Years ago, my agency received an RFI (Request for Information) in our inbox. The project sounded fun and right up our alley. We sent the info they requested and said we’d respond to the RFP (Request for Proposal). Not long after, they told us we were shortlisted as one of their final candidates. A few weeks later, the RFP showed up. We worked on our proposal and booked a time to present it in person. When we got to their office, we checked the sign-in log. We spotted our competition: two hu...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
You’ve probably heard of the Serenity Prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Most design freelancers and studio/agency owners live the inverse. They: Try to change the things they can’t: like trying to get a client to buy something they don’t want, or the fact that some prospects just don’t value design as much as you want them to. Ignore the things they can: like pricing ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
The last 5 books I read taught me more about business than I expected. Including a zombie comic book series. Here's what each one unlocked: 1. Die With Zero by Bill Perkins Key Idea: Stop maximizing your net worth. Start maximizing your life experiences. This book hit me like a cold shower: What’s the point of dying with millions in the bank if you never spent any of it on meaningful moments? Your money’s worth more at 35 than 75. Your time with your kids is worth more when they're 8 than...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I hate the term “fractional.” If you’re unfamiliar, “fractional” is a term people use to describe how others might work with them. You’ve probably seen people call themselves fractional CTOs, fractional CFOs, fractional creative directors… fractional anything. The term took off in the 1990s in executive consulting circles. Over the last five years, it’s exploded, driven by remote work, the gig economy, and the rise of flexible, part-time leadership roles at early-stage startup...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
When I teach positioning—generally the exercise of narrowing and specifying who you serve and how—I get a common question from my students: Is this demographic/audience/segment narrow enough? What they generally mean is: is it good enough to pick “moms” as an audience, or does it need to be more specific, like “moms in Toledo” or “moms over 45“ or “neurodivergent moms?” Here’s a litmus test to help you figure out if you’re positioned narrowly enough: Can you confidentl...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Projects suffer when memory fades.| danmall.com
Today in the U.S. is Independence Day, the holiday Americans celebrate to mark their freedom from British rule. It’s a federal holiday, so most people are off work. There’s usually fireworks, grilled meat and veggies, and the collective permission to do nothing. It’s great. But if you’re a design freelancer or agency owner, I’d suggest you also start celebrating something else: Independents’ Day. If you’re like most business owners, there’s a reason you chose the hard path of ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Let’s talk about boundaries. He quietly walked over to the whiteboard while the rest of us talked. After a few minutes, I looked over to see what he had been scrawling: Baste the lame doe. Encase the faint glow. Race the vain crow. Lace the train slow. Deface the drain toe. Trace the vein, bro. Mace the plane toe. Huh? It was 2012, and I was working as a design director at Big Spaceship. We had just won the pitch to be Wrigley’s agency of record, and were working on digital strategy for t...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
“Designer” is not an identity.| danmall.com
A fantastic solution to bridge the gap between opportunity in tech and those in need of change.| danmall.com
Let’s talk about boundaries. What are they? There are plenty of definitions, but I keep returning to the same few sources when I need a reminder. In their aptly-titled book Boundaries, Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend define boundaries as “property lines that define a person.” That’s already a refreshing shift from the usual defensive language we typically hearabout “placing limits” or “reinforcing rules.” Think about your house. It has property lines. And those property ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Ugh. An email from a disappointed client. “Dan, we’re pretty taken aback about what you presented earlier this week. We need a call ASAP to have a serious conversation about this project to make sure we’re not headed in the wrong direction.” If you’ve been running a design business for long enough, I imagine you’ve gotten your fair share of these emails. I certainly have. There’s usually a common culprit. And don’t worry: it’s both easily prevented and easily corrected. How?...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.| danmall.com
One of the most useful pieces of dialectical thinking I’ve learned and often repeat to myself is this: It’s not right. It’s the way it is. That mindset opens the door to duality: Sometimes I should work to change the situation. Other times, I need to navigate it as it is. It’s often both at the same time: try to fix it for the future while traversing the present. Since I was a junior, I think I’ve always done good work. But no one used to listen to me. So I worked on my craft, and I...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Today marks 138 weekly posts in a row of this website. (Okay, I might have missed one. But still.) I don’t have many streaks like this in my life, and I’m still excited to keep going. When I started back in September 2022, I just wanted to get ideas out of my head. Stuff I kept repeating in conference talks and client calls, like how to ask better questions, get useful feedback, or say yes without burning out. I thought I’d eventually run out of things to say. Turns out the opposite hap...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Before I became a designer, I worked as a manager at various sneaker stores. Here’s a sales trick I learned that worked nearly every time: When a customer came in looking for a specific style of sneaker, I’d bring out what they’d asked for and I’d also bring out a less expensive but comparable pair. I’d tell them the other pair was just as good but was $10 cheaper. (Only when it was true, of course; I never lied about this just to make a sale.) Even though I made commission on every...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
