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David Blumenstein
David Blumenstein

217 Followers

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Sep 16, 2022

What I learned from The West Wing (Thing)

Things The West Wing — and its inquisitorial companion podcast — might teach us — There’s a good podcast called The West Wing Thing that just finished up its run. Each week, writer Josh Olson (A History of Violence)¹ and comedian Dave Anthony (The Dollop) watch one episode of The West Wing and then draw and quarter its politics. I was nineteen when The West…

The West Wing

8 min read

The West Wing Thung
The West Wing Thung
The West Wing

8 min read


Jul 13, 2020

Up your nose

Visual communication and COVID-19 — A design colleague working with kids in mandatory quarantine asked for suggestions as to ways to gamify the process of giving children coronavirus nasal swab tests, preferably using paper (as it’s disposable). This was my first thought. If you’d like to use it with kids yourself but don’t draw…

Visual Communication

2 min read

Up your nose
Up your nose
Visual Communication

2 min read


Feb 12, 2020

Are you “design”?

What do designers look like to “normal” people, and how does it affect their work’s impact? — I read David Graeber’s recent piece The Center Blows Itself Up: Care and Spite in the ‘Brexit Election’,which was not about design thinking. It, nevertheless, brought my thinking around to “approaches to design”, and to the way we communicate about design. The part of the piece that shot a flare…

Design Thinking

7 min read

Are you “design”?
Are you “design”?
Design Thinking

7 min read


Nov 18, 2019

Troubled Comics

A Squishface Studio exhibition of “serious” comics/graphics — Justify my love The time is long past that “comics” as an art/writing/communication medium needs to be justified artistically or compared to others. Which is better, poetry or paintings? Which is for “smart” people, film or books? Stupid, right? Yet, this recent tweet from Leela Corman: “Comics aren’t literature” is a bad-faith argument…

Comics

3 min read

Troubled Comics
Troubled Comics
Comics

3 min read


Sep 30, 2019

xDiscipline interview with Tanja Kovac

On October 6 I’m running a pretty exciting design event in Melbourne called xDiscipline. The idea is: hear from and work with our special guests — Dr. Steven Curry, Tanja Kovac and Geoff Paine — with the goal of learning how their disciplines can inform your own. In the lead-up…

Human Rights

3 min read

xDiscipline interview with Tanja Kovac
xDiscipline interview with Tanja Kovac
Human Rights

3 min read


Sep 18, 2019

xDiscipline interview with Geoff Paine

On October 6 I’m running a pretty exciting design event in Melbourne called xDiscipline. The idea is: hear from and work with our special guests — philosopher/ethicist Dr. …

Design

3 min read

xDiscipline interview with Geoff Paine
xDiscipline interview with Geoff Paine
Design

3 min read


Sep 1, 2019

What is xDiscipline?

And why did I decide to put on my own “design” event? — In 2017 I was privileged enough to deliver a talk at UX Australia with my colleague Luke Watson. It was about our experience design work in IAG’s Digital Labs division. We ended this talk by stressing the need for diversity in design teams. “A team of designers, even exciting innovative…

Design Thinking

5 min read

What is xDiscipline?
What is xDiscipline?
Design Thinking

5 min read


Published in UX Collective

·Jul 1, 2019

An interview to remember

In human-centred design we learn from individuals through observation or interviews. We’re often told to “let go of your biases”, but what does that mean in practice? — Our team is interviewing about ten people today. My interviewing partner and I will tackle three of these interviews together. We’re trying to learn about how communities can be supported to prepare for disasters. The subject of our first interview, “Donna”, sits down, having been ushered in by a colleague…

Design

3 min read

One user interview
One user interview
Design

3 min read


Published in UX Collective

·Jun 12, 2019

Advice on visual scribing, 2019

Things I tell people when they ask me about visualisation work — I’ve been asked for advice on sketchnoting/visual scribing lately so I thought I’d roll what I often tell people into a post. Illustrations are from a scribe I did for the Natural Capital Summit in Brisbane (part of Climate Week QLD last week), thanks to the teams at ClimateWorks Australia…

Sketchnote

7 min read

Advice on sketchnoting, 2019
Advice on sketchnoting, 2019
Sketchnote

7 min read


Apr 29, 2019

An association for cartoonists

What do illustrators in Australia want from a peak body? — The Australian Cartoonists Association goes back to the 1920s. It began as a series of artist balls, became a social club and venue for life model sketching, went into hibernation, then rejuvenated and became a national professional association in the ‘80s. When I was elected Deputy President I wanted to…

Comics

10 min read

An association for cartoonists
An association for cartoonists
Comics

10 min read

David Blumenstein

David Blumenstein

217 Followers

David works in service/strategic design: experienceillustration.com. He draws comics at Squishface Studio: squishfacestudio.com. Other stuff: nakedfella.com.

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