WE MADE DESIGN EFFICIENT AND KILLED THE MAGIC

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

Visual design in tech has become standardized and soulless, with most products adopting the same safe aesthetics—clean layouts, sans-serif fonts, rounded corners—because efficiency-driven workflows prioritize repeatability over creative exploration. A new generation of companies, such as Framer, Linear, and Notion, is rediscovering that a visual identity creates a competitive advantage, investing in distinctive aesthetics that communicate personality and maturity. The future belongs to designers who use taste and conviction to create products with character, not just polish, making visual design a strategic differentiator rather than decoration.