A formal welcome

My ode to a more intentional year and some sites i'm loving

Hi to you, I’m happy you’re here. I thought I’d set up a formal introduction so we could be acquainted. At least this is what I’ve seen everyone else do and here I am following in their stride. At the very least, writing this and hitting publish will set in stone (digitally at least) my intentions for this Substack and what I hope to share and write about. I’d like to preface this intro with a bit about me since we’re getting to know each other. I’d by no means consider myself a writer and I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing here but I know I have things to say and a desire to grow, learn and share whatever insights I can. I’d like to dedicate my year to writing more and writing often, so what better way than by starting a Substack of course (a little bit of social pressure always does the trick!).

I’m currently a design student who has a love for visual design, media creation and looking at the things we make through a critical lens. I like to think deeply about the things I consume and I’ll admit, really care about the look of things. So we’ll be exploring things like creative direction, aesthetics, brand design, typography and the world of visual design a lot in these posts. I also like to hoard resources that I think could be useful, so I’ll be sharing a lot of those here too and trying to make design more accessible for everyone from the side hobbyists all the way to big tech career designers. I think we could all benefit from the free library model.

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On that note, here are a few sites I’ve been loving to help when inspiration is lacking and you just need to see some cool shit.

1. Are.na

It’s like Pinterest but better. If you’re chronically online this is a treasure trove of weird web and experimental work. My favourite way of navigating this site is rabbit-holing into other people’s channels. If you like what they save odds are you’ll have similar tastes and can really start to uncover a lot of unique sites and work hidden in these little random corners of the web. I’ll admit, it takes a little bit more effort than Pinterest to find what you’re looking for, but the payoff is much higher. Treat your inspiration sessions as research and you’ll be able to create work that isn’t just what everyone else is doing.

2. Site of sites

Along the lines of experimental web, Site of sites has a great curation of work that will help you reconsider the kind of websites you could be making just for the sake of it! If you’ve heard of digital gardening (i’ll be diving into this whole topic in another post) then you’ll love exploring these niche sites that truly feel like an ode to peak Tumblr blog culture.

3. Another.Graphic

One of my favourite sites to find graphic design inspo. It gives you the information you need to dig deeper and find your next favourite designer or studio. Click on a post you like and then you can filter content based on region, medium or year made. It supplies links to the designers or studios so you can consume inspiration more thoughtfully and see more of their work.

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So if you’re someone who spends hours curating the perfect mood, fan over type choices and packaging design, watch too many video essays and see design as something that deserves critical reflection then I’ll be stewing it all together right here, in what I’m calling the design files. So stick around and have a little read if you will!