Brad Frost — Links

The Boring Internet | Terry Godier

2026-05-12T00:00:00Z

The internet you grew up on isn’t dying.

A commercial veneer glued on top of it is.

YESSSSSS.

Spicy Chicken w/ Brad Frost | Wireframe Live

2026-05-08T00:00:00Z

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j4SoENooDM[/embed]

I had a wonderful chat about design systems and AI with Donnie D'Amato on his wireframe show. We talked about all sorts of spicy topics, and I feel like this conversation captures a lot of where my head's at lately and the picture we're painting with our course.

Fine Specimens by Elliot Jay Stocks

2026-03-16T00:00:00Z

A curated collection of the best in contemporary type design

Elliot is back with a new typography book! Elliot Jay Stocks

Old Music Friday

2026-03-03T00:00:00Z

I love this so much. We take so much for granted, so I freaking love to be reminded of the time-traveling magic of recorded music.

Ghostwriter by RJD2 Drum/Synth Cover

2026-02-19T00:00:00Z

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIuaEXh0K9g&list=RDaIuaEXh0K9g&index=1[/embed]

For months and months, I've been rebuilding our music studio. I'm AAAAALLLLMOST done with it, but it's close enough to start sharing things. Here's Melissa and I playing along with a song with an incredible vibe: Ghostwriter by RJD2.

Angine de Poitrine - Mata Zyklek (Live on KEXP)

2026-02-10T00:00:00Z

https://youtu.be/Te1HkBx7rDw?si=T8y5C_t6nYbbAAmy

The fact that A BUNCH OF PEOPLE have sent
this to me makes me feel like I’m doing life right.

Designing a Life That Excites You with Christine Vallaure | Wake Up Excited!

2026-02-02T00:00:00Z

On the latest episode of Wake Up Excited!, I talk with my friend Christine Vallaure. Christine is a designer, speaker, and the founder of moonlearning, an online learning platform for UI and product design. She’s also the author of the book Solo, which is a practical guide to building and running digital products as a company of one.

I first met Christine at a conference and immediately felt like I already knew her. Christine is a rare breed: highly ambitious yet also really grounded, human, and humble. As you’ll find out, she cares about work and life in equal measure, and her love for her family is inspiring.

In our conversation we talk about:

how a “good day” is one that feels balanced
agency, autonomy, and matching your personal style to the work you pursue
the difference between ambition and competition
finding fulfillment in the work rather than the promise of future goals
finding your people and your niche

Please give the show a listen, subscribe on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts, and share the love!

Video: Brad Frost – We Are Here - Beyond Tellerrand

2026-01-07T00:00:00Z

Marc shared his perspective on my Beyond Tellerrand performance, and Marc recounts the original discussion in the early hours in Antwerp 2024.

(Marc always seems to be the last man standing at a conference after party, and I've always been impressed by how he seems to have no problem putting in intensive work days before and after!)

Marc discusses the importance of trust when putting on a conference of this calibre:

That’s what I did. And that is part of me running the event. I trusted Tobi in 2013 with his idea of “Audio-Sketchnotes”. I always trust the artists I ask for t-shirt designs, event designs, opening titles (like Gavin with his live titles) and anything else. I guess part of the “beyond tellerrand” idea is exactly this. To be open for new and other things, not giving a briefing, but trusting the creating person.

Beyond Tellerrand is an extraordinary event, and so much of has to do with Marc's ability to curate people, places, and things and then trust people to do their thing. It's that trust that unlocks so much of the magic of the event.

The reaction to Brad’s and Ian’s performance onsite was split. I guess some people might have expected a little more practical output from the Brad Frost.

Ha! I had plenty of people (nearly everyone, really) say "I wasn't expecting that!", and I can certainly appreciate some people not digging it. But I can't say I didn't warn them! Here was my talk description:

Title: we are here. If you have any expectations about what this talk will be, please set them aside and keep your mind open. In this deeply personal, “and now for something completely different” talk, I will explore themes and share lessons about life, love, work, and existence. We are here. We are alive.

So, yep!

Some people in the audience have been totally in tears

Which matches what Andy observed:

never seen so many audience members in tears at a conference in my life

While I couldn't really see the audience when we were on stage (plus I pretty much black out while in the zone), I had a whole bunch of people yell at me afterwards for making them cry. Even got a few punches! I take it as a good sign that the message was received by at least a few audience members, and that's all I could hope for.

Back to Marc:

In times of shitty AI slop flooding most of the internet it means even more, if someone creates something like this. With his hands. With passion. With soul. Something that wasn’t perfect, but which shouldn’t be. Something that means so much to someone, which it did to Brad.

He gets it. Whether it's AI, macro-level issues, or just the increasingly-noisy nature of modern existence, it's easy to forget our humanity. I wanted our performance to remind people of the absolute miracle that is our existence. To celebrate our humanity. To celebrate The Good.

They have to be able to talk about us without us - Anil Dash

2025-12-19T00:00:00Z

They have to be able to talk about us without us. What this phrase means, in its simplest form, is that you have to tell a story so clear, so concise, so memorable and evocative that people can repeat it for you even after you’ve left the room.

Beautiful words from Anil about the power of successful communication.

Size of Life

2025-12-12T00:00:00Z

Size of Life by Neal Agarwal is absolutely beautiful, incredible, and informative. Web design inspiration at its finest.

