Mike Monteiro is a designer and the author of Ruined By Design, You're My Favorite Client, The Collected Angers, and the newly-revised Design is a Job.

Listen to learn about:

>> Mike’s book, Design is a Job >> Ethics in design >> Designing society so that ethical behavior becomes the norm

Our Guest

Mike Monteiro is the co-founder and design director of Mule Design. He mostly writes these days. His latest book is the second edition of Design Is a Job.

Show Highlights

[00:39] How Mike got into design during graduate school. [03:54] His first job in desktop publishing and printing taught him to measure work in 30-minute increments. [06:04] Moving into writing books. [07:32] Mike’s book, Design is a Job, was written to help designers with the ins and outs of being a professional designer. [10:57] Why Mike felt it was time to revise the book. [13:23] The “revised” edition changed so much, it’s basically a different book. [14:33] Mike talks about some of the new ideas in the revised edition. [15:12] Designers moving from contractors to employees. [18:02] The importance of ethical behavior and ethical decisions. [18:15] Mike’s butcher metaphor. [24:35] What companies and society can do to create an environment that encourages ethical behavior. [26:52] The first steps on the path to a more ethical world. [30:58] Finding his place in the semi post-pandemic world. [34:13] Knowing when it’s time to get off the stage. [35:48] Speaking only if you can improve the silence. [37:05] Getting older and realizing the value of listening. [38:34] How do we redesign power so that it can inoculate itself against power’s darker aspects [42:14] The messiness of the world today, and how should designers work within that world to make it a better place? [45:07] There is always a cost to the ethical choice.

Links

Mike on Twitter Mike on Medium Mule Design Mule Design on Twitter Ruined By Design Creative Mornings Podcast, F*ck You, Pay Me with Mike Monteiro Creative Mornings HQ: Let's Make Mistakes Intercom: Mule Design’s Mike Monteiro on responsibility in experience design Invision: Mike Monteiro: Design is Political Creative Bloq: Why designers need to stick to their guns Webstock ‘13: Mike Monteiro - How Designers Destroyed the World Interview with Mike by Clearleft

Books By Mike Monteiro

Design is a Job You’re My Favorite Client Ruined By Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It The Collected Angers

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Designing Culture at Work + Social Innovation + Necessary Disquiet with Lauren Currie — DT101 E29 Design for Good + Gut Checks + Seeing Power with George Aye — DT101 E50 Cognitive Bias + Ethics + Dreaming the Future of Design with David Dylan Thomas — DT101 E112