My skill set is ideally aligned with your client's vision. Instead of searching for my portfolio online, Matt can simply close his eyes and visualize all of the artwork I have produced. As a graphic designer, I am a fantastic choice!
Excited for a new look and new merch! Just as a heads up, I bought a T-shirt with the current SB logo the last time you did a merchandise round. I followed the washing instructions but the screen print was super cheap and came off almost immediately. I would happily pay a bit more for a better quality shirt or sweater. I have bought merchandise from other content creators from Cotton Bureau and that seems to last a really long time wash after wash. Thanks so much!
When my coffee mug arrived last year it took me a while to identify what it was from, since the logo doesn’t have an obvious visual meaning. I’m often reading and commenting over coffee in the morning, and one day when my partner looked over and wondered what I was doing, he saw a thing that looked like a Y and said “are you on Yahoo Answers right now?”
I'd be down to buy a set of Milwaukee x Slow Boring powertools. Just sayin'. Or perhaps Elon Musk would be willing to offer an attractive stock split for subscribers here, on his sidequest company...we all love efficient transit expansion, right?
Design-wise I honestly never noticed there __was__ a logo here? Now that people are mentioning it's a Y-shaped thing, I can kinda squint and see it (in the tab, I never look at the "main page", but it's so geometrically innocuous that I thought it was just a generic Substack option.
Bring back "Slow Boring Audio" with articles read aloud! The last one was from July 2022. I really got a lot out of these. Matt's "Bad Takes" podcast is nice, but not a substitute for the thoughtful articles out loud. I know Curio was doing it previously, but maybe you can find someone else to do read the articles out loud.
If you can't do more audio, I'm probably done w/ paid subscribing. I definitely like Matt and Slow Boring, but I don't have the time to read all of the articles. I would definitely keep going if the audio benefits were back.
Not related to graphic design but I didn't know where else to write this!
Mailbag: the podcast is a great idea. I find Bad Takes a bit slow & repetitive compared to previous MY podcasts (I know that at least MY is specifically going for slow & repetitive on the theory that we are folding our laundry while we listen, bad takes does what it sets out to do very well)
Lindsey Weber & Bobby Finger at Who Weekly are the best full stack art direction to execution merch(ants) folks in the podcast/substacky/auteur personality game... If I were you I'd ask Lindsey to art direct freelance? On the corporate side, I'd say the ones to beat on quality merch design and execution/fulfillment are Stripe and Glossier. Glossier is GOAT for packaging and branding of stuff like that. Personally I'd use whoever does their stuff especially on fulfillment side and if you have budget on packaging no one's better than Glossier at thinking thru the details of that stuff.
What's strange, at least to not super tech savvy me, is that here on my phone Chrome browser the font is clearly black. But earlier Chrome browser on my Google pixelbook, it is a dark gray which makes it difficult for me to read.
Edit: I do try to use dark mode whenever possible, can you set this for just certain websites?
Actually, Parker Malloy did some pretty interesting Matt Yglesias avatars a few months ago. I know she's not friendly to MY's POV but she does do some pretty interesting stuff with Dall-E. I think she didn't mean them to be positive, but we live in the age of Dark Brandon where people who agree with MY's overall POV would find them fun.
My skill set is ideally aligned with your client's vision. Instead of searching for my portfolio online, Matt can simply close his eyes and visualize all of the artwork I have produced. As a graphic designer, I am a fantastic choice!
Doesn’t Matt have aphantasia? Sooooo, a black square, maybe?
Insert the "That's the joke!" Simpsons GIF here.
🤦🏻♀️
Don't feel bad, Marie -- you're a fantastic person, too!
Excited for a new look and new merch! Just as a heads up, I bought a T-shirt with the current SB logo the last time you did a merchandise round. I followed the washing instructions but the screen print was super cheap and came off almost immediately. I would happily pay a bit more for a better quality shirt or sweater. I have bought merchandise from other content creators from Cotton Bureau and that seems to last a really long time wash after wash. Thanks so much!
Max Weber with an auger.
When my coffee mug arrived last year it took me a while to identify what it was from, since the logo doesn’t have an obvious visual meaning. I’m often reading and commenting over coffee in the morning, and one day when my partner looked over and wondered what I was doing, he saw a thing that looked like a Y and said “are you on Yahoo Answers right now?”
I'd be down to buy a set of Milwaukee x Slow Boring powertools. Just sayin'. Or perhaps Elon Musk would be willing to offer an attractive stock split for subscribers here, on his sidequest company...we all love efficient transit expansion, right?
Design-wise I honestly never noticed there __was__ a logo here? Now that people are mentioning it's a Y-shaped thing, I can kinda squint and see it (in the tab, I never look at the "main page", but it's so geometrically innocuous that I thought it was just a generic Substack option.
Bring back "Slow Boring Audio" with articles read aloud! The last one was from July 2022. I really got a lot out of these. Matt's "Bad Takes" podcast is nice, but not a substitute for the thoughtful articles out loud. I know Curio was doing it previously, but maybe you can find someone else to do read the articles out loud.
If you can't do more audio, I'm probably done w/ paid subscribing. I definitely like Matt and Slow Boring, but I don't have the time to read all of the articles. I would definitely keep going if the audio benefits were back.
Not related to graphic design but I didn't know where else to write this!
Also: "Mailbag" translates perfectly well to podcast format. There are several other podcast shows with a mailbag or Q&A format that are all awesome.
Mailbag: the podcast is a great idea. I find Bad Takes a bit slow & repetitive compared to previous MY podcasts (I know that at least MY is specifically going for slow & repetitive on the theory that we are folding our laundry while we listen, bad takes does what it sets out to do very well)
You’re not down with topics like Wokeness isn’t as bad as dying?
i mean they're right, it isn't
Sounds like a job for an afternoon with Stable Diffusion.
Lindsey Weber & Bobby Finger at Who Weekly are the best full stack art direction to execution merch(ants) folks in the podcast/substacky/auteur personality game... If I were you I'd ask Lindsey to art direct freelance? On the corporate side, I'd say the ones to beat on quality merch design and execution/fulfillment are Stripe and Glossier. Glossier is GOAT for packaging and branding of stuff like that. Personally I'd use whoever does their stuff especially on fulfillment side and if you have budget on packaging no one's better than Glossier at thinking thru the details of that stuff.
Black font please!
We dark mode people will be so confused.
What's strange, at least to not super tech savvy me, is that here on my phone Chrome browser the font is clearly black. But earlier Chrome browser on my Google pixelbook, it is a dark gray which makes it difficult for me to read.
Edit: I do try to use dark mode whenever possible, can you set this for just certain websites?
I use Chrome for Android. Check Settings -> Site Settings -> Dark theme for sites
I think your phone's screen type may influence how your phone renders black. Similar to how TVs work.
Actually, Parker Malloy did some pretty interesting Matt Yglesias avatars a few months ago. I know she's not friendly to MY's POV but she does do some pretty interesting stuff with Dall-E. I think she didn't mean them to be positive, but we live in the age of Dark Brandon where people who agree with MY's overall POV would find them fun.
Animated gif.