It's time to bid goodbye to 2022 and say a big hello to 2023! We asked Design Leaders, friends of DesignUp what inspires them 🌟 in a timeless sort of way...

If you are still planning to do a review of the year that was, we have a brand new visual framework - an F-ECG of your 2022 (and the rationale behind it).

Finally, on January 18, 2023 - Revue, our platform of choice, and host to 139 Newsletters so far, will shut down. We're exploring a few other platforms and DesignUp Newsletter will continue ✌️

We wanted to say a special thanks for supporting our work, our efforts and our labour of love in 2022 - by subscribing, reading, sharing!

🙏 Soo & J

PS: we're also and inviting you, and adding you, to sample Jay's personal newsletter - fullempty on substack ✉️ What's it about? It's less news, more letter. It nudges you to reflect, prompts you to explore, examine and envision your career, and life. For now it's free, and if you decide to keep getting these to your inboxes uninterrupted, it'll be forever free for you.

Who, and What inspires us

As designers, makers and creative practitioners, we all look for that elusive strand of inspiration that helps us to bring meaning and joy to our design practice. A few weeks back we asked leaders from the DesignUp community to share who, and what, inspires them:

Dharmesh Ba 

Behavioural Research, Fintech

"Mohammed Yunus for the revolution around Grameen Bank. Stoicism, introduced to me by Jay, which helps me be more hopeful of my way of life. I'm also influenced by the writing of Brene Brown."

Katja Forbes 

Head of Client Experience, Stanchart

"Anab Jain for her ability to create views of the future today through incredibly creative prototypes. Also, any kind of Speculative Futures work inspires me."

Kedar Nimkar 

Design Director, Propertyguru & creator of Audiogyan podcast

"Girish Dalvi - for his contribution towards regional typefaces and giving us amazing free typefaces through Google Fonts." (If you missed Girish's talk at DesignUp 2022, keep an eye on our Youtube channel!) "I'm also inspired by Hindustani Classical Music, which seems to be like the Atomic Design model from Brad Frost, where notes are fixed (atoms), raag is fixed set of notes (molecules) and there are unlimited possibilities of making a song."

Navneet Nair 

Head of Design, PhonePe

"Alan Kay and his pioneering work on the GUI has inspired me. Outside of Design, I'm inspired by philosophy, especially Buddhist and comparative Jain and Advaita philosophy."

Rajesh Dahiya 

Founding Director, Codesign

"There's a lot we can learn from the pioneering work of Lakshmi Murthy."

Why Design Needs Copyleft — thehardcopy.co

Dr. Lakshmi Murthy maintains that the unfettered use and distribution of design is essential for the development sector

Rasagy Sharma 

Designer & Design Educator

"Giorgia Lupi, for evangelizing Data Humanism & finding a balance between efficiency & aesthetics. Hans Rosling, for his seminal TED talk The best stats you've ever seen & for reminding us of hope in these dark times. I'm also inspired by psychology (both what is understood & what is unknown about us), and art & aesthetics (especially abstract art & contemporary movements).

Sandeep Karmarkar

Design leader, Google

"I'm inspired by John Maeda for his book/work on simplicity Laws of Simplicity. Positive, passionate personalities and leaders (with and without titles) from day-to-day life also influence and motivate me."

Shaheena Attarwala

Design leader, Microsoft

"I admire Dan Ariely & Brian Chesky. Dan Ariely's work in the field of Behavioral Economics on the irrational ways people behave, described in plain language, has been a great influence on me. Brian is a designer & co-founder of AirBnB. His journey of building AirBnB as successful & profitable business gives me inspiration that a designer can do much more than just design. Outside of Design, politics, history, human rights and human behaviour have always fascinated and motivated me. It helps me get a 360 view of the world and events that shape human behavior." 

Somya Hastekar 

Design leader, Microsoft

"Chitra Vishwanath always inspires me. Her drive for sustainable architecture in India is commendable. It takes a lot of grit and dedication to put the environment over everything else in a creative practice. Outside of Design, I keep going back to nature to feel grounded. I can sit and talk to old trees and tiny birds for hours"

Jay Dutta

DesignUp Founder, Leadership & Career Coach

Kenya Hara, Muji's Art Director has been an enigmatic and inspirational figure for me - and his deeper embrace of philosophy is a path I too have followed in my own separate way. Getting to meet him and listen to him up close was a treat. You could argue that the philosophy becomes too esoteric and several degrees away from commercial realities - but it has served Muji well. His distinction on why the pursuit of emptiness is not the same as simplicity or the western notion of minimalism is a provocation. Emptiness is full of possibilities...

Mayur Chaudhary 

Design Head, Ola Auto

“Thinkertoys” by Michael Michalko is a great book on creative thinking techniques. I read this book multiple times and there is always something new to learn. I am also inspired by professionals/leaders of any age group who have pragmatic knowledge to share. Hospitality is one industry that always inspires me to learn and deliver great experiences."

Soo Basu

Design Leader, Atlassian & Storyteller 

"I'm inspired by the work of Naoto Fukasawa, for his design philosophy that “design dissolves in behaviour”. His product design philosophy is beautifully understated and each product thoughtfully blends into people’s default gestures or behaviours. Outside of Design, I'm inspired by people. I love watching people & sketching them, mostly in public places. This helps me to observe without bias and develop a point of view of how people navigate though the world."

DesignUp @ Serendipity Arts Festival

Shiva reports from Goa: "Serendipity Arts Festival was back again, with best in class music, theatre and other performances. River Raga particularly with Hindustani and Carnatic performances on a river boat was immersive and memorable. This year the festival was really overloaded and overwhelming, with multiple tracks, multiple venues and felt overzealous. The exhibits, which were predominantly experiential with videos, soundscapes and interactive installations, were rather shallow and not evocative enough. The craft-centric exhibit called Srijan was the most interesting of the lot. "

What's your 2022 Wrapped?

A sense of closure with some year-ending exercises from Jay — fullempty.substack.com

Time to unwrap a different annual reflection, and something visual: a framework (and a process) that’ll help you chart out and wrap your 2022 journey while setting the pathway for 2023.

🥂 Here's to a great 2023!

@soosixty & @jdallcaps