Story: Economy and design
When I started my career as a graphic designer, my boss said, you need to read a newspaper. I was focused on only design skills and knowledge at that time. A few years later, I subscribed to a newspaper and read every day. This is one of the reasons why I came to Canada without any expectations.
We, as freelance web/graphic designers, work with clients. We need to understand what the client’s business is, how clients serve their customer, what’s the pain points of their customer, why their customer chooses clients, etc. We can think more about a wide range of questions, how their industry looks like, how is the current economic situation, how the industry will be in the next 10 years, etc.
A client is a professional of their business and I can learn it from a client, but if I don’t have any idea about the economy, my question will be narrow. Good questions build a good relationship. The irrelevant question makes a client’s expectation lower. As a designer, good work/service is the bottom line. We have to beyond.
When I watch the MIT event on YouTube, Chamath Palihapitiya mentioned the shareholder letter. This is one of the best materials for us to learn economy.
TTS(text to speech)
Shareholder’s letter is very professional writing and relatively long for a designer. I looked for a tool, text-to-speech. Mac has installed the function as a default.
System Preferences → Accessibility → Speech
Select and highlight any text, and then right-click the text, Speech → Start Speaking, and right-click the text, Speech → Stop Speaking.
SHAREHOLDER LETTERS by BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
©BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
*Please check the website and download it yourself.
Memos From Howard Marks by OAKTREE
©Oaktree Capital Management, L.P.
*Please check the website and download it yourself.
Annual Report 2021 by Jamie Dimon
©JPMorgan Chase & Co.
*Please check the website and download it yourself.
LARRY FINK’S 2022 CHAIRMAN’S LETTER
©BlackRock, Inc.
*Please check the website and download it yourself.
2021 Annual Letter By Chamath Palihapitiya
©Social Capital
*Please check the website and download it yourself.
Essays by Paul Graham
©Paul Graham
*Please check the website and download it yourself.
2021 Letter to Shareholders by Andy Jassy
©Amazon.com, Inc.
*Please check the website and download it yourself.
Conclusion: Reality
How many of your clients read these letters? I guess it is almost 0.
If you have a specific mentor or someone who gives you feedback frequently, that’s okay. Your mentor gives you the next milestone. I don’t have one. I have to find the subject myself. Therefore, I have to keep high standards myself. I absorb information from YouTube, podcasts, and Audible. Then, I change my behavior, what I search, and what I look at.
It is January 2023. According to several investors, a recession will be continued this year(until Q2 2024). The economy is not very well. It will be impacted a client’s business. So, our business will be also influenced. Even so, let’s keep learning and keep effort in 2023.
Reference:
Search | MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials
Principles of Economics | Course – Stanford Online
