Whew! It’s been an action packed few months for TDK. ✨BIG✨ things are happening. First up, our newsletters are back baby! 🥳
Who doesn’t love a good newsletter? Our team’s been working 🛠 hard in the background seeking out the BEST design inspo, creative cities to feature, interviews with our fave industry legends, super cool design jobs and sharing all the stuff we love from books, podcasts, apps, you name it!
Speaking of the team, we’d like to introduce everyone to you! 👋 You all know Frankie Ratford, who started TDK over 15 years ago. Frankie is a sunny 💛 Saggitarian obsessed with travel, design and business, and likes doing 5 things at once! In fact, so much so, we've sent her on sabbatical for a well earned rest right now.
Me, I’m Lauren and I’ve been working as Frankie's right hand woman for 4 years now, running TDK, replying to all your emails and curating all the features you see on social media. I love travelling around Asia for mini workcations, transforming my apartment into an art deco inspired speakeasy and helping craft booze and coffee businesses with their branding. I’m originally from the United States but have been living in Melbourne, Australia for almost 15 years now. It's my absolute favourite city in the world!
We’re joined by our new partners Dimitri Antonopoulos and Karina Dea, who both had birthdays in June! Dimitri brings strong strategy and creative leadership and Karina who brings a sharp focus on operations and finances, and guides our research and product development. Dimitri has been writing The Weekly Journal of Creative Leadership for nine years! They own one of Australia’s leading brand strategy and research consultancy’s — check their website out here, and their IG here.
Also, if there's something you'd like to see at The Design Kids or if you would like to support us with a classified, sponsored post or job listing, just hit reply.
To kick off this month, we're featuring Istanbul and our amazing #TDKtuesdays City Host Salih Aydin. We chat with Typographer Maria Montes and round up this months with a list of our favourite books and podcasts. Enjoy friends! 💙
Lauren Danger Koste Head of Community, The Design Kids lauren@thedesignkids.org
Support TDK: The Design Kids relies on your support to create community, connection and impact for emerging graphic designers around the world. If you own a studio, business, product, service or school that supports designers and would like to sponsor an issue of TDK Monthly, just hit reply or learn more here.
Selam, Istanbul!
Featured City: Istanbul, Türkiye
Every month we’ll be featuring a creative city and this month the spotlight’s on Istanbul, Turkey's vibrant metropolis. This colourful city is an absolute gem where history and modernity come together in a sensory overload. Needless to say this hotspot is brimming with endless design inspiration, totally worthy of a feature!
ISTANBUL CITY HOST
Salih Aydin
Multidisciplinary Art Director
Meet Salih, our epic TDK Istanbul City Host and independent Art Director. When he’s off duty he’s a pasta-chef and home barista who enjoys handcrafts, traveling and electronic music. Salih runs our monthly #TDKtuesdays events, aiming to unite aspiring designers, seasoned pros and all creative souls in the lively city of Istanbul!
We’ve always been massive fans of our friends over at Studio Born! With an office in Istanbul and Miami, design duo Ebru Sile Goksel and Ipek Eris Ugurlu launched Studio Born in 2017 and have been kicking goals ever since! Love beautiful packaging design? Are you a sucker for stunning branding? Check them out, you won’t be disappointed. Website | Instagram
ISTANBUL DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT
Uğur Acil
Salih told us about Uğur and all the epic public installations he’s been creating around Istanbul. When we saw his work we knew we had to share with you all. From this colourful basketball court design to massive balloon installations to mesmerising 3D art... Uğur is absolutely killing it in his hometown of Istanbul. Go check him out! Instagram
#TDKTUESDAYS
#TDKtuesdays Istanbul
This month's #TDKtuesdays in Istanbul the gang had the chance to listen to an inspiring talk from spacial designer and co-founder of Piknik Works, Oğul Öztunç.
Hola, Maria!
Interview: Maria Montes
This month we caught up with our good friend Maria Montes! Maria is a Spanish-Australian multilingual, multicultural lettering designer and illustrator specialised in branding, typography and calligraphy education. Her work is absolutely stunning.
We were curious about who inspires her and what she’s been reading and listening to.
Maria (above) running one of her amazing lettering workshops! Is there someone you’d like to see interviewed in the TDK Monthly newsletter? Hit reply and let us know!
#TDKpeepshow
#TDKpeepshow: Instagram Features
Keep sharing your work with us! Remember to tag #TDKpeepshow on IG so we can see what you’ve been up to. Who knows... maybe you’ll be featured on @thedesignkids!
The Tools and Methods To Help You Run a Successful Creative Business.
Enrollments open Get $50 off with the code TDKTUESDAY The Creative Pro online course has helped creative professionals around the world develop successful businesses — from marketing to positioning, through to finances and sales. Built by creative leaders.
TDK Classifieds are paid ads that go out to over 12,000 subscribers worldwide every month. If you’d like to book yours, view details here.
Course
LaSalle College Istanbul Istanbul, Turkey
Attention all Istanbul friends! This month we’re celebrating your city so we wanted to give a good ol’ shout-out to LaSalle College and their Graphic Design Program.
We loved this book. Seriously, we don’t throw around the world love flippantly. This book, literally had us at hello. Every page is filled with the kind of wisdom universities should be dishing out on day one. Read it now
Plugin
Linearity
Take Figma to the next level.
Figma is our favourite design tool right now and with Linearity it just got a whole lot better. Design and animate your work in one simple workflow.
Digital planners are a dime a dozen. However, we’ve been trialing this one and we can promise you that the daily/weekly planning and end-of-day shutdown are fantastic features!
unDraw is a free, open-source illustration project by Thessaloniki-based Katerina Limpitsouni. Add your own hex-colour and use them to your heart’s content!
Support TDK: The Design Kids relies on your support to create community, connection and impact for emerging graphic designers around the world. If you own a studio, business, product, service or school that supports designers and would like to sponsor an issue of TDK Monthly, just hit reply or learn more here.
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