Mixing things up and sending this a bit later in the day—hope you’re soaking up the last of Sunday’s rays before the week begins. Today was quite the stunner. Here in Boston, we topped 80˚! I was fortunate enough to spend much of the day fly fishing with my dad on the southern coast of Massachusetts. Our search to find the elusive striped bass continues…
Fishing aside, here are a few things that sparked my curiosity this week:
1. Color Makes A Comeback
For the last few years, muted colors have had the limelight in brand design. Fifty shades of greys, tans, and pastels dominating everything from Glossier to Everlane. But that trend may be giving way to a resurgent era of bold color. Like many aspects of life, the pendulum swings one way for a few years and then back again. Recently launched brands like JUDY, Taskade, and Kin all seem to be embracing bold color design as a point of pride and distinction, not something to be downplayed or softened. To see more inspiring uses of color in brand design, check out one of my favorite sites: cpgd.xyz and this compilation of colorful websites here.
2. On Communication & Daily Enjoyment
Some companies effectively distill their company ethos into norms or principles that are less fluffy than values on a wall, but more philosophical than OKRs. I recently came across two examples that I wanted to share with you. The first is Basecamp’s guide to communication. It’s a set of principles that they strive to follow when they communicate with each other. Two that I especially like and that are particularly relevant right now: "If your words can be perceived in different ways, they'll be understood in the way which does the most harm.” + “If you have to repeat yourself, you weren’t clear enough the first time.”
The second, which I find even more delightful, is Pattern’s guide to daily enjoyment. Emmett, the founder of Pattern Brands (fka Gin Lane), is one of the most authentic and genuinely creative people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. If you have a few minutes, watch this talk he gave at one of our recent Design Driven events.
3. A Pandemic Must-Read: “Spillover” by David Quammen
In a situation like COVID-19, there are two types of people: those that want more detail and those that want less. If you’re in the more camp, you never miss a nightly CNN COVID segment and you’ve probably already watched Contagion on Netflix. If you’re a less, you’re ambivalent to or just slightly interested in the pandemic updatest, but aren’t actively seeking them out. For the record, neither is better than the other. Although for this section, I’m probably speaking to more the mores. Let me introduce you to David Quammen, my new favorite author. His books Spillover, The Tangled Tree, and many more dive deep into the world of viruses—where, how, and when they spring to life. Spillover, which, oddly enough, I started to read before the pandemic began, is all about zoonotic diseases (roughly ~70% of all diseases), those that jump from animals to humans or the reverse (SARS, Lyme, Ebola, COVID-19, etc.). Reading Quammen is like reading Paul Theroux—you feel a bit like you've hitched a ride to his backpack as he takes you on explorations through jungles, markets, and more.
4. Embrace the Pause
I was recently inspired by Shane Parrish's observation about listening: "It’s difficult because it involves suppressing your ego long enough to consider what is being said before you respond." Now, I’ll be the first one to tell you that I’m not a great listener. In fact, I’ve been actively working on it for the last few years, with varying degrees of success. But Shane’s quote got me thinking. If you take that one step further, today’s conversations can feel awkward when the pause between responses is too long. We’re eager to fill it quickly with our own thoughts. Pauses have also become more apparent as we spend an increasing amount of time on Zoom calls each day. Those pauses, which can feel like an eternity, are actually essential blocks for us to digest what was said and gather our thoughts instead of trying to do both of those tasks while the other person is still talking.
5. My Paper Phone
I stumbled across the team at Special Projects this week and had to share their work. They focus on simplifying digital experiences down to analog replacements—often to highlight an absurdity of our current environment. My favorite project of theirs is called ‘Paper Phone.’ They created a simple app that takes the most pertinent daily information from your phone (an agenda, weather forecast, important contacts, etc.) and prints it out on a piece of paper. Then, you fold it up and the paper acts as your phone for the day instead of your actual device. FastCompany had this to say about the project: "It’s a surprisingly convincing demonstration of how well the information we all feel that we need our phone to access can so easily be decoupled from the addiction-device."
6. The Eruption Of Instagram Island
What happens when you take one of the most dangerous places on Earth and combine it with an insatiable desire to get the perfect Instagram shot? My favorite longread of the week was this thrilling piece by Joshua Hammer in GQ, in which he takes us along for quite the ride—complete with volcanoes, helicopters, and a race against time.
7. How About Hyperopic?
By now, most of us have heard the word “myopic.” It means ‘to be short-sighted.’ While it refers to a particular condition in the medical world, it’s also routinely used to describe certain elements of human behavior—especially our desire to focus on what’s in front of us first. Put another way, our often frustrating inability to focus on long term goals. We’ve seen humanity’s myopic touch impede our work in climate change and, most recently, our response to the global pandemic. I wonder whether this myopic approach is hard-coded or if there are ways we as a society can re-adjust our focus further out. So this week, I thought I’d introduce a word you might not be as familiar with: hyperopic. You guessed it, it means ‘to be far-sighted’. Maybe by incorporating this more frequently into our daily lives, we can be more conscious of the long term impacts of certain decisions.
That’s all, folks! Feel free to share this around with your friends or family and tap the little heart if you *really* liked it. Anyone who hasn’t yet can subscribe here. ☺️
Also, if you have feedback or just want to chat about something I shared, please don’t hesitate to hit reply!
I’ll see you back here next Sunday—have a great week.
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