Issue 29: Festival of Lights
On color, candles, and celebration.
✨ There is a light that never goes out
The end of the year is fast approaching, and with it, the winter holidays. As someone who grew up celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah, I have fond childhood memories of double treats and extra presents (or so I perceived). But when I think about this time of year, I think first and foremost about lights. I may love winter, but I’m the first to admit the lack of sunlight this time of year is objectively depressing. It’s no mistake, then, that our most lasting winter traditions revolve around twinkling trees and rows of candles. Where the sun abdicates its responsibilities, thousands of tiny lights rise up to take its place. They don’t replace the sun, nor do they forgive its absence, but what they create in its place is arguably more memorable, more moving, and more beautiful.
We talked a lot last week about the tone we don’t want to set for next year, so this week I want to talk about the tone we do want to set. I’ve been reading a great book this week about the role of equity and activism in graphic design, focusing on how the decisions we make in our daily work impact equity and access more broadly. Designers are often under-educated on inclusive and accessible practices (to say nothing of diverse design styles), but moreover, we’re under-educated on the power of our profession. As infuriating as it can be to see a pervasive lack of diversity in design leadership, and the continued elevation of Swiss minimalism as the sole pinnacle of “good” design, this book reminds readers that we design specifically because our work has inherent power to effect change. That doesn’t remove responsibility from those with the power to change the system. But it does remind us that, especially as a collective, the lights we each have to shine are both significant and more powerful than we know.
That’s the tone I want to set for 2025. When it’s easy to feel helpless in the face of the challenges ahead — or like we need to become the sun ourselves to face those challenges — I want us to start by finding beauty and purpose in our individual lights so that we can better shine together. That’s why, this week, we’re looking at design as a Festival of Lights. We’re lighting sparklers, watching the sunrise, and preparing to celebrate the miracle of latkes, no matter how much of a mess it makes. Read on for all this and more!
🏮 Moodboard of the week
This week’s moodboard is a celebration of the full light spectrum, from infrared to ultraviolet, from sparkle to glow. It’s natural. It’s artificial. It’s significant. It’s just for fun. Click here or below to view the full board on Pinterest.
🔍 Question of the week
“After designing amazing work for years, how do you keep coming up with new ideas?”
Did I choose this question just for the compliment? Could I easily have edited it out and just kept the question? Is it still a humblebrag if someone else says it? You came here to ponder the mysteries of the universe, and I’d hate to disappoint you now.
This question raises a really important point about keeping things fresh. It would be easy for any of us to fall into a rut, or feel like all the good ideas have already been thought of. It’s something I worried a lot about at the start of my design career, and it hasn’t borne out at all like I expected. I love everything about my job, but perhaps my favorite part is that every project is truly unique. Even when two jobs exist in similar fields or serve similar audiences, even tiny differences can lead to a wildly different set of appropriate solutions. I’ll almost always start a job with a preconceived idea of where I’ll want to take it. By the time I’m done brainstorming and researching, a whole new world of ideas has opened up, and all the shoehorning in the world won’t make the preconceived concept work.
So how, practically, do we keep things fresh? There are two primary ways. The first is to get inspired and stay inspired. I surround myself with design every day, whether on social media, Pinterest, or (more often than not) just looking around the world. Watching design evolve in real time, gives you a continually changing sense of what is possible and what is exciting. For example, colorful gradients were really popular in the early 2000s but quickly became dated, and were largely written off. Lately, they’ve made a comeback, in combination with new textures, colors, and font-pairings. Add thousands upon millions of evolving techniques and technologies, and you begin with a completely new toolkit and context every time you start a project.
The second way I keep things fresh is to start from scratch on every project. My aforementioned preconceived ideas are almost always, inherently, based on what has been done before. But if you start a project with a completely blank slate, you give yourself space to really explore the specific requirements and qualities of the project itself, and this generally takes you somewhere completely unexpected.
This can actually be frustrating sometimes – I have more than a few ideas that I’ve been harboring in the back of my head for years, but have never applied to the project at hand, no matter how much I try (someone, somewhere, someday please show some love to my highlighter-inspired color scheme 😭). But I’m continually amazed by the roads design takes me down. If we ever find ourselves at risk of getting bogged down in convention and tired concepts, the unique qualities of every project and an ever-evolving industry take care of that for us, as long as our eyes and minds stay open.
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 playlist is a celebration of light from both expected and unexpected places. At moments fun, at others, contemplative, it captures the season in its many facets. Preview below, and click here to listen and save on Spotify.
🌅 My Favorite Things
In February 2020, my family and I accidentally found ourselves at one of Ireland’s most important traditional music festivals, during the world’s most fortuitous vacation. Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh, which features concerts, workshops and sessions hosted by some of Ireland’s most prominent traditional musicians, takes place on the Dingle Peninsula every February, and I’ve been closely following their socials ever since, in the hopes of returning one day. A few weeks ago, they released their poster for the 2025 festival, and I’m absolutely in love with it.
I love the use of gradient and shadow to illustrate the natural beauty of Baile an Fheirtéaraigh (known in English as Ballyferriter), the village where the festival takes place. It perfectly captures the balance of modern and traditional that the festival represents, and while the shapes are simple, it effortlessly evokes light, feeling, and place with such simple shapes. You pretty much never see traditional music festivals with design this good, and frankly I’m sadder than ever that I can’t attend this year.
Image from @scoilcheoilanearraigh on Instagram. Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh takes place every February (the start of spring in the Irish calendar) with sessions and concerts open to the public. It is mostly conducted in Irish, but music is the same in any language, and people will translate anything you need for you. I cannot recommend attending highly enough.
🌱 Touching Grass
📖 What I’m reading: As mentioned in the opening message, I’m reading and loving Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers. I’ve also been listening to the gorgeous audiobook of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, and last night I finished The Way Spring Arrives, a gorgeous collection of Chinese short fantasy and sci-fi from women and nonbinary writers and translators. I’m at 93, guys, and I hate to admit it, but the home stretch has been a delight.
🎧 What I’m listening to: My sister, who is majoring in folklore and just got home from college, is writing a final essay on the Child Ballads and has reminded me just how much I love the music of Jean Ritchie.
📺 What I’m watching: We’ve reached the time of year when it’s just Muppet Christmas Carol on repeat from here through New Year.
🍠 What I’m eating: I found a great-looking recipe for Japanese sweet potatoes with miso butter, but I didn’t manage to get myself out of the house in time to buy the Japanese sweet potatoes before the store closed yesterday. It’s certainly my plan to go buy them today. If not, I might just have to eat Miso out of the jar (just kidding).