Design Philosophy
"Design isn’t just something we do, it’s really an extension of who we are, how we see the world, how we think through and react to problems and how we show up to solve them."
We believe everyone should have access to the highest quality design education. That means becoming mindful with our thoughts and actions, lowering the barrier to entry and giving designers from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life a path to mastering their craft and entering into the industry. When we aren’t mindful and we don't amplify these voices, our products suffer (we suffer) because they do not accurately reflect or represent us.
Everything we build and do, every relationship we have is an extension of ourselves.
At DesignerUp we practice mindfulness and meditation as a means to ground our personal and business experience and presence. We hold it as a philosophy in order to allow compassion and empathy to guide our work, our teaching and our interactions with the world.
Mindfulness is our mission
With issues like privacy concerns, the #metoo movement, burnout, mental health problems, systemic racism, lack of diversity and inclusion in tech and economic instability on the rise, it's imperative that we each acknowledge, take responsibility for and safeguard against doing harm to each other.
The products we create are not divorced from ourselves and we are not divorced from each other. In order to make better products and better people, a holistic approach to the internal and external factors that drive creation, innovation and communication are needed.
"The tech we build holds great power and influence and with that, comes great responsibility." - Elizabeth Alli
We are asking questions like...
And pondering ideas like...
What if Google Maps had a 'Zen Mode' - "There is a 15 min. delay on your route. Would you like to meditate? Sit back, relax and take a breathe in and a deep breath out. Fully inhale and then exhale..."
"Empathy is not sympathy, its recognizing that no one believes what you believe, wants what you want and knows what you know and can we be okay with that instead of insisting that we are right and they are wrong." - Seth Godin
Letting go of our biases, our assumptions and our judgements about our users and each other, what we should build, how we should build it and how long it should take to be successful— we learn to fall in love with the journey and with each other and make truly great products.
Our Creed
- Be mindful with our words and our actions.
- Evaluate our own unconscious biases so as to not perpetuate stereotypes, judgements or assumptions and guard against doing harm.
- Make high quality design education as accessible, affordable and equitable as possible.
- Be transparent and straightforward about our business and our intentions.
- Lower the barrier to entry for designers.
- Take our share of responsibility for the state of affairs and the systems that are in place and proactively contribute to positive change for the betterment of all beings.
We believe in sustainable design
Only 0.87g of CO2 is produced every time someone visits this website