THE 5 BIG LESSONS DESIGNERS MUST LEARN

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

Five lessons run through design work: someone always has to pay for an idea, and framing it as higher quality sells better than calling it good design. Power, not talent, decides most projects, since whoever controls budget, schedule, and goals is the real designer, leaving others to work through influence instead. What counts as good depends on context, such as affordability and bureaucracy, and products bought before they're used are often designed to sell rather than to serve.