The Power of Design
Each day, I feel myself becoming a little more cynical about software companies. I see a variety of these corporations building products that use dark patterns to take advantage of their users for their own benefit. Constant reports of sexism, sexual harassment and a variety of other questionable occurrences have happened in the tech industry such as unhealthy work culture. Despite this, I know I should continue to design software.
I became interested in design for two main reasons. First, my favorite part of writing code was the feeling of accomplishment after solving a problem, yet that accomplishment didn’t appeal to me as much I thought it would since I wasn’t that interested in code. The problem-solving aspects of the design process and resulting satisfaction appealed to me due to the ostensibly larger scale of the problems. Second, I appreciate that design forces collaboration with people to solve a problem. The design process is focused on consulting with different sets of users to make sure that the right work is being done and the final product is catered to their needs. I love the idea of creating exactly what people want and need to improve their lives. The software is the basis of the greatest innovation that can immediately affect people’s lives, so solving problems in this domain feels like the right place for me to have the greatest impact on people’s lives.
At the same time, there are smaller, more ubiquitous design problems of creating things like posters and flyers. These design problems may sometimes require a less intense design process, yet they hold similar value. With the ultimate goal of both grabbing people’s attention and communicating to the masses, graphic design can be immensely challenging. However, this is an area that’s so easy for important organizations to be bad at. Specifically, many important causes across the world suffer from designs that fail to communicate what they want to say. It’s strange to think that design can both serve as a tool or as a hinderance, but when an organization features low-quality design, it hurts the effectiveness of the message.
I get asked to do graphic design work from people all the time, but no one really wants to pay for it. I don’t expect a lot, but unless it’s a cause that is important and there’s no budget at all, it’s difficult for me to justify spending time on it. However, recently, as I was designing a flyer for an anti-sexual harassment initiative on campus I began to think about pro-bono graphic design work for nonprofits and how I feel like that it may be an important chance for designers to help spread messages and information that often goes unseen.
As the end of college looms, I think more and more about where I will use my skills both on a daily basis but in my free time and hope that I will be able to find the areas where I can be the most impactful
You can check out my other illustrations on my Instagram @garabaggio. Sorry about the change of pace! We'll be back to regularly scheduled programming next week :~).
Drops of the Week
where I *drop* recommendations of cool things this week
Playlist
skippin stones - playlist I made based on a foreign-language hip-hop kick I was on for a while. It has some English songs, but I was really enjoying the sound of hip-hop from around the world and wanted to make a playlist for it
Illustration
Technology and Innovation Stamps - a series of stamps commissioned by the China Post to celebrate the important technology in the country’s history
Longform Article
“To the Lady who Mistook Me for the Help at the National Book Awards” by Patrick Rosal - an intense personal essay about race and class framed as a letter - you can probably guess who it’s addressed to.
Thanks so much for reading! If you have any comments/concerns or fan/hate mail for me, you know how to reach me (links below).
Love,
Nikhil