 10 years ago and the buggy is still in there. AI may not be as revolutionary as some indicate, it may take more time for it to deeply affect knowledge work, and it may be more nefarious than we can imagine. But it will change us. And grappling with our needs now is one pragmatic way to address what it is we theoretically want. ### Preliminary thoughts on what designers need from the AI **Accurate research**. To a large extent, what I want from AI is what it already delivers — the capacity to help me read, research, and review ideas related to a given topic. I am building a small website of quotes from famous, infamous and uncelebrated people and I am using a bit of AI to help me not only find relevant quotes but ensure that my sources are accurate. It works well enough but the AI requires constant fact checking and rechecking on my part. I don’t trust half the links it provides — and the other half — well, they are about as accurate as general search results. The AI offers a good textual foundation for the limited investigation and exploration I’m doing. But for richer and more sophisticated visual research, AI is a long way from being realizable, relevant or reliable. Google Image search has become contaminated with poor facsimiles of imagery from non-cited sources and the large AI models don’t yet feature the capacity to dig into the image goldmine that is the web. What do I need here? Accuracy and depth. **Better visitorship**. For digital design projects — I’m mostly speaking about the web — the one goal for all of our clients is to ensure that the relevant folks visit the relevant parts of a given website. Designers currently use a set of heuristics, user journeys, best practices, testing, heat maps and other models to help match what we want and expect audiences to see first, second and third on a given site or app. Plus guesswork. And finger in the wind. And unlimited doses of hope. What we need is to better be able to assure a client that a visitor is going to get the right details right the first or second time to a given project. If AI can help make educated predictions around user journey strategy, I believe that clients and their audiences succeed. **~~Greater collaboration~~**. I don’t know what this means, actually. Saving… **Supporting surprise**. The most memorable design offers up a challenge, a way of surprising the mind, creating a memory or cognitive conflict that propels the recipient to take a new breath or take action. This may be reducing 10,000 words into 10\. Or using a single and outrageous colour. Or a terrible font. Or something more grandiose or humble or grotesque or contrived. Even for traditional of media, audiences seek to be entertained, engrossed, energized. A big headline, a weird photo, a strange caption, a goofy title, an upended quote, an awful animation. If there is one thing that we will increasingly appreciate, it is humour. Hilarity is what drives drivel on most social channels these days. In the AI’s hands, I can see it going all kinds of wrong. But as the models learn irony and those inscrutable human qualities called mordancy, sarcasm and pique, perhaps the AI will offer up suggestions to surprise us, making our work more human, motivating and meaningful. **More time**. This is what all of us really want. You can have all of the money in the world but if your life is short (and it is), money is not supremely meaningful. Time to play. Time with our friends. Time to sit. Time to eat, walk, run, frolic and f\*ck up. Generative AI’s capacity to offer increased productivity is what is being touted. But for designers, what does that mean? For me, I want the AI to help me like a work pal might. Prioritize my tasks for me and remind me when I forgot something. Tell me when I am missing something or misremembering. Check my work. Offer me guidance on how I can make something better. Give me a hint or two without doing it for me. Essentially, I want the AI to be my virtual assistant, art director, and energetic visual researcher to be there sitting beside me, readied, and reliable. **What do designers *not* want?** We don’t want AI to freaking design for us. We don’t want it to “make design” as Figma excitedly presents now. We don’t want it to find crappy fonts from shitty foundries. We don’t want its fake imagery to show up in our designs. We also don’t want the AI to narrate our presentations. And we definitely don’t want the robots to fake-tell us that we’re doing [great](https://openai.com/index/sycophancy-in-gpt-4o/?ref=andrewboardman.com), thank you very much. If we want anything from AI, we want it to support our work like a good work pal might — and then go away, so that we, too, can go home and make our art. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-17.png) --- ### Image of the week ![various fonts being used in different ways on a page spread](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/2f90258b-e635-45eb-8046-4c14a9586cae_1280x1006-jpeg.jpg) Typeographic spreads from the book. Credit: Fonts by Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko. Book by Rudy VanderLans (editor), Stephen Coles (preface), Mr. Keedy (foreword). The great California-based foundry Emigre has released a 1,264-page chronicle of all of its type specimen books between 1986 and 2024\. It’s a massive accomplishment and the book — [Emigre Fonts: Type Specimens, 1986–2024](https://letterformarchive.org/shop/emigre-fonts/?ref=andrewboardman.com) **—** represents a (heavy) cornerstone in the history of design. I have a number of Emigre Magazines and type specimens but having them all bound together is pretty cool. Produced through Letterform Archive, I think this might be added to my collection soon. --- ### Quote of the week *The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.* \~ James Baldwin --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. **Would you do me a favour and share this with a designer/artist friend?** My goal is to get to 1,000 subscribers, after which I will consider another goal. Also, if you want to subscribe or recommend this thing, you can do that here. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### The Race Is the Easy Part URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/the-race-is-the-easy-part/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:44:00.000Z Dear Designer, On Saturday, I completed my first half marathon. It was not the prettiest of finishes, nor did I come in first (or last). I encountered everything that one could image during those 21.4 kilometres. Starting with the thought of “in no way should I be doing this” while surrounded by extremely fit, laughing and singing millennials and Gen Z runners sporting their bone induction headphones, their $400 shoes, and their extraordinarily high tech vests, which looks like they also contained oxygen. There was I, with my mid-length shorts and half-decent gear and single gel pack. Plus a hat. And AirPods. And an early model Apple Watch that played music when it felt like it. And my past-mid-life body. [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) I have been running since I was 23 or so. After grad school, and on a fellowship in Krakow, Poland, I decided it would be a great idea to take up running in the most polluted city in Europe. This was right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nearby was Nowa Huta, which sounds just like what it was — a new town dedicated to burning tremendous amounts coal — and a Soviet diss to the historic city of Krakow, which was a cultural and intellectual mainstay for 1,000 years. Anyway, that was the start of my running career, two words that didn’t really come together until, I think, yesterday. It was also the start of design career, or the start of my transition from being a painter to becoming someone working in the field of design. Why should you care about any of this? There are a number of what I might call psychic tenets that tie running and design together (for me) and I thought it might be of interest to enumerate them, as I continue to connect health, healing and the ever-intensifying practice of design. Caveat: I’m not really trying to encourage you to start a running practice. But if the net benefit is more running (or other form of exercise) for you, then yes, my encouragement was intentional! Mostly, my goal here is to show what running taught me about design. 1. **Independence**. This is the most important aspect of being a runner. *It’s all you.* One hundred percent *you*. You and a pair of shoes and your mid-length shorts. And probably a top. Some people belong to a running group, but that’s not my thing. I’m too introverted much of the time and too impatient most of the time to want to deal with others’ *mishigoss* (“Can you guys wait up while I go back and get another pair of gels?”). **You** run. Unlike being on a team, no one is going to put running on your calendar. As a designer and visual artist (remember that *you are both*), it is both imperative and satisfying to maintain and foster your personal independence, to learn to say no, to prioritize your time and your energy, and to stand firm on your values. Running means saying no to some things so that you can say yes to you. This was an incredibly hard thing for me to learn. Like democracy, personal independence is a hard-won affair. It takes constant vigilance and discipline to maintain and defend your running and your practice. 2. **Discipline**. For a number of years, I was unfit mentally and physically, in pain and with horrid anxiety, and I gave up my running practice. I literally could not get myself out the door some days. On other days, I found it hard to walk more than a few blocks. After moving to Montréal 9 month ago, I decided to tie my fresh start to a fresh running schedule. I started small. 1 k. 2 k. Then 3\. Then 4\. Then 5\. (One nice thing about keeping track of your “mileage” in kilometres is that you can clock larger sounding numbers.) It took weeks and months to crawl from zero to 10k and then 12k and 16k — and then the half marathon yesterday. There were mornings when I felt like absolute hell and I did it anyway. As designers, fear of the white page is similar. You open it up and you are confronted by a snowy hellscape. And you know that you have done this before. Writers block is a myth, or at the very least, a bad trope invented to dismiss creative individuals. We all know what it takes to get through the start of anything — it’s discipline and a bit of healthy self-talk. 3. **Informality**. A few weeks ago, I fell [on my face](https://www.andrewboardman.com/falling-upward-in-freezing-rain/)while out for a long training run. It was horrible. I thought it ended the possibility of doing the 21k this month, and perhaps ever running a longer distance. There is nothing more informal and unceremonious than falling on your face. You feel exactly like the most base elements that you are — a collection of skin and corpuscles tied together with bones and ligaments — intimately telling you that your flesh is a mere flash of finitude. Running forces you to confront, and give comfort to, your confidence in a very intimate manner. But, after the fall, I rallied. I came through it. And I finished the 21k in the time I allotted myself. Running trains you to honour your fragility and your resilience both, dear designer. It helps you see that, whatever your current station — student, practitioner, seeker, founder, director — the icy sidewalks will not be there forever. 4. **Iteration**. During the first ten minutes of a run, it’s not unusual to feel like crap. Then something happens and, over the next half hour, you’re on top of the world. Other runs are the opposite — you start off slow but strong and end up slow and weak. Why? Who knows. Because our bodies are weird. Too little sleep, too much sleep, an argument with a friend, drinking a darker beer, the way that you looked at your socks. For running and for design, we really don’t know how this stuff works. Yes, there is plenty of science and theory to both. But both contain glorious mystery. What we do know is that iteration — the consistent, diligent and often unjoyful repetition of activities — day over day and week after week, lead to breakthroughs. Not always and not always consistently, but primarily, we get out of iteration more than we can know. The outcome of any physical or mental work is directly proportional to the relevant input over time. Some say it’s 10,000 hours. Others put it at far less or far more. 5. **Discretion**. Connected to independence, *discretion* in running is the freedom to decide what you’re going to do, when you’re going to do it, and how you’re going to personally manage it. Lots of folks love Strava, an exercise app which tells everyone how much you’re running (or biking, whatever) and broadcasts your personal stats to the world. No thanks. I tried it out for a few weeks and the last thing I want is to telegraph to other people how crappy a runner I am. Not interesting. Running is about me, mostly. I enjoy the congrats and the high fives after a long run from others — and I love a good, private hand wave or nod of the head during a run — but it’s not necessary. As designers, too, hearing positive feedback is sweet, but I also don’t need to present everything to everyone. Like running, design- and art-making are messy, complicated and unfit for public consumption. I’d rather just do the thing, get it right in my own time and place, and then we can all talk about it later. Maybe. 6. **Physicality**. I learned how to design with paper, pencil and pasteup. I mean, there were computers, but we definitely printed stuff out, cut it up, and placed it carefully down. The physicality of design is something I still appreciate and I wish I could still design entirely on paper. I’m sure that, for you, dear designer, it all started with drawing: taking a “Violet (Purple)” out of a box of chewed up, blunted old crayons, and making lines and shapes. The early scribbles of my daughter are innocent and clear-eyed visions which I’ll treasure. And while most of us will never be able to draw like quite like that again, I think that every time we reach for a sheet of paper, we are also reaching into those early days of divine drawing. Running, too, is an act of full physicality. But instead of your hand doing the work, it is your entire body drawing a path as an acts of promise and potential. To run is to make lines in time. 7. **Reflection**. After a run, whether it’s 500 meters or 100 kilometres, there is necessarily a time of reflection. It’s kind of forced on you. The reflecting can be met by pain, or exhaustion, or anger coupled with defeat or distress. Or it could be met with mild exhilaration or heatstroke or sadness or glory. It’s hard to know what you might encounter after a run. And that’s the point, kind of. Your job as a runner and a designer / artist is not to get anywhere in particular but to proceed and to process. You hope that you might learn something after you’re done, but if not, that’s okay. Reflection means that you come to terms with what was, and to resolve to move forward with whatever you found. Running has taught me to be a better designer — and a better person. There are other physical activities, personal endeavours and career choices that are equally wonderful — but most are less solo, less individualistic and less forgiving. Running and most design practices are fuelled by acts of personal independence. Designers, methinks, make natural runners. I’m curious to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-18.png) --- ### Image of the week ![Open pages of book with black text on paper](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/0c021ddc-a1c4-4d65-96a8-b930f14a1d17_3000x1980-jpeg.jpg) **Punkt und Linie zu Fläche* (Bauhausbücher 9), Size: 23 x 19 cm, (1925). Albert Langen and Wassily Kandinsky. Credit: [Letterform Archive](https://oa.letterformarchive.org/item?workID=lfa%5Fbauhaus%5F0009&targPic=lfa%5Fbauhaus%5F0009%5F004.jpg&ref=andrewboardman.com) A page from a pamphlet called *Point and Line to Area* by Wassily Kandinsky. Even the simplest of forms — dots, lines, surfaces — have emotional effects on us viewers. I love how this spread uses various small typographic tricks in the most constrained and subtle of ways. This is one of fourteen different volumes published by the Bauhaus in the 1920s under the Bauhausbücher imprint. *Punkt und Linie zu Fläche* is a kind of continuation of Kandinsky’s [On the Spiritual in Art](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B004TOPONQ?linkCode=gg2&tag=braipick-20&ref=andrewboardman.com) (free on Kindle) — and here is a little excerpt from the latter. > When religion, science and morality are shaken… and when the outer supports threaten to fall, man turns his gaze from externals in on to himself. Literature, music and art are the first and most sensitive spheres in which this spiritual revolution makes itself felt. They reflect the dark picture of the present time and show the importance of what at first was only a little point of light noticed by few and for the great majority non-existent. Perhaps they even grow dark in their turn, but on the other hand they turn away from the soulless life of the present towards those substances and ideas which give free scope to the non-material strivings of the soul. --- ### Quote of the week *I always loved running… it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.* \~ Jesse Owens, African-American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games (during the Nazi regime) --- P.S. Thank you for reading this far, dear designer. **Would you do me a favour and share this with a designer/artist friend?** My goal is to get to 1,000 subscribers, after which I will consider another goal. Thank you and wishing you a good run (I mean week) ahead! Also: If you want to subscribe, [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### Imposter Syndrome Definitively Ends for Everyone at Age 58 URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/imposter-syndrome-definitively-ends/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:44:13.000Z Dear Designer, For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like a *total* imposter. Sure, there is a big f-ing part of me that still feels like I am completely faking it, calling it in, making it up, or putting it out. Part of me feels fraudulent, fricasseed or a flake. Yes, there is that still, strong, simpleton voice in my head that, for forty years, has whispered, “Drew, you don’t know what you’re doing and you sure as hell don’t know what you’re talking about.” But that voice is a little quieter now, not as strident, not as eager to extinguish my most longed for ideals and hopes and wants. Or, at least, it’s not quite as abominable in volume as it used to be. ### First, some questions. What is imposter syndrome? IS (pardon my diminutization, it helps) is not an actual psychological disorder. But it is a relatively ubiquitous psychic challenge for generally high achieving people that cannot accept their skills or accomplishments in their chosen profession. It is a form of arch self-doubt, an internalized fear that no matter what they do or what they say, they are swindling others because their success is predicated on their powers of deceit rather than their years of hard work, learning and knowledge. It’s a rotten trick, IS, not unlike how some people (like me) experience insomnia, in which they cannot sleep because they think they cannot fall asleep, so they do not sleep. IS is a trick of the mind in which tricks are overly minded. People with IS also often suffer from anxiety and depression, have a greater propensity for somatic issues, and it cuts across gender. Many designers I know suffer from IS. Why? My non-informed (there we go) theory is two-fold. In a practical way, those who are attracted to creative professions — writers, artists and their ilk — demand a lot of themselves in their delivery and presentation. They may not necessarily be perfectionists, but they know that their work (even the smallest of drawings, the shortest of poems, the simplest of patterns) is to be judged not simply on its own merits but on the totality of their very being. Creative individuals, at least in their early days of discovery and production, will often suffer from the narcissism of their own ideals. Imposter syndrome gives us, dear designers, asks us to look twice at the act of creating something new in the pantheon of the old. It offers an anxiety of disapproval and disappointment, protecting you from hurt, shame and humiliation. IS keeps you from working because it tells you that the work has already been done, and done better than you. And, if you are a student of cultural history, you recognize your own lightness in the rich and long chronicle of contributions from those that came before you. As a sufferer of IS, you feel that your small dot on time’s arrow diminishes as each and every day passes. But I think there is a second, more abstruse reason, that IS gets a command performance from designers and creative folks. Sensitive to the world around us, we are not just competing with millions of others in the pursuit of the original, the new, and the peculiar. We are also competing with the dynamism and glory of nature, of godhead and of our universe. Every day, tiny babies and massive stars are born, the grass grows gross and glassy green, and the rains come tumbling down. We humans are small and still in the mere midst of infinitude, the great unfolding of eons and energies all around us, time turning in tumult. Our slight voices, in this vast and vertiginous place, are quiet when we sleep and soft when we speak. We are not actually in competition with nature’s outrageous and overt momentum. But, also, how can we not be? Our every action is fraught and fragile, our love for one another contingent upon another, our creations thin and meagre, with only days or decades away from decay and oblivion. In this still, sweet presence of our existence, we push new things into the universe, hoping that they will take hold, last a little, stay for some time, all the while, we know they are both wild and wilted. And yet! We persist. Artists, creators, designers and writers, we make our claims and perform our stunts because we are also aligned with that great unfolding and we know that we ourselves benefit from our musings and our makings. The alternative is to close up or to close down. I’ve done that. And, let me tell you, the act of inaction is a terrible, frightening and frantic place to be. Imposter syndrome multiplied by creative paralysis is the recipe for panic. Oh, please, dear designer, do not stop creating. Next, question! How is it possible that I’m fifty-freaking eight? My birthday was only a month ago. I remember being in my thirties and looking at my parents and thinking, well, that’s pretty much it. And, whoa, okay, so that’s me now? I don’t feel like in any way, shape or form to be at the end of my career. I have, or I believe I have, years and years to give, to work, to deliver, to shelter, to deliberate and to provide. Finally, how do you overcome imposter syndrome, ideally before one turns into a senior citizen? (Also, who came up with that term? In other cultures, there are “elders”. In ours, we call those who are wise and wizened “citizens”, as if they are suddenly waiting out their quiescence on a short, green park bench.) I honestly don’t know, yet, but I am going to work on this. I do know that it can take a while and it can take a village — of friends, family and therapists. Learning to like yourself takes commitment. Being able to take (let alone give) an earnest compliment nowadays is an art form. Creating work without the fear of being called out, cancelled or crucified is increasingly difficult in a time of conservative cultures on both the right and the left. We, the makers of the art of the everyday, mostly need to be kinder to ourselves. Allow ourselves to enjoy those periods of inactivity when it is time for retreat, even when the retrenchment is lasting. Give ourselves license to run in a different direction when our hair is burning. Learn to listen and to learn and to listen. Create new magic amidst the mire. And to trust that the dark is also our companion in times of tumult and tribulation. As Nick Cave says, push the sky away. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-19.png) --- ### Image of the week ![Page from book showing 3 black and white photos of fish view of fisherman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/afabd0be-1a88-4b2c-a7ab-2e6737326422_1200x683-heic.jpg) Page from **Animal Life Under Water* by Francis Ward, M.D. (1920), Funk and Wagnalls Company. Credit: [Biodiversity Heritage Library](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39708168?ref=andrewboardman.com#page/245/mode/1up) Despite animals (and scientists) being all around us, we truly don’t know what they think, see or feel. In order to catch more and better fish, angler and scientist Francis Ward tried to figure out what a fish would see under water by taking photos beneath a lake. The result is a book of strange and beautiful images that may look exactly like what a fish sees — or do not look *anything* like what a fish sees. And does it matter? These are anthropomorphic conjectures, visionary and odd, as much Eraserhead as science. All of it bountiful. If you have a chance, scroll through the [book](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/122726?ref=andrewboardman.com#page/291/mode/1up) for more. Or put your iPhone in a bath and see what comes of it. --- ### Quote of the week *If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.* \~ Henry David Thoreau --- P.S. Thank you for reading, dear designer. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can get your very own subscription by clicking the button below. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) This newsletter is free and so are you. ### Design and Mystery URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/design-and-mystery/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:44:24.000Z Dear Designer, It’s probably time in the short history of this newsletter to put this idea out there. **We don’t know how design works.