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Back to Electric Feel with Colin Dunn, with Colin Dunn.

Why Does Taste Make Designers Great Founders?

Colin Dunn says designers are uniquely positioned in 2025 to be great founders because taste is the new skill. AI is elevating everyone's ability to create, so the differentiator is who knows what great looks like, and designers have a huge advantage.

People shy away from founding when they picture one-on-ones, taxes, and pitching. Motivation shows up when the work serves a larger mission and goal. He has been every job at Visual Electric, including office manager and customer support, and at no point had to force himself because the work served the larger goal. He gets to design the product and also the experience of working at Visual Electric and of being a customer of Visual Electric.

Becoming a founder does not erase a designer's identity, and designing a company is still design. There is life after founding, and the role is not automatically a 30-year endeavor. The privilege of starting a company is designing the job to perfectly suit the person. There is no one definition of what it means to be a CEO. Every CEO job is different. A founder can bring in people to take the energy-taking parts and focus on the energy-giving parts.

Transcript

Electric Feel with Colin Dunn ·

First of Kind

More from this episode

  1. Why Did Colin Dunn Choose Daycare Over a Nanny?Colin Dunn chose daycare over a nanny because he felt the social environment would help his child's development.
  2. How Did Colin Dunn Get Into Graphic Design?Colin Dunn got into graphic design by making NBA fan art in high school, before he knew the work was a career.
  3. Does Venture Capital Change What a Real Problem Is?Colin Dunn says the definition of a real problem is very different if a company is funded by venture capital.
  4. How Big Would Visual Electric Be Without AI?Colin Dunn says Visual Electric is about half the size it would be in a pre-AI world.
  5. What Skill Is Left When Everyone Can Design?Colin Dunn says the skill left over, once design tools get easier and everyone can make things, is taste and the ability to tell a story.
  6. Why Do AI Designs Look Finished From the Start?Colin Dunn says AI lets you design at full fidelity from the beginning.
  7. Why Do Complicated AI Interfaces Become Simple?Colin Dunn says complicated interfaces usually exist because the models are not good enough, and once the models get good enough the interfaces become very…
  8. What Surprised Colin Dunn About Being the Designer?Colin Dunn says the most surprising thing about the CEO and chief designer role is how weak his attachment to being the designer has been.
  9. What Is the Best Career Advice for Motivation?Colin Dunn calls the best career advice getting in touch with what is uniquely motivating and figuring out how to optimize for it.
  10. Will AI Replace Brand Guidelines?Colin Dunn says AI models are going to replace brand guidelines, and the entire creative production process is going to be remade in the image of AI.

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