A Love Letter to the Design Community

Dear Design Community,

I don’t really know if I can consider myself a part of you, but I have the strong urge to tell you how I feel about you.

About six month ago, when I first met you, I was completely overwhelmed – your creativity and beauty struck me and I felt that this would be the place where I would finally feel at home! Coming from a place where rationality and the workings of the brain were center of my live, I could ultimately see the holistic functioning of all that inside of you.

After I had spend some cozy moments with you, I began to hear some criticism about you. Some of your members started to impose on you! They claimed that you became shallow and lost your old charm, that your discussions and post were becoming dull. You became greedy, they said, and you transformed into a business oriented capitalist who just wanted to grow to increase profit, no … I mean traffic.

Your critics blamed the list makers and wannabe designers of destroying you and seducing you to become a tool for their foolery. I was shocked at first, but then I started to see their points. I must admit, I became one of the critics. My heart broke that moment because I saw your ugly sides, your repetitive behavior, your boring arguments, your endless lists…

After I fell into a hole of grief and anger, I decided to give you another chance. I felt that I would just need to look at your beautiful sides and ignore your ugly ones in order to fall in love with you again. So I began to turn to your talented, well established members, their fruitful posts and discussions, their oh-so in-depth analysis of design processes and incredible helpful tips on how to get creative.

After a while, I got completely confused: where was the so proclaimed value and where were the insightful elaborations on web design and design theory? Where were the unique and different stories and inventions that everybody was hailing so much? Where were the design bloggers that don’t care about traffic, money and spreading their wisdom instead of just their words (and lists… and thoughtful comments)? Was your modest and decorous side full of shit after all?

And then it hit me.

I don’t love you because of your beauty, your intelligence and merit. I don’t love you because of your fruitful discussions and in-depth analysis of design processes and tips on getting inspired. I don’t love you because of your wit, your arrogance and your pride.

I love you for being a shelter to so many different opinions and strong, creative and passionate minds.

I love you for being a cultural and social tool, a capitalist opportunity and a tool for hearing tiny voices.

I love you for having so many facets and sides, so many wannabes and so many geeks.

I love you for making it difficult to discover the gems, but once they are found, you make them timeless.

I love you for giving me incredible inspiration each single day from all across the globe in so many languages.

I love you unconditionally, design community!

Dive into the community:

• How to Kill the Design Community
• Understanding the Value of Constructive Discussion in the Design Community
• On Giving Back to the Design Community
• Killing The List Post
• Should you write “List posts” on your blog?
• Some People Actually Read: Sparing a Thought for ‘Readers’ in the Design Community
• Smashing Magazine Killed The Community (Or Maybe It Was Me)
• A “Bystander’s Perspective” on the Design Community
• Valuing Your Design Community