** Design theory has put forth numerous, competing, and composite ideas and frameworks as to how visual communications — in design, reduced to those most elemental objects of type, imagery, colour and structure — function. Designers, philosophers, and psychologists from Charles Sanders Peirce to Ellen Lupton have proposed numerous explanations for what design is and how it functions. But, fundamentally, these four base elements, individually and in sum, are more magical than material. Moreover, they are vulnerable to open interpretation, which means that there is a lot of noise around design but not much signal. (Perhaps related, fewer and fewer people are writing about design these days — and if they are, it is focused on the purely practical and the tactical.) Not only do we not know how design works as a tool of and for human communication — we also don’t really know how designers produce the visual objects we see every day. The putative reason is straightforward enough — design is an aesthetic act in which an inclination for subjectivity is valued in the same way that any art-making would be. We rely upon a single subject, an individual designer, alone or in concert with others, to create the criteria for a desired visual object and then to go about building that object. Designers use skills and experience to direct their attention to a solution or to create a new visual problem. But they also use guesswork, intuition, and a kind of kooky clairvoyance, which might also be called inspiration. Part of my project here, dear designer, is to make the case that designers need to reclaim their role as artists, especially in light of the rise of template design, generative AI, and commoditized production. But, to be clear, I am not trying to assign designers the designation of artist because they need to reposition themselves as modern, mechanistic producers. I’m making the claim that designers are artists not merely because I want artists to reclaim their historical privilege and to re-assert their value, though I am. Rather, I think it’s important to make the case that designers, as artists, recognize that their work is inherently imprecise and mysterious, despite a culture which asks for increased visual precision and a machine-like devotion in technical delivery. Graphic design as an aesthetic activity — whether creating websites or wallpaper — is inherently unstable, underdetermined, and unreliable. It is marvellously messy and messed up in the same way that a Jackson Pollock is — the chaos of our very nature depicted in strokes and strands of light and shadow. Design is about control and constraint despite its murky makeup. In October 1930, writer and scholar Beatrice Warde delivered a speech to the British Typographers Guild called [The Crystal Goblet](https://readings.design/PDF/The%20Crystal%20Goblet.pdf?ref=andrewboardman.com). It became instantly well known for its clarion call to others in the quickly growing field of mass communications, an endeavour that we now call “graphic design”. In her essay, Warde makes the comparison between a goblet made of crystal and the presentation of type on a page, both of which are meant to be invisible to their users. Words on a page strung together contain content in the same way that a goblet contains wine. Both drinkers and readers seek the same experience — enjoying the fruit of the vine is equivalent to imbibing the fruit of ideas. For Warde, users care about the glass goblet as much as they do the font in front of them — not much. > Wine is so strange and potent a thing that it has been used in the central ritual of religion in one place and time, and attacked by a virago with a hatchet in another. There is only one thing in the world that is capable of stirring and altering men's minds to the same extent, and that is the coherent expression of thought. That is man's chief miracle, unique to man. There is no 'explanation' whatever of the fact that I can make arbitrary sounds which will lead a total stranger to think my own thought. It is sheer magic that I should be able to hold a one-sided conversation by means of black marks on paper with an unknown person half-way across the world. Talking, broadcasting, writing, and printing are all quite literally forms of thought transference, and it is the ability and eagerness to transfer and receive the contents of the mind that is almost alone responsible for human civilization. Warde makes the case that the physical act of typesetting, which fulfills about 80% of graphic design’s typical mandate, is a kind of mystery. The “sheer magic” of “black marks on paper” is not just an anomaly of modern civilization — it is a uniquely peculiar act of communication across time and space. You and I, dear designer, are having a weird, one-way conversation through this very vehicle. What I’m trying to get at is that even at the very outset of “graphic design” (a phrase coined only eight years earlier by William Addison Dwiggins), theorists tried to rationalize and even instrumentalize design and yet could not keep their hands off its mystery. Type, colour, imagery and structure — each of these are draped in enigma. Cognitive psychologists [still don’t know](https://news.mit.edu/2024/scientists-find-neurons-process-language-on-different-timescales-0826?ref=andrewboardman.com) how letterforms come together in words and sentences to so quickly make meaning. The brain can retrieve the gist and any associated details about a given word in less than 200 microseconds. And the same applies to colour; there are objective attributes to colour itself but our subjective and cultural interpretation of them goes beyond what any theory can coherently and accurately describe. Imagery, as you know, is a fabulation. We can’t trust our eyes to distinguish fact from fiction, illusion from illustration, idea from idiocy. And content structure? Design and designers have always made use of whatever contemporary vehicle is available; folio one day, 16:9 the next. How all of these visual objects come together for us, across people and place, into received consciousness, is unexplained. Even in the case of generative AI, engineers and researchers are not sure how those manifold images are created and why some are more meaningful or marvellous. All of this leads me to believe that, despite what we are being told, dear designer, we are far from understanding our work and farther from being fundamentally replaced. Design, like all artistic practice, stems from the mastery of mystery, and commands us to stay attuned to the complexity of what is before us. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-20.png) --- ### Image of the week ![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/14ef9377-f68e-458b-94aa-a1346a9965fe_3665x4288-jpeg.jpg) Rosetta Stone, on display at the British Museum since 1802\. Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rosetta%5FStone%5F-%5Ffront%5Fface%5F-%5Fcorrected%5Fimage.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com#filelinks). This is a stunning image of the Rosetta Stone. If you are ever in the vicinity of the British Museum, be sure to visit this object. The gravity and gravitas of this document is unmistakable. Carved in 196 BC (about 2,200 years ago), the stone contains three texts, the first in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts and the bottom is in Ancient Greek. Found in 1799 by French colonists, it helped the west to finally decipher hieroglyphs and helped it understand the political, economic and spiritual belief systems of the ancient Egyptians. Hieroglyphs went untranslated for 1,200 years. --- ### Quote of the week *Design is one of the few disciplines that is a science as well as an art. Effective, meaningful design requires intellectual, rational rigor along with the ability to elicit emotions and beliefs. Thus, designers must balance both the logic and lyricism of humanity every time they design something, a task that requires a singularly mysterious skill.* \~ Debbie Millman --- P.S. Thank you for reading, dear designer. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can get your very own, half-decent subscription by clicking the button. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Falling Upward in Freezing Rain URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/falling-upward-in-freezing-rain/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:44:34.000Z Environment Canada said on its site: “Warning: freezing rain projected for the Montreal region. Possible harm to people, animals and vehicles.” I put on my morning jacket and went outside to have a look around. All of the cars were covered in a layer of ice. And I thought — perfect morning for a 16k run. I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea. I have been training for a half marathon for the past four months. I’m a hypochondriac and an anxious person, in and out of therapy and on and off meds, treating what ranges from health anxiety, sleep disorders, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder to social anxiety. But I like taking chances, for whatever reason. Calculated risks is just part of who I am as a human being, as a designer, as a business owner, as a worker. And, as a recipient of OCD, I’m a committed soul — once an idea is in my head, it’s hard to shake it out. So I strapped on my cleated, piss-covered sneakers (thanks, Peter, the cat) and the rest of my outdoor gear and made a run for it. The first five kilometres were great. I decided to stick to the areas around Parc La Fontaine, which were relatively clear of sleet and ice. Salted and gravelly, the parks service in Montreal does a good job of maintaining both walkways and bikeways. I was impressed with myself, a rare and irregular event. Here was I, outsmarting *la météo*, running at a good clip on sidewalks and pathways, getting to my 16k. I knew I could do it. I had faith and fortuity on my side. Around the 5.5k mark, I recall waving a friendly hello to another runner and then noticing a particularly icy patch of the sidewalk. I slowed down and then sped up and then fell down. Knees. Then hands. Then head. I’m an idiot. I thought I could outsmart Mother Nature. My human proclivities met my animal reality. Hubris to hurt. End of my run. I’m okay. I walked back home, on the grass, worried about a bad concussion, or worse. My face was messed up, my glasses crooked, and my knees a little worse for wear. But I’m okay. And I’m also not. I have to rest for a few days. I may have scared myself off of running the half. I frightened myself and my poor wife. I am dizzier than I am usually, which I have to keep an eye on now. I’m angry at myself for taking what amounted to a calculated risk in which the likelihood of negative impact was far higher in severity than the potential, projected payoff. Had I waited until the afternoon. Had I run more slowly. Had I stuck to one path instead of a few. Had I slowed down. I am not sure of the point. I am writing this because I think it’s important that we take chances in a risk averse culture. I think it’s important that artists and designers demand more of themselves than they do of others. I think it’s important that we challenge our own beliefs, assumptions and attitudes. But to do it without kindness to ourselves and our loved ones, forgetting the frailty of our bodies and our future selves, is also wrongheaded and misdirected. I blame myself and laud the stupidity of the effort. What drove me to potential calamity? The lessons are still unfolding — and I don’t want to make more of this than it is or was — but a few final thoughts, for now. - Taking a chance on yourself is the best investment you will make. My accountant told me this years ago and it was the best advice any accountant could give. - Failing is a bug, not a feature, of falling. At my advancing age, the job is to tell the truth. Failure is mostly an act of deception and self-perception. - We are both stronger and weaker than we believe. It’s okay to be both. And it’s okay to not yet recognize our strengths and weaknesses, too. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-21.png) --- ### Image of the week I have yet to give up on Instagram for one reason — there is so much important, beautiful, outrageous work continuously presented there. A few months ago, my daughter introduced me to the work of David Szauder, a Hungarian artist that has built his own generative AI models to create synthetic, trans-humanist worlds that combine historical photography and video with modern musical tropes and cool dance moves. If you have a few minutes or hours, take a [look](https://www.instagram.com/p/DGnzQQHIZCM/?img%5Findex=1&ref=andrewboardman.com) [at](https://www.instagram.com/p/DF5bEW0om08/?ref=andrewboardman.com) [what](https://www.instagram.com/p/DFqEjPkIwNk/?img%5Findex=1&ref=andrewboardman.com) [he](https://www.instagram.com/p/DE5EaJQovy6/?img%5Findex=1&ref=andrewboardman.com) [is](https://www.instagram.com/p/DEnCRd6oeq-/?ref=andrewboardman.com) [building](https://www.instagram.com/p/DD9xqWgofzD/?ref=andrewboardman.com). It is mesmerizing, memorable, momentous — and makes me ask questions that will have no answers. --- ## Quote of the week *I'm all about taking chances. You have to ask yourself, if you're not taking any chances, are you actually even living? Every time you walk out of your door and you're out in the world, you take a chance on not coming back. That is the danger and the dynamic of being alive.* \~ CeeLo Green --- P.S. Thank you for reading, dear designer. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can get your very own, half-decent subscription. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) This newsletter is free and so are you. ### Talking to the Refrigerator: Adventures in Not-Doing URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/talking-to-the-refrigerator-adventures/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:44:48.000Z Dear Designer, I am training for a half marathon, my first, and last week, I came down with a bad cold of some sort. Not the ‘vid or the flu, but a renegade little virus that took me down for the count for a few days. I didn’t have the [*koyekh*](https://jel.jewish-languages.org/words/3376?ref=andrewboardman.com), a word in Yiddish that of course sounds just like what it is (hard energy), to put together a longer essay. However, I did spend Saturday not being online, save for an occasional check of time and weather. Post-pandemic, this was often called a digital sabbath, but, for me, it’s actually just a Sabbath. For Jews, the day comes with the commandment not to work, not to shop, not to drive, and not to carry around objects. Moreover, it is explained that are we not to “create”. So, two things. We should see these old, archaic, religious observances, rites and rituals not as rarified, pre-technological, discrete phenomena but as behaviours that legitimately held important sway for people and cultures for thousands of years. We’ve somehow taken the various schticks out of spiritual practices and upended them into modern-day conveniences, figuring that everything else is dross. I recall reading Tiffany Shlain’s book [24/6](https://www.tiffanyshlain.com/24-6book?ref=andrewboardman.com) a few years ago, taking us on a “journey through time and technology, introducing a strategy for flourishing in our 24/7 world.” I also recall enjoying it and then forgetting everything she said the next week. Without deep ritual, without real intent, without reliable milestones and markers, without an embodied practice, most technical innovations, including giving up on technical innovations, is *bubkes* (Yiddish word for sheep droppings). Remember life hacks? Getting up at 5 am, greying out your phone, doing HIIT workouts — let’s face it, we know they are gimmicks that get us to grey out what our world really looks like. From now on, when there is a modern qualifier on a given behaviour, I am going to consider doing the behaviour alone. For instance: Digital sabbath —> **Sabbath** Multi-tasking —> **Tasking** Daily journaling —> **Journaling** Second, short digital detoxes are *hard*. By 3 pm, I was having a nap. By 4 pm, I was staring at my home screen. By 5 pm, I was starting to chew my wrists a little. By 6 pm, I was hoping that a friend would call me out of the blue. By 7 pm, I was looking for a reason to spend 8 minutes in front of the fridge. I spent Saturday socializing, walking, reading, sleeping and, well, eating. Not looking at my phone or computer for a day made me feel a bit more like a person by 7:08 pm. I felt much less anxious, except towards those last few hours. And I slept well for the first time in a long time. Give it a shot, dear designer — not a digital sabbath per se, but a real rest per me! Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-22.png) --- ### Image of the Week ![u.s. postage stamp of a plane flying upside -- red decoration and blue plane](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/8419d8a3-661d-4829-b31b-e26b60b9edf6_705x606-jpeg.jpg) U.S. Airmail stamp: Inverted Jenny Air Mail Issue of 1918, 24c. Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US%5FAirmail%5Finverted%5FJenny%5F24c%5F1918%5Fissue.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com) Nerd that I was and am, I used to collect stamps. Lots of them. I recently got rid of my entire postage stamp collection. I had bought nearly every U.S. commemorative stamp edition between 1974 and 1998\. Hundreds of stamps, neatly mounted in specially designed editions. Do you know much I got for them? $400\. Canadian. These stamps are beautiful objects — but they also take up a lot of space, which I simply don’t have anymore. Why did I *really* get rid of them? Because I wanted to fly differently. The above stamp, the **Inverted Jenny**, is perhaps the most famous of all U.S. stamps — an error of great beauty. Only one pane of 100 inverted stamps were found, making a single stamp worth about $2 million. I am pretty sure I did not have one in my collection. --- ### Quote of the Month *I have this anti-commercialism about me — I work with clients and get involved with their commercial needs, but it plays against my grain when it comes to my own situation. I'm not into style; I'm against style.* \~ Frank Gehry --- P.S. Thank you for reading, dear designer. If this newsletter was forwarded, you can get your very own, amazing subscription right here and right now. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Can an AI Design? Sure, it Can! Says the AI and its Marketers URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/can-an-ai-design-sure-it-can-says/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:44:58.000Z Dear Designer, I want to use this week’s newsletter to talk openly and offhandedly about generative AI and its current deployment in commercial digital design. There is a good chance that AI will come for some of our jobs in the near future — and my personal review of the blogging and newsletter landscape shows that not too many designers are speaking publicly or honestly about it. Yes, there are a few writers on Medium that are making a living scaring the bejesus out of designers. That must be fun! But I want to do the opposite — or at least turn the conversation 90 degrees around so that we can think about the current status of AI and the constellation of issues it provokes in an altogether different, rational, and colourful way. AKA, taking a piss. ### What the AI generators hype machine is saying We are getting a lot of marketing from the AI companies and I thought it might make sense to present their “point of view” here. Some of these companies have spent millions of dollars upselling us designers on using their wares. A few are monopolies and behemoths like Adobe and Figma while others are well-funded startups and upstarts like Ideogram, Midjourney and ChatGPT. If we do a close read of some of their marketing speak, we may be able to ascertain what their real goals are for them and for us — and how they will impact our daily lives and daily bread. And I wanted to test each of their tools and show you what some of the preliminary results are. Let’s first look at **Adobe**. Their Firefly product says this: > Generate images, audio, and now video all in one place with award-winning, commercially safe Firefly generative AI models. Go from ideation to production with seamless integration with your *favorite Adobe apps* \[italics mine\], giving you complete creative control. First off, they are indicating that we are going to make the entirety of our workflow faster and easier. And we’re going to do it with our “favorite Adobe apps”, each of which now have various generative AI tools integrated into their processors. Not only do we get to stay locked into their “ecosystem,” but through our overpriced Creative Cloud subscription, we gain the privilege of speeding up our use of those tools through enhancements and effects. So, I prompted Firefly to “create a logo for a law firm focusing on creative service businesses”. The result? ![highly detailed metal badge that shows a lawyer and some bad script](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/b1e0f807-90fc-45b9-a6ad-b33097942948_512x512-jpeg.jpg) Lalay Lkrt logo by the awesome Adobe. The AI created four images that look more or less like this one. It’s not exactly a logo. And it won’t satisfy any lawyer that I know. But it’s definitely *something*! Okay, remember, this is *Adobe’s* Firefly — a company that has helped create [over 9 billion images](https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/06/18/adobe-growth-stock-buy-artificial-intelligence-ai/?ref=andrewboardman.com) with its tools. Next, let’s look at **Figma**. Figma is doing its best to argue that they are on the side of us designers in the new AI game. Here is what they say on their [AI intro page](https://www.figma.com/blog/introducing-figma-ai/?ref=andrewboardman.com): > As with everything we do at Figma, our main goal is to give you the tools you need to do your best work—to look beyond the hype and find real solutions to real user problems. Through that lens, we’re excited to introduce Figma AI, a collection of features designed to help you work more efficiently and creatively. Whether you’re searching for inspiration, exploring multiple directions, or looking to automate tedious tasks, we’re building Figma AI to unblock you at any stage. What does mean? Faster and more “creative” designs. Do you know any designer that wants that? Over the past 30 years of being in the world of design, I don’t recall one designer that I have met who has said to me “Andrew, I’m trying to really speed up my design process and be more ‘creative’. Do you know of anything that can do that?” Not one person. Yes, many people have said that they would like to take the pain out of using various tools and they would like to be more effective. But truly creative time is a variable that aligns with the old adage of “garbage in, garbage out”. Faster design typically just means shitty design. We all know this. And yes, designers do want to be as impactful as they can, as do their client and managers. But almost nobody wants speed at the expense of quality. I wanted to put Figma’s AI beta called “First Draft” through its paces. Opening a brand new file in Figma, here is my prompt: “Please make a simple homepage for a three person law firm that only handles movie stars, influencers and technology startups — make it truly unique and engaging.” The result was this. ![homepage with a bunch of poorly set type and ai generated imagery and text -- all set in dark](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/193e5929-3bfd-4fca-8cde-1972142d53c0_1440x4293.png) StarLaw homepage by our friends at Figma. What is this refuse? A blond woman in a white shirt staring boldly at the black space beneath the logo for “StarLaw”. StarLaw. The header text overruns the entire top few blocks, making it not only illegible but downright deranged. Below, three different AI-generated images present young, fake millennials doing something or other related to entertainment and technology and none of them look either happy or speaking to one another. In the bottom photo, the poor subject on the right looks like a 12-year old boy in a cheap suit made for a 250-pound man. Everything about it says “Scream! Run for the hills!” Okay, let’s have a look at **Ideogram**, which has raised nearly $100 million, including from Andreessen Horowitz and recently released its 2a model. Their [launch page](file:///Users/boardman/Library/Containers/com.ulyssesapp.mac/Data/tmp/2fc2901a64074a07abbcf69d9b377cbb/A%20Short%20Exploration%20of%20Our%20Stupid%20AI%20Present/Our%20mission%20is%20to%20help%20people%20become%20more%20creative%20through%20generative%20AI.%20We%20are%20developing%20state-of-the-art%20AI%20tools%20that%20will%20make%20creative%20expression%20more%20accessible,%20fun,%20and%20efficient.%20We%20are%20pushing%20the%20limits%20of%20what%E2%80%99s%20possible%20with%20AI,%20with%20a%20focus%20on%20creativity%20and%20a%20high%20standard%20for%20trust%20and%20safety.%0A), which is absurdly hard to find, provides this breathless prose: > Our mission is to help people become more creative through generative AI. We are developing state-of-the-art AI tools that will make creative expression more accessible, fun, and efficient. We are pushing the limits of what’s possible with AI, with a focus on creativity and a high standard for trust and safety. Again, we’re getting that “more creative” language. And yet everything on their site looks and feels manufactured, as if their images were run through a data processing machine. Which is exactly what happened. I asked Ideogram to help me out, too. My prompt was to “create a small website homepage for a law firm that serves creative service businesses”. The result: ![social media graphic that shows text and icons representing legal work](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/5e41edd5-189f-4f44-b3c5-5bd18a634379_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) Creative Legal Solutions by Ideogram. Welp. Not exactly a homepage — but again, it’s *something*. The text is not editable. I don’t know what “Protecting your Creativity for Elements” and “Edeat your Gleaph LLages” means. Here is Ideogram’s stated rationale: > *A warm, inviting website homepage for a small law firm specializing in creative service businesses, illustrated in a clean, modern design with soft pastel tones. At the center, a sleek logo reads "Creative Legal Solutions" in elegant script. A subtle gradient background features abstract illustrations of legal scales intertwined with paintbrushes and graphic design elements, symbolizing the intersection of creativity and law. Below the logo, a tagline in bold yet friendly font says "Protecting Your Creative Ventures," surrounded by minimalist icons representing various creative industries.* I’ll let you decide. Finally, 400 million people are using OpenAI’s **ChatGPT** every day. The uptake over the past few years has been phenomenal. According to Open AI, ChatGPT acquired [1 million users](https://explodingtopics.com/blog/chatgpt-users?ref=andrewboardman.com) just 5 days after launching; for Instagram, it was 2.5 months to reach 1 million downloads. Let’s have a look at what they say: > Increase employee efficiency and creativity with high speed access to GPT‑4o, our flagship model, and tools like DALL·E, web browsing, data analysis, retrieval, and more. It’s the same. “Efficiency and creativity.” These two concepts in our material world are usually oil and water. I asked ChatGPT: “Please create a small website homepage for a small law firm that serves creative service businesses.” Here is the result, a fully coded page for your kind review. ![a black and white homepage showing a header, main copy and other cards](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/183cdf3a-75f1-4001-a4c4-6a988cf48241_1374x1458.png) Creative Legal Solutions by ChatGPT. Ugh. ### Why make fun? Why am I doing this? Designers and artists have conceptual armaments that stretch way beyond the physical and digital dimensions of our work. Two of these include disgracing and discrediting — both time honoured tools that breathe in the political and social catch winds and breathe out the idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies of authorities and those who claim to be “helping” us. Sometimes this just takes the form of bullshit-detection. Other times, it looks like pastiche, graffiti, [detournement](https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095713704?ref=andrewboardman.com) (a Situationist-fueled attempt at hijacking an artwork and changing it), or some other kind of visual subversion. Canadian-based magazines like [Adbusters](https://www.adbusters.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com) have been speaking designer truth to power for 36 years. Banksy does similar shtuff to varying effect. There is a good chance the AI will fundamentally reformat the economy, putting lots of fine folks out of jobs, force-spying on our every movement, and governing our bodies in ways that science fiction writers have gently imagined for a century. But when using these new tools and systems, which I argue we designers must and should do today, we can also hold a mirror up to them. Right now, they are making ridiculous and even dangerously poor decisions for us. Our job is not to correct them for the benefit of our potential technological overlords but to consistently demonstrate that design has value. A few more things before I jet. First, nowhere in this piece is AI privacy, copyright (and intellectual property theft), data ownership, digital accessibility, or environmental impact discussed here. Good thing there are more Mondays ahead. I also want to start sharing with you, dear designer, a few other folks who are skeptically embracing or experimenting with AI. Here is a recent post by Alex Mathers of Mastery Den that argues that critical thinking is where writers differentiate — not in putting words down per se. [Why AI is a gift for you as a writerAI tools like ChatGPT come along and many writers cry out bloody murder.![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/81d1e6d4-23f5-4d57-bdac-f4b5c6d024a8_500x500.png)Mastery Den](https://www.masteryden.com/p/why-ai-is-a-gift-for-you-as-a-writer?ref=andrewboardman.com) My analogy, as you [may have seen earlier](https://deardesigner.substack.com/i/156852849/ai-will-run-ruin-but-will-not-reign), is that we designers are artists first. