Mike Monteiro is a designer, writer, artist, and local pinball machine owner. As the owner of Mule Design, he's worked with clients for 20 years. As the author of widely influential books Design is a Job and Ruined by Design, he's inspired a generation of designers to work with integrity & confidence.
We chatted with Mike to learn about how he uses Buttondown to chat with his audience.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
I have two favorite pinball machines: Addams Family and Funhouse. I am not consistently good at either, but I am good enough that every once in a while I'll have a really good game, and that makes all the shitty games worth it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't pick me for your pinball league team, I'm saying that I'll be streaky, so yeah, you probably shouldn't pick me for your pinball league team.
I am a designer, a writer, and an artist, but those things are all relatively boring.
What do you write about on your newsletter?
Right now, I'm doing weekly Q&A. You send me a question, and if I can come up with a good answer, and think it'll be interesting to other people, I will attempt to answer it.
Where did you first learn of Buttondown, and what made you decide to give it a try?
I was on Substack, and then they turned into a nest of fascists. More likely they were always a nest of fascists and finally showed their true colors. And I don't sit with Nazis, so I asked around about other services. Dan Hon, who is a real nerd's nerd, recommended I try Buttondown. He said it was intuitive, did what I needed it to do, and most importantly, it was run by people who were very much not fascists.
What are some ways Buttondown has helped you run your email?
I run from my email. Email is terrible. The niche that Buttondown solved for me was helping me wean off social media while still being able to communicate with the folks I wanted to communicate with. As a writer, it's very important to me to have a writing habit. So knowing that I have to put out a weekly newsletter is crucial, even if it's a self-imposed deadline.
What are some things you’d be excited to see Buttondown build in the next few months?
Honestly? As little as possible. It does what I need it to do! Put the energy into making sure the stuff you do really well continues to work really well. I've seen way too many companies go belly-up in stupid competitions to outdo each other by building piles and piles of shitty features, while ignoring their core.
Anything else you’d like to add?
It's worth mentioning that any time I reach out because I'm having a problem with the service, usually due to my own ignorance, I get a reply almost immediately.