![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/32023.jpg\")
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Sitting on my couch, I\u2019ve been staring into a wall of code for a couple of hours already. I\u2019m trying to reorganize my website and digital outlets, updating my body of work; drawings and web design projects and writing. Learning new tools is hard, and I am not a programmer, and I have no patience. But I have a plan!<\/p>\n
\u2733\ufe0e \u2733\ufe0e \u2733\ufe0e<\/p>\n
While re-shuffling all those digital things, I was also trying to bring some clarity into my writing and newsletters and digital profile. Usually, I do not believe in separating professional and private things online: I am who I am, and I don\u2019t post personal stuff that doesn\u2019t belong on the internet anyway. But I found it tricky; my blog and social media posts often are written in German, which excludes all non-German-speaking audiences\u2014specifically, the design and tech community.<\/p>\n
So, regarding this publication\u2019s future: I want to circle this newsletter back to its design writing roots. The earliest issues (2016!) were explorations on\u00a0fake marble<\/a>,\u00a0filter bubbles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0PIBA-DIBA<\/a>. I will not be the 500st design newsletter in your inbox; this letter will stay personal and diary-like; it will include life and work updates as well as musings, but it will be my professional writing outlet.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re German-speaking and interested in my monthly lists (no work stuff, just play!), you can sign-up for my monthly newsletter\u00a0Fakten und Mirakel<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cFacts and miracles\u201d)\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As my newsletter service TinyLetter finally, after years of neglect, is being shut down, I will move to Buttondown, a more independent, light-weight service. I found Mailchimp and other marketing tools to not be suitable (this is not a marketing email!), and Substack is, besides its ugly design, also questionable in many other ways. The more aware I become regarding my software usage (just like consuming food and buying clothes), the more difficult it gets. On a positive note, I am enjoying my consciousness, and making well-elaborated decisions. Most of the time, at least.<\/p>\n \u2733\ufe0e \u2733\ufe0e \u2733\ufe0e<\/p>\n Looking back at 2023: I worked a lot! With our coop studio Village One<\/a>, we did some fantastic projects: we designed and built the new website for\u00a0DemocracyNext<\/a>, an action institute exploring democratic citizen assemblies. We rebranded and built a website for the Sovereign Tech Fund<\/a>, who invests in digital infrastructure. And we are building and designing all digital outlets for\u00a0Publix<\/a>, a new house for journalism in Berlin.<\/p>\n Being involved in projects I care about really makes me happy. What was missing this year was time and space for my own projects; drawing and writing and maybe teaching. I will make room for this in 2024. So if you have a project or teaching gig or workshop in mind: Let me know!<\/p>\n Carving out time for personal work is especially difficult if your personal aspirations are so similar to your work setup: Mostly spent at a desk, mostly alone, thinking and trying out things. I find it hard to justify all this alone-time. But in the end: My time is mine, and that\u2019s how it should be, no?<\/p>\n \u2733\ufe0e \u2733\ufe0e \u2733\ufe0e<\/p>\n For a couple of months, there\u2019s been a little post-it sitting on my iMac\u2019s screen frame. It says \u201cIf you want to be a writer: write\u201d. I haven\u2019t written much since, but it keeps me alert. And it counts for many things: If you want to be an artist: make art. If you want make progress: act. If you want to rest: switch off your phone. If you want to be a writer: write.<\/p>\n I hope you can leave the year at peace with yourself and others, and are eager for a new one\u20142024 is just around the corner. Another year, another round, make it count. Yours truly, \ud83d\udc8c Christoph<\/p>\n (If you enjoy content like this: I send it out as an irregular newsletter<\/em>.\u00a0Sign up for it here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sitting on my couch, I\u2019ve been staring into a wall of code for a couple of hours already. I\u2019m trying to reorganize my website and digital outlets, updating my body of work; drawings and web design projects and writing. Learning new tools is hard, and I am not a programmer, and I have no patience. … 32023: You Are Here<\/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":[1197,1206,1200],"tags":[3606,41,40,2,435,43],"class_list":["post-2924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beobachtungen","category-christels-corner","category-gefuehlslagen","tag-christelscorner","tag-english","tag-newsletter","tag-text","tag-work","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924","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=2924"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2927,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions\/2927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}