What murderbots can teach us about client strategy.| danmall.com
Earlier this week, a student in my Make More Money program asked if I had some tips on pricing a project for a nonprofit prospect. They provided some additional context about the client (abstracted to make it more broadly applicable): They've won reputable awards for their work and want to establish themselves as thought leaders in their space to give back and develop new revenue streams. Here’s the advice I gave. One of the most useful concepts for me when I’m pricing an project is the i...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
The competitive advantage of doing what sucks.| danmall.com
I get a lot of messages, asking me for various things: work, a referral, portfolio review, product feedback, etc. 99% of them don’t work. Why? A whole host of reasons. Some are too long. Some are too generic. Some ask too much from me before giving me a reason to care. For example, here’s a message I received recently: Hey Dan, I wanted to reach out to see how things are going on your end. If you ever find yourself turning down work, needing an extra pair of hands for QA, or looking for a...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
(For those looking for a post about how I use AI tools to level up my design process as I mentioned at the end of last week’s newsletter, apologies in advance; this is not that. I’m still working on that and will share it soon.) Beware:this is a sales post. Below, I’m going to tell you about a new group coaching program I’m launching publicly for freelancers and agency/studio owners. I’m going to give you some info about it so you can identify if I’m talking to you. I’m going to...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
AI can design. Can it decide?| danmall.com
Last week, I wrote about timing, how some ideas can only thrive when the conditions are right. In 2022, I shut down my agency SuperFriendly after 10 years of running it. It felt like the right move for me at the time, and 2½ years later, I can confirm that it was. As I wrote then, “for the first time in a decade, I think I’m running out of things that I want to learn or try through this vehicle.” But even though I was done with SuperFriendly, that didn’t mean that SuperFriendly was d...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Netflix started in 1997 as a DVD rental-by-mail service. Today, we know it as a streaming giant. If they had launched streaming in 1997, it wouldn’t have worked. If they had never started at all, there’s a good chance they never would have become what they are today. Streaming wasn’t just a good idea; it was an idea waiting for the right conditions. Broadband speeds, changing consumer habits, smartphones, and a lot more had to come together before it could take off. Without those things...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
A primer on creative direction as compared to art direction and design… and what they all mean in a digital context.| danmall.com
It’s that time of year—people want stuff. Maybe your inbox looks like mine, flooded with unsolicited messages: Would be great to hop on a call. I’d love to have you on my podcast. I could really use a portfolio review. I’ve attached my book draft, and I’d appreciate any feedback you have on it. Can you help spread the word about our product? (It’s always that time of year.) You shot your shot. Good for you. (Well, not quite, but close, and points for effort.) I get it. I used to s...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Winning with content.| danmall.com
If all goes well, I’ll be launching my new website in the next week or two. Fingers crossed! 🤞🏽 In the meantime, I figured I’d share a few behind-the-scenes thoughts that you might be interested in. Today, I want to talk about flowers. The role of beauty in modern design One of the earliest thoughts I had about a new site is that I wanted it to be beautiful. And I don’t mean beautiful in a “someone in the know can appreciate the understated beauty in the nuance of subconscious d...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Screenwriter Markus McFeely dropped this gem in the director’s commentary of Avengers: Infinity War: Scenes need to do more than one thing. He acknowledged that the events of a scene need to happen, which is its primary reason for appearing in the story. But a scene can also do other things like set up a character conflict, inform you about some backstory or exposition, or somehow advance the plot point in another way—all things that McFeely suggests that screenwriters employ. This was an...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Read about how to grow in design systems, design process, and design leadership.| danmall.com
