I talked my new website into existence while holding a paintbrush and without touching my keyboard.
On Friday night, I needed a break from screens, so decided to work on a bathroom mural that our family has been chipping away at for the last 4 years.
But a lot was on my mind, so made the decision to work on a long-overdue redesign of my website while painting the mural. What started as an experiment turned into the most fun I’ve had in the 30 years I’ve been making websites.
I want to share the video with you here:
The video is nearly three-hours long (sorry not sorry) because I want you to see the real-time process. Along the way, I reflect on the deeper questions and ramifications this radical new process unearths.
a genuine paradigm shift
The feelings of flow that I get when playing music or making art for hours on end never fully transferred over to my digital work, largely because of the mechanics of the process. Clacking away at a keyboard has always introduced a lag between my speed of thought and my creative output. I’d bump into the limits of my backend/config skills, hit a wall, and would give up. These limitations no longer exist.
With each passing day, I'm feeling my mindset shift around what's possible. This truly is an existential moment of what it means to be a designer, a developer, a creator. I find myself asking questions like: what's Good, what's Bad, what's essential, and what can be safely left behind? Gone are the days of any Right Way of doing things. Instead I’m leaning into what I’m calling The Creative Infinite.
We live in challenging times, and in so many ways that’s the unfortunate truth. But we also happen to live in a time of boundless creative opportunity. And we need to harness that creative potential to design a better world together.
Come with us!
As I’ve been evolving my own practice, I notice how much I depend on my knowledge of foundational concepts and fluency in design/technical language. Even as the means of production are rapidly transforming, the need for us to understand core concepts, design materials, and creative/technological opportunities matters more than ever.
How do you go about doing that? Well, that’s the question we’re answering with our online courses. We’re passionate about not just wielding these powerful new design materials ourselves, but also to teach the worlds’ creative professionals how to master them as well. I’d love it if you checked out our courses:◉ AI & Design Systems - Join me, Ian Frost, TJ Pitre, and our growing community of practitioners exploring the intersection between AI & Design Systems.
â—‰ Subatomic: The Complete Guide To Design Tokens - the theming power of design tokens is proving to be a critical foundation to explore infinite design directions while still being grounded in sound systems.
◉ Atomic Design Certification Course - This course covers foundational concepts around design systems, which I’m finding critical to getting the results I actually want
â—‰ MEGABUNDLE - Get all three courses at a significant discount!
I’ll leave you with this: What do you make of all of this? What excites you? What scares you? What existential questions have you been asking?
Much love,