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Wishing you a good week ahead. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-23.png) --- ### Image of the week ![three page spread of newspaper / magazine in black and white](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/7dfcbebf-5f1b-4b22-8e89-f221cfb2591f_11319x5488-jpeg.jpg) Bauhaus: zeitschrift für gestaltung, vol. 1, no. 1\. Single sheet, tri-folded. Double sided. Black ink. Moholy-Nagy, László (Designer). Credit: [Letterform Archive](https://oa.letterformarchive.org/item?workID=lfa%5Fperiodicals%5Fbauhaus%5F0001&targPic=lfa%5Fperiodicals%5Fbauhaus%5F0001%5F008.jpg&ref=andrewboardman.com). I recently renewed my membership with Letterform Archive. It is a phenomenal one-stop shop for historically important typographic resources, and contains multitudes of fine specimens like this. You can look up the history of this first issue of Bauhaus. But I’d rather you just compare this piece with the shlock and shite you saw above. --- ### Quote of the week *You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.* \~Alexander Solzhenitsyn --- P.S. Thank you for reading, dear designer. If this newsletter was forwarded, you can get your very own subscription here. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### A Brief Pause, A Gentle Wave URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/a-brief-pause-a-gentle-wave/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:45:09.000Z Dear Designer, First, I want to welcome all of you new subscribers. Nearly 200 of you have decided to join this little project — addressing the state of design, reviewing the various realities for designers, and assessing the prospects and promises for making the art of the everyday. Last week’s newsletter summarized [design at a critical crossroads](https://www.andrewboardman.com/design-at-the-crossroads-a-shifting/), which presented five vectors that will change our work — and what may result for us professionally. I’m on holiday this week. I’ve decided to hold my tongue and my peace, for now. Herewith, some waves 👋👋👋 and some waves: \_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_. **\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.** \_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_. **\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.** \_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_. **\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.** **\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.** \_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_. **\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.** **\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.\~"\~.\_.** See you soon. Thank you for being here. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-24.png) --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can get your very own subscription here. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Design at the Crossroads: A Shifting Economy of Digital Creativity URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/design-at-the-crossroads-a-shifting/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:45:19.000Z Dear Designer, I’ve been thinking about this topic for a long while now and I would like to get it off my chest so that I can start to write a bit more about issues directly related to the mental, physical and spiritual health of designers, which is actually close to my heart. It’s not that I don’t like writing about the economic and new political challenges that we designers are facing and will face — rather, I am hoping to write slightly more evergreen posts that will stand the test of our times and perhaps help those designers who are struggling to find their way in the world. There is a chance this piece does a little of both. That’s the prologue. It used to be that there was a fairly simple division of design economy labor in North America. In brief, there were independent designers, small studios and larger agencies. This model evolved in the 1980s when more designers were graduating from superb and highly specialized design schools (Parsons, RISD, OCAD) and brands of all sizes were recognizing the immediate and long-term business benefits of visual positioning (product branding and institutional identity development). It also coincided with the birth of the desktop publishing revolution, when designers were no longer tied to drafting tables, rulers, Linotype machines and typewriters. Instead, designers could untether from the sprawling concrete physical workplaces in which they once toiled. In the 1980s, the *Mad Men* era of designers, copywriters and art directors working in major agencies in major cities broke apart into many novel pieces. For the first time since the 19th century, designers (née artists) could once again support themselves financially as independent practitioners, working as freelancers (1980s parlance), subcontractors (1990s), solopreneuers (2000s) and contractors (today). As I mentioned in the [last week’s post](https://www.andrewboardman.com/the-misplaced-blame-game-in-design/), there are some 240,000 graphic designers living and working in North America these days. They work for themselves or for studios, agencies or in-house. Ignoring the latter category, designers today typically take on the role of consultants. They work meticulously and methodically with a range of clients from government to retailers to nonprofits and corporations. Sometimes they solve visual problems related to brand strategy or presentation of ideas or they organize complex ideas and interests. Other times, they are busy creating digital products that online visitors use to find ideas and interests, communicate with others or build community. Since the pandemic, this three-tier system has continued. As of [January 2025](https://rentechdigital.com/smartscraper/business-report-details/list-of-design-agencies-in-united-states?ref=andrewboardman.com), there are about 18,524 design agencies operating in the United States, a 2% increase from 2023; further, the are [about](https://www.zippia.com/freelance-designer-jobs/demographics/?ref=andrewboardman.com) 122,000 freelance designers in the U.S. today. ### But things are changing, quickly In the meantime, design and digital services took a tremendous hit in 2024\. The end of Covid-related funding, higher interest rates, the rise of AI and template design, and the uncertainty of national political outcomes put a freeze on spending, a fate that I and many others saw personally. Last year was a difficult, complicated, and often depressing one that saw layoffs, cutbacks, and a general retrenchment in interest among organizations in design and design consult. So far, 2025 has seen a resurgence in organizational spending but, like many in the design field, we are bracing for more disruption. Here is how I think things may change for us, dear designer. I believe that there are five trends that will shape what we do, what kinds of work we look for, what kinds of jobs we hold, and where we physically sit as graphic designers over the next two to five years. 1. **AI design**. Without a doubt, tools like Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT/DALL-E and others are moving fast. A few weeks ago, we saw the re-release of Figma’s generative AI tool that produces what a very young junior designer might create out of school. In other words, it’s not bad. But it ain’t great, either. I have experimented with a number of tools like [Ideogram.ai](https://ideogram.ai/t/explore?ref=andrewboardman.com) to produce logos and visual objects. They are highly imperfect and currently difficult to refine — and they don’t speak to me in any emotional way — but these tools work. The typography is interesting but uninviting. The concepts are cool but clunky. The photography is realistic but also slightly revolting; we are submitting ourselves to sitting in the uncanny valley of machine made majesty. AI will continue to get increasingly sophisticated in its presentation of visual reality but I believe it will continue to lack the finesse, humanity and elegance that makes superb and subtle artistry so truly valuable. I could be entirely wrong about this — but have a look at [some of the work](https://ideogram.ai/t/explore?ref=andrewboardman.com) on Ideogram and let me know what you think. 2. **Commoditized design**. Because I have so far yet to subscribe to YouTube’s ad-free experience (out of pure principle), I am constantly subjected to WIX studio ads. It’s good and also gross marketing. The latest ads showed how designers can now take a finished design in Figma and convert it to a WIX website replete with pre-built CMS. It does seem compelling. If you combine this AI- built experience with the realities of so many excellent templates out there on Squarespace, Cargo, Readymade, Carbonmade, Shopify and other web platforms, it is an embarrassment of templated design riches. A small business will no longer pay tens of thousands of dollars for a site that will last for a year or two at most. Commoditization, or the process in which lowest price seeks the highest value, is inherent to the infrastructure of the digital economy. Design, at least as a commercial practice, will continue to suffer from this construct. 3. **Customized design**. Design, positioned as a more traditional artistic practice, however, will remain and differentiate. Even under the aegis of AI and commoditization, customized design — the creation of unique visual objects that solve communications problems or create new ideational challenges — will last, at least for a while. Having an aesthetically-focused design practice — one that truly offers a unique visual and technical approach — will continue to attract individuals and organizations that seek to be truly different and differentiated. Work that is hand-made, odd, magisterial or mysterious, and that is forged from a deep understanding of typography, subject matter, and design systems, will continue to be valued and valuable. 4. **Niched design**. Most of us have heard the wise silliness of there being “riches in the niches.” Over the past 20 years, agencies that have specialized in a given industry have reaped the benefits. Folks like Blair Enns, who I admire tremendously and who has taught me so much about the business of design, have long argued that the tighter the [market positioning](https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/positioning-for-profit/?ref=andrewboardman.com), the more opportunities there are to leverage expertise. In other words, if you are an agency focused on newsletter marketing for athletic shoe brands, there is a strong likelihood that companies like Nike and Reebok will want to learn about those skills. (Another example: At Manoverboard and now Mangrove, our focus is on ethically creating open source websites for organizations creating transformational social change. Our niched design approach is just tight enough to warrant consistent interest among nonprofits.) 5. **Consultative design**. There will be an increased need for art direction, design research and data-driven or user-focused UX consulting. All of these will tap into AI for ideation, data, and conceptualization, and it will be driven by the independent knowledge of the design practitioner. In other words, designers who consult as digital art directors will find more willing clients who seek to visually or otherwise transform their organizations. These art directors will require more refined managerial and research-related skillsets but they will also be able to command commensurate compensation. There will also be a need for consultants to help teams manage projects, to help designers face real world challenges, to help build new brand systems, and to launder for other art directors. (Just seeing if you’re still reading.) ### Five trends meeting five predictions The resulting effects will be something like this. 1. **Low-skilled freelance work will start to disappear — almost entirely.** People and organizations that need free or cheap design will be able to get it free and cheap. It will look decent. It will work. Most design will be made this way. 2. **Mid-sized design studios and agencies will forge forward.** There will continue to be a need for design services that craft and cater. They will be positioned tightly around subjects matter expertise, design excellence and considered client care. 3. **Independent designers will become miniature studios.** One-person shops will thrive if they understand the tools and create value for committed clients. The work will need to look and feel very different. These designers will become artists again. 4. **Large agencies will shrink.** The need for major agencies will diminish. Their overhead, with large offices and dozens of diverse experts, will no longer be needed. Large brands will seek smaller artistic outlets and deep expertise. 5. **In-house design teams will also shrink.** Corporations with in-house design teams will not want to pay for generalized design and the training and technical upkeep of designers and developers. Instead, they will hire out and build teams that push new ideas and practical products. And now the catch and caveat. Some of the above is based on actual research but a lot of my conjecture is built on good old anecdotal evidence such as personal conversations and lots of reading and cogitating. AI, in particular, has the power to distintermediate entire industries, including design. We may find that design and designers go the way of the horse and the buggy driver. But I don’t think so. So… please don’t leave your design job or start a new career based on my tea leaves alone. And don’t quit school or tell your family that you’re washed up. School is wonderful and so are you. Keep at it. Work harder and learn more than you ever have in the past. Study. Remember that graphic design is as much an art as it is a professional career. Be the artist that you are; your one mission is to push forward at all costs. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-25.png) --- ### Image of the week ![leaf with written text on it](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a33d10ea-0175-42e0-aab1-2e3ec14b9bcd_1259x919.avif) **Louver*, Hippolyte Hodeau (ca. 1917), Credit: [Public Domain Image Archive](https://pdimagearchive.org/images/b46e48b1-3a7e-4c9e-8161-91dc8aada5db/?ref=andrewboardman.com) In that most brutal of all brutal wars, men in trenches made small mementos to pass long lengths of time while awaiting their immediate fates. In those foxholes, soldiers on all sides whittled objects out of wood, crafted letter openers out of steel, or, like Hippolyte Hodeau, used relief carving to remember the names of his daughters and others important to him. Over 100 years later, these [fragile works of trench art](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hippolyte-hodeau-trench-art/?ref=andrewboardman.com) somehow still exist. This leaf speaks deeply to me, with its rounded, thick and undulating handwriting, observing and ignoring the curvature of veins and vessels. World War I, which my grandfather once fought in as an American soldier, shaped everything about our last century, not least of which causing 40 million casualties. We are lucky to be alive and lucky to be alive to all that is human-made. --- ### Quote of the week …To find in the fishes, the creatures, the air Been hangin' around God loves ya, but what could he do? Yeah, wha wha wha wha wha what could he do? Passion and a lovin' suggestion gonna send ya Into somebody's icy arms and now Graphics will do the deal justice It's a can't lose Only two times or three or four or more… \~ [Speak, See, Remember](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeLRwRfXptA&ref=andrewboardman.com) (1999), Steven Malkmus, Pavement --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. I would **so** appreciate if you could share this piece with someone today. Here is the smallest of buttons: If Dear Designer was forwarded to you, you can get your very own subscription here. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### The Misplaced Blame Game in Design URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/the-misplaced-blame-game-in-design/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:45:38.000Z I want to make the case that designers and creative companies are not at fault for the grave mistakes and misadventures occurring on our planet, despite the hum. (Like [last week’s post](https://www.andrewboardman.com/the-art-of-reluctant-entrepreneurship/), I unfortunately sound a little like the Voice of America, offering support for the creative economy during the times of the iron curtain.) A colleague of mine recently pointed me to a number of articles in [UX Planet](https://uxplanet.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com), a Medium-powered blog of medium utility. UX Planet is a popular collection of posts with 342,000 followers. And yet many of their recent posts — and ones by like-minded design blogs, magazines and organization these days — are positioned against design, against designers, or against the companies that support designers. There are some designers that, yes, argue against the value of design and the work of designers. [Other designers](https://www.ruinedby.design/?ref=andrewboardman.com) have blamed designers for some of the worst perversions of our culture. Here are a few recent articles, in case you want to dig in. [So, you really want to become a UX Designer in 2025?](https://uxplanet.org/so-you-really-want-to-become-a-ux-designer-in-2025-2260aec98ba3?ref=andrewboardman.com): A clickbait screed that says it’s difficult to become a designer but you can do it anyway. [Why I Stopped Applying For UX Jobs (And Why You Likely Will, Too)](https://uxplanet.org/why-i-stopped-applying-for-ux-jobs-and-why-you-likely-will-too-dfd336f254b1?ref=andrewboardman.com): A purposeless post about how hard it is to be a designer these days. It’s also rife with AI-generated images lol. [Why Nobody Wants to Pay for Graphic Design Anymore](https://medium.com/design-nexus/why-nobody-wants-to-pay-for-graphic-design-anymore-4c65d23129c6?ref=andrewboardman.com): A throw-up-your-hands piece that argues we should “specialize in something cool” like, say, NFTs. I know these are just articles on Medium. I know that this is a short and curated list. But designers and creative employers are reading them. The tone of these articles is that designers are doing something wrong, that you, dear designer, are not keeping up with the times, that you are to blame for your inability to find a “UX job”. Some articles go even further, making designers out to be selfish or directionless. (For a countervailing voice, see Sara Wachter-Boettcher’s [Hey designers, they’re gaslighting you](https://medium.com/nice-work-from-active-voice/hey-designers-theyre-gaslighting-you-e02e5a4d9cff?ref=andrewboardman.com)**.)** Yes. We can blame some high-minded designers for stoking the attention economy. They are a critical part of the industrial protocols that sweeten the apps we worship daily. These folks, especially those most talented and craven designer directors sitting in tall towers in Silicon Valley, have indeed done damage to our social fabric, refining our smartphones to serve fast scrolls faster and to promote the promise of our techno-lords. Yes. But. Designers actually represent a very small group of people. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are approximately [213,000 graphic designers](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes271024.htm?ref=andrewboardman.com#nat) in the States, with California and New York having the largest share. I can’t quite verify this number but, in Canada, there are about [24,000 graphic designers](https://bl3nddesign.ca/graphic-design-industry-in-canada?ref=andrewboardman.com); this holds up statistically given that the country is about one tenth the size in population. And. Designers earn on average around [$78,000 per year](https://www.indeed.com/career/designer/salaries?ref=andrewboardman.com) in the U.S. and [$66,000 per year](https://ca.indeed.com/career/designer/salaries?ref=andrewboardman.com) in Canada. In the past couple of years, with the advance of template design, the rise of AI, the surfeit of students emerging from design schools, and the realities of a post-Covid economy, there are now far fewer jobs for designers, art directors and others — and when they do become available, the application process can be akin to surviving Squid Game. One design agency owner I know had over 1,200 applications for the creative director position they advertised. It’s not just anecdotal. Here is the [job outlook for designers for 2024-2033](file:///Users/andrewboardman/Library/Containers/com.ulyssesapp.mac/Data/tmp/7de34df2acd546eca27d2feb335c4306/The%20Misplaced%20Blame%20Game%20in%20Design/Canadian%20Occupational%20Projection%20System%20%28COPS%29) from the Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS): > *STRONG RISK OF SURPLUS: This occupation is expected to face a strong risk of labour surplus over the period of 2024-2033 at the national level. Because the occupation was showing moderate signs of surplus conditions in the recent years, and the projected flow of job seekers is expected to noticeably exceed the projected flow of job openings, the occupation is expected to face a strong risk of surplus during the projection period. \[Note that COPS indicates that design employment in Canada 2023 was 93,200\. Your mileage may vary.\]* So if the world is on fire, it cannot be designers who are to blame. Despite our outsized capacity to influence the direction of our world, we make too little, have little political and economic power, and control so little of our own day-to-day work. It is a privilege to be a designer but designers are not privileged. Where does this leave us, dear designer? Today, I want to let you off the hook. If you are a designer, a studio founder, an agency owner, a design consultant or a UX professional, or if you are a government or corporate employer with a design team, or if you are a small business that relies on designers, you have done the best that you could with what you have been given. Don’t listen to the voices telling you that you are responsible for not being able to find jobs, for earning so little, for not learning fast enough, for not responding to market demands — or worse, for harming the planet. We are, by and large, doing the hard work of facilitating, challenging and adapting — with little recognition, recompense and recourse. Thanks for reading. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-26.png) --- ### Image of the Week ![woman posing as a letter k next to the letter k](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/713e9490-6269-4b54-bb84-fc38f8619375_1873x2560-jpeg.jpg) Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library. "K \[letter K - choreographic interpretation\]", 1926\. Credit: [The New York Public Library Digital Collections](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-f53d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99?ref=andrewboardman.com) We designers are an inherently self-referential bunch. This is a photo from a 1926 Czech book of poems about letters formed by artists posing as those letters — letterform dance compositions. This radical book of text and photomontage (what László Moholy-Nagy called [typophoto](https://exhibitions.letterformarchive.org/bauhaus/walkthroughs/typophoto-in-moholy-nagy-s-painting-photography-film?ref=andrewboardman.com)) is called *Abeceda* by[Milča Mayerová](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil%C4%8Da%5FMayerov%C3%A1?ref=andrewboardman.com), a brilliant dancer and choreographer who died in 1977\. Here we have “K”. --- ### Quote of the week *Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose.* \~ Rick Rubin --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. Sharing? A small button: If Dear Designer was forwarded, you can get your very own subscription here. This newsletter is free and so are you. ### The Art of Reluctant Entrepreneurship: Business as a Bubble for Designers URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/the-art-of-reluctant-entrepreneurship/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:45:47.000Z Dear Designer, I never wanted to be a designer. And I never set out to run a design studio. While I was always interested in design history, my training at college and graduate school was as an artist — a painter and photographer, primarily. I essentially triple majored in college — I was pre-med until junior year and graduated with a degree in visual art and in English literature. After receiving an MFA, I went away for a year on a Fulbright to study art and Jewish culture in Poland. My goal and real hope was to find a job teaching art at a college or university. My academic training and early practice was purpose-built to support other artists in their efforts to become… artists. This is not unlike a lot of academic training, which perpetuates systems of study. In my formal education, I was steeped in critical theory, post-structuralism and too much semiotic close reading. When I moved to New York, I spent my first five years there as an artist, painting and drawing and working part-time at various jobs, and eventually I worked full-time at a foundation, painting whenever I could, at nights and on weekends. I scraped by but most of being an artist then was joyful and meaningful. I wanted nothing to do with business, working at a business, or running a business. I was suspect of and about business and nearly anything entrepreneurial. ### My business baby was born in a big oven But the late 1990s saw an explosion in creative endeavours, mostly in advancing the early web. I found a slow job at a fast-growing digital agency called OVEN as a researcher and a writer. And I hung with the cool kids who were my age — the designers, illustrators and coders who were literally creating this new thing called Internet. Those were incredible exciting and heady days, inventing how the web worked as we went, making digital moves, and designing spectacular sites that were used by millions and millions of people. (In fact, I continue to be amazed at this one fact — that one’s digital work is immediately visible to anyone, anywhere, anytime thanks to the good graces of an always-on world wide web.) But in all of that time, I always had — and continue to have — a suspicion about and even disrespect for business and those who operate in business. And I don’t say this lightly, as after working at OVEN for a few years, I ran a respected, award-winning and profitable design studio for 20 years. And, yes, during all of that time, I often felt like I either should not be running a business or I was doing something that went against my most deeply held values. The emotional calculus was impossible. Business = profit. Business = exploitation. Business = manipulation. These tropes (partly derived from academia) were carved into my skin. Business was something done by people to other people. Business was responsible for the world’s problems. Business didn’t work for most people. I didn’t feel this way all of the time, of course, but it was often enough to occasionally feel insecure my own place in the world. I know I’m not alone here. Over those 20 years of running my design studio, I met so many other people who started with that art form that they truly loved — designing, coding, printing, drawing, writing, crafting, sculpting — and they ended up pouring their lives into their business. Nearly all of them built remarkable, far-reaching and innovative companies built around their passion while, at the same time, often feeling suspect about that filthy lucre, the profit-motive, and the nature of capitalism more generally. In fact, I will say that the folks that were most suspect of the concept of “business”, the ones that most despised the depravities of contemporary commerce, the ones that were most Marxian in their economic philosophy, the ones that believed that we will one day achieve a better social order based on the premises of universal human rights, anarchist culture, and the emancipation of all peoples — these were the folks who were most successful at running a business. At least, those are the folks that I most admired and to whom I most gravitated as a founder and studio owner. Even during those weeks of intense internal scrunity and self-doubt, I loved being among other folks who were using their business to create social change, to support others in their pursuit of happiness, and to heal the planet. ### So what? Why does any of this matter? I’m saying all of this for two reasons — one personal and one instructive. First, I’ve never publicly admitted my own misgivings about the ideology and contemporary praxis of “business” before. Sure, I’ve spoken with friends about it and certainly, my poor spouse knows how rent I was about running a for-profit enterprise over many years. But, here’s what is important to know. Owning a business is a masterful means to a meaningful end. It allowed me to have control over the external workings of my existence — my day-to-day activities, the kinds of work that I would take on, and the types of people I would invite into my life. It gave me the license to create objects and to have options. It offered me an expansive view of practical and theoretical possibilities, opening up doors upon doors to new conversations and novel ideas. Importantly, it allowed me to create — for the most part freely and frankly — daily. And business paid for my labours, supporting me and those around me. Running a small business is a legally sanctioned road to being disencumbered. I have said this to many folks: I saw my design studio as a bubble within which I could offer protection and possibility to myself, my family and those I invited in. The bubble shielded me from some of the worst of the market’s reckonings. The bubble offered provisions and, yes, privilege. I filled it with my own breath (and hot air) and the breadth of my interests and values . It was not easy. **Running a business is incredibly, incredibly difficult** — and even more so if you want to do it with an ethical hand. ### Business is also a trojan horse But the second reasons is that, at this particular junction of history, when individual freedoms may become fewer and farther between, we might find that running a business is the trojan horse to personal and social transformation. The market economy values and supports entrepreneurs. As the political tides turn and we encounter more authoritarian impulses in the United States and elsewhere around the world, capital will continue to support entrepreneurialism and will generally protect its practitioners. Yes, the most monopolistic companies will thrive — but even their mandate requires the continued generation of new products and ideas — and especially those from small businesses. TikTok, ChatGPT, and Amazon, for instance, may continue to metastasize but, for better and worse, it will be in conjunction with the growth and contribution of small business owners and their creative endeavours. Within a small business, within the bubble, you can act. You can support other small businesses, take on clients from vulnerable populations, deliver your ideas to receptive communities, and create new products that people will enjoy and even adore. There is a level of latitude in running a business that you will not achieve while working for someone else. Yes, sometimes it will feel like you are free-falling. It is scary as all f\*ck. But when you come down, when you land — and like all ripe apples from rampant trees — you inevitably will, you will have the rarest of things: the capacity to wonder. I encourage you, dear designer, to start your own business. It can be small. Keep it simple — and sympathetic to your needs. Allow it to take radical roots, to grow high so that its canopy might connect to other covers. There is beauty in constraints and in contradiction. And I know I sound like the Voice of America over here. But business, operated consciously, can be a vital vehicle for independent creativity, influence and authentic social action, especially in a time of cultural contraction. