Hey crew,
Several projects are puttering through their final stages, and yesterday I actually got one out the door: a new blog about redesigning my personal site. (Yes, a project about a project. I hope you’re here for the meta, because this newsletter edition will be choco-blocko full of it.)
Before we get to that, you’re getting this email from me, Frank Chimero, professional designer, half-willing writer, and amateur internet node, because you signed up for my newsletter. If that has you grumbling, you can unsubscribe here.
Okay, back to that new redesign blog. You can check it out at: https://redesign.frankchimero.com
After launching, I had two friends text and say that they’d rather read it in my newsletter, which, okay, good point. I'm always fishing for content to put in this thing, and sharing here alongside the website seems like a good way to keep the IMAP servers warm. I’m still not sure if I’ll do a simultaneous posting or newsletter-first type of situation (or even if the posts will be an appropriate length for the newsletter), but time will tell! Why don’t you let me know what you prefer? All things said, you can at least count on me sending out a flare about each new post via the newsletter, along with a spicy excerpt to pique your interest.
But none of that today! No, today you are getting the whole hoggin’ first post.
I remember someone called it a “Popeye Moment”—a time when the irritation hits a breaking point, you say to yourself, “I can’ts takes it anymore!”, and annoyance becomes action. That’s where I was a couple nights ago, and why this single-purpose blog exists. I read yet another content marketing post about typography that got everything wrong (Why did I read that?), then switched tabs to my own site, and saw a design that felt weird, unresolved, and didn’t hold together. Separate they are irritating. Maybe together it’s an opportunity?
Here’s the idea: I’m going to be redesigning my site, and I will document the thoughts, process, and decisions here. (This is largely inspired by my friend Jonnie’s redesign blog.) By writing about it, it may help both of us. I can further develop my methods by navigating the friction of explaining them. I’ve been looking for a way to clarify and share my thoughts about typography and layout on screens, and this seems like a good chance to do so. And you? Well, perhaps the site can offer a clearly explained way of working that’s worth considering. That seems to be a rare thing on the web these days.
Design isn’t alone in its lack of quality content—the web, by and large, has become a dumping ground for garbage. Most design content has become poor quality, surface-level content marketing that does more damage than good, because it offers over-simplified, misinformed perspectives dressed up as guidance. One hardly gets the sensation of lived experience and professional acumen in the words. When the experienced don’t write, grifters step in, feign expertise, and sell it. This is especially damaging as more designers are self-taught—many new designers begin in adjacent fields and re-skill into design because of the opportunities. How can we model a mature process so that they are invested in design as a craft?
I was blessed with an excellent design education and cursed with a compulsion to talk too much. So I am going to try to be useful, mix the two together, and help add quality back into the mix of online design content. Expect nuanced writing on design process without hyperbole or bullshit, offered on a clean site with no commercial agenda. I’d like to have the site fill a gap between dense, technical writing for a specialized audience (which is where most of the good design writing is happening—for instance, Klim’s notes on new typeface designs) and elementary, redundant garbage that does more damage to the design craft than good. (What value is there in shortlisting the same 10 typefaces on Google Fonts over and over?) My work happens in the middle of those two things, and I suspect many others are here with me.
And maybe I can get a nice website out of it? Crossed fingers!
Okay, thanks for that, Yesterday Frank. Now, an additional thought from Today Frank: a lot of the content I’m lamenting being gone has partially shifted over to newsletters like this, podcasts, and so on. And this is great! Not everybody wants to read cruddy text in browser windows. (God knows that very simple arrangement has become increasingly hostile to reading over the last few years.) All the same, I think putting written words in public shifts the focus and register of the writing in interesting ways. Also, if any of my posts are useful, I think it’s important that they be accessible via the web. That’s kind of the point of it.
Okay, that’s enough for a Thursday night. I have a glass of wine waiting. I hope you do, too.
You are the marshmallow to my sweet potato,
Frank