Design Resources (and

others that are related)

Rachel Wendte -- @rkwendte

First up: Resources Designed to Help You Skill UP in
Design

During the pandemic, I know it’s been difficult to be doing

things on your own! Outside of class instruction or whatever
projects you’re doing at work, you may still want to be doing
other things. Working through things. But what exactly should
you work on, and how should you work to get better at certain
skills?

So glad you asked. :)

Specific Design Tools to Skill UP in Practical
Ways
 Choose type of work like branding
identity, packaging, logo, website,
etc., and choose the industry.

goodbrief Skill up: Take a simple brief with a

Good Brief: Get Unique visual deliverable like a billboard or a
Design Briefs - Creative logo. Using the info from the brief,
Brief Generator create a persona.
 Pick a category and see your
challenge. Randomize or focus in an
area, like product design or branding.

Sharpen.Design
Skill up: Lock one of the layers.
Sharpen Design Briefs Design 3 unique assets for a client
Generator and make a case study.
 UX/UI briefs are both in beta, so
explore! There are other areas too, &
you can get thoughts on your work in
their feedback portal (beta).
FakeClients.com
Fake Clients Skill up: Practice thoughtful critique.
Give feedback on 3 projects before
posting your own.
 Create virtual whiteboard challenges!
Designercize: Use this tool to generate challenges,
choose skill level, & time. Skill up: Do

Whiteboard a challenge w/ your selected time,

then try to complete the same

Challenges challenge in 1/2 the time w/out

sacrificing quality.
Designercize
This is similar to one of the
suggested tasks I discussed in our
talk.
Inspiration: Not Exactly Design, But Adjacent
Ideas Grab &
Generator
David Delahunty is a designer and
inventor who has been coming up
with 5 ideas a day since 2017. He
has several books on encouraging
you to think of new ideas for
yourself.

All of his ideas are in this

repository. When I’m stuck, I like
to filter through a few and think
on them for myself. Often, it
helps unlock something I haven’t
thought about.
https://www.ideasgrab.com/random-
idea-generator/
Creative Mornings
Creative Mornings is a global
organization that hosts monthly
chats on creative themes.

I love being a member of this

community (free) because I always
learn something. It’s centered
around creative professionals,
and talks are broad in range and
expertise.

They’re doing lots of virtual

events now in addition to their
talks. Normally in person,
everything is happening online
right now.

There are chapters in cities all

over the world, and all previous
talks are recorded. I love
choosing a random chapter + talk
and seeing what I can learn!
https://creativemornings.com/
Skillshare
In our discussion, I encouraged
everyone to think about what they
are good at.

For the things you want to get

better at, I encourage you to seek
out a short course on a platform
like Skillshare, LinkedIn
Learning, Udemy, or Coursera.

I like Skillshare because I’m most

familiar with it, but I have taken
free + paid courses on all these
platforms and each has something
to offer.

The takeaway here is that there

are tools to learn almost
anything, so don’t be afraid!
https://www.skillshare.com/
 The Science of Well-
Being
Speaking of Coursera, there is a particular
course I would absolutely recommend, which
is free, and has no doubt made me a better
designer.

The Science of Well-Being explores the true

things that make us happy, and the tricks
our brain can play to make us feel
otherwise.

Taught by a professor at Yale University, it

is occasionally cheesy but an eye opening
look at our emotions and how we approach the
world. Any designer who wants to call
themselves an empath should be prepared to
look into themselves, as well.

You measure your happiness at the beginning

and end of the course, and it was awesome to
see how things changed, as well as what
stayed strong throughout. :)

The Science of Well-Being

Books: Some Design, Some Not
Against Empathy

An inflammatory title,
perhaps, but I just started
this book and I’m looking
forward to diving in.

Of course empathy is a good

thing, but Paul Bloom argues
that excessive empathy can
actually get in the way of
our judgement and lead to
poor choices.

The folks at Yale really

want us to shape up,
apparently! (He’s a
researcher there).
Garlic and Sapphires

Former New York Times food critic,

writer, and chef Ruth Reichl’s book
is a great study in service design.

She goes to New York’s best

restaurants as herself, and also in
disguise. In each character, she
learns how we can learn from others
and how we might be perceived.

I like how it also forces Ruth to

confront some of her own assumptions
about people in her life, too, which
we as designers must do often.
The Visual
Miscellaneum

This infographic book by David

McCandless is SUCH fun!

Showing all the different ways that

we can demonstrate findings and
increase comprehension is just a
great tool to look through both for
your own learning and for practice on
data visualizations.
Thanks for reading! Please reach out if you’d like to
discuss your favorite resources, our talk, or other
design things.