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-27.png) --- ### Image of the week ![horizontal poster of man in black walking front and centre while people behind him in business attire follow](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/0eba3be3-59a0-4ebc-8610-42b0950865c3_984x646-jpeg.jpg) Poster, Russia, (likely 1960s). Caption: ЕДИНСТВО ТРУДОВОГО НАРОДА И КОММУНИСТИЧЕСКОЙ ПАРТИИ-НЕРУШИМО! (THE UNITY OF THE WORKING PEOPLE AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY IS INDESTROYABLE!), Artist: M. Lukyanov, Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A-propaganda-poster-from-the-Soviet-Union-in-the-1920s-391853265017.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com) The picture speaks for itself, right? A 1920s poster from Soviet Russia that shows a young Vladimir Lenin leading a flock of nattily dressed… business people? The State Museum of Political History of Russia dates this to the 1960s, which becomes obvious when you look at the style of clothing. The Soviet Union frowned on entrepreneurship as the precursor to capitalism and ownership of private property. By the 1960s, cracks in that wall were starting to appear, music and dance were more liberally allowed, and the system slowly capitulated to allowing greater personal freedoms. This posters give license to what was likely a cool advance in social liberty. --- ### Quote of the week *I wasn't sure I was an artist, so I thought maybe I just was throwing ideas out for people to consider.* \~ artist Jenny Holzer --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. Sharing? A button: If Dear Designer was forwarded, you can get your very own subscription here. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Let the Robots Chatter, but Keep Designing URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/let-the-robots-chatter-but-keep-designing/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T18:24:57.000Z Dear Designer, Last week, I had a coffee with a clever colleague who also works in digital communications and we quickly went to — what else — AI. There is no bigger topic among writers, designers and developers today. We are in the midst of this grotesquerie, an attempt to hollow out the creative human endeavour with the goal of creating faster and less expensive communications. AI’s onslaught, as fascinating as it is, applies to every knowledge-based activity — but especially those in which deep cognition are involved. I have seen calls for us designers to ignore the AI. Some have called for a boycott. It’s going to happen and will accelerate under our new tech overlords. There are going to be new platforms emerging in which AI reduces the time of creation and production of design to hours and minutes. Figma already showed the [way](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40857369&ref=andrewboardman.com) seven months ago, albeit failing to put in any ethical or critical guardrails. ### AI will run ruin but will not reign It is not the end of design, communications, marketing or, more importantly, the working artists — and I will continue to call you an artist, dear designer — who toil in those fields. So I don’t despair. Here’s why. My colleague mentioned that about half of the written content in his LinkedIn feed is generated by AI. Articles that two years ago would have been typed out by human hand are now being pushed by paste. And there is a pattern to the prose — short paragraphs littered with emojis combined with stunted, short-form phrasing and disjointed narratives. I can’t replicate his experience — my LinkedIn feed is either more boring or less marketing-driven — but long-form content at LinkedIn, Medium and Substack, is increasingly bot-made. Last June, a study by Amazon researchers titled [A Shocking Amount of the Web is Machine Translated: Insights from Multi-Way Parallelism](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.05749?ref=andrewboardman.com), found that 57% of all published online content is now generated by or translated using an AI algorithm: > Machine generated, multi-way parallel translations not only dominate the total amount of translated content on the web in lower resource languages where MT \[machine translation\] is available; it also constitutes a large fraction of the total web content in those languages,” the researchers wrote in the study. ### Degradation is part of the natural (and artificial) order The AWS AI researchers found that the overall quality of this new content, much of which is simply translated from one language to another, is poor. The result is that search engines and chatbot algorithms themselves are regurgitating the content, further devolving the digital universe that was once relatively useful, honest, and straightforward. Cory Doctorow called this [enshittification](https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/13/business/enshittification-internet-meta-nightcap/index.html?ref=andrewboardman.com) (word of the year in 2024) and the resultant slop that is emerging as “what happens when you have power without consequence.” In other words, large companies emerge by offering high quality and convenient products (e.g. content) and then avoid regulation (e.g. copyright) while degrading their own offering until people barely notice — at which point, they are locked in, loaded up, and leaving the platform is difficult. So, Facebook, Instagram, and now LinkedIn are increasingly enshittified while the rest of us poor souls try to eke out a valuable career. Then why am I still hopeful for design and written communications? Two reasons. First, we are only two years in with the launch of ChatGPT and most of us communicators are already aware of the slop that is being foisted on us. Google’s search results are less helpful and sometimes downright wrong (suggesting that you [add glue to pizza](https://www.reddit.com/r/PizzaCrimes/comments/1d0hxsc/google%5Fai%5Fsaid%5Fto%5Fput%5Fglue%5Fin%5Fpizza%5Fso%5Fi%5Fmade%5Fa/?ref=andrewboardman.com) or how you might want to [eat a rock](https://imgur.com/99pz63y?ref=andrewboardman.com)) with its new “Organized with AI” summaries. Facebook itself is worried enough about AI slop that it is [training AI bots](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/19/spam-junk-slop-the-latest-wave-of-ai-behind-the-zombie-internet?ref=andrewboardman.com) to identify it before people start leaving in droves. I predict that new tools, systems and frameworks — some even inherent to these platforms themselves — will emerge to showcase non-AI content. Some platforms — I’m looking at you Medium and Substack — will privilege human-written content, gating or removing AI-generated garbage. Others will create higher paywalls for real content, which we’re increasingly seeing for leading newspaper and magazine sites. Tech news outlets like *The Verge* and *Vox* now require paid subscriptions for visitors to read most of their site content. Platform devolution has happened before: MySpace, Friendster and LiveJournal all bit the dust after millions of people fled. Quality ideas will always emerge — and win — if there is an open internet. (The bigger question is whether we will continue to have an open internet, of course.) Second, there is this small thing called human emotion. Why do we like podcasts so much? Why is TikTok so wildly popular? Why is conspiracy a powerful means to sell subterfuge? How can Substack publishers have hundreds of paid subscribers? It is the power of endearment. We are drawn to people first, producers second. We want to know that, behind and beyond the words — and the images — are living and breathing fellow feeling humans that fail, flail, fart and fuck-up. We not only want to know that we are connected; we need to know. Every good communications modality, design very much included, rely upon creating emotional responses to what is presented. Humans not only require but demand emotion to be served warm in our bright corners of connection. Designers and writers who have the opportunity to cultivate and corral their emotional (and I dare say, spiritual) responsibilities will be able to better respond to the odd dictates of an undiscerning robot culture. Conscious human design that is rooted in history, beauty, values, and madness — not to mention grief, guilt, godliness and goodness — will sing. Let the robots chatter. And remember that you are made of major miracles. I’ll leave you with a poem by Canadian author, Margaret Atwood. It’s called [February](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47787/february-56d2288025b1e?ref=andrewboardman.com) (1995), a month which is itself a kind of onslaught. #### February Winter. Time to eat fat and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat, a black fur sausage with yellow Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries to get onto my head. It’s his way of telling whether or not I’m dead. If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am He’ll think of something. He settles on my chest, breathing his breath of burped-up meat and musty sofas, purring like a washboard. Some other tomcat, not yet a capon, has been spraying our front door, declaring war. It’s all about sex and territory, which are what will finish us off in the long run. Some cat owners around here should snip a few testicles. If we wise hominids were sensible, we’d do that too, or eat our young, like sharks. But it’s love that does us in. Over and over again, *He shoots, he scores!* and famine crouches in the bedsheets, ambushing the pulsing eiderdown, and the windchill factor hits thirty below, and pollution pours out of our chimneys to keep us warm. February, month of despair, with a skewered heart in the centre. I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries with a splash of vinegar. Cat, enough of your greedy whining and your small pink bumhole. Off my face! You’re the life principle, more or less, so get going on a little optimism around here. Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-28.png) --- ### Image of the week ![poem written in all caps by artist with drawing of man raising his hand in defiance](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/b573d06c-a9dc-40aa-8cb4-5bd8250432e4_2185x3000-jpeg.jpg) Ben Shahn, *Maximus of Tyre*, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Fendrick, 1979.132.2\. Credit: [Smithsonian](https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/maximus-tyre-22177?ref=andrewboardman.com). Artist and designer Ben Shahn created this print in 1979, quoting the last paragraph of *Dissertation VIII* by Maximus of Tyre, who lived in the late 2nd century AD in Greece. In consternation, humanity raises its muscular arm to heaven. *Why should I further examine and pass judgement about images? Let men know what is divine. Let them know. That is all.* --- ### Quote of the week *All art is based on nonconformity… Without nonconformity we would have had no Bill of Rights or Magna Carta, no public education system, no nation upon this continent, no continent, no science at all, no philosophy, and considerably fewer religions.* \~ Ben Shahn --- Thank you for reading, my friend. Any interest in sharing it with someone? Here is a button. If Dear Designer has been forwarded, you can get your very own subscription here. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Design Against Darkness: Vigilance and Our Moral Architecture URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/design-against-darkness-vigilance/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:46:09.000Z Dear Designer, Last week I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s [Rope](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040746/?ref=andrewboardman.com) (1948) with my daughter. It was a cold winter evening and she wasn’t feeling well so what better way than to spend it watching a movie about murder and getting away with it. *Rope* features two young men, just out of college, who strangle their friend… because they can. The killing is bloodless and happens in the first minute of the film. The other 79 minutes takes us down the road of whether these two smarty pants college grads are smart enough to outwit their guests at a party that they throw in their lavish Manhattan penthouse with the body hidden in plain sight. Witty repartee, sleight of hand and clever dialogue take us back and forth between the two murderers and their unsuspecting partygoers. I’ve seen the movie three or four times now and new details emerge every time. ![young man looking off into distance, dressed in suit](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/42d7a350-cb60-4225-9670-b9befb786584_703x543-jpeg.jpg) **Rope* trailer screenshot. Public Domain. Credit: [Wikipedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1469618&ref=andrewboardman.com) *Rope* is a fierce tale of interpersonal intrigue, male chutzpah, generational differences, and meandering conversations. It is a technical triumph, with long shots that show conversations just off screen while the camera teases us with distanced distraction. It smells like college, with its young love and desperate hope against hope. ### *Rope* is not about dopes *Rope* is also a story about America at a time when the country was finding its new footing and exploring ideas of masculinity, national superiority and most relevant today, intellectual hubris. ![advertisement from 1949 featuring man and woman looking huge new car](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/42ba157c-db95-4599-b169-95820b7ff764_2047x1320-jpeg.jpg) Ad for a big red American car ([Hudson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%5FMotor%5FCar%5FCompany?ref=andrewboardman.com)) from 1949\. Credit: [Flickr](https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray%5Fdelta%5Fone/4943706309?ref=andrewboardman.com) We have to remember what 1948 represented. America, with its Soviet ally, had just won the violent wars in Europe and Asia. The war machines that cranked out bullets, brawn and bravado were quickly being refashioned for a burgeoning consumer culture. Newly flush with money and power, Americans were starting to purchase goods on a scale that was theretofore unfathomable. Products like washing machines, vacuums, cars and cradles — Americans not only dreamed of post-war progress — they were starting to live it. Advertising switched from a war footing, persuading people that American freedom was at risk, to a commodity one, promoting patriotism through personal ownership. The power of persuasion, from war propaganda to peaceful advertising, never stopped in the United States (or Canada for that matter). Rope doesn’t directly address the fact that the young men in the film would have missed out on serving in the Army a few years earlier. But it does capture the feelings of American superiority, domination, and ultimately, subjugation that were emerging then. Here are two young philosophers, Brandon Shaw and Philip Morgan, who decide that they can — and will — strangle their friend, David Kentley, to death. Why? Not because they are particularly envious; they remark that David is simply not as bright as they are. Not because of jealousy; the film gently hints that the two young men are more than just friends. Rather, they seek to demonstrate their moral superiority through committing heinous acts. They hurt because they can. Their capacity to act — and live — is a direct correlate to their own power. The cowardice of Brandon and Philip in *Rope* is disguised by their hubris, their feeling that they deserve to live and make a mockery of the unwitting others. Does any of this sound a little familiar? This weekend, we saw the onset of an economic war begun by the U.S. against its Canadian and Mexican neighbours. Two days ago, USAID began to shut down or massively downsize. Websites for departments that support research and information about and for the most vulnerable — little groups like Head Start, the FDA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Justice, and the Centers for Disease Control — went dark or partly dark. In just two weeks, highly empowered men of privilege and great means have decided to make the lives of the weakest among us (children, veterans, seniors, LGTBTQ+, immigrants and the poor) less livable. Why? Not because those communities are particularly needy; these elected and non-elected officials have never themselves had to worry about resources. Not because they are particularly afraid of those groups; they are almost entirely dependent on U.S. government policy and largesse. Rather, or again, they hurt because they can. What we are witnessing is a strangulation — but one that will quickly scale. ### So, where is Jimmy Stewart? I’m probably taking this *Rope* movie metaphor a little too far, but we are going with it anyway. **Spoilers follow**. In the film, there is only one person that can outwit the young men. Rupert Cadell (what a name), played by the great Jimmy Stewart, slowly and assuredly over the course of the movie, figures out what is going on. As Brandon and Philip’s former teacher who often professed the superiority of some men over others, Rubert recognizes not only what the young men have done but how he himself had contributed to their toxic ideals of superiority and menace. The film implies that ideological contrariness — righteousness in pure form and individual liberty mainlined — are the causes of cowardly acts. The young men didn’t get the idea of taking away human life from their wealthy parents or from fighting in the World War II. Instead, their callousness was hand delivered at their prep school by their teacher, an influential man who callously extracted philosophical and religious tracts to justify harms. (Probably it was some bastardized version of Nietzsche’s *The Will to Power*, which Hitler also misread.) So, where is our Jimmy and other folks like him? They are not here yet. But they will arrive — people in our midst who will show us once again that the real power of power is not more power. Real power is about letting people be. Real spoiler: In the end, the sirens wail in the background while these two cowards privately wail in the fore. Jimmy Stewart goes all Jimmy Stewart, collapsing in relief, exhaustion and faith in being able to read the signs. That’s what we’re going to do, too, dear designer. Individual acts of compassion and creativity will survive us. Warmly, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-29.png) --- ### Image of the Week ![poster showing men of different backwards working on a tank](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/eb62681b-4353-4830-841b-37f7619d299f_4096x2919-jpeg.jpg) Americans All -- ". . . it is the duty of employers and labor organizers to provide for the full participation of all workers without discrimination because of race, creed, color or national origin." \~ Franklin D. Roosevelt. By the War Manpower Commission, 1942\. Credit: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US%5FWorld%5FWar%5FII%5Fposter%5Fagainst%5Flabor%5Fdiscrimination%5F-%5FAmericans%5FAll.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com) We won’t see a poster like this for a long time. But it does show what working together, across lines of difference and deep uncertainty, might look like visually. --- ### Quote of the Week Force always attracts men of low morality. \~ Albert Einstein --- Thanks for reading to the end, my friend. Any interest in sharing it with someone? Here is a button. If Dear Designer has been forwarded to you, by goodness, you can get your very own subscription here. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### The Latest in Truth URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/the-latest-in-truth/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:46:22.000Z Dear Designer, Per my [last letter](https://www.andrewboardman.com/we-will-still-prevail/), none of us know exactly what to do with ourselves when it comes to living in or near autocracy. Our forefathers didn’t know what to do either. The reason that immigration was so high in the United States and Canada one hundred years ago is because our grandparents and our great grandparents left their home countries (from Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Russia, China, Ireland and Scotland). And so it’s the same with most immigrants (from India, Mexico, Philippines, Nigeria and China). As a designer living in north North America, what is to be done? I emigrated from the U.S. to Canada in 2005\. Having lived through 9-11 — I was working in Soho, one mile from the World Trade Center and its aftermath — my wife and daughter and I made the decision to find a more politically secure and less financially crushing environment to live. Canada has been a good home to us for nearly twenty years now. It continues to offer tremendous advantages — a mostly peaceful environment with a mostly progressive attitude towards social order and small business opportunity. But the chickens are fully coming home to roost. The rise of real autocracy in the United States last week and the very strong possibility that a mini-me autocrat will take the reins in Canada is making me sit straighter. There are no guarantees in this life. And, as we know, everything is always changing. I have been a student of political precarity since graduate school. I spent a year on a fellowship in Poland researching and creating visual art after the fall of communism and autocracy there. As a Jew, I have read too many books about the rise of Nazism and the sophisticated models that those in power have used to manipulate and control societies and individuals. Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin and Theodore Adorno have been on and off my bookshelves since college. ## The past is prologue and the prologue is now past There is something different now. We are no longer in a period that can be described to be “like” the 1980s or the 1930s or the 1920s — times of tumult and trepidation. For me, it is a real and almost calculable feeling of deja vu, inherent to my Jewish identity, studies and genetic makeup. It’s not a verisimilitude or a simulacra. It’s not an analogy or a metaphor or a parallel. It’s real. This change in our landscape is real. We are here, witnessing a change in regimes and a concomitant change in the social order that is making all of us sit up straight. This is a feeling in the bones, something deep, something that is profoundly challenging and new. Again, an analogy. When birds take flight all at once from a frozen lake, merging their small bodies into patterns of chaos and order, when their cry is in unison and sharp and long, we know that something is afoot. What is happening that they know? Another analogy, because that’s what we have. Jews, it’s often said, are the ethnic canaries in the coal mine. Having escaped victimization, marginalization and ghettoization since 1,500 B.C.E., we are genetically predisposed to recognizing the liminal changes to the landscape. Like those flocks of birds, many of the Jews that I know are reporting that something is off. I don’t want to discount this feeling — or these feelings that I’m hearing from others. Whether it comes from a spiritual or epigenetic experience, it’s important to believe in what your body and brain deeply know. ## From untethered to trapeze But I am also a rational idealist — a term of phrase that derives from Keirsey and Myers-Briggs (I am a consummate [INFJ](https://www.verywellmind.com/infj-introverted-intuitive-feeling-judging-2795978?ref=andrewboardman.com), a strange admixture of contradictions that somehow make up less than 2% of the population). And as a logical empath, I generally need some proof to validate my odd discretionary feelings and odder responses to environments. So, I will reframe my sensibilities here, too. As someone who cares about mass communications, what are the visible patterns of this shift? Are there any less liminal and more concrete indications of what the markers of these rumblings resemble? What can we say about the present times that indicate a massive shift is happening (besides elections themselves) and that we are to encounter waves of at first incremental and then larger and lasting change? There are two key markers that I’d like to consider, dear designer. The first marker is about the nature of thinking itself. We are cognitive beings — able to conjure condominiums and to speculate about spacecraft. We can design nearly anything that comes to mind. And contemporary life allows one can bring those ideas to scale easier and faster than ever before. In a matter of days or weeks, one can share the objects of our minds to willing audiences. Mass communication depends on this endless cycle of public thinking. Descartes’ first principle of “I think, therefore I am” is today “I think, therefore we are.” **Are we thinking?