I'm Going to Summer Camp for Design Nerds

Issue #54: Who needs an art degree when you have side quests?

Greetings from a still very gray and overcast Bali, now with a side of smoke!

I chose to spend July and August here for the promise of sunny days and the occasional tropical downpour, but so far I haven’t had many of either.

What gives? Has anyone been here in August who can offer a dose of optimism? I feel bad complaining from paradise¹ but this kind of almost sunny but with a thick layer of gray cloud cover weather gives me the WORST headaches.

On the bright side (lol), not being lured to the beach has done wonders for my productivity. I’ve been here for almost a month, and at the risk of sounding like an Eat, Pray, Love cliché, it genuinely feels like this trip could be a major life inflection point.

Maybe it’s Mama Bali working her magic, or maybe it’s just that I’ve gone a full month without a single sip of booze (the more likely factor). Either way, for the first time in ages, I have clarity on what’s next: professionally, creatively, existentially, all of it.

I’ll send a post about that next week, because today I’m here with a recap of Quest #2, and to finally introduce Quest #3.

I was feeling a bit mehhhh earlier this week, so I gave myself a few days to take a mini breather before diving into the next thing. And after generally feeling like I had been screaming into the void, yesterday I received two separate encouraging messages asking when Quest #3 was coming — consider my motivation fully restored 🥹

Quest #2, also known as Cinematic Storytelling was my attempt to learn how to use the video editing software CapCut and experiment with making reels for Instagram.

Contrary to the build-in-public mission of Side Quest Summer, I quietly published my first reel into the wild last week — partially because I don’t believe Substack is the right medium for video, and partially because I wanted to create a new, separate IG account for Extracurricular Pursuits, so only a few dozen people saw it. Here it is, if you missed it:

Not bad for my first video, right?

I had a big head start thanks to a basic familiarity² of Adobe Premiere Pro which is basically CapCut’s older, more professional sibling. Once I figured out where all of the settings and controls lived, it came together pretty quickly. Though I later realized I’d been using the simplified web version of CapCut instead of the more powerful desktop app — I'll have to test that out before deciding if I should stick with it or actually learn Adobe Premiere for realsies.

Either way, I really enjoy video editing and it’s something I want to do more of. Beyond the cringe of filming myself, it’s surprisingly intuitive — and that includes thinking through storyboarding, pacing, transitions, sound effects, etc.

Making reels as a beginner is the perfect challenge in overcoming perfectionism, and it’s also a good lesson in not caring about my appearance: All three clips I used of myself in that video were placeholders that I planned to reshoot with better lighting and a face full of makeup. But in the end, I didn't feel like re-doing everything, said screw it and hit publish, my sweaty gym clothes and lack of mascara be damned.

The original goal was to post three videos which I didn’t do, but I still count this project as a win. I don’t have the time (or interest) to become the content factory that Instagram or TikTok’s algorithmic overlords demand, though I could see myself publishing one solid video a week — maybe two, if they’re less complex. My one major takeaway from the whole thing: Even making a 30-second video is much more time-consuming than meets the eye.

I likely won’t be posting future reels on Substack or on my personal IG account, but you can follow along with all of them here: @extracurricularpursuits

Now, on to Quest #3! 🏕️

But first, a quick backstory (I swear we will get there):

My most profitable and favorite side project to date is Tidy Plans, an ecomm shop that sells printable PDF files of calendars, planners and journaling tools. I launched it in late 2022 and it became profitable about a year later.

It’s my pride and joy, the thing that I secretly work on while I’m procrastinating on everything else, and a business that I’d probably never sell (though I’m happy to hear offers!)

That’s because a profitable digital product is the holy grail. Of course it requires work upfront, but that dopamine-inducing cha-ching notification from every sale? Receiving four new orders while you were taking a nap? Knowing the cash will be in your bank account tomorrow without you having to lift a finger?

There’s nothing quite like it.

I’d take a $10 digital product sale over $100 of freelance client work any day of the week.

True story: I’ve had this graphic saved on the desktop screen of my laptop since December 2020, with the file name keep-going.jpg — it’s my north star.

The problem is that viable, money-making digital products are already scarce — and they're only getting harder to come by as AI becomes more mainstream.

Why would anyone pay even $3 for an e-book written by a subject-matter expert when ChatGPT will provide 10x the output, tailor it specifically for their situation, and do it all for free? Gone are the days of selling simple icon packs or gradient backgrounds — Midjourney murdered those business models with a single prompt.

Still, there are some digital products that AI will have a tougher time replacing, and I believe that fonts are one of them. Hear me out:

• Fonts are complex file types with tons of nuance that I don’t think your average Joe could spin up even armed with a ChatGPT Plus subscription

• They are heavily used in branding and nobody is launching a company with something that feels even remotely AI-generated or generic

• Designers who purchase custom fonts are generally anti-AI and value work made with human hands + brains

• It’s gotten better in recent months, but if there’s one thing AI image generators struggle with, it’s letters, words, and type

• Even if AI-generated fonts do eventually flood the internet, my hunch is that most will be mediocre

Consider me convinced. Plus, I’ve wanted to dive into font design for years.

Tomorrow I’ll be enrolling in Abby Leighton’s online course Font Camp, and putting my iPad, Apple Pencil and Procreate to work. The goal: Create my own custom font by next Thursday, August 7th.

Off to camp I go! I just hope s’mores are involved 🏕️ ✍🏼

---

1. I can only speak to Canggu and surrounding areas, but this place is filthy. People warned me, and also about the crowds, the traffic, the influencers — the rest aren’t so bad, but the garbage that lines every single roadside is BAD bad.

2. Early in my freelance days, if a client asked if I knew how to use [Software X], I would always say ‘yes’ first and figure it out later 🤷🏼‍♀️