Design Details 321: Illustrations and the Side Effects of Free Resources (feat. Meg Robichaud & Ryan Putnam)
This week, we're joined by Meg Robichaud and Ryan Putnam—incredible illustrators working at Lyft and Messenger, respectively—to follow up on a topic from last week's episode. Meg and Ryan share some of their experiences working as illustrators on product teams, and they shed a little light on how free resources can sometimes have a negative impact on illustration as a valued discipline. And as always, we share some cool things like a collection of essays, some creepy VHS tapes, a couple radio plays, a new Netflix series, and another design podcast.
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Golden Microphone Patron:
Sisu is looking for a thoughtful and data-savvy designer to help build the next generation of analytics software. You can find out more at sisu.ai.
(You might recognize Sisu from our interview with Michie Cao)
Follow-up:
- Michael Knepprath pointed out that Don Norman has updated his views on the role of aesthetics in design
Interview:
- Meg Robichaud is an illustrator at Lyft, and Ryan Putnam is Art Director on the Brand team at Messenger
- Incidentally, they are not in fact Meg Ryan
- Pablo Stanley announced Open Doodles and got Design Twitter talking
- Bootstrap is "an open source toolkit for developing with HTML, CSS, and JS"
- Stripe is "the best software platform for running an internet business"
One Cool Thing:
- Meg shared Trick Mirror: Reflections, an "enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives"
- Ryan shared scary VHS covers like Ghoulies and House
- Marshall shared two radio play podcasts:
- The Edge of Sleep is about "a night watchman [who] is terrified to discover that everyone in the world who went to sleep the previous night has died"
- Blackout is about "a small-town New Hampshire radio DJ who fights to protect his family and community after the power grid goes down nationwide, upending modern civilization" (and it reminds Marshall a bit of The Mist)
- Brian shared two halvsies:
- Living with Yourself is about a guy "burned out on life who undergoes a strange procedure at a strip mall spa -- and wakes to find he's been replaced by a better version of himself"
- Design Life is "a podcast about design and side projects for motivated creators"
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- 🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock and marshall@designdetails.fm
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