Marc was Invited to the “Wake Up Excited” Podcast by Brad Frost

2025-12-11T00:00:00Z

A big part of our chat circled around authenticity and self-worth. A few questions we touched were: How easy is it to overlook your own achievements? How strange does it feel to work alone so much? How often do we push away compliments instead of accepting them? Brad and I compared how the web used to feel more intimate and conversational, and how today’s social media noise can make honest sharing harder, and yet, more important than ever! We also dug into the value of community, reflection, and simply sh

Marc was Invited to the “Wake Up Excited” Podcast

Embracing Authenticity and Creativity with Marc Thiele

2025-12-11T00:00:00Z

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqKYFtHmb9w&list;=PLRVyFmnlMfe0lMYaPF6zcT2JVUdpAjg9-&index;=1[/embed] On the latest episode of Wake Up Excited! , I talk with my good friend Marc Thiele. Marc is the organizer of the Fantastic Beyond Tellerrand conference that happens every year in Germany. I really feel like Beyond Tellerrand should be on every creative person's bucket list. The show is exceptional and balances practical knowledge with diverse creative inspiration. Marc and I talk about the hard work behind creative projects, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, embracing vulnerability and sincerity, continuing to cultivate joy and satisfaction, even for long running creative endeavors. The value of community and relationships, learning from failure and a whole lot more. If you enjoy the show, I'd appreciate it if you subscribe and spread the news!

Agentic Design Systems in 2026 with Brad Frost

2025-12-09T00:00:00Z

I'm super excited to talk about the potent combination of AI and design systems with my pal Dominic Nguyen and the folks at Storybook this Thursday. I got to huddle with Dom today, and this is something that's going to be pretty dang cool. You can register for the event here.

AI is rapidly reshaping who (or what) uses your design system. Autonomous agents are assembling UIs with the same components your human teams use. That shift demands design systems evolve into machine-readable infrastructure—or risk becoming artifacts of a bygone era.

CSS Wrapped 2025

2025-12-09T00:00:00Z

CSS Wrapped 2025 is a super fun website that shows off the latest and greatest CSS features. The website's got some fun light/dark mode action going on too!

Scientists Retrace 30,000-Year-Old Ocean Voyage, in a Hollowed-Out Log

2025-11-29T00:00:00Z

Japanese researchers turned to “experimental archaeology” to study how ancient humans navigated powerful ocean currents and migrated offshore.

Scientists Retrace 30,000-Year-Old Ocean Voyage, in a Hollowed-OutLog. I freaking love this. "Learn by doing" taken to the extreme.

From Atomic to Subatomic: Brad Frost on Design Systems, Tokens, and the Human Side of UI

2025-11-29T00:00:00Z

A few months ago, I had the privilege of being interviewed on the Design Systems Collective by Shane P Williams. This interview captures a lot of my current thinking about design systems, our design tokens course, collaboration, recipes, and more.

A Love Letter To The People Who Believe In People | CreativeMornings

2025-11-29T00:00:00Z

Being a fan is all about bringing the enthusiasm. It’s being a champion of possibility. It’s believing in someone. And it’s contagious. When you’re around someone who is super excited about something, it washes over you. It feels good. You can’t help but want to bring the enthusiasm, too. This, to me, is the real transformation. Confidence is impressive, but enthusiasm can change people’s lives.

I love everything about Tina's article, A Love Letter To The People Who Believe In People.

In a world that sometimes feels like it’s waiting to discourage you, we need to find and become uplifting, optimistic, heart-forward people more than ever.

HELL YES. This is the spirit behind Wake Up Excited! and a lot of my other pursuits. It took a while to learn how to wield my enthusiasm constructively, but now that I have used it there's no going back.

One Million Screenshots

2025-11-29T00:00:00Z

We rendered over 1 million of the web's top homepages. This is the result. Zoom , pan and click to explore - like Google Maps.

Source: One Million Screenshots

Slop Evader - Tega Brain

2025-11-28T00:00:00Z

A browser extension for avoiding AI slop. Download it for Chrome or Firefox. This is a search tool that will only return content created before ChatGPT's first public release on November 30, 2022. Since the public release of ChatGTPT and other large language models, the internet is being increasingly polluted by AI generated text, images and video. This browser extension uses the Google search API to only return content published before Nov 30th, 2022 so you can be sure that it was written or produced by

Source: Slop Evader - Tega Brain

Crafting Joyful Experiences Through Music with Seth Casana - Wake Up Excited

2025-11-26T00:00:00Z

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xHaYWRi9oc[/embed] I got to talk with Seth Casana on the Wake Up Excited! podcast. I'd love it if you check it out and consider subscribing to the show! At first glance, Seth Casana is a very unassuming, normal guy. But that all changes once he’s on stage. I’ve seen Seth belt out soulful funk wearing a moped helmet with bowling trophies duct taped to it. I’ve seen him rap while wearing samurai armor made from old computer keyboards. I’ve seen him marching down the street with his brass band all wearing old high-school marching band uniforms. I’ve seen him marching around town with a disco ball helmet and DJ rig strapped to him. Seth was my secret weapon at my big Frostapalooza concert. Not only did he supply his incredible band, Elby Brass, to be our horn section, Seth was our Peter Gabriel, Bruno Mars, David Byrne, and Thom Yorke, equipped with a sousaphone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywq_AHSynXY&list;=PLRVyFmnlMfe23hoLs4Hg8PpSgJXP9qTGx&index;=4 In our conversation, Seth and I cover the power and potency of live music, the importance of shared joyful experiences, the arts as a professional vs as a practice, the immense effort that goes into creating fun experiences, the role of levity, humor, and whimsy in these bleak times, and practical tips for cultivating your creativity. If you need a dose of creative inspiration, check out the episode and consider subscribing to the show!