Most of even all of my work for a product design agency.
I’m gladly out now but it’s a hell I don’t with anyone to go through, even just for experience, it’s exhausting and at the end of the day you can’t even mention that you worked for that X project
May not be every agency but in general how design agencies work is pretty awful compared to freelancing, productized agency concept etc.
Spend hundreds of hours on our own projects also to end up semi dead, due to directors lack of time and willingness to delegate, share ownership.
For those startup projects also it’s not super valuable, they just want you to deliver something they can throw back to their investors and get another round, to eventually sell it and start over, while you as a design contractor - done most of the product thinking, brand and marketing.
Could’ve as well put our own product out like that
ive been doing nothing basically over december, quit a fast paced design agency working with funded startups for 4 years, got so tired I just sat through december lol, did some travel, saw family, played sports and video games etc.
now in January I narrowed down my ideas for what to do next and main one i'm focused on right now is launching a productized agency for my services - a subscription for design services for indie makers, bootstrapped companies and early stage startups mostly
i'm actively enaging with other makers on twitter and making some connections which gives me a feeling I missed when working for the agency - I build up my own assets and value over time vs exchanging hours for cash consistently.
I'm finding also there are so many ways to provide value to other people, amount of ideas i get now to solve problems i notice and directly involve me is crazy - basically daily. Never have I been more excited and calm.
sometimes you need to abstract yourself and allow to do nothing to be at your best after - I think a lot of us working with tech can relate to that.
They really don't, for a programmer there are million opportunities todo something at a smaller scale, on your own etc. If you're a product manager than the job itself only exists in inefficient corporations. corporations don't take risks, they're slow etc. look at google, how many exciting things did they push out over the last decade? and how many do we use today?
the thing these corporations are good at is control and marketing, they're everywhere and people always think first about them when searching for a job etc. they also pay the most, but you'll waste your potential there with endless titles etc. In a startup/your own project you can do everything yourself, learn anything, go into any direction you want to.
All it takes is a mindful shift in thinking, look deeper into what you want, what will fulfill you etc, but seems like most or a large number of people opt for not thinking stuff through and go with the easiest, most popular and obvious choice, it's like going to a factory to stand X hours near the machine...
lol just updated my chrome before I saw this, I instantly got what it's about and didn't allow, why would I want any ads at all, I have a blocker, it doesn't matter, but that's sneaky from them and unhumane to push for that.
i'm working as a digital product designer for over 4 years in an agency, never heard about monotype really, there are some amazing independent foundries which fonts we were buying + using free open source alternatives on the projects with less budget. Currently I'm creating a notion file with the best independent foundries and their typefaces so it's easy to discover, pick favourites and come back to that file for the next time you need to choose a font, I will also add best open source typefaces to it, but monotype won't be in there
Even if they have a database, what can they use it for? scanning eyes isn't a simple operation, you can't scan with a smartphone etc. How can it possibly be used or sold to?
It's time we start building/switching to a decentralized social network. I'm an experienced product designer who always aiming for the best there is for a human, open to commit to something like that.
Imagine if there is a government funded, independent company that does the in depth fact checking and analysis on the important, mass consumed information pieces. How much would that cost to operate for the government? A few mils per year? That's nothing for the gov and imagine how much value would this company bring to people/nation/world.
Maybe soon later we'll have an AI in place that would be checking whatever you're about to post/share and warn you, show you what you're posting from perspective you're not aware of etc.
I’m gladly out now but it’s a hell I don’t with anyone to go through, even just for experience, it’s exhausting and at the end of the day you can’t even mention that you worked for that X project
May not be every agency but in general how design agencies work is pretty awful compared to freelancing, productized agency concept etc.
Spend hundreds of hours on our own projects also to end up semi dead, due to directors lack of time and willingness to delegate, share ownership.
For those startup projects also it’s not super valuable, they just want you to deliver something they can throw back to their investors and get another round, to eventually sell it and start over, while you as a design contractor - done most of the product thinking, brand and marketing.
Could’ve as well put our own product out like that