Update 029.

Designing for Rituals

When was the last time you had time to think?

Time alone with your own thoughts?

The shower seems to be one of the last places left where I am alone with my own thoughts – a digital break. A rare opportunity without distraction. This was a shower thought (I literally ran out of the shower to note it down).

A huge welcome to all our new readers!

It’s amazing to see this little corner of the internet growing every month. I’m so glad you’ve found your way here - I hope these updates spark ideas, kickstart thoughts or even a few good conversations in the comments. We’re now averaging over 2,000 views over 90 days, which feels incredible for a newsletter that only lands once a month!

The Vanishing Art of Solitude

There are so few moments these days with our own thoughts. We are constantly distracted. On average, a 2025 study found that we pick up our smartphones 74 times a day. We no longer have to endure the boredom of waiting for a bus, standing in a queue or waiting for the kettle to boil - every moment is now filled with our digital devices.

I have vivid memories of being around 9 years old, sat in my mum’s office waiting for her to finish work. I was always bored - looking for things to do. I once transcribed an entire book, illustrations and all! We evolved to have periods like this (moments of solitude) time alone with our thoughts and we are now entering a world where this experience may no longer exist.

Cal Newport (author of Digital Minimalism), defines this as solitude deprivation:

“A state in which you spend zero time alone with your thoughts and free from input from other minds”

The question is, is this bad?

For years, big tech has sold us the dream that being constantly connected is a good thing. But as Cal points out, to understand the cost of losing solitude, we need to look at an extreme case: those born after 1995. This is the first generation to grow up entirely in the age of the smartphone - the canaries in our digital coal mine. A 2015 study found they were already consuming an average of nine hours of digital media a day.

The result? Anxiety among young people has skyrocketed. We have been witnessing a full-blown mental health crisis.

Where are the moments of pause, a chance to reflect? A chance to think?

That tiny wedge – less than half an hour in the day, is all most of us now have for solitude.

This is nothing new, Anthony Storr was writing about the enforcement of noise into all parts of our lives with the introduction of the car phone in the 1980’s. Wall-E predicated the end game back in 2008.

People are starting to wake up to the impacts this lack of solitude is having as a result of our always on world. And we’re starting to see the rebellion begin.

The Opportunity

This is the opportunity as I see it – my design philosophy is centred around making that wedge of solitude a little bigger. Provide people with more solitude, more idle time with their thoughts and to live a more balanced life. No longer designing for frictionless experiences. Friction can be good when used thoughtfully and intentionally.

For too long, we’ve been told to design for frictionless experiences. But maybe friction, when it’s thoughtful and intentional, is exactly what we need.

In a world obsessed with convenience, I want to design products that add just the right kind of friction - gentle pauses that give you space to think.

That’s been at the heart of Ben Durack Designs since I started almost six years ago.

Designing for rituals

My moment of realisation?

A trip to Japan. Having always admired Japan from afar both in terms of design, culture and craftsmanship, I had the privilege of visiting Japan back in 2017.

Alongside the incredible food, scenery, architecture and technology, I was drawn in by the traditional Japanese tea ceremony through a chance experience following a meditation session. The care, attention to detail and time to carry out the ceremony left me appreciating the time I had with my thoughts.

While I don’t host tea ceremonies at home, I try to carry that spirit into my day-to-day life. Why should my coffee be ready at the push of a button in 30 seconds? What if it took five minutes instead?

Small changes like this, when carried out every day can have a big impact. We all have rituals in our daily lives, most of which we may never have questioned. What daily rituals do you have? And what if one or two took a little longer? The kind of ritual that consumes just enough focus not to be able to default to your smartphone while you wait – providing you with moments of pause. Increasing that wedge.

Want to listen to this update as a podcast?

Try listening to this month’s update as a podcast below and let me know what you think. I have been testing the water with notebooklm for a year now and it keeps getting better.

---

Don’t forget, help me to spread the reach and get more products off the ground by getting your friends and family to sign up below :)

---

My Products, My philosophy

I find myself more driven than ever to put thoughtful, meaningful products out into the world that don’t compromise on quality. The type of products people want to own and help in some way.

I’ve spent the last few years reflecting quite heavily on what I want to focus my attention on for the next 5 years. Time is tight, family time is important but I am driven more than ever to add thoughtful friction into people’s lives.

Too often we find ourselves in autopilot, trying to complete the never ending to do list we really don’t stand a chance of ever getting to the bottom of.

I want to design products that intentionally take us out of auto-pilot. That incense holder that sits next to you throughout the day, reminding you to take a break. The coffee cup that feels just right in the hand and encourages you to savour every sip.

Objects designed to help you notice the moments you’re in.

As a thank you, you can use this discount code at checkout (available site wide): SubstackCrew (20% off).

---

Last months most clicked link: Benjamin Hubert - The Crit.

My top 5 pieces of content I have found helpful/inspiring:

1.

Dutch Design Week. A haven for out of the box thinking and CMF - one day I will make it in person, but for now seeing others highlights keeps me inspired.

2. 

Secret of Secrets - Dan Brown. Always worth the wait and thoroughly enjoyed this page turner… all nearly 800 pages of it!

3. 

Tim Berners-Lee - Leading. Another firm favourite podcast, leading interviews some of the leading voices in society. This month they interviewed Tim Berners-Lee with some interesting reflection on the how the internet has developed.

4. 

An IKEA Classic relaunched. Really nice to see IKEA reintroducing some of their classics. The corduroy lounge, DYVLINGE, originally released in 1967 in orange certainly brings joy into the home.

5.

Pricing - Simone Giertz. Pricing your products isn’t easy. There are some sensible rules around how to price but like Simeone, I always guided by what I would feel comfortable with a customer paying. I haven’t increased the price of Mμ since launching - 2 cups for £30. had I increased my prices inline with inflation, they would now cost £38.

A Design with Impact

A few months ago I teased a detail for a product I was developing for a possible local client. As is so often the way, the project didn’t make it to market. That’s the sad reality of our industry but I still think the design has legs (pun intended!) so thought I would share here. Please do let me know what you think.

The brief for this one was simple. There was an opportunity to design and produce a low volume run of a bar stool for a local organisation that prided itself on its sustainability credentials. The stools were going to be a centrepiece in a new flagship location. They should be highly functional, produced locally, demonstrably lower in embodied carbon than imported alternatives and be cost conscious.

With this in mind, I knew the largest contributor to embodied carbon with any product is typically distribution, so wanted to constrain myself to working with a local steel fabricator and sawmill capable of producing local plywood.

The concept was simple, using only straight steel tube and making this a feature not a constraint.

Straight, chunky tube steel with a bent laminated pine plywood seat. The curvature of the pine plywood has been optimised for comfort and connection to the tube legs (the legs meeting exactly perpendicular). This allows for the tube steel to be straight cut and for the exposed top to sit seamlessly up against the plywood as a centrepiece for the design. Optimised for ease of production and scalability.

And the best bit? An opportunity to show the customer the impact of working locally.

A potential carbon saving of 641kg/CO2e! When producing only 17 bar stools when compared to ordering in a similar spec of bar stool from overseas.

Powder coated steel for a long lasting finish and an opportunity to inject colour and brand identity. A design that was costed and ready to execute.

As always, I am forever testing the water with new tools, constantly seeking to expand my toolkit. My latest obsession? taking renders and introducing models to give my designs context… going one step further and animating this into a video. Still very early days but clearly of value already.