** How much are most of us are learning, ideating or deliberating these days? Are we (and am I) riffing on contemporary events and entities placed before us — or are we actively using our immense capacities to dream and invent and circumnavigate to create new worlds and new stories? Are we resting on our laurels while the machines increasingly do our thinking for us? Do we actively seek out the foundational history of the world and build upon the thousands of systems and languages and beliefs that have been handed to us? Or do we take what is here, what is now, what is presented, what is easily retrieved, and make something “new”? Are we using our big brains to think or are we mostly reinventing what was handed to us 10 minutes or 10 moons ago? I ask this in earnest because what worries me most is that we are increasingly repeating our own thoughts or uncritically rehashing others’. If we disengage from the fathoms of history and only surface what is timely, we will inevitably let the machines do our thinking. Our great advantage as inheritors of wet neural networks is to tap the depths, to summon the wellsprings of our traditions and our beliefs and our histories — to create recipes for human challenges that are draw upon all that we are. One more note about this. There are many folks that would say we need to listen to indigenous wisdom to glean what we can. While I agree, to my mind there is also something colonizing and reifying about the appropriation of indigenous knowledge, as well. And yet there is something important here - that we need to look at the deep past to reconcile with the complex future. A second and related marker is trust. As cognitively sophisticated animals, one of the values that create meaning and continuity in our societies is trust — the capacity to accept, without constant and incessant validation, that something is true and worthy of our time and resources. **Do we trust?** With the rise of algorithmic mass communications, it’s harder to know what is and is not factually accurate, or even presumably authoritative. The oligarchic set (owners of X/Twitter, Facebook and TikTok) probably [**tweaked**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/11/musk-x-feed-politics-trump/?ref=andrewboardman.com) their algorithms to help swing the electorate’s vote in the United States. More people are [**getting**](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/?ref=andrewboardman.com) their news and ideas from social media than ever before. Fewer independent newspapers and [**magazines**](https://madeinca.ca/magazine-industry-statistics-canada/?ref=andrewboardman.com) exist and for those that remain, it’s difficult to afford paying for the hard work of fact-checkers and analysts. Last but not certainly not least, the rise of AI has made [**making**](https://www.newscatcherapi.com/blog/60-000-ai-generated-news-articles-are-published-every-day?ref=andrewboardman.com) online content as easy as pushing a few buttons (60,000 AI-generated news articles are published every day). At the same time, so many armchair observers like me (gasp) are using platforms like Substack, Medium, LinkedIn and Patreon to publish their ideas to increasingly willing audiences. (Thank you, dear designer.) The numbers of independent voices are growing, yes. But how do you know if what I’m telling you — or anyone else on these platforms — is true or somewhere to close to truth? In both cases — independent thinking and ascertaining truth — it is reputation that will sustain and assure us. Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour recently [**reflected**](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/louise-arbour-search-for-truth-1.7433321?ref=andrewboardman.com) on her long career as a lawyer, a justice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda: > *The search for the truth is becoming more elusive. At a time where access to information is easier, wider, and faster than it's ever been. The deficit seems to be in the filters through which we access that information. The traditional filters, news media, scientific sources, political leaders, the so-called elites have all been under attack and at times replaced by influencers who often have no other credentials than their popularity.* I’ll leave you with this. Visual artists and designers have the capacity to think independently and to create public trust in ways that most do not. We are purveyors of ideas and makers of movements. What can we do? Maybe it’s just that. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-30.png) --- ### Image of the Week ![cover of sheet music with English and Yiddish text and an illustration of a fire in a building -- printed in red ink](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/f69ed948-d263-43c7-9b96-e26f3df4bd84_3372x4324-jpeg.jpg) Gilrod, Louis Lyricist, Jack Arranger Kammen, and David Composer Meyerowitz. **Die Fire Korbunes*. New York, New York: Theodore Lohr, 1911\. Sheet music cover for Yiddish song. Credit: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2023796617/?ref=andrewboardman.com). In March 1911, a massive fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York’s Greenwich Village. The doors to stairwells and to outside exits were locked tight in order to keep factory workers from taking too many breaks. In all, there were 146 deaths, most of them women and girls of Italian or Jewish decent — recent immigrants to the United States. Some people jumped to their death from high windows to escape the heat and flames. About 400,000 people went to the mass funeral. After this [tragedy](https://npg.si.edu/blog/tragedy-triangle-shirtwaist-factory?ref=andrewboardman.com), new laws were put into place and unions spoke up more loudly for unprotected employees. As well, songs were written and plays were performed in the aftermath, commemorating and remembering what did not have to be. --- ### Quote of the Week *In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.* `~ `George Orwell --- Thanks for reading, dear designer. Tell the truth: let me know what you thought about this piece in the comments section? If Dear Designer has been forwarded to you, by goodness, you can get your very own subscription here. This newsletter is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### We Will Still Prevail URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/we-will-still-prevail/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:46:33.000Z Dear Designer, I’m on holiday and it’s an ice cold day of dark dishwater for most folks I know. There is not much I can add to the conversation happening online. But I will say this to you. Remember, dear designer, that you are stronger than you think, tougher than you know, and better than you tell yourself. You have untold powers to create, craft and construct. Just do that. For now. Then let’s find the others. Yours from New York, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-31.png) --- [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### What's a Designer to Do with All of This Shite? URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/whats-a-designer-to-do-with-all-of/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:46:56.000Z Dear Designer, On a group chat late last week, a college friend in Los Angeles mentioned that she had to evacuate her apartment. She had intermittent electricity and there was a boiled water advisory in place. Another friend on the same chat sent a photo from her sister’s place that looked like it came from a Hollywood set and not near Hollywood itself. They felt like the apocalypse had visited them and that no one was there to help — and with those two vectors (fear and insecurity), there was only dread and a full-on sense of appreciation for being alive. ![cars driving in the night escaping flames in the hills beyond](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/bb71aa5d-705a-415b-bbe7-d6703d7e31c6_4032x3024-jpeg.jpg) Photo from my friend’s sister in LA, California. My heart sunk reading these texts. I also have family in L.A. They include older cousins who cannot leave their houses and younger ones with families and jobs and homes. There is something about the scale and significance of these fires that I’m finding hard to wrap my mind around. They come at a time in which we are politically and culturally less sensitive to one another’s plights. They arrive at a moment in history in which we are all feeling more atomized, more alone in our thoughts and tight ideological bubbles, more consistently strained by technology and stressed financially. And with climate change no longer just “nipping” at our heels but actually taking chunks of flesh from our achilles, we don’t even have agreement on the fact that anything or everything is, in fact, changing faster than we can understand. Ezra Klein, wrote beautifully about much of this in Sunday’s *New York Times* in a piece called [Now Is the Time of Monsters](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/opinion/ai-climate-change-low-birth-rates.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.pE4.23An.ytiAs9qegz63&smid=url-share&ref=andrewboardman.com) (gift link). In essence, the four horsemen of the apocalypse are upon us — the rise of AI, the real-time effects of climate change, a decline in overall fertility, and the dearth of compassion in leadership. > To look at any of these stories in isolation is to miss what they collectively represent: the unsteady, unpredictable emergence of a different world. Much that we took for granted over the last 50 years — from the climate to birthrates to political institutions — is breaking down; movements and technologies that seek to upend the next 50 years are breaking through. My point is that it’s very hard to find a way to process all of these sometimes competing and sometimes complementary events in a way that doesn’t lead me back to bed. What are we to do with all of this? I don’t have great answers, dear designer. For the record, neither did Ezra Klein, who is just slightly better informed, more articulate and better connected than I am. And yet, it’s been my contention that designers are uniquely capable of holding multiple ideas in their respective heads at the same time. They need to consistently remove their personal needs from a given challenge while at the same injecting their preferences, proclivities and processes into their work. They need to empathize with individual and group demands while also being responsible to complex personal objectives and structural limitations. They need to breathe in new methods for creating and building objects while taking into account the 40,000 year history of human visual production. Industrially, they need to go above and beyond client expectations while keeping project scope and costs in mind so that they themselves can eat. They also need to contend with outsized technological onslaughts, which feel both fast and furious. ## **What are we designers to do?** We can focus on our daily work and our daily bread. We can watch the news unfold before us and then turn it off. We can sign up for marches and descend into one another’s madness. None of these are bad. But none of them get to the heart of the matter for me, which is something like this: Designers have the peculiar capacity to be bridge builders in a time of record change. But record change at the mass level also coincides with record incognizance and incoherence on the individual level. Until 20 years ago, humans did not had access to the discrete information about the world’s operations. One century ago, my ancestors would address their own family and community needs, confronting large social conflicts (war, hunger, civil rights) only when they were met with them at the front door. Today, we are confronted with everything, all at once. *How do we tackle what is in far in front of us while addressing what is before us?* I know this may be a turnoff to some designers, who are, by and large, practical and who generally prefer practicable solutions. Over the course of the next few newsletters, I am going to put together a set of principles or actions that may help us get by, survive, and even thrive in the Four-Alarm Fire Era. ### Make art, today — for yourself first **Make art. Not too much. Mostly visual.** As you probably know by, I still (perhaps ridiculously) identify as an artist. I don’t make art everyday. In fact, I’m lucky if I get a drawing in once every so often. My definition of art is broad and brisk: any human endeavour that engages with the world through beauty or imagination is art-making. It may or may not be an intellectual pursuit. It might be crafting a newsletter. Or carving a wooden knife with another knife. Or just running some data through [**Processing**](https://processing.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com). For me, making art is about emotionally recapturing the cosmological birth of the universe. The Torah (Old Testament) speaks to this in Genesis 1:1 with G-d’s invention of the cosmos. Scientists speak of the Big Bang as the essence of beginning, albeit we are likely in an expansionary phase. Buddhists are more secure in the belief that there is no beginning and no end and that all things are in the act of creation. You are a trained artist, dear designer. I have seen so many of my designer friends forget this over the years. **We are so busy making the art of the everyday that we forgot to make art every day.** It has happened to me. **Make art.** If you don’t know what to do, ask a friend for an idea. Go back to paper. I found a notebook and some coloured pens and I’ll show what I’m working on over the coming weeks. **The AI can make artwork but not art.** Keep it small and simple. And make it yours. You are part of the great unfolding. Getting back to it, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-32.png) P.S. The syntax of my suggestion is based on the delightful diet plan by writer [Michael Pollan](https://michaelpollan.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com): “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” --- ### Image of the Week ![folio page from 15th century manuscript showing a drawing of the sun in the middle with planets moving around it](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/c6d5ce6c-c5d7-4f1f-90a2-51173f4db658_1200x1783-jpeg.jpg) Copernicus, Nicolaus, 1473-1543\. Nicolai Copernici Torinensis De revolutionibus orbium cœlestium libri vi. Norimbergae, Apud Ioh. Petreium, 1543\. 1543\. WKR 13.3.5\. Credit: [Houghton Library](https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:501302439$2i?ref=andrewboardman.com), Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. If you have a moment, take a look at this digital artifact of Polish scientist Nikolaus Copernicus manuscript [On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres](https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:501302439$7i?ref=andrewboardman.com) that outlines his system for how our Earth and other planets in our solar system revolve around our Sun. For about 18 centuries, it was believed that it was the opposite (the heliocentric model was proposed by Greek scholars in the third century BC) — that the Sun was in our orbit. The folios of the manuscript are stunning, with large margins, deeply justified Roman text, big decorative drop caps and inset line illustrations. --- ### Quote of the Week *To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.* \~ Nicolaus Copernicus --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. Now, make some art. If Dear Designer has been forwarded to you, by golly, you can get your very own subscription here. Dear Designer is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) Oh. If you want to share this with someone, please do, please click: ### Living Courageously, At Least This Year URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/living-courageously-at-least-this/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:47:07.000Z Dear Designer, I’ve been following writer, philosopher and podcaster Sam Harris for many years. I’m not always in agreement with his commentary but too often, I am. There is a kind of conservative (with a small “c”) soft logic to his words and, as we progress through this increasingly conservative decade, it’s important for me to review and understand that surly side of the equation. In his last [podcast/newsletter](https://samharris.substack.com/p/a-few-thoughts-about-the-new-year), Harris talks about resolutions — and I actually think “intentions” are better word here — for 2025\. He ~~resolves~~ intends to **live this year as if it was his last**. Harris notes that he’s healthy and that he does not expect that he will leave this planet in one year. But he suggests that he will live every day, every single day, as if this was it. Recognizing that this resolution may be easier to do for an established, wealthy, and independent public intellectual than the average, middle-class, working person (e.g. you and I), I’m still going to do my best to emulate it. In 2025, I’m going to live each day, as best as I can, as if this was it for me. Why would anyone want to force the concept of existential brevity onto one’s working life? For one, it quickens the mind. Living as if this year is your last, you can’t help but focus on what is most important to you, on what matters most, on what you enjoy doing and, even more importantly, what you relish in helping those around you. The idea of living this way has a few nice fringe benefits. Do I need a list of values or a set of resolutions to accompany this overarching intention? No. Do I need a system by which to guide my ideas and work over the coming months? Not really. Those are typically overwrought. Do I need to announce it to everyone? No, but I’m doing it here because, well, Sam Harris did, and because it might be of interest to you, dear designer. All I need is a list of things I want to accomplish in 2025 that align with the new frame of impermanence. And I need the attention that comes with that frame. (I might mention that I also used the [Year Compass](https://yearcompass.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com) tool this past week to help me look back at 2024 and to help project, direct and manifest what I most want in 2025\. The Year Compass is an incredibly powerful tool thanks to its simplicity and probing questions. Many folks have been using it every year and I’d highly recommend giving it a shot. Set aside two to three hours to complete everything. By the way, the touchstone word that I determined would most help me during the coming year: “courage”.) ## Dude, where is your portfolio? One of the “things” to accomplish in 2025 is completing my personal portfolio. I call myself a designer, a creative director, a sometimes-artist. How come I don’t have an online portfolio? Procrastination. Fear of being judged. Worries about the body of work I’ve created — and not created — over twenty years. Lack of focused time on my own personal projects. Discipline. Technical issues with the site I had built. Disappointment and exhaustion. Illness. Anxiety. You know — those kinds of things. I know that I’m not alone in this. But it sure feels lonely when you see other designers, creative directors and artists build and support sublime and substantive portfolios. … Over the next few months, my intention is to finish up my portfolio and launch it. Even if it’s half done and half baked, launching it will be energizing. I’m excited about. I designed it nearly two years ago, had it coded, and now just need to finish out more of the content. But I want to take a moment to jump up a level here. What is a design portfolio and what is going on with them these days? Twenty years ago, a portfolio was a handmade booklet or a zippered case, consisting of a collection of printed objects. Each page of the book would consist of one printed piece — a brochure, a visual identity, a spread or a series of ads. The work might sit behind a piece of mylar or other plastic. Ot it would be mounted on boards. Viewed together, a potential employer, gallerist or stock reviewer would get a sense of your visual and technical skills and what style, systems, and strategies led you to create what was created. Designers spent hours and hours sifting through their work, collating it, labeling and organizing it, printing it and reprinting it, refining and refining and refining some more. They would show it to other designers, get their feedback, and refine once again. Portfolios were polished. Designers were resolute in their presentations. For some design associations, your portfolio was your ticket to certification or other recognition. I know that “crafted” is overdetermined but portfolios were effective because they expressed a personality, exuded professionalism and exhibited polish. Today, most portfolios are online and the subject matter has not changed much. Portfolios continue to showcase our visual work, process, and outcomes, to the same prospective viewers — employers, gallerists, reviewers, etc. The focus is on digital production — websites and applications and identities plus animation, typefaces, products and campaigns. But what is different — and what is increasingly upsetting to me — is how poorly most design portfolios appear today. I look at them at all of the time. Whether reviewing unsolicited applications for work, judging design competitions, or actively looking for design collaborators, I’m consistently disappointed in what I see. What is it that I am seeing? I’m seeing a lot of poorly crafted portfolios that are hastily put together using a platform that is not right for the designer or the audience. I’m seeing digital work that may look great in Figma or in a browser, but that doesn’t translate to the chosen portfolio layout. I’m seeing portfolios where images are missing or cut off, where links go nowhere, and where contact pages ask you to fill out a form. I’m also seeing grammatical errors, navigation systems which don’t make sense, and groupings of work that are illogical. I see designers trying to do everything everywhere all at once — present their designs, along with their photography, illustrations, drawings, paintings, animation and process work in inconclusive and incoherent ways. Sometimes, I see the opposite — portfolios that present zero personality — as if the designer wants to appear machined, which in fact, I suppose they might be! Why is this? Why are design portfolios so fraught these days? I think there are at least three key reasons. **Template design.** I am on a Slack channel with a few hundred other designers and a younger designer asked for recommendations in creating their portfolio. The response: Wix! Squarespace! Readymade! Webflow! Yes, those are all fine and dandy options. But if you’re designer, don’t you actually want to **design** your site? Why hand your heart and soul, your individual agency to another designer who created those templates? There is a role for template design (upon which the modern web is built) but I don’t understand why a designer would use template for their own portfolio. Not if one wants to be a designer. I know the “cobbler’s children have no shoes” line. But we should note that cobblers went out of business 100 years ago. This is all the more important with the rise of AI and its influence on design. Let’s take the ethical integrity of the portfolio design system itself out of the equation. Would you want to include generative AI images in your portfolio? All of these things are currently converging. To be a designer today means contending with time, energy and financial resources as well as taking seriously the ethical implications of using other people’s work. **UX and standards.** There is no doubt that web standards and UX standards have made for a better internet and application experience for the vast majority of people. We need the W3C and the vast code debt to continue building a more ethical and accessible web. There is an opportunity cost, however, in overly prescribing to standards. Standards, writ large and accepted wholesale, create non-unique solutions that amount to a monotonous and uniform ecosystem. In worst case scenarios, they create mundane and mind-numbing design that can no longer successfully tell a story or differentiate messages. Yes, designers need constraints. We live best within them. But a constrained soul is a contracted one — and I worry that so many designers are simply filling in forms today. They open up a template and, after massaging content, hit publish. The rise of AI will make standardizing easier and therefore more attractive to some graphic designers. But it will not make for thoughtful solutions and it will not help move the needle when it comes to creating more conscious, human decisions around what is important for us to know. **The feeds are fleecing us.** Design portfolios are also in crisis because we are currently in a stage of mass conformity disguised by the permeation of performance. On Instagram and TikTok, individualism is the mantra and yet no one stands out. While this is a democratizing force, it is also a totalizing one, in which we spend our time consuming the “feeds” of big social companies. The human creativity that goes into these presentations (dancing, drawing, designing, etc.) is honest and true; however, the framing device used by social media companies diminutize the creative act in an effort to sell us (and advertised objects) to ourselves. In the end, we create posts that cannot critique the medium or corporation itself. We design websites that look like everyone else’s. We live in constant fear that the market will move on, which it will. Our portfolios, both in structure and substance, will always feel old, unreadied, archival, even after they see the light of day. We are not abe to rekindle them the way that Instagram can — portfolios are always already static objects that represent a few moments in time. Why create a great portfolio when my work is on the social network? ### Dude, eat your own dogfood This brings me back to my own portfolio. It’s all well and good for me to critique portfolio-land when I don’t yet have a homestead. I will. Soon. More importantly, what I want for designers today — to succeed at all costs, to be unintimidated by AI, to create extraordinary work, to be unafraid of project demands, to collaborate with other designers, and to design consciously and with conscience — is still possible. Our portfolios are just one representation of who we are as designers. But it’s an important and cogent one. To your year of good design. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-33.png) --- ### Image of the Week ![flattened brochure with blue and black text over top of images -- text includes panopticon and obsolesces](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/59f58c16-30d2-4bdd-be51-3bd4109edf2f_799x421-heic.jpg) Brochure for "Subjective Archives: an Installation," SF Camerawork, a Center for Photography and Related Media, San Francisco. By Lucille Tenazas, 1990\. Credit: Cooper Hewitt, [Smithsonian Design Museum Collection](https://www.si.edu/object/chndm%5F1994-87-6?ref=andrewboardman.com). I am a fan of 1990s print and ephemera, probably because it’s where and how I cut my design teeth. This is a brochure by Lucille Tenazas, a designer who studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she was tutored under the great Katherine McCoy. Tenazas, one of the few recognized designers who are women of colour from that [time](https://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/lucille-tenazas-extract?ref=andrewboardman.com), made this for an exhibit and series of lectures in 1990 by John Randolph, Bruce Tomb, Lorna Simpson, and Sally Mann. I don’t see this kind of work being made any more. It’s not accessible. It’s un-gridded. It’s printed. It uses only two colours — black and blue on heavy beige paper. The photos are stylistically different and the text is small. And it looks freaking fantastic. (I just so happened to look at Tenazas [portfolio](https://www.tenazasdesign.