Every time I ask rookie students this question, I get a confusing buffet of answers. “Design is illustration.” “Design means making things look attractive.” “Design is, uh… computer graphics?” “Creative stuff..?”  Adorable. Misguided and age-inappropriate , but adorable. Then we move to intermediate professionals. The vocabulary suddenly improves. Suddenly it’s all “Design is problem-solving.” Ah yes, sounds better! The holy chant of every design school manifesto. And honestl

Across the years—stretching all the way back to the tail end of the 90s—I’ve consumed more TV shows than I can probably justify. But a very few got inside me. The Sopranos  rearranged my understanding of character. Breaking Bad  taught me how to appreciate a narrative that burns slow but detonates loud. Snowfall  had the emotional honesty of a tragedy that refuses to blink. And Friends —well, that sat somewhere in my bloodstream for entirely different reasons. These were show

A practical guide for students who want to get better—without accidentally turning their mentor into an unpaid designer. Feedback is the oxygen of your design journey. Without it, your work suffocates. With it, you breathe better, think better, and eventually design better. But here’s the part nobody tells you: feedback only works when you ask for it the right way. Otherwise, it’s like giving a Ferrari to someone who drives only in first gear—frustrating for both sides. Desig

The Path to Inspiration and Design Maturity In creative fields, debates around inspiration often arise—where does it begin, and how does one develop originality when everything seems to come from something else? The answer begins by understanding a crucial distinction: art and design are not the same. Art is an expression of emotion and individuality; design, in contrast, solves problems and serves function through creativity. Designers are, by nature, synthesizers. We study

An idea by itself doesn’t mean squat. These days, you sneeze and ten new “million-dollar ideas” show up on LinkedIn posts or in your...

The very first thing every human being should learn is not math, not religion, not history, not even how to make money. It’s their own...

I’ve been thinking about something for a while now. The overall quality of the movies I watch has dropped noticeably. These days, I end...

Imagine you’re meeting someone for the first time because you need something from them. Deep down, you’re blunt, sarcastic, and don’t...

Aligning User Goal, Client Goal, and Designer Goal in Design Projects For any design project to truly succeed, there are three important...

In today’s world of high content density, there’s no shortage of information. Blogs, YouTube, online courses, newsletters,...

So, this is a common question that I have kept receiving ever since last year. Will AI replace a designer? Will AI wipe out the last true...