I saw an article in a newsletter titled, ‘Fiverr: it’s bad, guys — it’s bad.’

As a designer myself and someone who helps to steer people away from this platform, I just had to click and give it a read.

The author, Geoffrey Bunting, is right: It’s bad.

His argument takes a deep dive, investigating the platform’s messaging, the way it treats its workers, the impact on its customers, and its ultimate impact on the value of design as a whole.

To sum it up, “…in the pursuit of profit and haste Fiverr leaves all its users behind.”

The author goes on to say that you get what you pay for. …

“…for the companies you care for.”

I saw the phrase while scrolling aimlessly through my LinkedIn. It was in a post addressed to founders or CEOs. I don’t recall the rest of the post or even who posted it, but the phrase stuck out.

For the companies you care for — What if that was really the way we thought about it?

Companies can easily become dehumanized machines that put out a product and bring in enough capital to keep running. We think in terms of growth-hacking and optimization. Data reigns supreme.

But when I read “care for,” suddenly the way I see my company shifts. It’s not a machine but a living organism that needs tending. …

You spend, on average, a third of your life at work.

Most Americans will work until age 62. If you start working right after college graduation, you will work for 40 years of your average 78-year lifespan.

Or to look at it another way, you’ll spend an average of 90,000 hours on the job.

That’s a huge percentage of our time — and time is finite. It’s no wonder then that rising generations want the time they spend at work to be … well, worth it.

Given my age, many people assume that I choose to work with purpose-driven organizations because they do something good. …

Now and again, I get asked which brands I love, or at least which groups I think are doing a really good job with their branding.

I’ve taken some time to think about that — especially now when I’m making more conscious decisions about which brands will retain my loyalty.

One brand that comes to mind for me is Chipotle. I am a more than frequent diner and have come to form a cheerful relationship with the brand as if it were a friend.

Here are three areas where their brand stands out.

Values

The Chipotle brand is built on its values. It’s clear on the website which doesn’t have a traditional About page; it actually has an Our Values page that tells the company’s story. …

I read an article a long time ago that asked the question, “What are the things you do that make you forget to eat?”

The question is supposed to help identify those things that engage you fully, that make time disappear.

For me, being knee-deep in a design project does that. Figuring out how to get every piece to fit, the whole design to flow, and the entire thing to be brand aligned is a process — one that I sink into until I reach a point where everything works.

I’ve been doing a lot of design work recently, and it got me thinking: What’s my design philosophy? How do I approach design and what do I think about it? …

Dear Future Me,

You did it. You’ve achieved your goals and some measure of success in your work.

Or, if not, you’ve at least gained a lot of experience trying.

In either case, you’re busier than you were before. You have increasing demands on your time coming from a variety of sources — family, friends, colleges, employees, clients, customers, publications, events — you name it. And this list doesn’t recognize any new projects you cook up.

Understandably, you will want to be intentional with your time, and that often means saying no to most of the things that cross your desk. …

In this period of uncertainty, it’s hard to know where to put your efforts. I appreciate those trying to advise and plan — I’m doing my best for myself and on behalf of my clients.

While many things are likely to change, one of the things that will remain true during and post-COVID-19 is that you’re only as strong as your people.

They are one of your biggest brand assets, although they don’t get talked about that way very often. …

The phone rang, and I could see on the lit screen that it was one of my regular clients. I checked my watch and decided I could take the call.

After the usual pleasantries, he asked me to give an assessment of a current project that had been kicked around between departments. I walked through the business objectives, connected the dots as to how to tie that specifically back to the brand, and made my recommendation on how to approach the project. …