Welcome to Overlay! This is the Official Layers Podcast brought to you by Liam McCabe (@liampmccabe) and Reijo Palmiste (@reijowrites). What is Layers? It's a design community platform where designers can connect, share work and build their portfolio.

In this episode Reijo and Liam talk to Tatiana O'Toole (@darumacreative), an illustrator and identity designer based in Ireland. They discuss a whole range of topics, from design subscription services, the issues around scaling design platforms, AI generated design and growing a company ethically.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - Introduction and Guest Introduction
• (01:11) - Background and Journey in Design
• (03:39) - Ethics in Design
• (06:43) - Design Subscription Services
• (09:37) - The Importance of Strategy in Design
• (11:55) - The Future of Design Subscription Services
• (13:08) - The Role of Emotional Maturity in Design
• (15:34) - Imperfections in the Current Design System
• (22:18) - The Importance of Dislike and Downvote Buttons
• (25:36) - The Value of Recent Feeds and Avoiding Echo Chambers
• (29:08) - The Challenges of Building an Even Playing Field
• (30:30) - The Challenge of Scaling and Browsing
• (31:00) - The Difficulty of Reducing Spam and Low-Quality Content
• (32:01) - Handling Recent and Discoverability
• (33:00) - The Role of Human Curation
• (34:20) - Combining Algorithmic Feeds with Human Creation
• (36:40) - The Decline of Dribbble and the Search for Alternatives
• (37:35) - Issues with Dribbble's Platform and Policies
• (41:03) - Elitism and Changes in Dribbble's Community
• (42:40) - Controversial Decisions and Pay-to-Play Aspects
• (44:05) - Concerns about AI-Generated Content
• (49:20) - Copyright Infringement and AI-Generated Art
• (55:40) - The Ethical Dilemma of AI-Generated Art
• (57:14) - The Future of AI in Art and Design
• (58:18) - Concerns about AI and its impact on jobs
• (59:00) - The belief in the irreplaceable human touch
• (01:00:04) - Late-stage capitalism and the devaluation of employees
• (01:01:12) - The future of art and the role of human creators
• (01:03:14) - The significance of human-created art
• (01:04:05) - The impact of capitalism on the art industry
• (01:06:09) - The fulfillment and dissatisfaction of work
• (01:07:30) - The fulfillment and trajectory of personal goals
• (01:08:30) - The fulfillment and pain of meaningful work
• (01:10:38) - The challenges of ethical approaches in a capitalistic system
• (01:11:19) - The impact of monetization and advertising on platforms
• (01:12:10) - Growing a company ethically in the current system
• (01:13:07) - The importance of understanding the goals and vision of a company
• (01:15:08) - The value of relationships and community in a project
• (01:16:46) - The shift in audience and engagement on design platforms
• (01:19:29) - The desire for validation and engagement in creative work
• (01:20:37) - Closing remarks and call for feedback

• Liam on X
• Reijo on X
• Tatiana on X
• Layers
• Layers Plus

Creators & Guests

• Liam McCabe - Host
• Tatiana O’Toole - Guest
• Reijo Palmiste - Host