Six of the stranger characters found on Design LinkedIn

Rob Alderson introduces some of the bizarre figures who populate Design LinkedIn, and how to spot them. Image via Shutterstock. A cafe near where I live has started selling fish finger croissants. Something about that combination shortcircuits my brain, leaving me slack-jawed and twitchy, greedy and confused. Objectively, both of these things on their own are great. Croissants suffused my suburban Midlands upbringing with a Parisian elan, a gateway drug to Camus novels and a best-forgotten beret phase. Fish fingers sit in the sweet spot of a perfect Venn diagram – nostalgic comfort food and lazy parent lunch plan. But smashing them together feels sacrilegious – a baffling creative over-reach, like remixing a Vivaldi symphony with Khia’s My Neck, My Back. All of which is to say, I find Design LinkedIn similarly fascinating. Both design and LinkedIn, on their own, are brilliant. I’ve written before about my deep-seated, and inescapable, love of designers. I am also a big fan of LinkedIn. I know why people hate it, but I find it genuinely vibrant – a churning cavalcade of ideas, people, and work that I find interesting and engaging. But together? Can Design LinkedIn fill the void left by Design Twitter?
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