Death Pixel

Candle's end

To call Design a passion would be impious. I have many passions, but I do not worship them. I do not go to their altars with offerings. I am familiar with their sacred texts, but I do not keep them in my quarters. I bow at the altar of Design. I offer it the sands of my hourglass. I revel in its gospel. I kneel to it unlike any other, and still it demands more.

October 9, 2025

The firewall

One of the most vital services a manager can perform for a team is acting as a human firewall between team members and stakeholders. To shield one another from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Unfortunately, your shield is not made out of iron, but flesh and bone — the shield is you.

August 12, 2025

The forest and the trees

What separates great design from terrible is a thin smattering of brushy foliage. Great design is always cognizant of how each feature fits into the larger whole - like playing Jenga with a 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Terrible design is a cluttered mess of competing ideas and functions all looking to grab your attention at once.

July 1, 2025

Sir, the galley is on fire

Imagine you’re spinning a few plates. Add more. And more. And more. Spin them faster. Faster. Faster, goddamn it! Did I just hear one break? Just use this misshapen pottery that wobbles from side to side instead. I need hands on plate #28! Actually take the teacup off plate #7 and put it on plate #15. What do you mean what tea cup? Where’s my chef on bowl #13? I’ve got a table that’s been waiting six months for their risotto. And where’s that casserole dish I sent you? I think I might want to change it into an electric kettle.

June 18, 2025

The sea, she beckons

The pursuit of greatness is a monomaniacal curse. It is a constant, unending anxiety to do better - worse still, to be better. Being is an unfriendly state. I’d say I’m rather ambivalent to it on the whole. When the subject comes up, I tell people my dream death is walking into the street like an idiot and being evaporated by a bus I didn’t know was coming. It would make things simpler. But until that day comes, the curse to strive continues. Ceaselessly.

May 6, 2025

The siren song

Do not let the dispiriting feedback loops of ‘can we make this look more like shit?’ and ‘can we just cut all the stuff that was useful?’ dissuade you from the original spark that brought you to design.You must fight the siren song or they will lull you into rocks. Rocks of sad MVPs, unfulfilled potential, and creative scurvy that makes you wonder if you actually are terrible at this job.

April 2, 2025

The politics of design

As you accumulate design mileage, you become increasingly aware that our glorious leaders make emotional decisions with only occasional spasms of logic. At the highest office, emotion dominates while logic plays with lettered blocks in the basement.Quick tweak that improves UX? No thanks. Shiny new toy completely unrelated to the business? Ready the treasury. Man the torpedos. All systems red alert.

March 30, 2025

Setting sail

A new beginning. A waste of time and money. The inane ramblings of someone with too much to say and too few places to say it. This could be any and all of these things, in time.Whether this is a blog, a journal, or screams into the void I do not know. Regardless, it will be about design. Product design. UX design. UI design. Whatever the fuck we call it these days.

March 6, 2025