Wanna know one of the best ways to help someone? Identify some of their risks and remove it. In other words, take the risk… as in, take the risk away from them. Adopt their risk as your own, on their behalf. It works in situations small to large. It might be risky for a friend to go to a new book club on their own, but you can take their risk by going with them. It might be risky for your manager to be in charge of a new team, but you can take their risk by offering to help the team whereve...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Continuing the tradition from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018, here’s my reflection on 2024. The life I want to live For the past 6 years, I’ve organized my year in review posts by topic, ordered lightly by the topics that seemed most top-of-mind. This year, I’m choosing a slightly different framing: the life I’d like to live. I’ve started to hone this over the last year and a half, and I’m getting comfortable enough with it to start using it more actively and using it as a...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
One of the biggest challenges for a business owner is deciding whether doing a particular task is worth it. Here’s a simple way to make that choice. Calculate your effective rate for any unit of time (hour, day, week, month, etc) by taking your annual salary and dividing it by the number of units you worked. For example, if you were paid $100,000 last year and you worked a standard full-time work year with 2 weeks of vacation, your effective rate would be: $50/hour ($100,000 ÷ 2,000 hours)...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
The meeting was about to start, and Mike wasn’t there. I went to his office to find him working at his desk. “You coming to this meeting?” I inquired. I was a newly minted associate design director at Big Spaceship, the least tenured of all the design directors. The agency was structured as collection of autonomous teams, and each team had a design director and a senior producer at the helm. I had just gotten promoted, which meant I now had my own team of 6, and I was working on my firs...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
As I was interviewing candidates for my “designer who can ship” position, I asked a few how they picked typefaces. One person’s answer stood out above the rest. They shared their screen to show me a folder of inspiration on their hard drive. Dear reader: the folders structure was immaculate. In that moment, I immediately realized I was talking to a professional. What is it about a clean workspace that signals expertise? Raise the roof Cultural anthropologist Edward T. Hall coined the te...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Note: this article gets into politics towards the end. If you have a sensitivity towards that, I suggest not reading this one, or at least stopping before you reach the last heading (“The power and responsibility of designing culture”). When I started my own agency SuperFriendly in 2012, I was the CEO—but only in the way that, in any 1-person business, that person is the CEO, and the janitor, and the receptionist, and the accountant, and the everything that the business needs. I’ve he...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I spent the last 2 weeks prepping for and interviewing 13 candidates for my “designer who can ship” position. I prepared 6 questions to ask each of them, and I pretty much stuck to that script in every conversation. Of course, I also followed a few natural rabbit holes in every conversation, wanting to dive into more detail about certain things. One question I kept coming back to for almost every candidate was: How did you pick that typeface? Regular readers already know how nerdy I am ab...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Stack your ways to get ahead.| danmall.com
Because I’ve been doing it for more than 3 years now, it’s officially a tradition: my annual fall foliage photography trip. In prior years, I’ve gone with my family or a few close friends. Last year, we went to the Adirondacks. This year, I opened it up to the internet. Together with new and old friends Dani Crosby, Angelika Fuellemann, Jesse Gardner, Chris Rivera, and Matt Sherlock, we spent a few days in Stowe, VT, capturing the beauty of this special season of the year. Day 0: Wednes...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Tell ’em exactly what they want to hear before they even ask.| danmall.com
Last week, I posted about wanting to hire a designer who can ship. As of today, applications are officially open! ⭐ 👉🏽 APPLY HERE 👈🏽 ⭐ A word of caution: please read my tips! It’s important to me to work with someone thoughtful and considerate who pays attention, and ignoring my guidelines is a great way to show me that we’re already not a good fit to work together. For example, I asked for a portfolio that’s tailored toward me and the work I’d potentially be assigning...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I run 3 businesses: Design System University, an online school to help people working at enterprise organizations to design and build at scale through self-paced and live courses. Great Job!, a platform to help parents and caregivers design their own handbooks for raising amazing kids. Dan Mall Teaches, private consulting and coaching from me around design systems, design process and leadership, and career growth (though no one ever sees this name) I’m hiring a designer who can ship to help...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Captain L. David Marquet is known for taking the worst ship in the U.S. Navy fleet to the most effective. One of the principles he credits for this change is moving authority to the information. In typical team structures, authority and information are proportionate inverses. People at the top usually have the most amount of authority but the least amount of information as they’re often a few levels removed from doing the tangible work themselves. People on the ground doing the work have th...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
