A few months ago, in a conversation about the role of design, my friend and co-worker Brandon Ferguson laid it out like this:

[Designers are] both working to build and for the system, and simultaneously subverting it. They’re the mouth pieces, and the destroyers.

I kind of love that. So much potential in the artful communication of messages.

And that’s why we love Brandon.

One time my buddy Charlie and I were on a roadtrip, and he was documenting the whole thing on video. There was a point in the trip, I think early one morning, he flipped the camera onto me. I was suddenly very conscious of my actions, my facial expression, my tone. I got awkward.

“Sorry, I have nothing entertaining to say,” I said.

“You don’t have to be entertaining, you just have to be real,” he said back.

I think that was a good call.