Elevating Design Content and Services

Tldr; We’re transitioning to weekly episode releases, publishing an enhanced newsletter, and simplifying our premium subscription which will now be on Substack. Read the details below …

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Weekly episodes

For years, we’ve been on a semi-weekly cadence for new episodes, but this schedule is proving too limiting for the amount of interviews we’re producing. Starting today, we’re shifting to a weekly release schedule for our premium subscribers who will receive a new episode every Tuesday morning. 

Simpler pricing model, more affordable

We’re also simplifying our pricing model based on feedback we’ve received. There’s now just one tier that gets you access to bonus content and new ways to learn. For $7/month or $72/year (15% discount), subscribers get 2 extra episodes per month, access to our monthly AMAs (Ask Me Anything) events with big names in design and tech, recordings from all past AMAs, ad-free episodes, and our new enhanced newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. 

One plan, one price, you get everything we have to offer to support your personal and career growth.

If you’re between jobs, a student, or otherwise on a budget that puts a $7/month subscription out of reach, get in touch at subscriptions@thecuriositydepartment.com. We’ll happily set you up with a free subscription.

Subscriptions through Substack

We’ve loved publishing through Substack. It’s a platform that can help us spread our wings as we expand our offerings and engage our community more. Going forward, all our premium subscriptions will happen through Substack. 

We’re very grateful for our early subscribers who have already supported us through DB+. As a small token of our gratitude, for subscribers currently on our Accelerated Learner plan, we’ll be making you Founding Members and extending your subscription by a year. Our Power Listeners will be transitioned to our premium plan on Substack and given an additional 6 months free.

Why subscribe

We have exciting episodes coming soon with Jonathan Adler (famed potter and furniture designer), Roger Horrocks (My Octopus Teacher cinematographer), Hillary Coe (former SpaceX head of design), Natsai Audrey Chieza (bio-designer), and Ben Clymer (founder of Hodinkee) to name a few. Plus, we have AMAs coming with Greg Hoffman (former CMO of Nike), John Maeda (Microsoft AI), James Buckhouse (Sequoia Capital), Scott Doorley (Stanford d.school), and more.

By subscribing you ensure you never miss any opportunity to learn from the people who are pushing the bounds of creative thinking, design, and technology. 

Expense it

If you have a learning and development budget at work, we’ve made subscribing to Design Better affordable enough that this line item won’t raise any eyebrows. We’ve even put together a helpful expense template (thanks to the ByteByteGo newsletter for the inspiration).

We’re proud of what Design Better has become over the last seven years, but the best is yet to come. Invest in yourself and in your design community by becoming a paid Design Better subscriber.

Thank you so much for your support.

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