Issue 24: Deeply Unserious
On surrealism, rubber ducks, and our two remaining brain cells.
🐙 Send me on my way
I know I can’t be alone in that my brain is a little fried this week. We’re one day from election day in the US (go vote!), the year is drawing to a close, the holiday season is sneaking up on us, and there’s so much to take care of before it does. So much is so important right now, and it’s really overwhelming to think about how much we all have on our plates. But moreover, it’s a lot to know that so much of what comes next is not in our hands. When we’re doing everything we can to create outcomes we want — in our lives or in the world — it’s perhaps the most overwhelming to know there’s only so much we can do.
I’m not one to stick my head in the sand. Beyond being a practical way to live, I find that being proactive is one of the best ways to feel hopeful when the world won’t behave as it should. But I also know that trying to take control of everything is both fruitless and self-destructive. In our lives, in our jobs, in design, there is so much we can’t control. We can’t control how we are perceived, and we can’t control what the people around us do. In moments like that, I find that the best course of action is to get involved where we can, but also to step away where we must. If we don’t balance out the importance of everything with moments that mean nothing, we can only burn out. Sometimes what we need is to celebrate nonsense where we can, to help us create meaning where we must.
That’s why this week’s issue is truly, madly, deeply unserious. We’re sitting on hamburger chairs. We’re jamming out to some VERY tunes. And we’re doing a deep dive on the function of a rubber duck. You need this. I need this. Read on for all this and more.
🐧 Moodboard of the week
This week’s moodboard is clever at moments, ridiculous at others, and done with your rules regardless. It’s colorful, textured, bold, and above all, always down for a good time (or, at the very least, a distraction). Click here or below to view the full board, with original images, on Pinterest.
🔍 Question of the week
“What exactly is the function of a rubber duck?”
Oh Leigh, I am SO glad you asked. I believe deeply that design falls at the intersection of form and function – that of course we want our creations to look great, but if they don’t work, then what is the point? There are fewer rules placed on art — it can have a function, but it is defined by its form. Without any meaningful function, art is still art.
When I say design needs to have a function, I really mean it needs a goal. A poster about an event needs to communicate the details of that event. A billboard needs to quickly communicate its sales pitch and brand. A flag needs to communicate a sense of pride or identity. But if a design does its job right, we probably aren’t thinking too hard about its function. I think about this every time I sit in an experimental chair (you know the type). So often these chairs are “optimized” for “maximum comfort” based on “studies” or “ergonomics” or “whatever.” But if a chair is optimized for comfort, I should be able to just sit in it and be comfortable. If you have to tell me why I should be comfortable in your chair, you have not done your job.
This is the genius of the rubber duck.
I love that this question assumes a rubber duck has a function — and I agree, it does! But we never think about that function, and that makes it an excellent example of design done right. So often when we call something “functional,” what we really mean is “practical” but this is not inherent to the concept of function. After all, what greater function can there be than joy?
The rubber duck is a rare bird in that it imparts a similar sense of whimsy to kids and grownups alike. I can still remember the hours of fun I got out of my rubber ducks and bath toys as a kid – to the degree that sometimes we’d put water in the tub when it wasn’t bath time just to splash around from the sidelines. When I was a teenager, I remember babysitting my little sister and making up stories about the various characters — or making the ducks squirt her in the face when we were feeling silly (truly took the edge off the absolute nightmare that is giving a toddler a bath).
As an adult, I’ve gotten so much joy watching the “rubber duck store” emerge as a cultural institution. You can now buy rubber ducks in virtually any size or color, and any career, character, or celebrity likeness. I have 100 Halloween-themed ducks (that I completely forgot to put out this year 😬), my mom has a chef on the shelf at her store, and I’ve been known to give oversized ducks as milestone birthday presents to remind friends never to lose their sense of childlike wonder.
What rubber ducks lack in specific communication points, they more than make up for in a clear goal effortlessly executed. They’re not going to solve any major world problems on their own, but I’d argue that institutions like the rubber duck make it easier for us to take on major world problems. Whether they’re working as a distraction for tired parents, as a creative storytelling device, as a spark for nostalgia, or as a reminder to tap into our silly side, rubber ducks serve the important function of making our world brighter.
Submit your burning design questions by sending me a message below. Questions can relate to design itself, entrepreneurship, workflow, or anything you think I may be able to answer. There are no limits.
🎧 Soundtrack of the week
This week’s soundtrack is brought to you by our collective two remaining brain cells — but it contains more bangers than I care to admit. Preview it below, and click here to listen and save on Spotify.
🖤 My Favorite Things
I couldn’t possibly talk about unserious design without giving a shoutout to the absolute genius that is Gen-Z surrealist meme culture, and one of my absolute favorite examples of this is the Instagram account Arcane Bullshit.
We talked the other week about whether there’s ever an occasion to purposely create bad design, and I think memes like this are one of the best possible examples. These memes are pixelated, weird, and use a chaotic range of consciously unaesthetic fonts — which only serves to enhance their deeply unhinged sense of humor. How does somebody even come up with this? I couldn’t begin to know, and I’m awe of the mind that does.
As somebody who works so hard to create balanced, thought-out design, I love design like this because I’m not sure that I could ever create it — it just wouldn’t occur to me. I have so much admiration for a mind that comes up with something this ridiculous and if this isn’t as physically hard to create as the great surrealist art of yesteryear, I think the concept behind it is comparably well executed.
I don’t mean to be overdramatic, but I genuinely think these belong in a museum. If they’re not making a deep statement on their surface, they do a better job than many pieces of officially designated art at pulling the rug out from under our egos and reminding us to get the heck over ourselves. It’s the perfect intersection of genius and ridiculous, and my day gets a little better every time one of these comes across my feed.
All images from Arcane Bullshit on Instagram.
📰 Side Projects
I’m excited to share that I had an article published in Hey Alma this week about Jewish representation in Agatha All Along and the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large. This was SO much fun to write, and I’m excited to be able to share it with all of you. Check out the article here!
Warning – this article contains MAJOR spoilers for the show, so if you are planning on watching it but haven’t yet, be sure to hold off on reading it until you do.
Screenshot via Disney+
🌱 Touching Grass
📖 What I’m reading: After reading and LOVING Jason Stanley’s Erasing History last week I’m audiobooking How Fascism Works this week. It’s not unserious, but it is incredibly well written and very important. Balance!
🎧 What I’m listening to: I am a lifelong meditation-hater, but I discovered the Balance app the other week during a bout of insomnia, and I’ve been seriously digging it. Their tracks are personalized to your goals, and they have great one-off focus traps and background noise for the day. I highly recommend checking it out if you need a moment of zen!
📺 What I’m watching: Anything but Steve Kornacki zooming in and out of Maricopa County. My plan is to watch 5 minutes of election returns and then right back to Parks and Rec until I get an answer.
🍗 What I’m eating: If you can’t eat your feelings on Election Night, when can you? Preemptive shoutout to Archie Moore’s (if you know you know) for the chicken wings that got me through. And margaritas, of course.