The whole team, assembled
the design team
comic
Comics about design team life
The Design Team
2016–2018Creator · Writing · All the art
Ship it.
A comic series about design team life. Stakeholder meetings, feedback rounds, pixel drama… all the tiny absurdities of the job.
I started drawing these because the meetings were funny and nobody was writing it down. The stakeholder who wants the logo bigger. The feedback round that undoes last week's feedback round. The tiny victory when a spacing fix finally lands.
It ran as a series and quietly built a following of designers who felt seen. Nothing viral, just people forwarding a strip to their team with "this is literally us."
Can we make the logo bigger?
The meeting
Everyone has notes
Every strip started from something real that happened in a room. The feedback that contradicts itself, the deadline that moves, the ego that needs managing. I'd sketch it that afternoon before I forgot the exact shape of the annoyance.
The team
The cast was a design team you'd recognize anywhere. One of them was named Robyn. Years later, when TIME Studios picked up Robotos for a series, that name came back around. Small world, my drawings talk to each other.
The tiny victories
Not all of it was suffering. Some strips were about the good part… the spacing that finally clicks, the reviewer who actually gets it, the moment the whole thing ships. Those ran fewer likes and meant more.
Read the strips
Pinned group selfie
the design team
comic
Someone built a machine
the design team
comic
Party hats at the goals board
the design team
comic
Buzzwords around his head
the design team
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Eight faces, eight moods
the design team
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Four beards, four outfits
the design team
comic
These taught me that the fastest way to a designer's heart is to draw the meeting they were just in. Feeling seen beats being clever, every time.
Next up
Early Illustration →
Gig posters, editorial work, and the first peeps.