{"id":23,"date":"2018-03-12T16:28:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T16:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/03\/12\/march-2018\/"},"modified":"2022-11-15T20:36:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T18:36:53","slug":"march-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/2018\/03\/march-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"032018: Design Won\u2019t Save the World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As we\u2019re jumping into the moving van, Felix asks me to hold a bag of medical supplies he brought from the hospital. Tubes, syringes, needles, disinfectant spray, all packaged separately in thin plastic bags. What\u2019s that for, I ask. Felix\u2019 friend\u2014a doctor, too\u2014was going to start his first job next week, and Felix promised to help him practice injections and blood sampling.<\/p>\n

The way he handed me the bag with supplies was very casual, but I felt weird and\u2014all of a sudden\u2014very useless. When I help my friends and colleagues with work stuff, it\u2019s usually about color choices, or whether the copywriting of an input field is clear enough. It doesn\u2019t have any relevance at all. Whereas Felix, he f-ing helps friends take blood cells out of a body to put them into a laboratory to check them for diseases, and to actually cure<\/i> them.<\/p>\n

The whole tale that \u201cDesign can change the world!\u201d has already been demystified a while ago. Another poster won\u2019t save the world, nor will another app, or another chair, or typeface. Design does<\/i> have the ability to make things better<\/i>, but looking at our world full of over-designed products and services, it hardly ever is executed in a way that it does so. Design is often used to make bad things look better, and through that, it multiplies its negative impact. To be honest, that sometimes make we want to quit design altogether.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I am very lucky to work with people who are striving to use design for the better. Maybe that\u2019s also because I waved goodbye to the startup world quite some time ago, and I try to work only with people and companies who I find relevant and\/or pleasant as human beings (not only as colleagues). No bad vibes are worth the money, especially when you decided to make your passion your job.<\/p>\n

Other stuff:<\/p>\n

1 \u2014 Words:<\/b> I\u2019ve read a couple of good essays recently. In The Good Room<\/a>, Frank Chimero explores the missing soul of our digital environment. A while ago, James Bridle wrote about the disturbing loopholes YouTube\u2019s algorithm creates<\/a>. And I love<\/i> Jean Hannah Edelsteins newsletter \u201cThread\u201d<\/a>. Pre-order her book<\/a> if you enjoy her writing, too.<\/p>\n

2 \u2014 Pictures:<\/b> I created a meme-inspired \u201cstarterpack\u201d about my personality. Check it out here<\/a> and make your own\u2014I\u2019d be curious! <\/p>\n

3 \u2014 Life Hack:<\/b> I unfollowed everyone who calls theirself \u201cinfluencer\u201d on social media and posts tons of ads. It just makes the web a shitty place. Please stop it.<\/p>\n

4 \u2014 Lesson learned:<\/b> Negative people are not worth your energy. It\u2019s okay to stay away from them.<\/p>\n

So, I helped Felix move last month. I also helped two friends paint their walls, and I re-arranged my furniture (it looks shit, so I\u2019ll have to move it back again tomorrow). I will continue to design stuff, even if it\u2019s worthless compared to the benefit a doctor brings into the world. I simply can\u2019t do anything else; so I might just use it well. Have a great start into spring (Yes! We made it through the winter! Isn\u2019t that something!).<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\u2728\u00a0If you enjoy these posts, subscribe to my newsletter<\/a> and\/or read all past episodes<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we\u2019re jumping into the moving van, Felix asks me to hold a bag of medical supplies he brought from the hospital. Tubes, syringes, needles, disinfectant spray, all packaged separately in thin plastic bags. What\u2019s that for, I ask. Felix\u2019 friend\u2014a doctor, too\u2014was going to start his first job next week, and Felix promised to … 032018: Design Won\u2019t Save the World<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1206],"tags":[44,48,41,40,3,2,43],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christels-corner","tag-christels-corner","tag-design","tag-english","tag-newsletter","tag-schreiben","tag-text","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2729,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/2729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}