In 2014, Josh Luciano was one of my apprentices. He started to tell me about a guy named Chris Do who was teaching on the internet very similar stuff as I was teaching privately in my program. Josh suggested that I should do what Chris was doing. The problem was I didn’t know what Chris was doing. At that time, I probably had never even seen a YouTube video. Instagram was just a place I infrequently posted family photos. Few people referred to themselves as “influencers” or “content c...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Especially in corporate cultures, people spend a great deal of time covering their butts. The ever-popular CYA acronym acts as a cautionary mantra to protect yourself from criticism, penalties, or repercussion. The more blameless you are, the better you’re doing your job. Or are you? Lately, I’ve been embracing the opposite. Instead of expending effort to remain blameless, I’m putting myself in situations where I’m the one to blame. I’m realizing that this has benefit. I consult wit...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
You don’t have to take their word for it.| danmall.com
An all-too-common conflation.| danmall.com
Stop this toxic practice now.| danmall.com
A 3-step formula for accountability between yourself and those you interact with.| danmall.com
The one thing I didn’t see in any of the discussion.| danmall.com
How to hack starting from scratch to make something great.| danmall.com
I’m looking to hire someone to help me with some design and web development needs.| danmall.com
Within every project, I believe there is a project worth doing. You may get a new client with a problem to solve, like “redesign our website to help us get more customers.” Your boss may assign you some surface to explore, like “create a design system for our data visualization needs.” You may love it or you may hate it. Most projects fall somewhere in the middle, and often close to the middle. But I always look for the project that I know I can get excited. It’s almost always burie...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I was on the Bible Committee in fifth grade, and I designed a scavenger hunt that scarred me. I went to a small Christian school from grade 1–8. In the older grades, we had class officers, but I didn’t really care much for student office. We also had a Bible committee, a group of students that were in responsible for the religious growth of the student body. As someone who prided himself in Bible knowledge, this was much more my bag. (Yes, I was a huge nerd as a kid, which explains why I...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I woke up at 5:30am this morning, well-rested, energized, and excited to get to work. I sat down at my desk. I couldn’t decide what to work on. Here’s what I did. I opened up my daily journal, something I haven’t done in 2 months, and I started to write stream-of-consciousness. I realized that I’m anxious about something I’d like to finish for a client today that I’m a bit behind on. I COULD work on that, but something about it doesn’t feel right as the thing that should occupy ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
In the last post, I talked about how to make sure your projects are profitable for both your client and you. In my final installment of this series, I’ll show you how to articulate all of that to set you up for a successful relationship with your client. In other words, I’ll show you how to write a great contract. This article is part of a 4-part series brought to you by Wix Studio about running valuable projects that grow your clients’ businesses and yours too. Wix Studio is a platform...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
In the last post, I talked about the importance of the early conversations you have with your prospects. Ideally, you’ve dreamt a bit out loud with them, and you now have a good sense of the kind of future they’d love to see materialize. Now it’s time to price your work in a way that’s profitable to both your prospect and you—in that order. This article is part of a 4-part series brought to you by Wix Studio about running valuable projects that grow your clients’ businesses and yo...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
In the last post, I talked about how important it is to identify a strong and unique position and getting in front of your prospects frequently and at the right times. If you’re able to successfully do that, you’ll start to see a steady stream of clients inquiring about working with you. What do you do next? This article is part of a 4-part series brought to you by Wix Studio about running valuable projects that grow your clients’ businesses and yours too. Wix Studio is a platform built...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
When agencies think about their dream projects, they’re often thinking about this combination: Projects that have generous budgets Clients that trust them Work they can be proud of All three of those outcomes get cemented long before a project officially starts. This article is part of a 4-part series brought to you by Wix Studio about running valuable projects that grow your clients’ businesses and yours too. Wix Studio is a platform built for agencies and enterprises to create exception...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
The quickest way to get promoted is to get your boss promoted. Do something that makes them look amazing to the people that are evaluating their work. Making your boss look good gives you the highest likelihood that they’ll bring you along with them in rank and/or compensation as they move up too. How do you get your boss promoted? Find out what their job depends on, and tie your job directly to theirs. Here are some ways to find that out: Ask. Talk to your boss’s boss about it. Find out ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
