Not sure if this is what I’m supposed to do with my time. But I always wanted a place to put ideas out there, start a real conversation, and since design is my passion, here we are.
Not a promise. A hope. Maybe that’s a subject for another post.
Why this?
There has never been more design content online. YouTube, social media, personal brands everywhere. The FOMO is real, and it’s hitting designers hard.
And a lot of it feels like nothing. Quick inspiration, sure. AI content, no doubt. The signal is thin.
That’s the gap Design Takes is trying to fill. Opinions long in the making. Provocative takes. Reading the room. Not “Claude, I need a post” posts.
The state of design content
Design as a field has an identity problem right now. Maybe other fields do too. But I find it genuinely hard to understand what’s real and what’s noise anymore.
What’s hard to find is the uncomfortable perspective. The argument that design must not just follow trends. The honest reflection on what it means to design for people when the world is changing this fast.
Design shapes how we live, how we work, and how we relate to each other. It deserves a more honest conversation than it usually gets. And I think it has a lot to learn from open source culture. Open thinking, shared work, no gatekeeping.
The case for more opinionated space
Opinions are everywhere. But honest, specific, well-argued takes are rare.
A real point of view is built on experience and observation. And it’s an invitation. When someone puts a real perspective on the table, it opens the door for others to agree, push back, or add something new.
That’s what I want this place to be. Not a place to perform expertise. A place to think out loud, in public, with honesty.
And not just me. I want this to be open to others, too. We all have design takes. I’m more interested in the conversation than in being the only voice here. More on how that works soon.
AI: the good, the bad, and the reason this exists now
AI is the main reason this exists today and not five years ago.
The good part is real. Building a platform like this used to require time, money, and technical skill that most people don’t have. AI changed that. The barrier is lower now. And I find that genuinely empowering, not just for designers, for everyone. What a time to build and express yourself.
But AI has also created a serious problem. Content production is almost frictionless now. Anyone can generate thousands of words on any topic in seconds. The amount of slop out there is alarming. There is more content than ever, and less of it is worth reading.
That tension sits with me. AI made this platform easier to build. It also made the internet harder to trust.
I won’t pretend that AI will help me write here. It will. But I’ll try to make sure every post comes from real thought, real experience, and a real point of view.
If it ends up being just more slop, you’ll tell me. And I’ll deserve it.
So let me ask you. What’s the design take you keep thinking about but never see anyone write down? Tell me. Push back. That’s the whole point of this place.