Happy Friday!

Welcome to the 6th (& what should’ve been the 7th) issue of TWID – the only design newsletter on the internet written by me.

Sorry for skipping last week’s recap.

If you need to hold someone accountable – you can blame one of the massive forest fires slowly eating away at our ozone layer (the only layer that needs a name, btw).

I could probably list 100 reasons for being bummed about missing last week’s post, but we’re not really doing lists anymore … so let’s just get on with it.

Thanks for being here, let’s get into the sauce 🥫

WK34

Timeline Agriculture (on easy mode)

That’s just what I’m calling engagement farming from now on, keep up.

This week, designers en masse have figured out that they simply cannot resist a nice sans serif.

It’s hard to pin point exactly when or how this trend emerged (since designers have been sharing fonts with each other since the dawn of time), but if I had to guess – I’d bet a few bucks that @r_drice’s recent tear might have something to do with it.

The best part about this trend, is that it’s actually a really positive & wholesome loop 🔄

1. Person A spends some time nerding out on interesting typefaces

2. Person B trades a like ♡ for said fonts

3. Person A is reaches a larger audience, feels great about providing value & returns to step 1

Seeing a spooky dip in engagement? Just share exactly 4 of your favourite fonts & enjoy the bountiful harvest 👩‍🌾

These are my 4, in case you were wondering ⬆️

Design subscriptions are “a scam” (?)

I’m so tired.

Another week, another debate on whether or not “design as a subscription service” is a good idea or not.

These discussions tend to always begin (& end) the same way:

• Brett posts a tweet stating that he can make 8 billion dollars working no more than 15min per week1

• Some people feel motivated to do the same2 & immediately rebrand themselves from “freelancer” to a “one-man design studio” (how chic)

• And another fraction of commenters will attempt to call him out on something or other, or point out how “unscalable” this model is, and so on…

  • There tend to be 2 types of people in this category - some haters (naturally) & some people who are genuinely trying to understand how someone is able to balance such a monstrous workload.

• There’s also a secret third option – people that just like to watch (👋 I’m people).

No one asked me – but, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with what he’s doing.

Agree or disagree with his approach, it’s pretty hard to deny that Brett has built a lucrative brand around the subscription agency model & his content.

Plus, if clients are willing to pay him for his services, then (logically speaking) they must be getting their money’s worth, no?

Titan Gray (I guess?)

Apple Event invites are due to go out any day now, which means that reliable leaks are finally starting to surface.

Forget features, show me the colors.

Well… those are definitely iPhones. Can’t innovate anymore, my ass.

In all seriousness, though - the new “Titan Gray” (whatever that means), is pretty slick.

Oh, & while we’re on the topic of iPhones, look what I (to my deep horror) noticed today. While news to me, apparently this has always been the case.

The camera bump isn’t vibing with the corner radius of the phone & that makes me slightly uncomfortable ☹️

Bug or Feature?

A while back, X started hiding the bottom navigation bar in its mobile app in an attempt to save some screen real estate.

I don’t know who was scrolling through their timeline on a Nokia 3310, but I, for one, never thought I was running out of pixels…

Pretty controversial move at the time, but it seemed like people whined about it for a day or two & moved on to something else (as is tradition).

A few days ago, however, the sticky toolbar came back… but weird (?)

Honestly still really torn about it, but it’s better than not having anything at all 🙄

There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere.

Design Dopamine 💊

There was honestly way too much cool stuff this week, but I had to give it to OLC for hiring whatever wizards that put this together.

Olympic Brand Guidelines

The Olympic Games is one of the most iconic brands in the world, & after looking through their Brand Guidelines, you can start to understand why).

As José Pablo pointed out in his tweet – “this is probably the most complex and best-executed brand guidelines I have ever seen.”

I definitely agree with that assessment. Personally, I could stare at this document all day (with a mix of awe and envy).

P.S. If anyone knows what agency is behind this work, please let me know!

That’s a wrap for WK34

Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed this issue (or hated it), please let me know in the comments (or tweet at me)

If you have an idea for how I can improve TWID or want to suggest something for next week’s issue, be sure to tag @twidfyi on twitter

Love you all, have a great weekend

- @aleksliving