Michael
Starkweather
BIO
Boston-based designer.
I build startup brands and make cool stuff.
Currently a brand designer at Torq.
Brand Designer, Web Designer, Motion Designer
CONTACT
Why Making “Cool Shit” is Actually Really Strategic
Why Making “Cool Shit” is Actually Really Strategic
THOUGHT
THOUGHT
THOUGHT
11.06.2025
11.06.2025
Sometimes, to build a world class, enterprise brand, you really just need to be focused on making cool shit. You need to win mental availability in the moments people enter your category, and when they close their computers. Everybody can make anything. Not everybody can make something great.
Tony Bradley, Senior Contributor at Forbes writes “With bold branding and a fearless aesthetic, Torq is bringing edge, energy and authenticity to an industry known for playing it safe.”
Form your own taste and vision
Form your own taste and vision
When Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram become your main sources of inspiration, prepare to start making those purple gradient landing pages with two hands coming together. Or using bold Inter with one word in italic Instrument Serif.
When Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram become your main sources of inspiration, prepare to start making those purple gradient landing pages with two hands coming together. Or using bold Inter with one word in italic Instrument Serif.
I’m not saying anything you make will be completely original. That’s kind of impossible. What I’m saying is you need to cover your walls, desk, and floor with cut out images, articles, books, scribbles, and thoughts.
I’m not saying anything you make will be completely original. That’s kind of impossible. What I’m saying is you need to cover your walls, desk, and floor with cut out images, articles, books, scribbles, and thoughts.
That’s what creativity is. Taking the existing world and making something new from it.
That’s what creativity is. Taking the existing world and making something new from it.
It might be my bias, but there’s a ton of overlap between design and music. Les Baxter draws from Debussy and Coleman Hawkins. Sun Ra pulls from Les Baxter. Madlib comes in almost 30 years later and takes from Sun Ra. You need to be Madlib.
It might be my bias, but there’s a ton of overlap between design and music. Les Baxter draws from Debussy and Coleman Hawkins. Sun Ra pulls from Les Baxter. Madlib comes in almost 30 years later and takes from Sun Ra. You need to be Madlib.
You can sit around your office all day and worry about stepping on another designer’s toes and making sure you’re making something new, or you can just make cool shit.
You can sit around your office all day and worry about stepping on another designer’s toes and making sure you’re making something new, or you can just make cool shit.
You need to be surrounding yourself with cool stuff. The longer you sit on Twitter and Pinterest for “cool stuff,” you’re just developing the exact same taste as ten thousand other designers. Good luck.
You need to be surrounding yourself with cool stuff. The longer you sit on Twitter and Pinterest for “cool stuff,” you’re just developing the exact same taste as ten thousand other designers. Good luck.
If you wait for the algorithm to show you what you like, you’re already late to the party. You need to find the absolute best creatives in each profession and reverse engineer it. The Norm Macdonalds, the Yayoi Kusamas, the Andrei Tarkovskys. All of the artist’s artists.
If you wait for the algorithm to show you what you like, you’re already late to the party. You need to find the absolute best creatives in each profession and reverse engineer it. The Norm Macdonalds, the Yayoi Kusamas, the Andrei Tarkovskys. All of the artist’s artists.
Find the person your favorite person cites. Then go one step earlier. Study the lineage of the art you love.
Find the person your favorite person cites. Then go one step earlier. Study the lineage of the art you love.
What’s “great” is not subjective at all
What’s “great” is not subjective at all
The consumer knows what’s done well. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not. Cool shit is cool.
The consumer knows what’s done well. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not. Cool shit is cool.
I love consuming art that makes me uncomfortable, or that I don’t even really like. I have one example. I watched PTA’s Punch Drunk Love. I love PTA movies. I honestly felt like I hated Punch Drunk Love. Not just because it made me uncomfortable or anxious, which it did. It was more complicated than that. I spent the whole time questioning whether I was enjoying it. I found it fascinating that art could do that to me.
I love consuming art that makes me uncomfortable, or that I don’t even really like. I have one example. I watched PTA’s Punch Drunk Love. I love PTA movies. I honestly felt like I hated Punch Drunk Love. Not just because it made me uncomfortable or anxious, which it did. It was more complicated than that. I spent the whole time questioning whether I was enjoying it. I found it fascinating that art could do that to me.
Now, in branding, this isn’t usually the goal. Do it in your personal work for practice, but don’t brand a company in a way that makes people question if they enjoy it.
Now, in branding, this isn’t usually the goal. Do it in your personal work for practice, but don’t brand a company in a way that makes people question if they enjoy it.
But there’s something to this. Great brands can make you happy, hypnotize you, or make you confront complex things. Like Patagonia, or Ben & Jerry’s confronting serious world topics.
But there’s something to this. Great brands can make you happy, hypnotize you, or make you confront complex things. Like Patagonia, or Ben & Jerry’s confronting serious world topics.