Newsletter 100
Hola.
A few days ago I saw the movie "Phantom of the Open" (Craig Roberts, 2021), which tells a story that I was totally unaware of. It is the story of Maurice Flitcroft, who in 1976 sneaked into the British Golf Open and completed the worst card in history, with 121 strokes. He was a 45-year-old crane operator who had never played golf before. He bought a cheap set of clubs, learned the rules and trained on the beach or sneaked into the golf courses at night because they wouldn't let him in because he wasn't a member. A whole story that seems incredible that it happened. There is even a photo of him with Severiano Ballesteros, who competed in that tournament.
That story reminded me of that of Eric Moussambani, the swimmer who participated in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Equatorial Guinea launched a call to try out and select a swimmer to represent them: Moussambani was the only one to show up, that's how he won his ticket to Australia. Eric would be in the 100 meter freestyle. He arrived at the pool without goggles or a bathing suit and with fairly basic concepts of how to swim, in a nutshell, he knew how to move his legs and arms to avoid drowning. A coach from another country gave him a couple of tips before he jumped into the water, even so, he was trembling with fear.
In this modern era of super professional specialization, where everything is governed by rules, I love hearing these stories of people who dare to fulfill their dreams, even if the result is not the best. Perhaps I too should dare to do something that is supposed to be beyond my capabilities.
(I highly recommend the movie about Maurice Flitcroft, who is also played by the great actor Mark Rylance.)
— W.
The links
Driving Impact Through Design: A Fireside Chat with Alissa Briggs
Alissa Briggs is a leader committed to elevating design teams around the world. She’s done exactly that in leading and scaling top-notch design orgs at companies of all sizes, coaching countless designers to take their impact to the next level, and guiding startups as an advisor here at Designer Fund. Alissa now leads user experience, architecture, operations, and culture for an 80+ person global design team at Autodesk. Prior to that, she was Head of Design at construction productivity app, PlanGrid, where she grew its design organization from 5 to 25+ team members.Why ordinary design (almost) always wins
When we think about ordinary design, the first words that come to mind are "simple" and "boring." And while the simple design might be good property, boring is not something we as product designers usually aim to create. Does it mean that ordinary design will negatively impact product success? No. In fact, its effect can be quite the opposite. Many of the best-selling products in the world have completely ordinary designs. Let’s discuss why ordinary design can bring a significant competitive advantage.
Space, Grids, and Layouts
The organization of space is key to every great design. Spatial systems, grids, and layouts provide rules that give your designs a consistent rhythm, constrain decision-making, and help teams stay aligned. This foundational scaffolding is a requirement for all design systems. In this guide, we’ll walk through the basics of defining spatial base units, creating relationship rules with grids, and bringing it all together for modern UI layouts.Unbounded
Unbounded is possibly the first open source, freely available, and on-chain funded font in the world. Unbounded by both name and nature, it is available in six display weights ranging from light to black, as well as a single variable font. The typeface supports both Latin and Cyrillic scripts with over 1300 individual glyphs, including a collection of symbols and a unique figure building system.Greg Belson's Divine Discotheque
This show features tracks by Glo Phase, Georgie Sweet, OXP, Aruna Oaks, Emma Donovan & the Put Backs and more.Design System Checklist
An open-source checklist to help you plan, build and grow your design system.In Residence
Inside the homes of celebrated architects, designers and artists.The evolution of Apple Ads
Apple first started advertising its products in the late 1970s.The 80s showed a wide variety of ads, some of which served to convince consumers that they should purchase a computer, and specifically an Apple.
These ads were text-heavy and light on images, as were many computer and technology ads from that era.
Folk Interfaces
People reappropriating existing software to solve their own unique problems.Serifs, Scripts & Screens: 8 television shows and movies with a spectacular use of typography
Even when we’ve got something good to watch after a long day, us designers are starkly reminded of our profession as soon as we find ourselves paying more attention to the titles, credits and subtitles than everything else.A beginner’s guide to finding user needs
Qualitative research on user motivations, activities and problems.Motionity
A web-based motion graphics editor (a mix of Canva and After Effects).
Surprise link
Studio/Designer recommended
Job Offers
Design Director (Time & Payment Tribe), PayFit (Barcelona, Spain)
Senior Designer (Graphics/Visual) - Performance Marketing, Revolut (Remote)