321: Illustrations and the Side Effects of Free Resources (feat. Meg Robichaud & Ryan Putnam)

This week, we're joined by Meg Robichaud and Ryan Putnam—incredible illustrators working at Lyft and Messenger, respectively—to follow up on a topic from last week's episode. Meg and Ryan share some of their experiences working as illustrators on product teams, and they shed a little light on how free resources can sometimes have a negative impact on illustration as a valued discipline. And as always, we share some cool things like a collection of essays, some creepy VHS tapes, a couple radio plays, a new Netflix series, and another design podcast.

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Golden Microphone Patron:

Sisu is looking for a thoughtful and data-savvy designer to help build the next generation of analytics software. You can find out more at sisu.ai.

(You might recognize Sisu from our interview with Michie Cao)

Follow-up:

Michael Knepprath pointed out that Don Norman has updated his views on the role of aesthetics in design

Interview:

Meg Robichaud is an illustrator at Lyft, and Ryan Putnam is Art Director on the Brand team at Messenger

Incidentally, they are not in fact Meg Ryan

Pablo Stanley announced Open Doodles and got Design Twitter talking
Bootstrap is "an open source toolkit for developing with HTML, CSS, and JS"
Stripe is "the best software platform for running an internet business"

One Cool Thing:

Meg shared Trick Mirror: Reflections, an "enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives"
Ryan shared scary VHS covers like Ghoulies and House
Marshall shared two radio play podcasts:

The Edge of Sleep is about "a night watchman [who] is terrified to discover that everyone in the world who went to sleep the previous night has died"
Blackout is about "a small-town New Hampshire radio DJ who fights to protect his family and community after the power grid goes down nationwide, upending modern civilization" (and it reminds Marshall a bit of The Mist)

Brian shared two halvsies:

Living with Yourself is about a guy "burned out on life who undergoes a strange procedure at a strip mall spa -- and wakes to find he's been replaced by a better version of himself"
Design Life is "a podcast about design and side projects for motivated creators"

"170: Jumping from junior to senior designer"

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