Hi Friends! I’m excited to share this week’s “Designing Near Future” Newsletter with you. If this email landed in your promotions folder, you know what to do. Welcome to the 220+ new members that joined last week. 👋 

As a quick re-introduction, I share interesting shifts that include new products, startups and innovations to watch out for, along with design tips and creative resources every week.

Here’s the breakdown of what’s in store today

⭐ 1 Shift: How Tiny Homes Are Setting New Standards in Smart Living

⚡ 1 Tip: How to Know if a Design Opportunity is Worth Taking on

💊 3 Resources: Secret Creative Resources That Pros Use

Reading time: 3 minutes

⭐ Shift

How Tiny Homes Are Setting New Standards in Smart Living

Tiny homes have been a hot topic for the last year. Since covid, google trends report says that people searching for tiny homes is at an all time high. Touted as the ultimate solution to solve the housing crisis for the homeless, tackle the rising cost of living in the Bay Area and the perfect ADU situation for extra income, I want to share with you, 3 products that are truly innovating in this space.

1. Samara

Samara is backed by Airbnb. The company believes that the increasing trend of remote work and housing shortages will amplify the need for their prefab units. Samara calls this the "Backyard". These ADUs are priced from $299,000 for 430-square-foot studios to $339,000 for 550-square-foot one-bedroom units in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s smart in the sense that they handle both the installation and permits. Secondly, these modular units come equipped with solar panels and are designed to be energy self-sufficient. So you don’t really need to hook it up to your main power. which is super nice - considering this can be your main living unit as well. Their website is super profesh!

2. LG Smart Cottage

At this year’s IFA, LG displayed the smart village, which included a super slick Smart Cottage. They have built a home that is led by appliances and is rooted in sustainability - from recycled materials to harnessing solar and smartly adjusting based on user needs. Honestly, this was really great to see as they are now looking at fully connected systems than just making individual products. All of this is ofcourse connected through a central app. I highly recommend you check out this video to see more of their intent. (Unfortunately, LG has done a poor job documenting this rather exciting concept home.)

3. Microhaus by Haus.me

Now, the Microhaus is designed for short term rentals, and personally I’d love to stay in one. They were awarded a Red Dot award this year and they call the Microhaus the most advanced guest capsule in the world. Which makes sense, because it is ultra small (120 sq ft.) but packs in features like voice controlled lights and blinds, furniture with wireless charging, electric heated floors, and cloud controlled entry. Now their site is not the prettiest but I recommend checking out their gallery here.

Hey real quick, I put a lot of effort into sharing only the best for my subscribers. Share this newsletter with a friend and join 1450+ creatives Designing the Near Future, Here is a link.

⚡ Tip

How to Know if a Design Opportunity is Worth Taking on.

Every once in a while a design opportunity will present itself to creative designers. Either they will take it on, or pass it to someone else. I am talking about career opportunities, new clients, new collaborations etc. Here is a simple framework to evaluate if you should take that gig:

There are 3 deciding factors which we will use as evaluating criterias.

1. Prestige - Will this look good in my CV?

   Is it a great brand name? Will this client have connections? Will this benefit my professional career? Is there exposure for me?

2. Portfolio - Will this look good in my portfolio?

   Is it a valuable item in my portfolio? Is this a portfolio building opportunity? Does this excite me? Is this a learning opportunity?

3. Money - How much will I make from this project?

   Will I make good money on this project? Is this going to allow me to build capital for my business?

An ideal project will have all 3 criterias checked for you. But unfortunately that is a rare occurring.

What you really need is to satisfy at least 2 out of 3 criterias.

If its a great brand and a solid portfolio piece, it is okay to get paid less, because it’ll allow you to win more work from the exposure. If it’s a mr. nobody but a solid opportunity, make sure you get paid for it. And finally if it’s a project that doesn’t excite you, make sure the exposure and the money are worth you spending the time on it.

If the project only ticks one of these criterias, you do not have a winner.

Happy designing!

💊 Resources

3 links to boost your creativity.

• Freefaces This website is a curated collection of typefaces that are available under a variety of free licences

• AIGA has amazing contract templates for Design Services agreement and Independent Design Contractor Agreement

• The Photorealism Mindset is a brilliant video to watch if you are into CGI and fail to make realistic visuals