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Design Current

February design inspirations πŸ’Œ

Published 3 months agoΒ β€’Β 2 min read

Hi friend,

This is Design Current, your go-to newsletter about user experience design.

In this issue, we want to share a few design inspirations and thought pieces that has helped us grow and reflect.

First, a celebration!

Our studio has just entered our 4th year!

We started Koi Studios with a simple belief: thoughtful design can do good.

What began as a desire to create impactful work grew into a studio built around care: for users, partners, and the problems worth solving.

Fast forward to now, we have:

  • grown to a team of 7
  • rebranded and relaunched our website​
  • partnered with 11 clients last year, including 4 in civic tech
    ​

For more updates, check out this deckπŸ‘‡
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Design candy we loved

​The weight of paper →​

Marijana Pavlinić recreated her grandpa's stamp collection in digital form. It's touchingly beautiful.

​Patience toys→​

A not-your-typical meditation website that helps you slow down and calm down.

​Olympics posters →​

A collection of Olympic posters 1896 to 2026. Which one is your favorite?

​Inside Bad Bunny's iconic performance →​

The performance! The stage design! The choreo! The bush people! I was mind-blown!

​Designer archetypes →​

Redefining designer's role to help navigate climate crisis and inequality.

​It's hard to justify Tahoe icons →​

The title says it all.

Actually useful AI related content

​Is AI making us dumb →​

I've becoming increasingly reliant on AI, and I worry that it's taking away my deep thinking ability. This podcast episode from Science vs explored helped me understand how to be more intentional when it comes to using AI and protecting our brain.

​How design teams are using Cursor →​

Design teams from Ramp, Notion, and Cursor talk about how they've been using Cursor in their design process. Among all "use AI for design" videos I've seen, this one has been the most practical.

​Building AI product sense →​

I've found product sense (i.e., being intuitive about what makes a product good) to be a rather important skill that designers should have. This post breaks down how to develop better product sense for AI products.

Thanks for reading!

Anyi & Andrea

Cofounders @ Koi Studios​

PS - If you enjoyed the read, please share it with a friend.

This newsletter is brought to you by Koi Studios. Looking for super cool product designers for your project? We're right here.

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