My first vision for Design Disciplin was a content play: a blog, podcast, and YouTube channel. It was meant to be a resource – to read, watch, and listen to.
Today we reach 1,500 subscribers on YouTube, and 1,200 monthly website visitors. Though this volume is minuscule by internet standards, having come this far in a year is validating and encouraging.
The time has come to think about the next level, and build the steps to take us there.
The next level for Design Disciplin is to accelerate and diversify. The new platform enables rapid publishing and new kinds of content, because it's designed to help you make sense. The topics we handle are complex. The presentation must accommodate explain this complexity at the same time. You'll notice how the new design resembles popular social media apps, to help newcomers navigate.
The next level for Design Disciplin is to become sustainable. First, financial sustainability: creating and maintaining Design Disciplin costs on the order of $3,000 per year in software alone. (See our Stack for the tools we use.) On-location productions like our Conversation with OP.™ | Office of Possibilities cost around $3,000 per episode. But all of this is dwarfed by the economic value of hours we spend on the project. It's infeasible to keep doing this without monetization.
The new platform enables bespoke experiences and digital tools for our members. Our goal is not only to create value, but to develop new tools and formats for knowledge, simultaneously enabled and required by our ever-changing world. Soon, expect offerings beyond images and words – the new platform enables us to develop interactive, personal content that provides value beyond traditional publishing formats.
Then, the next level for Design Disciplin is to become an institution.
Inspired by the likes of Jack Butcher's Visualize Value (affiliate link), I started Design Disciplin to be an outlet for my specific knowledge as a design researcher and teacher. I'm happy to see there's an audience who shares my curiosity for design. But I'm bothered by the limitations of my own time and talent. For every episode I publish, I'm sitting on a dozen drafts and half-finished ideas.
The time has come for new collaborators, creators, and authors to join Design Disciplin. The time has come for our audience to evolve into a community that not only learns but executes together.
The new platform is designed to enable community features and contributions. It's designed to evolve beyond content, into a place for sharing and collaboration.
The new platform is symbolic. It's a stepping stone on our path to creating a new kind of institution for design research and creative growth. A digital institution of multi-disciplinary learning and execution for the 21st century.
If you'd like to join us in creating this new institution, the door is now open:
