Now

Information

I’ve been meaning to make a ~/now page (inspired by NowNowNow). Now I have one. This is a summary of what’s been happening in my personal and professional life.

To start 2024 I’ve been looking back on the last few year/s. Phew. Way too many things to list and process. Some day I’ll write all about it.

For now, I made a page (and year in review reel) documenting the WIP redesign of Axiom.

A huge influence has been the use of Berkeley Mono as our brand typeface, lots of IBM’s design system, older interfaces, dense UI, and terminal screens. It’s been rewarding to find a style the team (and customers) love. There’s a long way to go, but I’m really excited with this direction.

Outside of work, I have been making changes around here and made this page, a new portfolio page, about page, and contact page (instead of annoyingly opening your email app when you click the contact link). The homepage had got too long over time, so work and personal information is now split into separate pages.

I’ve really enjoyed continuing to tinker with the site. Sometimes it’s been small changes I think of, or a weekend of making larger improvements. Mostly for no reason, and I’m not in the market for a new job. I’ve just seen (and experienced) the stress of not having an up-to-date portfolio and CV, so I now take the approach that it’s never done, and I work on the site for fun.

It’s also a chance to document the aesthetic and design principles I follow. This is the fourth “version” of the site since I moved to this domain in 2011. It’s mostly looked similar for each iteration, so the versions have just meant there’s more pages, images, lists, and nerdier details.

As the site has evolved, I’ve started to collect some of my favourite quotes (with the intention they’ll have their own page soon) that reflect how I think about design and creativity:

“The enemy of great is almost great.”
— The Edge (U2)

“He toi whakairo, he mana tangata. Where there is artistic excellence, there is human dignity.”
— Piri Sciascia (OMNZ, Kaumātua)

“Don’t underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”
— Winnie The Pooh (A.A. Milne)

“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
— Steve Jobs (Apple)

“Design is a collaborative activity. It involves the input of many disciplines.”
— Tim Brown (IDEO)

“Innovation is missed by most people because it is so often incremental.”
— John Gruber (Daring Fireball)

Related, I recently stumbled across Cosmos. It’s like Pinterest, but with a much better UI design and focus on quality/creative work. I’ve not really taken to these curation tools, so this time I have made more of an effort to document a lot of the things/people/design that inspires me. There’s currently clusters of images for typography, black and white graphic design, mono fonts, logos, Apple, Braun, Sony, Vitsœ, IBM, and my favourite artist, Billy Apple.

I’m currently reading Shift Happens, an incredibly detailed book about keyboards, by Marcin Wichary. Spoiler: unfortunately the book is now sold out. There’s so many fascinating stories and details, all rigorously sourced and documented. The care and attention to detail Marcin has put into the book, throughout the entire production, is equally as impressive as the information in it. You can read all about what went into creating the book in his newsletter, which I highly recommend. There’s also a dedicated book companion site!

Noush has a new full-time job after getting struck by a layoff (uncannily about a year after I did). She’s found a great new role, but it’s damn tough out there. Also, in the midst of all of that, Ada got attacked by a Rottweiler! Absolute nightmare. We’re very lucky it wasn’t any worse than it was. Thankfully she’s doing better and there hopefully isn’t any lasting impact. For a lot of reasons, I’m very grateful to work from home. It really helped to have the flexibility and time to deal with an unexpected drama like this. It also means Ada is nearly always by my side.

Finally, I got really sick in 2023. I’m doing better now, but unsurprisingly it has changed my outlook on everything. It’s a cliché, but I simply just spend a lot more time doing the things I enjoy, with the people/dog (Noush & Ada) I care about.

I also cannot recommend laughing enough, it really is the best medicine.