You are reading Creativerly, the weekly digest about creativity and productivity-boosting tools and resources, combined with useful insight, articles, and learnings from the fields of design and tech. The newsletter built for the creative community.

Hey and welcome to issue 54 👋

Not a week is passing by where I am not thinking about how to get more out this newsletter, providing you with more thoughtful content, and building a better product. Also what things I should consider, to respect all my reader's privacy. I am happy to tell, that I am no longer retarget subscribers, who did not open the last issue of Creativerly. If it would be possible with my Mailing List provider (which is Mailerlite) I would love to deactivate opening-tracking by default. It is just weird to see if someone opened an email and how often it got opened. To build a sustainable and thoughtful newsletter, these are things I do not want to rely on. Seeing Creativerly constantly growing by Subscribers is enough feedback for me to see I am doing something right. I am not relying on sponsors which indeed would prefer to see some statistics like opening-rates and click-rates, before they decide to advertise. Sadly there is no mailing list provider I am aware of, who gives me full control over tracking settings or lets the user decide to opt-out of tracking pixels.

With Creativerly I am not tracking my subscribers via Google Analytics. Also, no images are provided with links, and all the links I am using are just plain direct links. I respect my subscribers and their privacy. With Creativerly I just want great content and deliver it straight to your inbox. I do not care about how often you opened the newsletter, where you clicked, how often you clicked a link, etc. That is nothing I need or want to track.

There is still a lot to do regarding the spying with marketing emails. But I am happy to tell you that this newsletter is built with a privacy-first approach in mind.

If you have recommendations or feedback, drop me an email or a tweet. For now, enjoy the newsletter! 🥰

Apps, Software, Tools

Volley →

Volley lets you give fast, easy feedback for your website. Simply create a project, invite your team and use the chrome extension to start making notes on your website. Your notes are sent to a collaborative workspace where your team can review the notes.

One Profile →

One Profile is a modern personal page builder. Showcase your life on one absolute page. From creating customized action buttons, hosting your social links, interacting with visitors — welcome to your central profile page on the internet.

Relephant →

Screenshot organization and smart search, for effortless memory retrieval. Categorized screenshots by keywords, topic, and source -- so that you can find the memory you're looking for.

urpsace →

Urspace is a home for all your professional and personal work--from experiences, to projects, to blog posts. We'll build you a website and resume so you can focus on creating and making.

Goods & Gadgets

Dyson Lightcycle Morph →

You spend a lot of time indoors, but the Dyson Lightcycle Morph Adaptable Intelligent Lighting makes you feel like you’re outside. This smart lighting collection tracks the time of day to mimic outdoor lighting, helping you enjoy a natural cycle throughout the day. And, don’t worry, these adaptable lights don’t need to be near a window to do so. The Lightcycle Morph collection—which includes a floor and desk model—uses other information to mimic outside light. Connecting to the app over Bluetooth, the lamps know your geolocation, the time of year, and the time of day.

Huawei MatePad Pro 5G →

With 4.9-millimeter bezels, the Huawei MatePad Pro 5G Wireless Charging Tablet is all about the screen. In fact, it actually has a 90% screen-to-body ratio. Another impressive aspect of this 5G tablet is that it offers two-way wireless charging. So, while you’re wirelessly charging the tablet, it can also wirelessly charge another device. It can charge at speeds of up to 27 watts, and it can deliver up to 7.5 watts of reverse wireless charging power. Moreover, the 5G MatePad Pro can even pair with your smartphone, mirroring its screen.