It's easy to open a gym membership. It’s hard to schedule time to go to the gym every week. It's easy to start a blog. It’s hard to schedule the time write a blog post every week. It's easy to buy a bunch of plants. It’s hard to remember to water them every week. It's easy to create a bunch of design tokens. It’s hard to carve out time to answer the Slack posts from all the people using your design tokens. It's easy to sign up your kid for swim class. It’s hard to find the motivatio...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Thrice, I’ve been involved in business-related lawsuits. The first time, an agency subcontracted my agency SuperFriendly to do work for a client through them. The work was ambitious and exciting, and it had a ridiculously tight deadline. Our team came up with some pretty creative solutions that worked within agreed-upon constraints. In the meeting where I was supposed to present the ideas to the client, the agency’s CEO—who hadn’t been involved in the work at all—took over the prese...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
The common wisdom in project work is that you have two choices between three options: a project can be good, fast, or cheap. It can never be all three. Good, fast projects are usually expensive. Good, cheap projects are usually slow. Fast, cheap projects are usually low quality. Each combination of two can be a viable business model. Let’s look at a few examples. Good + Fast Doing good and fast work is the typical standard of excellence for most businesses, because it’s the most straightf...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I moved into my first apartment when I was 19 and a sophomore in college. Until then, I had lived with my parents for the first 18 years of my life, then lived on campus in a dorm for a year. I decided to get an apartment with a roommate so I could practice some adulting. Along with getting my first apartment, I decided I should learn to cook, something I had never done before. I started with simple frozen meals that needed to be defrosted in a skillet. I didn’t have a skillet. So I bought ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
“Looks like you’re killing it.” “Someday I want to be where you are in your career.” “You seem so grounded and focused about pursuing what you want.” “It seems like this new phase of your career is going well.” These are just a few messages I’ve received lately from some of my friends and social media followers. I’m incredibly flattered by these messages. It feels good to be recognized. I also feel wholly delusional about it, as what people seem to be seeing about me doe...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
In 2011, I had the chance to work with another dream client. Crayola, a company that makes somewhere between $500M and $750M every year, hired Big Spaceship—the agency where I was working—to revamp their digital strategy. I was fresh off another successful dream project—art directing the Star Wars website—and I got promoted to design director to have my own team to lead. My bosses decided the Crayola work was a great first project for us, and I was excited to show what we could do. I ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I have a book calledWhere Chefs Eat. As a reluctant foodie—who still enjoys a Big Mac from time to time—I bought it as soon as I saw it. I figured if I want to eat good food, I should imitate people who know good food. I think that advice holds true for becoming a better designer too, in areas like choosing a typeface, for example. There’s no shortage of guidance on the internet about how to pick a typeface—over 10 million results, to be exact—but many of them seem written for non-d...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
It’s a beautiful thing to have friends who aren’t afraid to compliment you through an insult. Over lunch one day, I was whining to my friend Wil Reynolds about how frustrated I was that a few members of my team weren’t seizing the opportunities to push the limits of work on the projects I had put them on. Wil asked me what kind of support I was giving them to get them to do that, and I replied that I was putting them in situations to succeed. Then Wil really laid into me. “You know wh...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
A few years ago, my former agency SuperFriendly started a new high-stakes project. We were one of a few different vendors handling different parts of a brand new digital product we making together. Our main project sponsor was the client’s Chief Marketing Officer, and she was used to orchestrating multiple parties that often ran behind schedule and needed specific and clear direction. She kicked off the project by sending us a 305-word email with some polite instructions about what she woul...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Increase your percentage of getting what you want.| danmall.com
Help your team move forward.| danmall.com
I’m an ambitious person, which means I attempt things that might be scary or intimidating to other people—starting businesses, public speaking, etc. It’s not that they’re any less scary to me. It’s that I’ve assembled tools over years that help me get over the fear or trepidation more quickly than others. For example, one of the upcoming projects I’d to tackle soon is to revive the dormant social media accounts for Design System University But ugh. Emotionally, it feels like a m...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Whenever asked about imposter syndrome, my default answer has been that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it. (Case in point: listen to the conversation I had with Ross Hatton, timestamp: 48:44.) That’s mostly because of what I understood imposter syndrome to be: By definition, an imposter is “a person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others, especially for fraudulent gain.” I’ve never pretended to be someone else to deceive others. By definition, imposte...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