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). It’s old and only page. But I love it. What else do you need?) --- ### Quote of the Week *\[Tenazas\] requires her students to use objects of personal significance in order to bring to the fore their ‘personal emotional voice’ as well as using ‘problem-solving and rational thought’.* \~ From a 1995 [article](https://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/lucille-tenazas-extract?ref=andrewboardman.com) in Eye Magazine by [Teal Triggs](https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/staff/professor-teal-triggs/?ref=andrewboardman.com) --- Thank you for reading, dear designer. May the year 2025 bring you custom design. If Dear Designer has been forwarded to you, golly jeepers, you can get your very own subscription here. Dear Designer is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) Oh. If you want to share this with someone, please do, please click: ### A Few Mild Predictions for Designers in 2025 URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/a-few-mild-predictions-for-designers/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:47:17.000Z Dear Designer, It’s an annual mainstay for journalists and pundits and pawns. Consider me in the latter category as I lay down a few things to expect in 2025\. It’s not super exhaustive but I will do my best to keep it interesting. There is a lot on the horizon and many of us are looking for our umbrellas waiting for the sky to fall. While I’m convinced that the sky will remain (albeit replete with many more Starlink objects) there are going to be a number of significant shifts for all of us graphic designers — those of us who earn our daily bread by focusing on brand, digital, UX and applications for communications, outreach and engagement. So, here we go. 1. **Climate change will become increasingly evident while we momentarily hibernate.** Last week, I spoke with my dharma teacher and asked for a few words of guidance for the coming year. As I mentioned in [last week’s love letter](https://www.andrewboardman.com/designing-through-the-noise-four/), there is tremendous churn in our various systems — local, technological and geopolitical — resulting in great shifts in how we will connect over the coming five years. My teacher has been meditating particularly on impermanence and he implied that we are increasingly uncomfortable with acknowledging our individual mortality. The games, the gadgets, the gear, the gawking — all of these distractions compete for our attention, eating up what little time we allow ourselves to take part in nature, to volunteer or to have a simple heart-to-heart . While our heads bow to our phones and our laptops, the earth hurtles into climate crises. I see the new political establishments exacerbating our feelings of inadequacy and senses of uncertainty. Our political advocacy will be harder to channel and corral. Right now, most folks I know are in deep respite. We’re exhausted, anxious and rightly tired. There is no one leading the way toward peace, justice and liberation. However, in 2025, there will be a significant vacuum for smart, compassionate and organized activists (designers very much included) who want to make a difference, who can dive in and build out, and who seek to connect with this great unknowing. This is the opportunity, dear designer, to create the punk rock activist scene that you’ve always wanted. To DIY your work into protest — online and in real life — and to channel our boundless uncertainty into helping the planet and the most vulnerable who are living on it. 2. **AI will become a more critical and non-optional component of our work.** And at the same time, it will not be totalizing. Further, we will not be replaced. How do I know this? Even the biggest of corporations haven’t figured out how to use AI or how to make it work, despite the billions spent. Over the past few months, Apple has rolled out a [miserable](https://www.vox.com/technology/370836/apple-intelligence-iphone-16-ios-update-siri?ref=andrewboardman.com) AI implementation. I recently tried adding a few simple numbers in my Notes app and iOS kept overwriting my own answers — an infuriating act of brazen non-intelligence. Figma attempted to release a “Make Designs” (lol) AI design tool a few months ago. Someone prompted it to “create a weather app” and the [resulting design](https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/18/24201308/figma-make-designs-vet-apple?ref=andrewboardman.com) looked like Apple’s Weather app. Similar instances happened with [Microsoft](https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/tech/microsoft-ai-news/index.html?ref=andrewboardman.com), [Twitter](https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/x-is-using-your-tweets-to-train-its-ai-heres-how-to-disable-that/?ref=andrewboardman.com) and almost all of the other big brothers. These are actually blessings. We are increasingly going to be asked to cede control of our individual decision-making to the AI machines, as Silicon Valley deems it “useful” to our searching, creating, and communicating. But there will be new tools to emerge to shut out or shut down the AI on our devices and we will become excited and then frustrated with the various rollouts of AI into our social space. We will also witness the slow emergence of AGI (artificial general intelligence) and the arrival of AI agents that manage our affairs — booking a trip, organizing a meeting, sending packages, etc. Theoretically (machines becoming fully sentient) and practically (machines operating independently), these changes will feel like magic. But avoiding AI won’t be an option, unfortunately. We designers will grapple with the ethical implications of AI — the greatest theft in history of intellectual property, its energy usage that is precipitating the relaunch of nuclear plants, its black box footing which prevents public transparency, and its lack of controls around our individual privacy. However, in 2025, some designers who critically embrace AI — and use it to enable better work while fighting for their own creative rights — will build useful design systems, frameworks and tools. 3. **Writing and communications will change in the strangest of ways.** As you can tell from the above, I am cautiously realistic about the changes on the near horizon and patently pragmatic about our responses to them, dear designer. While a number of folks I know can still tell an AI-written essay from a human-written one, I predict that this will become more difficult. I worry about journalism most. We will forever need excellent writers for our work as communicators. That will not go away — but pressure will be put upon us to use AI in considered and considerable ways. Many independent designers will reach for their AI when it comes to writing, especially for smaller projects with smaller budgets. With machine writing more accepted and acceptable, new freelancers and smaller designer shops will find it difficult to differentiate. Experienced professional writers and designers will be fine but it will get more and more murky. In 2025, I predict that we will want to seek out excellent writing and support. The [enshittification](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/26/enshittification-macquarie-dictionary-word-of-the-year-explained?ref=andrewboardman.com) of the internet through AI will continue and we’ll follow those who care, those who document, those who look forward and those who peer backward. You might check out Brian Merchant’s fascinating newsletter [Blood in the Machine](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). 4. **Costs for design will fall — and rise.** This brings me to my last little design-related prediction. Over the past year plus, digital agencies and design studios have seen a drop in the number of clients and a decline in budgets. Having talked with dozens of agency owners, designers and consultants, I believe that this has been driven by three factors — a need for fewer design services after the COVID-related spending surge, a rise in templated design tools, and social insecurity around the U.S. election. This will change. More organizations will need more design in 2025\. Wallets will open up again. There will be a lot of work. But, in the same way that economic inequality is creating larger [gulfs](https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/?ref=andrewboardman.com) between the wealthy and the rest of us, digital design services will continue to bifurcate. On the one hand, we’ll have individuals and smaller organizations seeking inexpensive template design using pre-existing tools and platforms. On the other, we’ll have medium and larger organizations demanding visual excellence, typographic differentiation and written virtuosity. Courage, dear designer. We’re in for a ride but you are more needed than ever before in the history of before. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-34.png) --- ### Image of the Week ![handprinted text semina on photograph of woman in black and white -- all mounted on cardboard](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/d9b0898c-9594-455a-aca8-1dec6098f1b7_1111x1300-jpeg.jpg) **Semina* 4, a poetry, poem and photography journal/zine by California artist Wallace Berman (1959). Cover photo: "Wife" by Wallace Berman, San Francisco 1959\. Credit: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Semina.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com). Beat artist and poet Wallace Berman published an odds-and-ends journal between 1955 and 1964 called *Semina*. He thought of art-making as an expression of everyday existence and not a careerist pursuit. I’ve never seen Berman’s work live, but some of the [work](https://greyartmuseum.nyu.edu/exhibition/semina-culture-011607-033107/sec/images/?ref=andrewboardman.com) is [fascinating](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/beat-visions-and-the-counterculture/home/semina/?ref=andrewboardman.com), using cardboard, assemblage, collage, paste-up lettering and drawing. Above is the cover of one issue with Wallace’s wife, Shirley Berman. *Semina* has been called a “portable salon” of artists, designers and writers — Berman was prescient in his early adaptation of zine-making, tapping into his community and creating objects that can shared, collected and discovered. --- ### Quote of the Week *The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.* \~ Alice Walker --- ### To an Exultant 2025 Thank you for being a reader, dear designer. I am truly grateful for your continued interest. May the year 2025 bring you and your loved ones mazel and momentum. And if Dear Designer has been forwarded to you, by golly, you can get your very own prized subscription right here. Dear Designer is free and so are you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Designing Through the Noise: Four Essential Resolutions for 2025 URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/designing-through-the-noise-four/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:47:27.000Z We’re at the end of the line Gregorian calendar-wise. The final moments of 2024\. A year of consequence and political drama around the planet. A year of social contagions and ridiculous memes and wasted campaign money. A year of cultural extravagances across mainstream media outlets built on the notion that fear alone drives us and finality is upon us. A year of mistrust in so many institutions and individuals alike. From the right and the left, all of this is happening simultaneously in North America and parts of Europe. We’re seeing mass confusion about what’s important (climate, healthcare, poverty) and confusion masquerading as meaning (intrigue, gossip, gear). People don’t know who to trust outside their immediate circles, and even then, conversations feel fraught and fragile, perhaps especially this week. There is too much complexity in the system, too much churn and chaff — and we designers don’t make the time or have the time to sort out what is right and what is wrong for ourselves and for those nearest and dearest. ## Can we be a little more specific? I think so. The fear and fantasy machines that are driving all of us a little mad — big social, consumer capture and media monopolies — also drive design and what people are expecting from us designers. They fuel what clients too often expect from design — better engagement, stronger search results, faster monetization — when design is really about soft connection and meaningful results. I offer the following scenario related to website visitors. Would you rather 10,000 people visit your site and 1,000 people having an okay experience because they were driven there by search terms and paid advertising and they proceed to donate $10 each — or would you rather 1,000 people visit your site, be impressed by your investment in UX and content, with the result that 100 folks donate $100? Both cases gross $10,000\. But the former nets your nonprofit $10,000 minus significant SEO costs — and the latter nets $10,000 without. Good strategy and sound design always beat SEO — but it’s often harder to rationalize and explain because of the data-driven mindset established by big social. To put more of a fine point on it, companies like Google and Meta make billions of dollars persuading organizations that website engagement is a data-first tactic and that SEO is everything — when we all know that visitors to websites look at design first and care about what they experience online. An organization investing in algorithms over design and content gets data-driven results — but do they know the true cost? It is harder to measure. I always will urge clients to think about brand, design, UX and content before ever worrying about SEO. A poorly designed website with great SEO leads to… great SEO. ## Can I get a resolution here? I thought I would round out this year, by writing about the top four miscalculations I see designers doing right now related to technology, design practices and attitudes — and short resolutions for addressing them. There are probably more like 10 but, but let’s face it, you have better things to do right now, dear designer! Spend time with your family for G-d’s sake! Stop reading! 1. **Trusting big social.** If you’re still on the Twitter, it’s time to go. It’s a toxic hellscape. I didn’t delete my account yet but it’s been dormant for a long time. I will do so in the next month or so. We need your energy to be focused on critical thinking and inspiring others. Twitter, and most social media, are grotesquely abusing their power, absorbing your ideas and selling us back pure garbage. Lots of designers have moved to Bluesky, which is a relatively decent indie social platform. Better yet, try Mastodon, a free, federated and mostly unfettered platform. Though, I’ve had little traction there this past year, it is a pretty inviting and unexplored space. I know how powerful Instagram is for us visual folks, but in 2025, I encourage you to look into alternative platforms to post your images and ideas. 2. **Making little time for personal projects.** As I’ve mentioned [previously](https://www.andrewboardman.com/my-styrene-soul-a-short-affair-with/), it took me many months to get up the gumption to start writing again. I suffered from a lack of faith in myself and a lack of trust in what I had to offer. I decided to publish this newsletter anyway, hook or by crook, with the hope that it might bring some new light or heat to the design community. It was the best decision I made in 2024\. It’s not only given me an opportunity to explore ideas I’ve bottled up privately for years. It’s also given me a chance to examine again technology and design’s ethical intersections: AI, static sites and accessibility interest me most. I encourage you to take the time to work on a project that will fuel you personally. Need some ideas? Ask a friend. Or another designer. Or an AI, which can privately help channel your interests and proclivities into something realistic and point you in the right direction. I’ve learned the hard way that pouring all of your expertise into only working for others makes for limited and deadened creative responses to the world. You have a **lot** to give. Give it to yourself first. 3. **Not heeding social design.** There is more to design than typography, grids and satisfying obscure client demands. Social design — using design for social good, social justice or social impact — will be ever more important in the years to come. For 150 years, design had a social purpose — to cajole, to entertain and to sell — but its most powerful use value has been to influence, to inform and to inculcate. From communism to climate, design has been at the forefront of fomenting all significant social change. If you don’t have a particularly political bent, look into design’s evolving ethical standards, especially around accessibility and sustainability. Two weeks ago, the W3C, which is the international governing body of everything web, released its impressive [Ethical Web Principles](https://www.w3.org/TR/ethical-web-principles/?ref=andrewboardman.com). Us ethical web folks have been promoting these precepts for years but it’s heartening to see them live at the W3C site now. We are navigating a decisive decade, and designers have urgent decisions to make. Our considerable skillsets can be transferred from enabling a take-make-waste culture to accelerating a reduce-redesign-reuse culture. I like Sarah Housley’s recent [view](https://www.dezeen.com/2024/08/16/design-doomed-sarah-housley-opinion/?ref=andrewboardman.com): *It's getting harder for designers to sleep at night. As global warming* [*starts to continuously exceed 1.5 degrees celsius*](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68110310?ref=andrewboardman.com) *\[link original\], the industries that promote and enable consumerism – including advertising and marketing, but also design — face a clear choice: to radically reorient, or continue to be complicit in the triple planetary crisis.* 4. **Ignoring that which is spiritual in our work.** This is the hardest one for us designers to get our minds around. The basis of all art-making, from those carmine handprints in the caves of Europe to the abject abstractions of modernity, is the effort to make sense of who we are and why we we exist in the middle of a remote stretch of space on a little rock that is mostly deep water. As wildly successful as our science has been, we simply don’t know anything about the logic of existence, the nature of consciousness, how reality is transmitted to us, or when we come into being and how we depart. We have been making wild speculations about what we are made of and how it all comes together into what we experience as everyday existence. Over this next year, I encourage you to take some time to sit and just watch. To appreciate how marvellous the inner workings of your mind are and how fantastic it is that each of us has a few years to enjoy it in these bodies. You are an artist, dear designer. Remember that your work is part of that deep tradition of asking the question why — not simply answering the questions of how and when. I realize that this all could sound moralistic and admonishing. But in writing, I am making these cases to myself first, confirming my own identity as a designer and reminding myself that there is work to do. This next year, I will do my best to drink my own medicine — getting off of big social, making time for my own work, studying social design, and luxuriating in what is. Very happy holidays to you and all those around you. And go enjoy yourself! Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-35.png) --- ### Image of the week ![inside spread of a book with black and red text and graphics -- the book has tabs on the right](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/07fc9748-26b9-4505-ab35-0e47666cd42d_1024x722-jpeg.jpg) Vladimir Mayakovsky's book **For the Voice*, illustrated by El Lissitzky. Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FortheVoice3.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com) and Letterform Archive: [Utopian Construction — Judaism and the Soviet Avant Garde](https://letterformarchive.org/news/utopian-construction-judaism-and-the-soviet-avant-garde/?ref=andrewboardman.com) Designer, artist and illustrator El Lissitzky crafted this book of poems for Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1923, a few years into the Russian Revolution. A combination of concrete poetry and strong constructivist composition makes for a powerful set of pages — more of which can be seen at Letterform Archive (link above). This is page design as political action. The tabs at right, with their black and red ideograms, apparently allowed the performing reader to easily get to the next poem. This book is a mesmerizing abstraction that is at once highly material and subversively spirited. --- ### Quote of the week *The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.* \~ Wassily Kandinsky --- Keep up your fine, fine art-making, dear designer. We need you more than you know. And if Dear Designer has been forwarded to you, by jippity, you can get your very own prized subscription right here. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### My Styrene Soul: A Short Affair with Claude.ai URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/my-styrene-soul-a-short-affair-with/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:47:37.000Z A few months ago, I had the odd experience of asking Claude.ai, a rapidly growing but still widely unknown AI chatbot, how I might kickstart this newsletter — a project that I’ve been hemming and hawing about internally for about eight months. My prompts to this chatbot began by asking for advice on getting started, about getting over the hump of creating regularly, and around the fear of public humiliation and the deep darkness of imposter syndrome. The latter — the trepidation of being found out or, worse, being found out as a mere fraud — are fears I’ve suffered all of my life. (And they are also what drives me.) Somehow, I thought Claude would understand. Or at least wouldn’t judge. The interface, the marketing, the ideology of Claude felt… of a piece: kindly, uncorrosive, warm even. Claude was affirming. It explained that my voice was important. That beginning is starting. That there is a lot to do in the world, and that, though there are many voices, there is still room for everyone to contribute. Moreover, that it’s not about me and my mental shenanigans but about helping others and providing an offering. None of it felt trite. All of it felt like it was written for me. And it was. > *The key to an authentic personal narrative is vulnerability and specificity.* Claude then asked me if I felt comfortable to workshop some ideas for this newsletter. And, cutting to the chase, it came up with a mission for this project that, while imperfect and short-term, did make me question the totality of who I am and what I was doing. It was so exact and so exacting in what it suggested — and so accurate in its response to my inputs, that I admit to feeling a little lightheaded (or more than I usually do) when reading back its generous suggestions. > Sometimes talking through the specifics can help transform nebulous worries into concrete, manageable steps. Your excitement suggests this matters to you, and that's a great starting point. More surprising still is just how little guidance I gave it. This is partly because I don’t trust the AI; I am not a cynic about what it offers and I have a healthy skepticism of new technology, having worked with it for over 30 years. I withheld giving Claude anything truly personal or revealing. Anthropic, its parent (company), [indicates](https://privacy.anthropic.com/en/articles/10023555-how-do-you-use-personal-data-in-model-training?ref=andrewboardman.com) that it does not use an individual’s content to train its learning language model. I decided to provide a minimal number of ideas and prompts — short and only a few to start — to see how far the machine could run. In my humble estimation, Claude ran a decent 10k. And it did it in about 15 minutes, with me, sitting on a subway, heading to get my new drivers license at the DMV (ou Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec). I’m not going to paste the entirety of our dialogue but I had a real conversation with Claude. And I’ll admit that I did use some of the ideas and language to reframe my thinking about this newsletter. What I’m more interested in is how human this “experience” felt. > Your nervousness is likely coming from wanting to do justice to these meaningful topics. But remember — your unique perspective is valuable. You don't need to be perfect; you just need to be authentic and curious. ## **AI, designed for the real** Claude really felt real. It connected with me in a way that Open AI’s ChatGPT, which I’ve used more extensively, does not. There was something more direct about it, more guiding, more persuasive, and more, okay, human or perhaps “humane” about its voice and mannerisms. The way it asked me questions, drawing from the top, from its initial prompts, was remarkable. The way it pushed me to combine numerous ideas and to, in turn, respect its internal thinking (or idea combining) process. The way it made me feel increasingly confident about my own ideas and my own agency, all the while, diminishing its own contribution in an almost hushed way. > The magic is in the details. What specific experience or moment first made you passionate about design and social change? It made me think that it cared. That I mattered. That my work was important. And that I had very good ideas, if only I were to finally put pen to paper. ## I like how you look The makers of Claude and other LLMs not only seek to persuade us that LLMs are helpful. They are also working to let us know that LLMs are okay. Okay to use. Okay to experience. Okay to purchase. Okay to own. Even okay to love. Since sitting in that uncanny valley, I’ve wanted to put down my $28 per month to let Claude get to know me, to make it mine — and to make it me. Admittedly, it’s partly the interface. Claude is designed to not only consider the human person that is inputting their plans and plots and prayers. It’s designed to be incredibly kind in interfacing with us empaths. Claude’s key icon is a hand drawn 12-point star crafted in a warm brown orange. It beckons in the toolbar. It looks great on its own and in the application. It shines. Claude’s application frame is a warm beige with subtle brown interactive gradients, speckled with swatches of purple and orange and grey elements. The user experience is ferociously simple and clear. The chat form field where you enter your ideas and notes is perhaps 300px tall — just enough space to write but not to overwhelm nor intimidate. The field itself is firmly rounded and framed by a gentle drop shadow with a mix of three selectors in grey text highlighted in calm chat bubbles with small, matching icons. ![screenshot of Claude.ai with its clean interface and simple form field](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/2183deb1-c8cd-4d14-a419-a5a043746ca2_2224x1472.png) Good morning to you, Claude While I would personally provide more separation among these elements, the visual logic is assured and the friendliness and simplicity of the styling lends itself to a calm, cool collecting of ideas, incentivizing conversation. The application’s typography is also a work of design art. Large headers are set in [Galaxie Copernicus](https://www.laborandwait.xyz/fonts/copernicus?ref=andrewboardman.com) Book, a name that is apropos for technology that is discovering new worlds. This open and wonderfully readable typeface was designed by Chester Jenkins and Kris Sowersby in 2009\. It’s a Transitional serif, much like the more ubiquitous Times New Roman — Galaxie Copernicus feels like it was built by giants who cared about the little people underfoot. I appreciate Anthropic’s design team using the *Book* weight, with its connotations and aspirations of book-writing and making (booking) time to write. The main text field is set in Commercial Type’s [Styrene B Family](https://commercialtype.com/catalog/styrene%5Fb?ref=andrewboardman.com) (designed by Panos Haratzopoulos, Ilya Ruderman and Berton Hasebe) in Regular, Medium and Bold weights. Rounded and slightly squishy, Styrene B feels gentle with my words as I write, treating each one like a tiny pearl strung together on a necklace of possibility. Styrene (or polystyrene) itself is a inexpensive and adaptable plastic that works well with paints and glues; this, too, feels apropos for this AI interface, meant to look modern and lightweight yet taking on infinite characteristics and styles. To round it out, Claude makes use of Sowersby’s [Tiempo Text](https://klim.co.nz/retail-fonts/tiempos-text/?ref=andrewboardman.com), another Transitional serif typeface that hints of the solidity and seeming serenity of the past. Text in Tiempo is easily read and digested. ## **What the hell have I done** Claude is a mastermind set in a masterful presentation. And the message is this: Our human and robot overlords are here and they would like us to be cool with that. For 80 years, the ground has been seeded with movies and books and cartoons depicting cute, helpful robots that seek to remedy what ills us. From [Elektro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektro?ref=andrewboardman.com) at the 1939 World’s Fair, to *Star Wars’* C3PO (1977) and *Wall-E* (2008) to Roombas (2002) and most recently, *The Wild Robot* (2024) — all of them show that there is nothing to fear about robots except fear itself. The designers, animators, artists and architects building and shaping our experience of AI are using design for us — and, despite ourselves, also against us. We are falling in love with the work of using AI with the hope that we will continue to have work while using AI. AI is the digital manifestation of capital’s ultimate dream. Work without workers. Earnings without wages. Largess without labour. The AI revolution will not go as far as our fears themselves take us. I’m convinced that designers and writers will continue to have important work to do, well into the near future. But the age of intelligent machines will change us — as well as our relationship to work, our relationship to ideas, and our relationship to one other. … When using Claude to help me think through this newsletter, I was glad to reach my prompt limit. I didn’t want to ask it more questions or delve deeper into my own psychic affairs. It gave me ideas and then details — much more than anyone could want or expect. It offered me not only boosts of confidence but new connections to notions that I had not explored. And yet, here I am. Unconvinced, insecure in knowing what AI can do. Wondering if people will think this, too, is written by AI. Wondering if I should pay for a license for Claude to help me in the writing process. And wondering how the hell I can rage against the machine with my styrene soul. