Bring your own table

Danny Malin runs a YouTube channel called Rate My Takeaway, where he travels to different takeaways and rates their fayre.

Danny has travelled the World, building a cult following in the process.

He’s made videos in exotic locations including Berlin, New York, Istanbul, California, Las Vegas, and Huddersfield.

Danny is funny, kind and unassuming, and his videos are great (though I do worry about his prodigious calorific intake).

Aside from his easygoing Northern demeanour and sharp wit, his main props are a camping chair and a table, which he takes everywhere and is a core part of his shtick.

He’ll bowl up at a takeaway, order half the menu, set his table up outside on the pavement (or sidewalk if he's in the States), and mark his meal out of ten.

His most-watched video, “This Grandma in Bolton Cooked & Sold Me Breakfast from Her House”, has 3.8 million views.

His table serves as a piece of theatre that consistently works wherever he goes. Putting down that table makes a statement, an impact. Danny has arrived, he means business, and people love it. Watch any of his videos; he’s constantly being asked for selfies, and people are honking their horns at him as they drive by.

Danny is a real star.

I’m thinking about Danny and his table because many designers discuss how design needs a seat at the ‘table’. I see it on this platform all the time and with so many designers that I've spoken to.

In my experience, there is no ‘table’.

There’s no secret Knights Templar-style star chamber where all the big calls are made.

There’s no product/brand/marketing/business Illuminati with a master plan pulling the strings.

The reality is that there are businesses chock full of people doing their best with honesty and integrity with what they’ve been given to work with. And let’s be honest, some have been given more to work with than others.

And that’s where the best designers I know come into their own.

They channel their inner Danny Malin and show up with their own table.

They invite people to sit with them and discuss how they can benefit from each other’s skills. They exchange ideas and perspectives. They learn from their colleagues. They embrace ambiguity. They become that centre of gravity for figuring out how to get shit done.

It might not always work, and it might get frustrating, but it’s better than waiting on a production line for an invitation that may never arrive.

A message to all designers.

Don’t wait to be invited to a seat at the table – think more like Danny.

Bring your own.