#010: Designers Are Having Fun. Again.

Last Wednesday I attended an event conveniently named Design.md, hosted by the Shopify Design team. I have to confess - I’ve never been a fan of design industry events. I’ve conveniently avoided them throughout my career without feeling like I’m missing out on much. But this one stood out, because I noticed something I haven’t seen in a very long time, maybe ever in my time in the industry. Everyone was having fun.Industry events are generally a good reflection of that industry. They give you a good idea of what people are thinking about and grappling with. And for the past decade, most design industry events have been focused on Figma mastery as professional identity, double diamond process theater, design’s proverbial “seat at the table”, and creating shareholder value through careful marriage of user and business needs. And if these phrases made your eyes roll back so far into the back of your head that you could see your own brain stem, you get what I’m talking about.But it hasn’t…