WHEW! We all survived Black Friday/Cyber Week 2025. Seriously, thank you all for enduring our relatively sales-y course emails. I hope you appreciate that it’s an important event for small businesses like ours, but yeah I think we’re all glad that’s behind us!
I feel like we all need a palate cleanser, so please enjoy this user interface my 7-year-old daughter designed:
Now onto all of the exciting stuff that’s going on!
◉ THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY! I’m chatting with my pals at Storybook about AI and design systems. I got a sneak peek, and I can say (in as non-hyperbolic way as I can) agentic design systems look to be incredibly powerful.
◉ AT LONG LAST! Chapter 1 of my Atomic Design Certification Course is launched! Ultimately, it took a lot of care to articulate foundational design system concepts — purpose, benefits, definition, ROI, anatomy, challenges —in a way that’s useful and practical for many disciplines and experience levels. I’m proud of this, and feel like Chapter 1 is a damn sturdy design systems primer for everyone. You can preorder the course for $50 and check it out.
◉ Cameron Moll is my latest guest on Wake Up Excited! We talk about authenticity, longevity, the state of design, values, creative pursuits, and the never-ending task of finding balance. Listen and Subscribe here!
◉ CSS Wrapped 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!
◉ One Million Screenshots - zoom, pan, and click around 1,000,000 of the world’s websites.
◉ My wife just presented her thesis! She graduates this weekend with a dual degree in Therapy and Arts Therapy, and I couldn’t be prouder of her. She’s endured more hardship in the course of completing this program than some people do in their entire lives; her perseverance, grit, and commitment are utterly inspiring.
◉ I got some new gear including a Stream Deck + and a Sony mirrorless camera in order to film our courses, podcasts, and other videos. If you have any Stream Deck or video tips or tricks, I’m all ears!
It’s wild to think that 2025 is coming to a close, so I’ll leave you with this question: what do you most look forward to at the end of the year? For me, the end of the year brings equal parts excitement/gratitude/reflection and stress/pressure/busyness. I’m doing my best to lean into the positive bits, and would love to hear what excites you about this season.
Love always,