Useful Resource

Open Peeps →

Open Peeps is a hand-drawn illustration library—a system of doodles. You can use them in product, marketing, comics, product states, user flows, personas, storyboarding, quinceañera invitations, or whatever you want! Available in Sketch, Studio, Figma, and XD

Mental Wealth

➢ Why You Don’t Need Design Education – “Design is a process, but it’s not predictable. Breakthroughs arrive suddenly, and innovation occurs without warning. Designers face obstacles and employ strategies they hope will bring solutions. It’s a tug of war between trial and triumph. Perhaps then the most useful skill a designer can acquire, especially early on, is the ability to grasp new subjects and apply that knowledge to a wide variety of design problems. More than technical proficiency or a polished portfolio, learning to learn has long been one of the great outcomes of design education. For centuries, aspiring artists and designers have gathered to wrestle with technique and theory. Educational environments have varied, but the format has remained consistent: Industry tested instructors challenge students with exercises that unveil the why’s and how’s of their chosen discipline.”

➢ How to design with love? – “It’s easy to get excited about your job if you’re designing for a company or industry that you REALLY care about, but the reality is that most people won’t actually get to do that. Don’t believe me? You don’t have to, this is actually coming from Gallup, who found that around the world only 13% of people are actually engaged at work, which leaves 87% not happy. I don’t have number for design specific jobs, but my guess is that it won’t deviate drastically, let me explain why. The companies that you consider cool, only need so many designers, and if you’re working as a freelancer, the “cool” clients probably aren’t coming as often as you’d like. On top of that, these cool companies that you wish you could work for will probably have designers taking “your” place, but some of them would probably rather work somewhere else. See what I mean?”

➢ Designing the Modern Web – “Designing and developing for the web has always been a moving target. Browsers and technologies have been perpetually changing requiring constant evolution of skill set but there are still some overarching truths that remain. In this article I have outlined a handful of what I think are some of the most commonly overlooked challenges when designing for the modern web that we should consider more deeply as we continue to define the future of web design practice.”

➢ How to Overcome Creative Obstacles – “Many of us are busy, overextended, and doing our best to cram as much as we can in a day. No wonder many of us struggle to find time to properly ruminate on a big idea that’s been lingering. It might flourish into something significant, but only if you give it the space and attention it needs. You might think that multitasking is the answer, and fruitlessly keep adding it to the bottom of your to-do list. But as Dr. Sahar Yousef explains, this is a myth that might be holding you back, as well as adding to your guilt. Our ability to focus for long stretches has been compromised by distractions and a constant stream of demands on our time. We need uninterrupted time to get into the flow, fully focus, and sincerely engage.”

Essential Reading

➢ That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix by Marc Randolph - Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, video-streaming unheard of, and widespread DVD adoption seemed about as imminent as flying cars. These were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997 when Marc Randolph had an idea.

It was a simple thought - leveraging the internet to rent movies - and was just one of many more proposals, like personalised baseball bats and a shampoo delivery service, that Randolph would pitch to his business partner, Reed Hastings, on their commute to work each morning.

But Hastings was intrigued, and the pair - with Hastings as the primary investor and Randolph as the CEO - founded a company.

Now with over 150 million subscribers, Netflix's triumph feels inevitable but the twenty-first century's most disruptive start-up began with few believers and calamity at every turn. From having to pitch his own mother on being an early investor, to the motel conference room that served as a first office, to server crashes on launch day, to the now-infamous meeting when they pitched Blockbuster to acquire them, Marc Randolph's transformational journey exemplifies how anyone with grit, gut instincts and determination can change the world - even with an idea that many think will never work.

What emerges, however, isn't just the inside story of one of the world's most iconic companies. Full of counter-intuitive concepts and written in binge-worthy prose, it answers some of our most fundamental questions about taking that leap of faith in business or in life: How do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? How do you deal with success? What even is success?

From idea generation to team building to knowing when it's time to let go, That Will Never Work is not only the ultimate follow-your-dreams parable but also one of the most dramatic and insightful entrepreneurial stories of our time.

Typeface of the week

Lausanne is a sans-serif typeface designed by Nizar Kazan. The design was inspired by neo-grotesques such as Folio and Helvetica. The family is currently only available in a single weight with a matching italic; however, a full family with 20 styles is in the works.

Till next time! 👋

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