SUBGRID

ISSUE 004

A few years ago, I read 5 pieces of advice from a design futurist I subscribe to and it's been on my desktop in a pdf ever since. Every so often, when I get stuck in some temporary bout of pessimism around design or the future, I glance at that doc. I wish I could link to it, but the issue isn't available online anymore, so I'll quote the 5 things here verbatim and maybe you will find it useful:

1) Look at the world with wonder and amazement;
2) Be the optimistic contrarian: not being a 'yes' person, but balancing questioning assumptions while holding tight to enthusiasm;
3) Learn to embrace the peculiar and unanticipated: He talks about why it took so long to come up with wheels on luggage when we had both wheels and luggage for a very, very long time;
4) Avoid the tragedy of lost dreams: A creative's most valuable asset is their unique ability to translate imagination into expressive, meaning-rich forms that can yield beautiful, unanticipated things. But you may have make the trade to keep that by giving something away (e.g. money or fancy title);
5) Question what it means to 'act your age': it's easy to wake up every morning and decide today's not the day to explore something new. Embracing curiosity about the most banal things makes the world full of exquisite potential;

They're elegantly expressed words by Julian Bleecker of Near Future Laboratory, so if you like them, thank him directly. The last one reminds me of the quote from Steve Jobs' commencement address to Stanford: "the heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again."

These principles kind of weave around the same thread of openness. Openness to outcomes and ideas. But a full-bodied openness, not just an intellectual one. It's a lot easier to have an open mind than an open heart. You can convince your mind about something, but the heart never lies.

When you're designing stuff at the intersection of what is possible and what seemingly isn't, like architect Frank Gehry did, you need that openness.

Yes, we are in that weird phase of history where ideologies by leaders get more narrow-minded and regressive. People who don't question what's coming downstream from the establishment fall prey to leading their precious years boxed within these ideologies – it's wasted potential. But even against the backdrop of such macro environments, there is atomic wonder and amazement around us. Occasionally, leaning into it helps you tap into the universal creative consciousness flowing around and turn good ideas into great products.

On to Issue 004.

–Siddharth

WORDS & VIEWS

From around the web.

​Tribute to legendary architect Frank Gehry​

"Honoring Gehry is honoring an imagination that continues to bend steel, glass, and space toward emotion, humanity, and wonder." Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry (1929–2025) brought movement into architecture in ways as expressive and bold as fashion designers bring new fashion to runways every season. Gehry's work will live on and serves as a reminder for any designer to stretch the limits of what's possible in their medium of craft. Another tribute / op-ed by an information architect.

​Designing faster for a better world​

"Based on his conversations, Aaron began to design for the farmer’s reality. For example, the app defaults to dark mode, helping to reduce the glare of the sun in the field. And after learning that farmers work 12-16 hour days [...] Aaron made sure any task in the app takes under three clicks." – story on Figma blog about entrepreneur Aaron Veale from British Columbia who went from spotting a big problem to a marketplace app built in Figma Make that connects local farms to top Vancouver restaurants in weeks so farmers can sell more of their produce. It's really refreshing to see people with ideas do less founder talk, and get straight to designing useful stuff that could fix our broken systems.

​Typography battles in politics​

Official communications from the US State Department apparently just ditched the font Calibri for Times New Roman. Interestingly, Calibri released to the public with Microsoft's Windows Vista in 2006. It was designed by Lucas de Groot who ran LucasFonts. I remember Calibri – I wasn't its biggest fan but maybe that was because of my disdain for Microsoft products. Times New Roman can be charming in its own ways. However, using type as a way to take another anti-diversity stance is what's bonkers here and serves as an example of the narrow-mindedness I wrote about in my foreword this week. Also, did you know that if you type "Times New Roman" on Google, the whole page becomes Times New Roman? Interesting easter egg I never knew existed in Google.

PRODUCT DISCOVERIES

Things I love, try or observe in the wild from makers who put care & thought in the design. These are my personal recommendations – I don't earn affiliate fees on these links.

​Auk: Auk is a Scandinavian hydroponic indoor plant system that sets you up for easier plant care. Growing herbs indoors isn't easy, especially in countries that are tricky with sunlight. Having gone through half a dozen basil plants over the last couple of years, I can't say I've cracked this one yet. Auk looks cool and promising.

​Fizzy: Fizzy is the newest product from 37 Signals (creators of Basecamp and HEY). It's kanban boards which is simply engineering terminology of saying issue tracker. I was on the private beta for a few days and now that it's public, I can say with confidence that it's refreshingly delightful. Having used Trello, Asana, GitHub Issues, and a host of other such tools over the years, this is by far the most thoughtfully designed one. And it has no AI. Yup. Fizzy serves as a clear reminder that you don't need to "add AI" to stuff unnecessarily to build an intelligent-by-design product. When I enthusiastically responded to Jason Fried (37 Signals CEO and NYT best-selling author) via email, he tweeted it (with my permission, of course). If you're wondering about the typeface they're using on the landing page, it's Scorekard.

​Physical Phones: We're living in the age of nostalgia tech. Physical Phones sells old-school rotary and wall-mounted landline-like phones that connect to your smartphone through bluetooth. Old-school meets modern has been a recurring theme for SUBGRID since the very first Issue 001. Physical feels like a timely beachhead into redesigning artifacts from the past without compromising on function.

​Clocks: Clocks transforms your phone screen into a beautiful clock display with curated presets. If we live in an era of ambient displays, then why not make them something nice to look at? Clocks comes with matching Mac screensavers. Made by a solo indie designer Daniel Destefanis in Chicago.

THIS WEEK'S BOOK

A book from my shelf or one I aspire to own.

DESIGNER OF NOTE

People whose design portfolios I admire.

​Natasha Tenggoro​

Natasha Tenggoro is a Toronto-based product designer. There's a thread of turning complex workflows into simple interaction design in Natasha's work, lately the majority of which has been across Figma's ecosystem of products. As we rethink products and features for AI + human collaboration, Natasha works at that intersection to navigate ambiguity and emerge from the other side with products and features that empower storytellers and creatives to express their ideas more wholly.

ARTIFACT FROM THE PAST

A figment of design history.

~ That's it for this week's edition. I'm living in winter wonderland. ~

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