This issues is a big mixed bag of interestingness: e-commerce, women in news, NFT's, Hicks Law, design ops and Pass the ball

📣📣 Also a call to share your side projects with us (deadline is Feb 13th), so we can feature some of these in an upcoming issue! 📣📣

And this week is also DesignUpSchool's Graduation Day - featuring Julie Zhuo and Daniel Burka, in conversations with the students. Hosted by Rahul Gonsalves and Rasagy Sharma!

☀️ Around the web

The true cost of e-commerce in Asia — kontinentalist.com

E-commerce is thriving in Asia, as the pandemic kept people at home and shopping online, but who pays the price of its convenience? While focus and speed are still prioritised, there's a glimmer of hope for innovative profit models that merge e-commerce with circular economy.

When Women Make Headlines — pudding.cool

We know that women are underrepresented in the news, but what does it look like when women do make headlines? When future species look back on our news, what would they think about the creatures called "women"? An eye-opening visual essay from The Pudding about the (mis)representation of women in the news.

Every Hindi film song by Lata Mangeshkar, in one graphic — www.hindustantimes.com

Gurman Bhatia (she spoke at DUp in 2019) and Aparna Alluri chart the prolific output of the legendary Indian Singer Lata Mangeshkar who passed away last week. The Singer's career spanned over 73 years, 20,000+ songs in 36 languages. Take a look!

Why do NFTs look like that? — loreoxford.substack.com

A few years from now, who knows where NFTs will be. Lore Oxford finds loads of interesting themes that say a lot about the current state of play in contemporary culture.

🧰 For Your Toolkit

iPhone’s focus features and Hick’s law: A context-first design approach — uxdesign.cc

How can designers use context to create true user-focused experiences that delight? Michael Kritsch demonstrates, using iPhone's focus features.

👩🏽‍🎓 👨🏽‍🎓 At DesignUpSchool, it's Grad Day

The Founding-Cohort graduates, after many weeks of intense classes followed by several weeks to reflect and apply learnings in the real world. Julie Zhuo and Daniel Burka will be hosted by Rahul Gonsalves and Rasagy Sharma—sharing their learnings from forging distinctive career paths in Design.

🍏 Eye Candy

Compilation — www.behance.net

A fresh take on this pastel color palette by illustrator Yo Az

Wieden + Kennedy’s Door Gods — www.printmag.com

A series of animations by Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai to honor sacred Door Gods, featuring a range of animation styles, all appropriately colored and high in emotion.

Pass the Ball on Vimeo — vimeo.com

A collaboration by 40 animators. Each animated a 3-second animation of a ball and passed it to the next animator in another country, who picked up where the sender left off - and the result is this vivid energetic film.

📣📣 Call for Side Projects

What are you up to? Are there projects you’re exploring outside your main job? We’re planning an issue on side projects from the DesignUp community, so hurry, send yours. We've got a few passion projects lined up already!

Drop a link, or a screenshot, or even a few lines of text, to either of us @jdallcaps or @soosixty.

🌿 Here’s to more mindfulness, creativity, and exploration this year.

Stay safe, stay inspired

@soosixty & @jdallcaps