Business

Feb 13, 2023

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Meta

Platform Update: January 2023

We're back to our regular posting schedule, after a brief intermission to take in the new year. Even though we haven't released any new articles, videos, or podcast episodes, we have been busy during the last few weeks. We just launched our new collection of Offerings: a set of products and services by designers, for designers, to upgrade your creative work and navigate your future with ease. We previously offered an Advisory Service where we helped students, creatives, and innovators

Jan 27, 2023

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Roundup

Editor's Choice: Profound Books I Read in 2022

I believe I'm extremely fortunate, because every morning I spend at least half an hour reading books. Every morning, one chapter, and I start the day feeling blessed – because I have the time and space to do this, and because I can afford to own books. As you might imagine, I end up reading a lot of books this way. I don't keep track of it very well, but this year I must have finished at least 20, and abandoned

Dec 30, 2022

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Roundup

Decentralized Design Business: 6 Companies Building the New Paradigm

To make a living as designers, we must do the "dirty work" of a service business: marketing, advertising, courting clients, devising proposals, contracts and accounting, chasing unpaid bills, keeping people happy even when we don't agree... So many famous designers – think Michael Bierut, Virgil Abloh, Dieter Rams, Jony Ive, Diane von Fürstenberg... – owe their success not to talent alone, but to mastering the business and social worlds around them. Designers who create fashion, cars, and arch

Dec 2, 2022

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş, Mohammed Yarroum

Roundup

Fonts, Ferrari, and Frameworks

The Design Disciplin Community Discord Server is home to our #inspiration channel with a constant torrent of cool things – tools, resources, and ideas shared by our team and members from all over the internet. Here's our selection of 5 of the coolest things for designers from the #inspiration board, all shared within the last couple of weeks. Join our Community to access the entire #inspiration channel and share your discoveries with us. Ferrari's Ex-Design Director Reviews the New Purosangu

Nov 25, 2022

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Concept

The UX Designer's Guide to NFTs

It seems that we have moved on from the massive hype around NFTs. We're ready to have a sober look at them from a UX design perspective. The NFT phenomenon reveals timeless and practical insights in culture, technology, and economics that we can leverage for all kinds of design work. Because of how they build on timeless human rituals, we believe that NFTs are here to stay, and ripe with fantastic opportunities for UX design. The "UX design perspective" means

Nov 22, 2022

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Masterclass

Lessons from Lazy's Landing Page and Brand

Our first Masterclass takes a look at Lazy, a new note-taking software startup. We analyze the entire UX flow of meeting the product for the first time and signing up. Highlights * How Lazy implemented classic graphic design knowledge to create a compelling modern landing page design * The 8 Typographic Systems and how they are used in web design * Good design for competitive advantage: effective information delivery * How Lazy uses animations keep attention * Where and how to use (and

Nov 13, 2022

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Meta

Platform Update

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.

Nov 5, 2022

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Conversation

Carlos Calva and Timmy Ghiurau

Timmy Ghiurau is an innovation leader at Volvo Cars, and Carlos Calva is an AI and augmented reality entrepreneur. Both of them are experts in virtual reality, augmented reality, game engines, and other 3D interactive technologies, with experiences spanning design, engineering, and business. Timmy originates from the worlds music, fashion, and culture; while Carlos has been building projects for clients that include NASA and multiple branches of the US military. We had this conversation in fron

Mar 23, 2022

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Concept

Crash Course in Research through Design

On December 1, 2021, I gave a talk on Research through Design at a meetup organized by Got UX (IxDA Gothenburg Chapter), in collaboration with Design Disciplin and Recorded Future. The audience was mostly professional UX designers and researchers, and a few graduate students. This article has been adapted from the talk. Abstract: Research through Design is a way of materializing knowledge and insights based on hands-on design work. It’s an exciting world where designers can do scientific resear

