When Tools Shape Thought: Designing with Awareness in the Age of AI

I’m working on designing and developing Songlines, my GPS enabled sound generation app, and I gave each one of these platforms a shot. Same prompt. Different interpretations. The one that came the closest to my own interpretation of how the…

When you’re just starting out in design, it’s easy to equate craft with skill. You think it’s about pushing pixels perfectly, mastering Figma, or knowing every shortcut in the book. But here’s the thing: craft isn’t just skill. It’s the…

Using ElevenLabs to create my own conversation agent. Source documents include my resume, various personality tests and portfolio. I thought it might be a nice way for folks to get to know my work style, what I value and to…

Written in collaboration with ChatGPT and Perplexity Listen to this (recorded using my own voice and ElevenLabs) Why this matters I’ve been a big fan of the sociologist and philosopher, Zygmunt Bauman, for a number of years. His concept of…

So I asked ChatGPT to tell me about the potential impact of AGI on magazine publishing. With the release of ChatGPT 4 yesterday (described here by the team at OpenAI and here by AI Explained) these answers are probably already…

As I was working with The Wall Street Journal last year on their redesign I started to question why and how people interact with the news. When we read the news, what do we do with it? Is it just…

It doesn’t get better said than in this conversation between John O’Donohue and his friend John Quinn in their book, Walking in Wonder.  “One of the most exciting and energetic forms of thought is the question. I always think that…

After much thinking about what clients and their customers need most I’ve decided to launch Sift:lab. It’s a collaborative group of people who will be working with clients who are determined to take advantage of opportunities in a world of…

Cultivating awareness of self and others is central to the path of Buddhism but if applied to the path of creativity and design specifically it opens up the possibility of becoming more self aware through the craft of making. Many…

For years our highest aspiration in the world of design was to make things “sticky”. The economics of startups made it so. Our guru was Nir Eyal and his book, “Hooked, How to Build Habit-Forming Products” was our blueprint to…

A small retailer wants to open a new store. Who does she turn to? A good real estate agent is hard to find and trust. And research is hard to do. What if the data that was collected by the…

A fantastic bio of Howard Luke Gossage, an ad man from the 60s who did many, if not all, of the most memorable campaigns in the US. Of particular interest is the bit on his work for David Brower, who…

Spotify did something absolutely brilliant last week. They released their annual “Wrapped” collection of music which turns the usual expectations of data collection on its head. It’s a given that anytime we enter our personal info or offer up our…

HR processes at design and marketing agencies are an opportunity waiting to happen. While the consulting world instills a KPI driven culture, which can, at times stifle creativity, the design and creative world often misses the guideposts that can help…