How "do it anyway" helped me make friends with fear
"Do It Anyway", Accessible Hashtags, BK's Rebrand and more!
In The Margins
How "do it anyway" helped me make friends with fear
I don’t mean “do it anyway” in the “walking through this unknown neighborhood alone at night is a little sketchy but it’s a shortcut” way or the “this person told me specifically not to do Thing X because it makes them uncomfortable but….” way.
I mean it in the “I’m like, 75% sure I want to take my business in this direction but the plan isn’t quite perfect yet” way or in the “fuck, this is a really big change and it makes me nervous and jittery but I’m so excited” way.
“Do it anyway” is my latest affirmation as I try to unlearn unhelpful habits like trying to plan toward perfection or defaulting to paralysis analysis. It’s me recognizing the feelings of doubt, fear, incompetence, and unpreparedness then thinking “Okay, I’mma let y’all have your little moment but then shut up and sit down because I’m doing this anyway”. I’m not a fan of the “just don’t feel those things” approach so instead of trying to send them away, I just send them to time out. When they are done with their tantrum and know how to act right, they can join the others: excitement, fun, and growth.
It’s still the early days of putting DIA into practice - thus the first edition of this newsletter and just giving myself space to experiment. I realized that DIA isn't just one-and-done and it's a daily commitment, but it feels good to be proactive by putting effort towards change. Okay, enough of my journal, let’s get to some goodies….
Diversity & Inclusion
10 New Rules of Design
FastCompany recognized that the design industry has been caught up in Eurocentric ideas for too long. In “10 New Rules of Design”, they talked to leading experts from MIT & Twitter who want to help break the spell. Read The Article
The BIPOC Directors Collective (@bipoc_directorscollective) summarized it in a handy-dandy IG carousel for you to share → View IG Post
Accessibility
Your Hashtags Need Help
Quick tip to make your Instagram content more accessible is to “camel case” your hashtags. This means to capitalize each word so that assistive tech like screen readers can better understand words.
Example:
❌ #accessibilityforall (Don’t do this)
✅ #AccessibilityForAll (Whoo hoo! Do this!)
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Art & Design
BK's BR (Big Rebrand)
Big names rebranding always cause a fuss but it seems BK has created the good kind of buzz. They gave a nod to their old school aesthetic and added in modern flat design and a custom typeface. They even put some spice on naming their brand colors: Firey Red, Flamin' Orange, and BBQ Brown. Shoutout to the age and ethnicity diversity in their ad as well 🔥 Read the article to dive into how the brand focuses on digital and made their favicon fun
🎧 Listening - UnderØath
📖 Reading - “The Elegant Universe” by Briane Greene
💬 Quote - “It can’t rain all the time” - Eric Draven from The Crow (1994 film)
🖊️ Word of the Day - MAUC: marginalized and underrepresented community