Dec 8, 2021

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Conversation

OP.™ | Office of Possibilities

OP.™ – short for Office of Possibilities – is a multi-disciplinary design studio that creates objects and spaces based on well-informed strategic ideas. Their competences span architecture, art direction, exhibition design, industrial design, brand strategy, graphic design and innovation strategy. I've been following them since they moved into their Gothenburg studio, in the same building where I was living at the time. Since then, they have built a formidable portfolio of projects involving br

Nov 28, 2021

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Conversation

April Dunford

April Dunford spent 25 years running marketing, product, and sales teams as a startup executive. Creating a systematic way of positioning tech products and companies became her life's work, informing her consulting practice where she has advised 100+ companies. Her best-selling book Obviously Awesome offers a methodology that any leader or entrepreneur can follow. I found great value in April's positioning methodology as I figure out directions for my own projects, including Design Disciplin.

Oct 1, 2021

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Conversation

Martin Stellar

Martin Stellar is a coach and consultant for ethical sales and business growth, as well as a former monk, tailor, and copywriter. Martin has lived an incredibly rich life, with many creative and introspective adventures. He draws on his experiences and years of study in psychology and business, to provide guidance for professionals and entrepreneurs. I met Martin earlier this year as I took up his offer on a coaching call, curious to see how his experience and framework would

Jun 15, 2021

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Concept

The Story of Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a religion with two core beliefs: 1. Design can solve all problems. It doesn't matter what your problem is – sales, education, science, global pandemic... Design will give you a solution. 2. Design can be done by all people. Skills, training, experience, talent – none of it matters. You just have to believe in Design Thinking, and you can become a designer today. Of course, these are not true. But they are dangerously close to the truth of how

May 15, 2021

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Conversation

Håkan Lidbo

Håkan Lidbo is a musician, artist, innovator, designer, and founder of the Rumtiden Idea Lab, an unconventional creative workspace in Stockholm. The work of Håkan and his collaborators stretches across music, art, installations, games, robots, software, public installations, and more. It's quite difficult to define exactly what they do, which is a testament to their vision: "bringing totally new ideas into the world that weren't here before." Håkan himself is wildly prolific (he has released m

Apr 1, 2021

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Concept

Strategy and Tactics in Design

"Design" means one thing to a graphic designer, another thing to an engineer, and something else to a business consultant. Even within the design discipline, a Silicon Valley manager and a Danish joiner are unlikely to be imagining the same thing as they both talk about design. As a scholar of design I spent a lot of time learning and thinking about what we might call "mental models" for design that apply regardless of specialization. The academic literature gave me

Mar 15, 2021

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Conversation

Carl-Johan Lindqvist

Carl-Johan Lindqvist is co-founder of the Gothenburg-based design studio Lundgren+Lindqvist. Lundgren+Lindqvist’s practice covers visual identity design, art direction, graphics, print, packaging, signage, and web development. In all of these domains, their work sets the bar in terms of taste and sophistication. L+L describe themselves as a studio with "purpose and precision," while Carl-Johan specializes as a developer who “utilizes code as a tool as natural to the design process as pen and p

Mar 1, 2021

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

IDEO cofounder Bill Moggridge – known for coining the term "interaction design" – once said that "the only way to experience an experience is to experience it." On that note, I feel like the topic of today is best suited for a face-to-face discussion. I'll let you find out over at YouTube, or perhaps the podcast. Enjoy. Books That Inspired This Episode * The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin * Articulating Design Decisions by Tom Greever * Build: An Unorthodox Guide

Mar 14, 2023

Mehmet Aydın Baytaş

Masterclass

Reviewing the Cosmos Landing Page

Our second Masterclass reviews the landing page of Cosmos, a "Pinterest alternative" for creatives. Starting from how I first encountered Cosmos on the website of another designer, we journey through the experience of visiting their landing page. Cosmos' website offers us many lessons in layout, typography, animation, and interaction design on the web. Highlights * "Cosmic Design" – painting with light on a black canvas * First impression of a new startup – how we discover new design tool