E218: Matching Design, Purpose, and Profit with Abb-d Choudhury

What happens when you match design with purpose? Today’s guest used to work in a design company until he hit a saturation point and felt it wasn’t what he signed up for. Strong in his belief that design had a higher calling and that it needed responsibility behind it, he created Driftime, an ethical design practice for the Mavericks of today.

In this episode, Erik Cabral speaks with Abb-d Choudhury, maker, designer, writer, traveler, and culture & music enthusiast. Driftime helps brands craft their stories and digital experiences with the goal of creating long-term impact within the three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental, and economic.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

• Abb-d’s family and career background
• Exploring his interest in passion and design
• The no-compromise approach
• Embracing failure not just for failure’s sake
• Creating design kits for other people
• A client success story with an ocean conservation platform

Episode Highlights:

[09:16] Combining Passion and Purpose

One of the key takeaways from this episode is how Abb-d mustered up the courage to leave his W-2 job without even the certainty of his future. But he took the leap anyway with a mastery of design in his toolkit.

Combining his passion with purpose, he and his life partner, created Driftime solving the challenges of tomorrow, working at an intersection of purpose and intention, and looking to see where design can play a meaningful role.

While passion is important in creating a brand, you can’t ignore the fact that it should also be sustainable. And so, you need to have a solid approach to do things and have the processes in place that will ultimately create a long-term impact.

[11:32] Creating Long-Term Impact

Impact doesn't happen overnight. It can take years. It could take one to three years before you can actually start to see a difference. And you know there’s impact in the work, when you’ve measured it in the right way and you’ve hit your objectives.

In order for a company to create long-term impact, you also need to consider different perspectives from other experts in the field, especially when dealing with complex challenges. For Abb-d, they only control that one small chunk of design, like one domino in the whole line of dominoes that leads to a bigger goal.

Resources Mentioned:

https://driftime.media/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbdchoudhury/

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