As a kid growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, my life outside of school consisted of drawing, watching cartoons, and playing/watching basketball. I was a big fan of Michael Jordan—who wasn’t at that time?—and anything with a Nike logo on it was the epitome of cool. The iconic “Just Do It,” “Mars Blackmon,” “I Am Not a Role Model,” and “Bo Knows” ads were bold, creative, and played in mind non-stop. I wanted so badly to wear some Air Jordans, Air Griffeys, Uptempos, ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Like many others right now you might be working on creating a new portfolio. You may realize some of the pieces you intend to show actually aren’t the best reflection of your work or you don’t have the permission to share it fully because of NDAs or your specific role on the project. What do you do? Create projects that showcase your abilities. But there’s an art to choosing projects that both tell the appropriate stories you want to communicate and that you can execute quickly. A pitch...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I wanted to go somewhere memorable for my 40th birthday, so I figured a world wonder was a good place to start. February on the east coast of the U.S. is cold, so I started looking to go somewhere warm. My research pointed me towards Machu Picchu. I had never been to South America at all before, so this seemed like a good time. Day 0–1: Monday–Tuesday, January 29–30 Em and I boarded a red eye flight from the U.S. and landed in Cusco, Peru (via a Bogota, Colombia connection) at 11:15am. ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
I once worked at a web design agency where we spent a long time honing our process. For new clients, we’d present three different initial concepts for them to choose from for what their new website would look. Each concept consisted of showing them a homepage direction and some detail page that we chose. We usually gave ourselves about a week to work on a concept. Then I got a job at a different agency. On my first day, I met the team and onboarded to the project I’d be working on. I was ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
Some tasks have an implicit definition of done built in. For example, “take out the trash” is straightforward to evaluate without too much of a framework: if the trash is still inside, this task is not complete. Once the trash is outside in the trash can, I can stop thinking about this task and move on to something else. In knowledge work, however, stopping points aren’t always as apparent. Most times, it’s because we have to choose where to stop; otherwise, they could go on indefinit...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
In his excellent bookThe Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier wisely points out, “Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.” While I generally agree, I’ve also found some interesting exceptions. I ran an agency called SuperFriendly. Whenever I’d appear on podcasts or speak at a conference, people would introduce me as, “one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet,” or some variation of that. Most of these people have never met me before. I’d bet that it was because t...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
For years, the design industry suffered from a shortage of mentorship. Services like ADPList came along and helped to create a marketplace for mentorship. Many professionals offer an option where you can purchase an hour or a few of their time for a fee. Intro gives you access to experts you may not have thought was possible to talk to. Why do some experts want you to pay anyway? It’s because most of them actually don’t want to do it. Compensation for their time sweetens a pot a bit, but ...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
When I was a Senior Designer 14 years ago, I wanted nothing more than to become an Art Director. So, I tried to soak up everything I could from every Art Director I worked with. I picked up a tip from one Art Director that I still use to this day. I was watching him present a design concept to a client. He said, “And over here is an area that summarizes what a user will find on this page…” There was nothing out of the ordinary about that statement. He was doing what we all do: scrolling...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
He rested his elbows on the table, plopped his chin in his hands, and said with a mischievous grin, “Tell me everything.” My wife and I were visiting London to see the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play when it debuted. It’s a 2-show series, usually playing back-to-back nights, but we chose the option for a morning and afternoon show with a several hour mid-day intermission so we could see it all in one day. After a little Yelp browsing and Google searching, we resorted to walking a...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
There’s a narrow window for effective design system work. It sits squarely in the center of a spectrum that’s too easy to slide towards one end or the other. The ends of the spectrum On one end is where a lot of design system efforts often begin. Many design systems start when a designer and/or engineer makes a handful of components that they don’t want to keep making from scratch over and over again. Those handful of components serve them well to start, so they decide to make more. Pre...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
This past week, I finished making a small website for a family member’s business. I had an idea I liked for a subtle header animation. As I sat down to do it, I couldn’t justify how that animation would make the site any better at its job—attracting potential clients—than the static, non-animated version would. It got me thinking: could I justify an animation for any website’s header? Can anyone justify an animation for a website’s header? A quick glance at the latest Awwwards Sit...| Dan Mall Teaches Design Systems, Design Process, and Design Leadership