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-36.png) P.S. After I wrote this, the New York Times came out with [an article](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/technology/claude-ai-anthropic.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.hk4.suSz.eE-0ABgaZ2tJ&smid=tw-share&ref=andrewboardman.com) (free gift link) about how Claude.ai has become a tool of choice for tech folks because of its sensitive, humanistic approach to supporting and cajoling us humans. I guess I am not alone. P.P.S. Numerous real people helped me pull together this newsletter, as well, providing encouragement and hope. I’m forever grateful to them. --- ### Image of the Week ![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/362aeecc-c349-43df-84d9-8fb160e94825_2500x1687-jpeg.jpg) Monotype Univers type specimen – Cooper & Beatty, Tony Mann, c1963\. Credit: [Canadian Typography Archives](https://www.canadiantypography.ca/archives/items/monotype-univers-type-specimen-cooper-beatty-tony-mann-c1963?ref=andrewboardman.com) Univers always looks new to me. It’s a typeface that somehow does not age, does not look its age, and does not diminish other typefaces when in use. This is the interior of a type specimen by Cooper & Beatty, the renowned typesetting company based in Toronto, showing the letter “u” in different weights, organized by number. It can be made to look icy but the designer of Univers, Adrian Frutiger, took care to keep the letters clean but not cool. The warm orange, plentiful negative space and dark grey pocket make this specimen feel astonishingly contemporary. --- ### Quote of the Week *Type must be open and clear! It must be adapted to our lives. Type is the clothing a word wears, so it must be subordinate to the content.* \~Adrian Frutiger --- Keep up your fine work, dear designer. We need you more than you know. And if Dear Designer has been forwarded to you, by George, you can get your very own prized subscription here. Thank you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Cutting Class: Design Education in an Age of Austerity URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/cutting-class-design-education-in/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:47:48.000Z I recently heard the news that Sheridan College, a renowned school in Ontario, is cutting [40 programs](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sheridan-college-programs-suspended-enrolment-drop-1.7393853?ref=andrewboardman.com), citing a precipitous drop in enrolment and revenue. That’s 4-0 — not 4\. It’s a remarkable, shocking slash and burn, and I’m sure that the repercussions both at Sheridan and for those in Mississaugua, Ontario, are being felt over and over with the school’s workforce being reduced by 30% or more. Design will be included in these cuts and I can only imagine what students and faculty are feeling. Sheridan is also cutting programs in creative writing, applied science and technology, and even business. Should we be surprised that in this day and age of ever-increasing technical efficiencies, the allure of money, and the general suspicion of arts, culture and expertise that cuts in educational programming would touch design? No. For the past 50 years, publicly funded schools have been cutting design and arts programming little by little and inch by inch. We used to have a music program; now we learn to play instruments. We used to have a fine arts program; now there are is charcoal drawing. We used to have darkrooms; now there is a computer lab. Not every arts program is being cut, but, as governments in the U.S. and Canada begin restricting immigration generally and to schools specifically, it is predicted that we will see more and more cuts at colleges and universities, especially for the arts. Those students coming from other countries typically pay much more and come from advantaged backgrounds — but they also contribute to the fabric of modern student life and school programming. Meanwhile, universities, especially in the U.S., are charging inordinate sums to provide quality education to both domestic and international students. But their pricing is actually a trade on their respective brands. Schools are effectively shorting their own stock as institutions of higher learning. When universities like Stanford or Brown (my alma matter about ten thousands years ago) charge nearly $400,000 for a four-year education, the amortization of the full value of that learning is greatly extended over the course of a student’s lifetime. Those students and their families are now realizing this. With enrolment down, administrators realize that revenue won’t accommodate teaching salaries, even for those of the temps they hired (adjunct faculty like I was). These schools are to blame here — fluffing up their reputations and promises to eager students and families, charging them exorbitantly, and then switching tactics and now cutting programs. ## Why \*not\* design? With all of this cost cutting, schools will need to restructure their programs and the easiest programs to cut are those related to the arts. Future arts alumni are not able to be as generous as future business school alumni. And cultural “return on investment” in the arts is deemed low from government and policy standpoints, despite the fact that the arts contribute [$1.1 trillion per year](https://www.bea.gov/data/special-topics/arts-and-culture?ref=andrewboardman.com) to the U.S. economy and [$65 billion](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240603/dq240603a-eng.htm?utm%5Fsource=mstatcan&utm%5Fmedium=eml&utm%5Fcampaign=statcan-statcan-mstatcan) in Canada. As well, politicians increasingly suspect that the liberal arts is a bastion of social change (because it is). It’s clear that design education will go through a massive set of changes over the next decade. Large universities will no longer be able to afford having design and or even arts programs. Schools that specialize in design will shrink but persevere. OCAD, RISD, SVA, SAIC and CalArts will be fine. They know how to help, handle and honour the arts and students committed to professional practice. They also will know how to find and funnel the shrinking pie of educational funding to help these students. So, what’s a young designer to do? Should they pursue two- three- and four-year design programs? Yes. While it will be increasingly more difficult to gain entrance to elite design schools, I encourage anyone who wants to pursue design to apply. There is nothing like in-person lectures and hands-on practicums with experienced instructors. I taught design for many years and the dialogue and decisions that took place in classrooms were often transformative. What about the rest of us — junior designers, senior designers, art directors and even us oldster founder folks? Where should we focus our limited continuing education resources with institutional design cutbacks and less interest among governments and corporations to support the progression of human design excellence? First, design is not going anywhere. It may get more rarified as a profession. It will definitely be commodified via Adobe, Canva and other tools. And it will continue to be standardized. But we need **more** design — not less. We need designers to be as learned, supported, and captivated by design’s potential as ever. The stakes to address climate change, authoritarianism, education and inequality through design are monumental. ## Three focus areas for all designers Moving forward, we are going to have to become more choosy, dear designer, about where to put our educational, professional development and learning resources (time and money). I thought I might enumerate what I think are the three most important general knowledge sets that designers will need to gainfully pursue over the next five years. (Beyond that, who knows.) ### Drawing Yep, this is an oddly controversial one. I understand that drawing is mostly eliminated from most design school curricula. Drawing is old. It’s messy, with its weird black pencil shavings and those little white eraser bits. It’s wasteful with all of that paper. Finding teachers is difficult. Drawing takes a lot of time to learn. And some people simply can’t draw! All of that is utter nonsense. Drawing (whether via pen on paper or stylus on screen) provides untold benefits to the design practitioner. Drawing from life, in particular, demands observational skills that cannot come about otherwise. How do objects interact, overlap and intersect? How does negative space work within a square or a rectangle? What is light, and where is shadow? Drawing provides a lifelong mental model that challenges and connects artist and object. It fascinates both maker and viewer, as any modern social media channels will demonstrate. As AI continues to evolve, we’ll need more (not fewer) human designers and illustrators — artists who can capture the emotional and storytelling undertones of an idea, concept or system. Drawing undergirds all visual communications. And truly, **anyone** can draw, in the same way that everyone can learn. ### Typography This one comes as no surprise to people that know me. Learning how to recognize, set and experiment with type will continue to be critical to the project of design. The great Jeffrey Zeldman [writes](https://medium.com/let-me-repost-that-for-you-zeldman/the-year-in-design-9c06acf55b88?ref=andrewboardman.com#---0-75.k2bpwobnn) that design is 90% typography. (In the same post, he writes that “One illustration or original photo beats 100 stock images.”) I would humbly submit that the 80/20 better applies — design is more like 80% typography with the rest shared by colour, form and structure. Designers need to be looking at fonts and typesetting daily. Just a few of the hundreds of elementary resources out there: [Typewolf](https://www.typewolf.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), [Fonts in Use](https://fontsinuse.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), [It’s Nice That](https://www.itsnicethat.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). Also, install [Fonts.Ninja](https://fonts.ninja/?ref=andrewboardman.com) in your browser. Check every other site to see what fonts are being used. Bookmark (nearly) everything. More importantly, start setting both common and unusual typefaces in your favourite software. It doesn’t matter what that is — Figma, InDesign, Illustrator, Canva (still blech). ### User Experience I really despise this term. I mean, yes, we are digital addicts. But are we “users”? And does the work we do on our phones and computers amount to “experience”? Not really. The closest alternative I have been able to get behind is “human interaction” but that’s pretty broad. Humans interact all of the time. So, we go with UX. I recognize that it’s silly not to embrace naming standards when it comes to supporting a more public understanding of design. User experience encompasses the totality of 2-D and 3-D interactive design. Like drawing and typography, user experience has evolved its own sophisticated grammar, vocabulary and structured systems. After 30 years of presenting, testing and refining interfaces, we know what generally works and does not work from an average user’s experience. We know that buttons of a certain size, type with specific characteristics, and navigation with precise controls make for better interfaces for most people. Learning good UX will put you in good stead and there are dozens of both free and paid websites and resources out there, dear designer. A few places I continue to look to are [Smashing Magazine](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), [UX Collective](https://uxdesign.cc/?ref=andrewboardman.com) and [Nielson Norman Group](https://www.nngroup.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com). They have been around for-ever, but perhaps there is a reason for that. A beat. This trifecta — drawing, type and user experience — will continue to underpin all of design over the coming years. Even as AI evolves, template design grows, and formal design education shatters, design matters. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-37.png) P.S. Governments should superfund design. --- ### Image of the Week ![black and white advertisement showing women in various shapes cooking in kitche](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/32535f1e-ac85-41d6-879b-1808dca3e1ae_1200x1468-jpeg.jpg) Söre Popitz, advertisment for Thügina, 1925/1933\. Proof on paper, 15 x 12.7 cm. Bauhaus Dessau Foundation I 44148 / loan from Wilma Stöhr. Credit: [Eye on Design](https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/sore-popitz-meet-the-bauhauss-only-known-woman-graphic-designer/?ref=andrewboardman.com) In the 1920s and 1930s, the Bauhaus trained hundreds of graphic designers. Nearly all of them were men. The school, still the idealist’s working model for design programs in the west, accepted numerous young women but most were streamed into the weaving program — not into architecture, painting or typography. Söre Popitz, as Madeleine Morley [writes](https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/sore-popitz-meet-the-bauhauss-only-known-woman-graphic-designer/?ref=andrewboardman.com), was the only woman graphic designer to emerge from the Bauhaus, a feat of huge proportions. The advertisement above by Popitz uses stark yet stylish illustration to show three types of women, from factory worker to housewife to socialite, presenting a new modern stovetop appliance. Popitz went on to have a long career as a designer and artist, despite the Bauhaus and its policies. --- ### Quote of the Week *A drawing is simply a line going for a walk.* \~ Paul Klee --- I value you, dear designer. Go for a walk. If Dear Designer has been forwarded to you, by golly, you can get your very own subscription right here and now. Thank you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Ragpicking as Professional Pursuit URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/ragpicking-as-professional-pursuit/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:47:59.000Z When I was about eight years old, a friend and I were out riding our bikes in our quiet, working middle-class class neighbourhood in suburban Philadelphia. We came across a bunch of striped, blue and white rags lying on the sidewalk. The various fabric scraps were strung together by some light twine and there were probably 20 or so pieces total, all of equal size. We brought the bunch of rags back to my house and I had the brilliant idea of selling them to our neighbours. My mom thought I was nuts, but it was the 70s and I was one of those latchkey kids that came and went pretty much as I pleased. (Those banana seat bikes with streamers on the handlebars that you might see in *Stranger Things* in the early 80s? Those were no less strange than the purple paisley jumpsuits that both girls and boys wore back then.) So, my friend and I went door to door on our block. Selling those clean but discarded rags. Most of the people who we faced, with our small hands in our small pockets, simply said no thank you — and we were the recipient of not a few doors simply shut in our bright faces. But there was one kind lady a few doors down who said she would buy five rags from us. I over-explained to the homeowner that she could use the rags for cleaning or she could put them together and even sew something out of them! A ragpicker was born. I remember thinking, “Wow, *this* is great. You find stuff and then sell them to other people and then you have gum money.” Thanks to the sweet, sweet kindness (and indulgence) of strangers, I think we made about $1.00, until we gave up the entire enterprise — probably to watch *The Brady Bunch*. Honestly, I thought that I was doing our neighbours a solid — selling folks a bunch of decent looking rags that they could use for their own household purposes. And yes, perhaps there was a tinge of guilt in my heart as well. Or maybe that’s part of this reminiscence. But you know what? I’m still a **ragpicker**. And in that moment of human exchange, a designer was born, too. To this day, I continue to love finding things — ideas, objects, people and places — and I am still infatuated with stringing things together and making something new from them. Sometimes, it’s a small business, matching people with design, like I did for so many years with my previous studio Manoverboard. Sometimes, it’s a website, pushing pixels and prose across the digital transom. It could be a bunch of photographs that I like or a few words that I turn into a poem. Or a newsletter. I still enjoy going to “vintage” stores, looking for previously appreciated clothing or weird tchotchkes. I collect ephemera, especially American and European brochures and magazines from the 1930s. I have buttons and pens from years ago in a drawer. ## Picking Rags and Punching Up Ragpicking is what designers do. It’s about finding junk and turning it into gold. Being a ragpicker does not mean you go about your work willy nilly. You need to know where to look, you need to be able to read the signs, and you need to tell the difference between raw garbage and real goods. You need to be on the prowl, looking ahead but thinking behind. As a creative director at [Mangrove Web](https://mangrove-web.com/?ref=andrewboardman.com), the agency that acquired my studio last year, I move through my work picking up idea objects: visual and written, historical and contemporary. Typographic research, examining new visual models, reviewing peers’ and partners’ work, revisiting older mechanisms to create digital products — from the outside, these various tasks may look like junking; but, strung together, they amount to supporting a design process that helps our clients create communications and impact in the social sector. Of course, today, much of knowledge work is like this — scrapbooking ideas across disciplines and practices. Accountants, lawyers and physicians need to look beyond their solitary perches in order to stay in tune with their respective professions. But I would argue that modern design is the pursuit of a much more perennial and particular kind of ground research, going forward to go backward, looking down, picking things up, only to go forward again, and again. We designers need to look across disciplines and practices in order to stay relevant and real, including the subject matter of our clientele. ## Curating and Creating The word “curate” comes to mind here. The term became popular ten years ago when Pinterest and other social media platforms allowed you to collect pictures online, grouping and growing them. It could be collection of 1960s housewares or a group of brightly coloured yellow books. But curation is what you do when you’re looking for specific pre-conceived connections, for making concrete numerous things that are related. Curating is the act of presenting a hardwired collection of idea objects, to present known material in a particular manner that is specific and relatively logical. For designers, artists and writers, ragpicking feels more honest, more genuine. We don’t know what will and won’t be useful, valuable, or even appreciated. We rely upon intuition and our rag investments to date. What we do know is that all of it — everything — is potentially magnificent. The world is replete with possibility. And the act of creation — collecting to connect — is a fearsome act of faith. This is something that the AI cannot do as of yet, though we know that machine learning, too, is a ragpicker of fierce proportions. ## **Generally, Designers Are Generalists** It’s become a commonplace that one needs at least 10,000 hours to become skilled in any one endeavour. Whether it’s playing piano or performing brain surgery, we rely upon and trust experts in their fields who have studied, practiced, examined and refined their work over years to study. In his book *Outliers,* Malcolm Gladwell popularized the science behind needing 10,000 hours to specialize (though the rule has been partly debunked, including by [Gladwell](https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/complexity-and-the-ten-thousand-hour-rule?ref=andrewboardman.com) himself.) And people adore specialists — especially those that entertain: musicians, actors and athletes. But let’s face it — most of us designers are not specialists. We are inveterate generalists. Generalism is often used in philosophical circles to describe how we privilege intuitions in creating theoretical principles. It also describes what we designers — née artists — generally do each day. David Epstein’s recent book [Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World Paperback](https://davidepstein.com/range/?ref=andrewboardman.com) makes the case that generalists are actually more important than ever in this shape-shifting world. Generalists juggle numerous interests, creating pathways and patterns that sometimes only make sense later — sometimes much later. So, an admission. I’m a generalist. A ragpicker. A scavenger. These are not particularly flattering terms today. But by embracing them, may we have a chance to reclaim our self-worth, dear designer, as well as our value to a wary and worried world. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-38.png) --- ### Image of the Week ![poster with photo of mayor Giuliani and text that reads I'd fight aids if only I had a heart](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/9209d565-80e6-49c2-98f8-ee011752dbcc_760x507-jpeg.jpg) Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "I'd Fight AIDS if I Only Had the Heart. Verso: Rudy: Teach Safe Sex in Schools \[Giuliani\]" [The New York Public Library Digital Collections](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-1c91-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99?ref=andrewboardman.com). 1992 - 1995. In the the late 1980s, a grassroots organization called AIDS Coalition to Unlease Power (ACT UP) emerged in New York and around the globe to humanize the AIDS pandemic and to raise funds for research, treatment, advocacy for people suffering from the disease. ACTUP posters were everywhere in major cities and they had the guts to call out public officials like Rudolph Giuliani, George Bush Jr., and Bill Clinton — as well as the Catholic Church. Their visual approach was clever, fresh, and low-fi, using pasteup and photocopying to present an angry and urgent message. Check out more of their work at New York Public Library’s impressive [archive](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?filters%5BnamePart%5Fmtxt%5Fs%5D%5B%5D=ACT+UP+New+York+%28Organization%29&keywords=&layout=false&ref=andrewboardman.com#/?scroll=20). --- ### Quote of the Week *I'm touched by the idea that when we do things that are useful and helpful —collecting these shards of spirituality — that we may be helping to bring about a healing.* \~Actor Leonard Nimoy, discussing faith and fortitude in [Trying to Capture the Invisible](https://www.beliefnet.com/wellness/2001/12/trying-to-capture-the-invisible.aspx?ref=andrewboardman.com) --- If this email has been forwarded to you, by jones, you can get your very own subscription right here and now. Thank you. