404: Visual Design and Craft ft. Justin Stahl

This week, we talk with Justin Stahl about visual design and craft, the impact of design systems and tools on the visual landscape, tactical tips for a stronger design interview, and much more. In The Sidebar, we ask Justin about the best advice he’s ever received, becoming a manager, and knowing when it’s time to switch teams.

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The Sidebar:

The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to bonus content going forward! Sign up at patreon.com/designdetails.

Followup:

• Sam Bernhardt tweeted a more technical name for the confidence gradient concept from two weeks ago: confidence code switching.
  • Cope Ahead Skill

Main Topic:

This week, we talk with Justin Stahl about visual design and craft, the impact of design systems and our tools on the visual landscape, tactical tips for a stronger design interview, and much more.

Justin is currently a Director of Product Design at Cruise. Before this, he was a Chief of Staff at Facebook Reality Labs, the Head of Product Design for Portal, and spent years as a product designer working an a wide range of Facebook products.

• The tweet: It's been tough to recruit product designers with great visual design and an eye for detail. Did we atomic-design-system and product-manager-skills a generation out of having them?
• Justin’s website
• @justahl
• Typewar and The Font Game for iPhone
• Scenarios in which Tesla FSD Beta 9.0 will fail
• Not Boring Apps
• The Gap by Ira Glass
• Jasper Hauser
• The Chef’s table episode Brian references
• Jon Lax
• Facebook Reality Labs

Cool Things:

• Brian shared Tiger on HBO, a two-part documentary about the rise and fall of Tiger Woods. Even if you’re not super into sports, it’s worth a watch.
• Marshall shared The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It’s grim-dark fantasy, a good pick for anyone who enjoyed Game of Thrones.
• Justin shared The Ideal City: Exploring Urban Futures, a book which chronicles the design of urban futures.
  • The Last Dance on Netflix.

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  • 🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
  • 🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
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Byeee!