Cha Cha Cha Changes
Thu, 01 Oct 2026
Hello there,
If this newsletter in your inbox made you say, "wtf is this?" I promise this is something you subscribed to, please stick with me for a second. (And if you're here for the cat picture promised to you at sign up, it's at the bottom.)
You probably signed up for my newsletter over the summer (May through early July saw the most sign ups) because you saw me post something about it, or you attended a workshop I put on, or did a portfolio review with me. That newsletter was called "Words i Said" and it was basically just the remnants of an old Medium blog I had started back in... whenever it was that Medium was cool and new and popular, that I ported over to my hastily thrown together website so I could start doing stuff and have a place to point people to. It was very... I believe "scrappy" is how people trying to be nice about how low-rent it was would describe it. At the end of July it became clear to me that I had jumped into this whole thing without a real plan, and I sent out an apology letter about missing some weeks and needing to take a publishing break to figure out what this thing was going to be. Well, that hiatus is over (happy Autumn/Spring depending on which hemisphere you're reading this in) and now I'd like to let you know what to expect going forward.
So, what have I figured out since the last time I sent out an email, on July 17th? Well it turns out it wasn't just the newsletter that I needed to sit down and strategize about a little. Everything sprung into action back in May as a response from getting laid off unexpectedly. I had a rough idea, and I just sorta rolled with it and it turned out that momentum didn't carry very far. My old blog strategy of "write about something you noticed and had an opinion about" wasn't really working, mostly in a "I have ideas and can do this weekly" way. It also didn't really line up with what I was doing with Not Just Pretty Pictures. Live and learn. The main point is, this is no longer "Words i Said" and it's no longer a place where I will have random takes about things I see happening. TBH I think that kind of blog/newsletter is pretty widely available elsewhere and I'm no longer in the trenches in a big company (or startup) seeing how things are working. I am working with clients. I am working with students. It feels inappropriate to "have takes" about the things I come across in that work. Also, just totally upfront, it doesn't help either our studio, We Beasties, or the Not Just Pretty Pictures Project explain what it is we actually do and why people should give us money and/or attention. (we like and need both, thank you) If you want to hear my weird off-the-cuff thoughts about things (which these days is a lot of local Seattle politics, loving other people's work they post online, and talking about nerd stuff like Star Trek, and also design and tech stuff) you can find that on my Bluesky feed. This newsletter/blog (we're available in your email, your RSS reader, on our website, and on LinkedIn) are going to focus on what the Not Just Pretty Pictures project is focused on, teaching design.
You may have noticed the new title, Not Just Boring Lectures, and that's because the main content of this newsletter each week is going to be a mini exercise. Something you can practice for the next week (or in a lot of cased for the next decade) and see some real, tangible improvement in your design practice no matter if you're just starting out or have been doing design for many years, like me. (there's one in this newsletter too, you're almost there!!!) We're also working on some new workshops, the first (of hopefully many) zines, newly priced Design Lessons, and a new "Office Hours" offering that I will be rolling out in the next week or two. There's a lot of stuff in the works, and I'll get into the details of all of those things in the coming weeks (but check out the site if you want to see what's going on before then.)
Enough talking, let's do design!
Coming to an abrupt stop in the day-to-day grind of my tech design job really gave me some space to realize how important specific, mindful practice is for being a good designer... and I realized this because I suddenly had time to do it again and I started seeing my work get better almost immediately. This might sound very obvious (it certainly feels very obvious in hindsight) but are you practicing your design? Not just "doing design" during the week but sitting down and taking some time to work on something specific, paying attention to how well you do it, and focusing on what parts aren't working as well as you want yet and which are? It can be hard to tell, because most of us weren't taught to think about learning design this way (I certainly wasn't). Maybe your answer is "I don't know?" or a shaky "I think so?" This is a concept I was unfamiliar with until I started practicing music again a few years ago. Everything I read (and eventually the teacher I started working with) talked about the importance of keeping a practice journal. After doing it for a few years for my music, I can tell you I am a true believer not only for music but for art and design as well. I have practice journals going for my drumming as well as illustration and animation (two things I used to be a lot better at than I am now that I'm trying to get back to.)
So here's the exercise for this week: start a practice journal. Then find at least 15 minutes everyday for the next seven days and use it.
How do you do it? It can be as simple as opening a text file or grabbing a piece of paper (or a notebook, designers love notebooks) and recording what you did. The harder part of this is making a plan of what to practice. The plan part is important, because you need to be paying attention to how things are going and where you're having trouble in order to improve. Once you come up with your plan, and finished your practice, you write down the following info in your journal:
- the date and time
- how long you practiced
- What went well
- What you struggled with
- Tips for future you on what to focus on next time
Do this every day, for even just 15 minutes, for a week and I guarantee whatever it is you've decided to practice will be so much better at the end of the week. The journal helps you focus on what is going well and what isn't, so you can identify what you really need to be focused on practicing and when you have improved enough to move on to something new. And as much as we all hate the endless pressure to "keep the streak going" from every gameified app in our lives, consistency is the most important part of developing almost any skill.
If you need a head start on the journal, grab the example I give to my Design Lesson students here. Designing your own could be part of your week of mindful practice even.
That's it for this week. I'll be back next week with another mini lesson, some more news and more cat pics. I hope I'll see you then. Thanks for being here.
Your moment of Pancake