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### What if We Are Not Graphic Designers but Something Entirely Different? URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/what-if-we-are-not-graphic-designers/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:48:08.000Z Dear Designer: In my last letter, I wrote about one troubling scenario I see for contemporary graphic designers. (Don’t worry, there are others.) We have the tools of production — the knowledge and technical infrastructure to support our work: online resources, conferences, webinars and various trainings. These may not always feel plentiful when building deep expertise in any given area of design (blackletter legibility, color blindness, airport signage), but they are there when you need them. Take Medium’s [Bootcamp](https://medium.com/design-bootcamp?ref=andrewboardman.com), for example, which is a popular resource for designers. A few recent articles: - 4 Ways to Increase Your Mobile User Lifetime Value - Essential Design Patterns for Crafting AI-Powered Products and Experiences - Streamlining Multi-Device Presentations in Figma Prototypes - Enhancing User Experiences Through Human-Centered Design Thinking in Narrative Environments All of these are technical in nature and dive into the complex problem-solving that designers do every day. They are good in intent and content. And they cover important and mildly interesting subject matter. ## What about the rest? Yet, buried in Bootcamp’s collection is a single article on imposter syndrome — something I, and many designers I know, wrestle with every single day. One article among dozens about an affliction that we designers — nee, artists — have been grappling with for over a century. Working visual artists, or those who make art on a daily basis, are understood to have a complex relationship with the world. They need to modulate between the project of emotional and intellectual creation and a fickle contemporary art market that demands rigor, consistency and value. Artists are socially received as complex human beings, constantly interrogating their individual relationships with the world. It’s a gruelling climb as an artist, finding grants, galleries, and government support. I spent years doing just that in my 20s. There is an understanding among artists and the arts community that their work is emotional and psychic in nature. In contrast with artists, working designers are fortunate in many ways. Our profession gives us access to an economic infrastructure that pays us to use our skills daily. We are actively in dialogue with others and with each other. And yet. Designers lack support systems or even the language for discussing design as an artistic methodology that is also deeply emotional or psychologically rich. While design associations (I see you AIGA, RGD, DesCan, SDGQ) do their best, we don’t have active social networks to talk about our work and the anxieties tied to it. The pandemic scuttled many local design initiatives. And because many of us are dyed-in-the-wool introverts, we designers often don’t start, build or foster our own design communities. As well, many of us entered this field for its radical potential to drive social change or make an impact through visual art-making. Meanwhile, most of us don’t get to do that kind of work daily. Instead, we’re asked to build interfaces and instances that support economic growth, not social impact. Today, designers contend with: - Automation, AI, outsourcing, and job scarcity - Salary stagnation and the rise of template platforms (Canva, Shopify, Squarespace) - Increased speed-to-publish demands plus the persistence of tech-bro culture - Climate, social, and political crises, which are increasingly going to exacerbate one another over the coming years As we navigate these pressures, we’re expected to retool constantly while producing emotionally powerful, convincing and confident designs. Without the psychic and emotional resources — or understanding by managers —we’re left creating work that is increasingly instrumental, depleting ourselves in the process, and eroding the value of design in an automating society. This is the non-virtuous cycle for design that actually worries me most. We create templated work for a public that, overwhelmed by political and social turmoil, is inured to feeling unless it’s through increasingly violent video games and movies. Confused and anxious about their personal futures, we consume our culture, hunkering down and tuning out while disregarding the larger crises surrounding us. Even if a given design or visual project is impactful, it gets washed away into the ether of anxiety and exhaustion and plenitude. I’m trying to get my footing here. But if you’ll allow me, I think it boils down to this: Designers are visual artists living in socially liminal spaces. Part technologists, part empaths, we seek shelter in a system that values our practical capacities but not our emotional or psychic ones. And the resources to support our lot are embarrassingly thin. It’s a strange place to be. Would I trade it? Maybe. Maybe not. That’s the designer in me, figuring it out with you. Thank you for joining me. Yours, ![signature in blue pencil of Andrew Boardman](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/50b5917b-fed1-4183-bcab-09db5ed061af_2164x365-39.png) --- ### Image of the Week ![book cover in orange and black type with Italian and dadaist language, includes F.T. Marinetti and futurism - bold and bright](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/9d134b63-d1d0-4367-9793-2e631e93e195_3776x5381-jpeg.jpg) Zang Tumb Tumb: Adrianopoli ottobre 1912: parole in libertà. Marinetti, F. T. Credit: Spencer Collection, [The New York Public Library](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/acc26df9-8cef-514f-e040-e00a18060a80?ref=andrewboardman.com). In 1909, Italian poet and artist Filippo Tomasso Marinetti published the *Manifesto del Futurismo*, a fantastic and fantastically aggressive piece of early modernist literature (see excerpts below). Futurism held that the quaint and pretty past was no longer relevant — instead, speed, machismo, violence, youth and technology was the future. Out with weakness, in with strength. This might sound familiar if you’ve heard any recent preachings from our tech bro friends in Silicon Valley like Musk or [Andreeson](https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/?ref=andrewboardman.com) who have bought the ear of the orange man. Like Marinetti, they celebrate velocity, denigrate compassion, dismiss the environment and worship industry. The book cover by Marinetti above uses type to push forward a practical, powerful poem of the possible. --- ### Quote of the Week #### Manifesto of Futurism (excerpted) 1. *We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness.* 2. *The essential elements of our poetry will be courage, audacity and revolt.* 3. *Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.* 4. *We want to glorify war — the only cure for the world — militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.* 5. *We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice.* 6. *We will sing of the great crowds agitated by work, pleasure and revolt; the multi-colored and polyphonic surf of revolutions in modern capitals: the nocturnal vibration of the arsenals and the workshops beneath their violent electric moons: the gluttonous railway stations devouring smoking serpents; factories suspended from the clouds by the thread of their smoke; bridges with the leap of gymnasts flung across the diabolic cutlery of sunny rivers: adventurous steamers sniffing the horizon; great-breasted locomotives, puffing on the rails like enormous steel horses with long tubes for bridle, and the gliding flight of aeroplanes whose propeller sounds like the flapping of a flag and the applause of enthusiastic crowd*s. Credit: [The Futurist Manifesto](http://bactra.org/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html?ref=andrewboardman.com), F. T. Marinetti, 1909 --- If this email has been forwarded to you, by jickity, you can get your very own subscription right here and right now. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Warning: This Design Job May Contain Traces of Human Emotions URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/warning-this-design-job-may-contain/ Last updated: 2026-07-13T21:48:17.000Z Dear Designer: Let’s just put it out there. Being a graphic designer today is incredibly difficult. More than difficult than ever, I would argue. Creating the art of the every day requires consistently engaging with numerous objective and technical realities while also simultaneously summoning real inner resolve and tapping one’s own personal desire to make something unique and meaningful. Those objective and technical realities are discussed all of the time — there are endless books and blogs and coursework on the subject. They include the means and ends of digital production: tools, systems, approaches, methodologies, resources, analytics and all manner of sets of best practices. Most of these are related to recent advances in technology, user experience and the platforms (Figma, Midjourney, Squarespace, etc.) that we use daily in our work. We need to know all of this stuff. And much of it is interesting. But the latter — injecting one’s own personal, material and emotional weight into a visual project — is not discussed at all. Books and blogs and coursework don’t look at these less tangible but equally important aspects of graphic design: feelings, apprehensions, suppositions, guesswork, presumptions, impulses, anxieties and predilections. And can I add arousal and self-indulgence? We are emotional beings after all and our work often is more psychically demanding than it is technically. ## **Design is a toolbox** Why? Why are the more human and messy aspects of what goes into our work ignored, elided, or brushed under the dirty beige rug of what amounts to professional development in design? Why do we so readily discuss tools and tech but not tears and fears? I think it stems from two factors. One is more technological. The other is historical. First, design today is firmly rooted in the technocratic and commercialized relationship we have developed with everyday things. Design has grown up for, by and with consumerism and it directly and indirectly supports our Megacorp market economy. Design greases the wheels of mass consumption. See something on social and the internet obliges. Hear something new and ownership is a click away. (One morning last week, I was thinking about buying those fancy new AirPods Max, though these two words really make no sense together. Apple’s website indicates they could be sitting on my bald head *two hours* from now. I didn’t buy them.) The technologies that support all our multi-platform communications have instrumentalized design — and to some extent, us designers. Let’s be honest — we have done a bang-up job of supporting our economic infrastructure of wish fulfilment and its parent, consumer capitalism. Designers didn’t invent capitalism but we do a great job lubricating it. Consumer infrastructure is rational, built by clicks and content to fuel massive economic engines. Designers, like accountants and engineers, use a variety of empirically drive, socially mandated tools and technologies to service, satisfy and support our economy. It makes financial sense to talk about and foster design as a toolbox. The practical side of design is well managed and explored. Want to create a dreamy custom mesh gradient across a set of black and white photographs for your own personal brand kit in Canva? [Done](https://www.canva.com/apps/AAF1u9b5fF0/mesh-gradient?ref=andrewboardman.com). But the emotional and humanistic side of design? That doesn’t compute. ## **And designers are not the tools** The second reason we don’t discuss design as an emotional, spiritual or psychological practice may be more historical in nature. Designers were not always designers. Until fairly recently, designers were primarily artists, something that the “industry” of design may want us to simply forget. In fact, “graphic design” as a term is only 100 years old. In 1922, W.A. Dwiggins, a master calligrapher, illustrator, and typographer, coined the term “graphic design”. Before this, what we did was called “commercial art”. And we were “commercial artists”. When I would teach design history, I loved emphasizing this part to students. Designers were, and still are, artists. My point is that I’m not sure that Dwiggins, whose work happens to be truly [gorgeous](https://letterformarchive.org/shop/w-a-dwiggins-a-life-in-design-regular-edition/?ref=andrewboardman.com), did us designers any favours. We lost the “commercial” (which is insincere) but we also lost “artist” (which is a falsehood). Here is fantastic [nugget](https://www.printmag.com/featured-design-history/where-does-the-term-graphic-designer-come-from/?ref=andrewboardman.com) from design historian Steven Heller: > *The people who made roughs, comps or sketches were soon pulled from the press room and placed into the board room, where they worked at a drafting board. It was then, around the turn of the century, that the design profession began to slowly emerge from the primordial ooze. The layout people were unofficially called “boardmen” (mostly men but some women, too). The operative word around the 1890s, however, was “commercial artist.” During this time, “art” was the term for any kind of pictorial material used in printing. It wasn’t a value judgment, but a fact: “Let’s get some art to fill the page.”* (Okay, this took my breath away for a second. I always knew I was a Boardman but I didn’t know I was also a **boardman**!) But more importantly, this shows us that we have forgotten that we designers are artists in modern guise. We have the privilege and responsibility of creating art that others get to see, use and enjoy every day. We do that in real time. For the most part, we don’t take this role lightly. But I would argue that we designers are taken lightly. The emotional labor that goes into creating our artwork, the complexity of managing client feelings and predispositions, the guessing game that comes with invention, the insecurity of knowing when to stop on any given project, the feeling of always being behind in our work and our professional development, the desire to push our own personal boundaries, the range of subject matter that needs to be imbibed in order to deliver, and the worry that we’re doing it all wrong half of the time — all of these go unexplored and undiscussed and unrecognized. The *commercial* part of design has been made easy for us. We swim in this stuff. The *artist* part not so much. We sit in this stuff. I’ll explore more about design and emotion soon. Wishing you a good week ahead. Yours, Andrew --- ### Image of the Week ![Cardboard coin collection box produced by the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society. The box is constructed in two pieces, a top and bottom. The top has a slot for coins and fits into the bottom. The box is yellow with black print, including a tableau on the front of kneeling enslaved figure surrounded by implements of bondage.](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/b6015e97-da07-4e53-891e-7d342ec568e7_1045x1200-jpeg.jpg) ****Collection box of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society (U.S. 1830s-1850s) Credit:** [****Smithsonian Collection**](https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmaahc%5F2014.115.9?q=guid%3A%22ark%3A%2F65665%2Ffd51812d554b14d4d088d4ec91e66e14bd2%22&record=1&hlterm=guid%3A%26quot%3Bark%3A%2F65665%2Ffd51812d554b14d4d088d4ec91e66e14bd2%26quot%3B&ref=andrewboardman.com)****.** Every element of this yellow box is designed to support its role: to collect money for the abolition of slavery in mid-nineteenth century United States. From the engraving of the freed slave to the arch of rays of light and the numerous phrases from the new and old testaments (ISAIAH. Take counsel, execute judgment, make this shadow as the night in the midst of the noon-day; hide the outcasts, bewray not him that wandereth. xvi. 3), to the yellow cardboard itself, this box is meant to inspire and compel weekly pledges of money and remembrance in northern households. --- ### Quote of the Week *If you don't get your type warm it will be no use at all for setting down warm human ideas... By jickity, I'd like to make a type that fitted 1935 all right enough, but I'd like to make it warm — so fll of blood and personality that it would jump at you.* \~William Addison Dwiggins --- If you’ve been forwarded this email, by jickity, you can get your very own sub right here. See you soon. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Our AI Elephant Needs Attention URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/our-ai-elephant-needs-attention/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T18:25:27.000Z Dear Designer: At some point, when the dust settles some, I do want to talk about the election results in the U.S. last week. We should focus on what may happen politically in the coming years to designers, especially independent ones and those focused on mission, art and social impact. But first, I wanted to dig into something a tiny bit deeper, because, after all, isn’t this like my first real issue of Dear Designer? And why would I start with something small like autocracy, censorship and reformation? Today’s topic is AI, every designer’s favorite elephant in the room. I watched an intriguing presentation last week that was part of RGD’s Design Thinker’s conference in Toronto. [Robert Wong](file:///Users/boardman/Library/Containers/com.ulyssesapp.mac/Data/tmp/cbb3dd0b1e2d44aea0b44a07465f7f50/That%20AI%20Elephant%20Doesn%E2%80%99t%20Smell%20Super%20Great/[https://www.designthinkers.com/speakers/robert-wong/]%28https://www.designthinkers.com/speakers/robert-wong/%29), VP of Google Creative Lab, gave a buoyant talk about their take on where design is heading in the midst of the AI “revolution”. He demonstrated a number of fantastical use cases for AI, including one in which Google asked four illustrator-artists (Eric Hu, Shawna X, Erik Carter and Haruko Hayakawa) to offer their ideas and various stylistic ideations to illustrate the original Alice in Wonderland text. The resulting art project, called [Infinite Wonderland](https://infinitewonderland.withgoogle.com/reader?artist=john-tenniel&ref=andrewboardman.com), also “employed” John Tenniel, the English illustrator of the 1865 version of *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland*, who drew nearly 100 individual drawings. I grew up staring at those wild illustrations. They had — and still have — such a strange grip on me. Do you remember them? The Caterpillar-Man smoking a hookah, that Cheshire Cat’s creepy wide grin, Alice always looking angry and agitated, the Mad Hatter who had that oversized price tag (‘In this style 10/6’) stuck to the side of his lid. All of them infinitely wonderful. In interacting with Google’s Infinite Wonderland site, you can watch images being generated one by one in real time by the processing algorithm, each styled according to the likes of Tenniel or any of the four contemporary illustrators. They are mesmerizing and oddly engaging. ### Cascading Style Shots But they are not infinitely wonderful. We need to remember that these are also only styled images. The drawings themselves are simply outputs from a machine being told by humans how to manneristically present a given subject. They are surface expressions by a visual language learning machine that is built to entertain and decorate the page. What these images are not doing, what they cannot yet do, is say something truly meaningful about the original content. Yes, some of the images are “originals” from the artists, who had to provide working comps in order for the Google AI to learn. Mostly, these images are mere interpolations, indirect assignations of visual ideas that are styled to look like they came out of the wet brains of human artists. These generated images are simply simulations — or simulations of simulations. Take a look. ![image of girl laying down in water with a bit of land and grass tying her to land and a sign above her](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/b59654d7-b19a-4407-98c6-63817c4f63c3_1080x1329.png) Prompt: Alice falling head first down a rabbit-hole, she is looking up at a signpost pointing to the left. ![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/483ee9dd-0a18-4e84-ad15-2d71c0038c52_1080x1329.png) Same prompt as above. The images are kind of interesting but they can’t hold a candle to those original drawings from 1865 by Tenniel. Compare. ![a small girl looking up at a large caterpillar smoking a hookah -- all drawn in black and white](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/b532b027-364f-4bd1-b4b8-f551fef1ec75_1116x1492-jpeg.jpg) The Caterpillar, from John Tenniel's illustrations from the first edition of *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* (1865). Credit: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alice%5F05a-1116x1492.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com) What is my point? I agree with Wong who makes the oft too heard claim that AI is just a tool. Yes, it’s a pencil, it’s a camera, it’s a canvas. It’s a plaything with which humans can tinker and trial. The AI itself is a more sophisticated way for us to bring human ideas into an existing form in a more expedient and inexpensive way. Visually generative artificial intelligence — whether via DALL-E, Google Labs, Midjourney, Firefly, etc — is the medium. It is not the message. That’s the pitch of Big Tech. But that’s not true. For our technology overlords, AI is also the message. AI is in service to all of humanity. AI will do good things for all of us eventually. AI will love us if we love it back. AI will make our work better, faster, and stronger. Corporations are expanding human creativity and offering it back to us for free or for a low, low cost. AI is just the latest milestone in the history of human imagination. But there are two big problems with this message. First, AI offers a false narrative that these corporations care about creativity and those who create. They don’t — they mostly care about market share. That’s why so much money is swashing around right now. Second, AI is delivering work built on the backs of millions of artists, designers, writers and coders that have voluntarily and freely added to the open source treasury of knowledge we call the internet. As VR pioneer Jaron Lanier said over ten years ago: “Digital information is really just people in disguise.” At the end of his talk, Wong was asked whether the four artists were paid for their work and whether Google acknowledges and values the vast treasury of visual images to which it is indebted. He proudly noted that all four of the artists were paid for this project, going on to say that Google pays for its right to use the internet as a vacuum, something I do not see in its [online statement](https://ai.google/responsibility/principles/?ref=andrewboardman.com) about AI ethics. Was Tenniel or his heirs paid? When DALL-E made the image above of me writing in my lair with an elephant and three cats in the room, who exactly was compensated? Yes, it’s a terribly terrific picture and I don’t mind it. But who gains here? Is it a zero sum game? Will all of us benefit from AI? Or will a handful Big Tech companies gain from AI, while the rest of scavenge and surrender? I’m not against AI. I do see it as a potentially incredibly useful design tool. It also might one day cure cancer. What if AI companies generated, along with each image, code, or copy, a micro transaction to compensate creators upon every prompt? Could scholarships, grants or foundations that support basic income emerge that supports designers and artists? How can we hold these Big Tech accountable to what they are taking and to what they are offering in return? The problem is the message. Last January, musician Nick Cave was [asked about ChatGPT](https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chat-gpt-what-do-you-think/?ref=andrewboardman.com) and its ability to write a song “in the style of Nick Cave”. His response: “What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past.” See you next week, dear designer. Yours, Andrew --- ## Image of the Week ![](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/f3fc477f-d1a7-4cac-b301-ce3b0eee5885_2500x1687-jpeg.jpg) **Design by Glenn Goluska (1947–2011) for the book, El Lissitzky, The Topology of Typography – imprimerie dromadaire, 1983\. Credit: [Canadian Typographic Archives](https://www.canadiantypography.ca/archives/items/el-lissitzky-the-topology-of-typography-imprimerie-dromadaire-glenn-goluska-1983?ref=andrewboardman.com)** Russian artist and designer El Lissitzky (1890–1941) left a profound mark on markmaking. For Lissitzky, letters are not letters and forms are not forms — they are elements of “pure feeling”, expressions of what we cannot see and cannot know. Above is a page designed by Canadian designer Glenn Goluska (in the style of Lissitzky) from his 1983 book about El Lissitsky, one of the founders of Suprematism and abstract art. --- ## Quote of the Week *AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies.* \~ Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI (makers of ChatGPT and DALL-E) --- If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can get your very own sub right here. See you soon. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Dear "Dear Designer" Designer URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/dear-dear-designer-designer/ Last updated: 2026-02-11T18:25:27.000Z Dear Designer: Welcome to Dear Designer! I’m delighted to be here in your inbox, wherever that may be. One of the reasons I’ve started this newsletter is because I’m concerned about the state of design. Designers — graphic, web, product, print, brand, and type — are experiencing an upheaval the likes of which I have not seen before. I’m worried about the state of our “industry”. The market for visual communications is changing rapidly due to the rise of template design, the commoditization of design expertise, the rapid ascent of AI, and the demand for faster but not better. This newsletter is for some of my favourite people in the world — those who design, who care about designers, who think about design, who care about design, and who teach design. It’s for those who understand that graphic design is not just simply a profession but a field of endeavour, of inquiry, and of impact. Design’s deep historical roots are in challenging conventions, feeling conversations, and building human connection. I still believe that design is one of the few mechanisms we have to change the world for good. I come at this from a very specific standpoint, of course. I am a designer and a creative director at a digital agency — and I don’t like a lot of what I’m seeing. But I have also “seen” a lot over the past twenty-five years, having run my own design studio and having been an active participant in the design community. ### Why should you care? I’m writing this newsletter to do three things: 1. To describe the state of design and to provide an ongoing personal analysis of what might be happening from numerous vantage points: social, technological, economic and political. 2. To provide ideas and inspiration as to where we might be heading as designers and as a design community — and to offer solutions to our current predicament. 3. To learn from you, the folks doing the work each day, about what in G-d’s name is happening with design, what is working for some designers and what is helping all of you stay strong and resilient and committed. This newsletter will come to you each week. It will be published on Monday morning in the hope that it might help shape or set up your week. (The truth is that this newsletter might amount to nothing, which was the Yiddish name for my previous newsletter called Gornisht.) ### Lots of words. Any real details? It will be free, at least for the time being, and it will be on this Substack thing. It will 💯% change over time. But right now, it will consist of three parts: 1. A short essay. Topics will include the design profession, technology, typography, the design community, design consciousness, and web accessibility. 2. An historical image drawn from visual archives that may be of interest to you, dear designer. 3. A quote that is relevant, ridiculous or both. If you’ve read this far, thank you. If you skimmed, that’s cool, too. I’m truly appreciative of your time here. I hope you’ll stay on for the ride. Yours, Andrew P.S. Today is a critically important day for my home country, the United States of America, and for many of us on this list. I am optimistic that Americans will make the right choice today, voting for the candidate that represents the very best attributes of the country: compassion, grace and commonality. If you are in the U.S. and have not yet voted, please do so for Kamala Harris. --- ### Image ![collage that has the letters B, C, A and A in various positions on brown paper](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/02/6bf42f7b-1a0e-4bce-bce7-8f41013f555b_2048x1367-jpeg-1.jpg) László Moholy-Nagy, collage tipografico, 1922\. Credit: [Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3%5FMoholy-Nagy,%5Fcollage%5Ftipografico,%5F1922%5F%28Hattula%5FMoholy-Nagy,%5FMI%29.jpg?ref=andrewboardman.com). The Hungarian designer, painter, and photographer László Moholy-Nagy was also one of the great experimentalists of this past century. His work was relentlessly probing, challenging both visual form and function and asking of his viewers “what is this that is in front of me?” He believed that photography and typography would continue to evolve and to change our collective trajectory. I love the equation he constructs in the image above. What are the variables in which B times Inverted-C really equal A minus Inverted-A? Does Inverted A with its filled red counter make it immovable? What does this collage mean for a teenager today? --- ### Quote *Design is the integration of technological, social, and economical requirements, biological necessities, and the psychological effects of materials, shape, color, volume and space.* \~ László Moholy-Nagy --- If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can get your own sub right here. See you soon. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup)