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Category Archives: Design
Bedazzle My MiG
The sheer insanity of this undertaking… At a glance it seems like a product of AI, but evidently it’s entirely real. I’m here for it!
The explosive titles of “Your Friends & Neighbors”
As Motionographer aptly puts it,
Director John Likens and FX Supervisor Tomas Slancik dissect existential collapse in Your Friends & Neighbors’ haunting opener, blending Jon Hamm’s live-action gravitas with a symphony of digital decay. […]
Shot across two days and polished by world-class VFX artists, the title sequence mirrors Hamm’s crumbling protagonist, juxtaposing his stoic performance against hyper-detailed destruction.
Daft Bricks
Heh—this proposed Lego set would be 1000% up my alley. Click/swipe through the gallery to see fun animations:
Rive introduces Vector feathering
I really hope that the makers of traditional vector-editing apps are paying attention to rich, modern, GPU-friendly techniques like this one. (If not—and I somewhat cynically expect that it’s not—it won’t be for my lack of trying to put it onto their radar. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
Introducing Vector Feathering — a new way to create vector glow and shadow effects. Vector Feathering is a technique we invented at Rive that can soften the edge of vector paths without the typical performance impact of traditional blur effects. (Audio on) pic.twitter.com/39kfjmFsTJ
— Rive (@rive_app) February 11, 2025
AI Logofluff
ChatGPT has famous marks marching to fuzz:
How about using the same prompt to create fluffy logos? https://t.co/SIVCbhmJ1x pic.twitter.com/m4wyF7zADM
— Gizem Akdag (@gizakdag) April 13, 2025
And now Microsoft Designer has me feeling truly warm & fuzzy:

Lego Interstellar is stunning
Wow—I marvel at the insane, loving attention to detail in this shot-for-shot re-creation of a scene from Interstellar:
The creator writes,
I started working on this project in mid-2023, and it has been an incredible challenge, from modeling and animation to rendering and post-production. Every detail, from the explosive detachment of the Ranger to the rotation of the Endurance, the space suits of the minifigures, the insides of the Lander, and even the planet in the background, was carefully recreated in 3D.
Interstellar is one of the films that has moved me the most. Its story, visuals, and soundtrack left a lasting impact on me, and this video is my personal love letter to the movie—and to cinema in general. I wanted to capture the intensity and emotion of this scene in LEGO form, as a tribute to the power of storytelling through film.
Side by side:
RIP to ZIP
Oh man, this vid from Aaron Draplin—stalwart hoarder of obsolete removable media—gave me all the feels, and if you’re a creative of a certain age, it might give you them, too:
Inconvenient versions of everyday objects
Heh—let’s get funcomfortable with Katerina Kamprani:
Sigma BF: Clean AF
Is it for me? Dunno: lately the only thing that justifies shooting with something other than my phone is a big, fast zoom lens, and I don’t know whether pairing such a thing with this slim beauty would kinda defeat the purpose. Still, I must know more…
Here’s a nice early look at the cam plus a couple of newly announced lenses:
Titles: Severance Season 2
Building on the strong work from the previous season,
Berlin’s Extraweg have created… a full-blown motion design masterpiece that takes you on a wild ride through Mark’s fractured psyche. Think trippy CGI, hypnotic 3D animations, and a surreal vibe that’ll leave you questioning reality. It’s like Inception met a kaleidoscope, and they decided to throw a rave in your brain. [more]
Minimalist mograph in ChatGPT’s Super Bowl spot
I really love the way the visual medium (simply black & white dots) enriches & evolves right alongside its subject matter in this ad for ChatGPT, and I hope we get to hear more soon from the creative team behind it.
Cadbury celebrates “Unsung heroes of daily life”
What an amazingly simple, charming idea for a campaign. Swipe through the post to see the clever applications:
8-bit Lego stop-motion mayhem
Up my alley, or way up my alley?? 🙂
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Design history: Polish neon, scented movies, and more
Great stuff, as always, from 99 Percent Invisible:
Having taken the kids (and dog!) to the Las Vegas Museum of Neon (photos), now I want to drop by its Warsaw counterpart:

Wishing you the good cheer of this Lego fireplace
I hope you’ve been able to spend at least some warm times with friends & family this holiday season, and here’s to a great new year of crackling creativity:
When Hallmark movies go Lego
“From big-city go-getter to small-town goat-getter…” and the obligatory near-beards are in full effect:
Microsoft opens 13 new AI + Design roles
If you or folks you know might be a good fit for one or more of these roles, please check ’em out & pass along info. Here’s some context from design director Mike Davidson.
————
These positions are United States only, Redmond-preferred, but we’ll also consider the Bay Area and other locations:
- Principal UX Researcher
- Design Director – News & Interests
- Principal Designer – News & Interests
- Senior Designer – News & Interests
- Principal Designer – Consumer Advertising
- Principal Designer – Growth
- Senior Designer – Growth
- Principal Designer – Rewards
- Principal Designer – Design Systems
These positions are specifically in our lovely Mountain View office:

Lego Brick-o-Lantern
Happy Halloween, y’all!
Stop-motion M4 Mac mini ad
You know I love some stop-motion animation, and the vibe & copywriting here are more cheeky & charming than just about anything I’ve seen in a while:
1980s Reimagined Logos of Popular Brands
Heh—charming vaporwave & chiptune:
Peeps of a certain age & demographic see these & get immediate PBS/WGBH vibes:
Reinterpreting classic instrument clusters in the age of CarPlay
“Tell me about a product you hate that you use regularly.” I asked this question of hundreds of Google PM candidates I interviewed, and it was always a great bozo detector. Most people don’t have much of an answer—no real passion or perspective. I want to know not just what sucks, but why it sucks.
If I were asked the same question, I’d immediately say “Every car infotainment system ever made.” As Tolstoy might say, “Each one is unhappy in its own way.” The most interesting thing, I think, isn’t just to talk about the crappy mismatched & competing experiences, but rather about why every system I’ve ever used sucks. The answer can’t be “Every person at every company is a moron”—so what is it?
So much comes down to the structure of the industry, with hardware & software being made by a mishmash of corporate frenemies, all contending with a soup of regulations, risk aversion (one recall can destroy the profitability of a whole product line), and surprisingly bargain-bin electronics.
Despite all that, talented folks continue to fight the good fight, and I enjoyed John LePore’s speculative designs that reinterpret the instrument clusters of classic cars (from Corvettes to DeLoreans) through Apple’s latest CarPlay framework:
No, YOU’RE obsessed with instrument clusters pic.twitter.com/deE0YgAhGY
— John LePore (@JohnnyMotion) June 26, 2024
Uizard & the future of AI-assisted design
Uizard (“Wizard”), which was recently acquired by Miro, has rolled out Autodesigner 2.0:
We take the intuitive conversational flow of ChatGPT and merge it with Uizard generative UI capabilities and drag-and-drop editor, to provide you with an intuitive UI design generator. You can turn a couple of ideas into a digital product design concept in a flash!
I’m really curious to see how the application of LLMs & conversational AI reshapes the design process, from ideation & collaboration to execution, deployment, and learning—and I’d love to hear your thoughts! Meanwhile here’s a very concise look at how Autodesigner works:
And if that piques your interest, here’s a more in-depth look:
“Top Billing,” huge egos, and the art of title design
99% Invisible is back at it, uncovering hidden but fascinating bits of design in action. This time around it’s concerned with the art of movie title & poster design—specifically with how to deal with actors who insist on being top billed. In the case of the otherwise forgotten movie Outrageous Fortune:
Two different prints of the movie were made, one listing Shelley Long’s name first and the other listing Bette Midler’s name first. Not only that, two different covers to take-home products (LaserDisc and VHS) were also made, with different names first. The art was mirrored, so that the names aligned with the actors images.
One interesting pattern that’s emerged is to place one actor’s name in the lower left & another in the upper right—thus deliberately conflicting with normal reading order in English:

Anyway, as always with this show, just trust me—the subject is way more interesting than you might think.
99% Invisible talks Olympic design history
Man do I ever love these guys. Do yourself a solid and listen to this quick, accessible history covering the design of the ’68 games in Mexico City—one inexorably wrapped up in political conflict & civic design. It’s great.

“Shocking Art Supplies”
Oh man, I wish I could say that my high school art career didn’t involve a whole bunch of these things, but OMG it sure did. :-p
Video: “5 Design Resources For Logo Designers”
Many, many years ago, I delighted in experimenting with vector copies of famous logos I could download from the, um, copyright-agnostic Logotypes.ru. That site seems to be gone now, but this quick vid highlights some others you might find useful:
“Makeba” vid is full of fun, clean VFX
I’ll bet that the myriad effects shown here—from Magritte-like negative space to buildings vibing to the beat—were far trickier to pull off than one might guess from their matter-of-fact presentation, and I love how simply & organically they come together:
VFX: Karin Fong talks AI, title design, and more
Last year I posted about the Imaginary Forces’ beautiful, eerie title sequence for Amazon’s Jack Ryan series, and now School of Motion has sat down for an in-depth discussion with creative director Karin Fong. They talk about a wide range of topics, including AI & its possible impacts towards the 1:09 mark.
Here’s a look behind the scenes of the Jack Ryan sequence:
Adobe’s Project Primrose heads out on the town
My friend Kevin McMahon got tapped to help the research team put their shimmering smart fabric onto the red carpet:
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Here’s a glimpse behind the scenes:
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Race photography: Drone vs. F1
Who’s up for a high-speed challenge in both engineering & filmmaking? Check out some truly impressive examples of both:
[Via Nate Boermann]
Amazing Lego recreations of extreme sports
Stunning work from Legosteeze. Make sure to click the arrows on the post to see all the clips (amazingly based on real-world footage!):
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[Via Cristobal Garcia]
The wonderful miniatures of Henry Sugar
Wes Anderson & crew are back to making delightful miniature worlds, this time for “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” Enjoy three charming minutes, won’t you?
Windows Copilot + Adobe Express
A lovely Lego Great Wave animation
Art of the Title: “Jack Ryan” by Imaginary Forces
I’ve been struck by the beautiful, uncanny parallels drawn in the title sequence for Amazon’s “Jack Ryan” series:
It comes as no surprise to learn that they were made by Imaginary Forces, whose work I’ve admired since the 90’s. Check out this great behind-the-scenes piece from creative director Karin Fong & team:
Animation: MTV “Crow”
Apropos of nothing, really, but just because I love hypnotic design, here’s a lovely old-ish MTV spot:
“A brief & beautiful bubble in design history”
I always love a good dive into learning not just the what and the how of how things—in this case materials from the US federal government—was designed, but why things were done that way.
This video’s all about the briefly groovy period in which Federal designers let it all hang out. From the NASA Worm, to the EPA’s funkadelic graphics, to, heck, the Department of Labor acting like it just took mushrooms, this was an unquestionably adventurous period. And then it stopped. What went wrong?
The Federal Graphics Improvement Program was an NEA initiative started under Richard Nixon, and its brief reign inspired design conventions, logo revamps, and graphics standards manuals. But it was also just a cash infusion rather than a bureaucratic overhaul. And as a result, we only remember toasty Federal Graphic Design, rather than enjoy its enduring legacy.
Star Wars + Lego + WWII aircraft 🤯
This is specifically designed to break my brain, isn’t it? Check out Jordan Fridal’s amazing MOCs that imagine World War 2-era aircraft in the style of Star Wars vehicles, all rendered in Lego! The Leia nose art below is just <chef’s kiss>.
[Via Henry Nack, naturally 😌]
“What is Mise en Scène?”
One of the great pleasures of parenting is, of course, getting to see your kids’ interests and knowledge grow, and yesterday my 13yo budding photographer Henry and I were discussing the concept of mise en scène. In looking up a proper explanation for him, I found this great article & video, which Kubrick/Shining lovers in particular will enjoy:
Lego Sky Lion
If I had just upsetting amounts of disposable income, I might have to get this for my son. 🙃
“The Last Of Us” Main Titles
Beautiful, haunting mutations, envisioned by Elastic:
2023 Design Trends
“I strongly believe that animation skills are going to be the next big thing in UI design,” says designer Michal Malewicz. Check out his full set of predictions for the year ahead:
“For All Mankind”
Hey friends—Happy New Year! I hope you’ve been able to get a little restful downtime, as I’ve done. I thought it’d be nice to ease back into things with these lovely titles from For All Mankind, which I’ve belatedly started watching & which I’m quite enjoying. The work is by Imaginary Forces, whom I’ve admired ever since seeing founder Kyle Cooper speak in the 90’s:
From the creators:
Lines deviate and converge in a graphic, tactile world that pays homage to the past while hinting at the “what if?” future explored throughout the series. Like the show logo itself, these lines weave and merge to create stylised representations of human exploration—badges, almost— ultimately reminding us of the common thread we share.
Heinz AI Ketchup
Life’s like a mayonnaise soda…
What good is seeing eye chocolate…
— Lou Reed
The marketers at Heinz had a little fun noticing that an AI image-making app (DALL•E, I’m guessing) tended to interpret requests for “ketchup” in the style of Heinz’s iconic bottle. Check it out:
❄️ Good tidings to you & yours
Whether or not you’re celebrating Christmas, I hope that you’re having a restful day & keeping warm with family & friends. Enjoy a couple of tidbits from the Nacks—including some Lego stop motion…
…and that heartwarming Christmas classic, Die Hard. 😅
Adobe 3D Design is looking for 2023 interns
The 3D and Immersive Design Team at Adobe is looking for a design intern who will help envision and build the future of Adobe’s 3D and MR creative tools.
With the Adobe Substance 3D Collection and Adobe Aero, we’re making big moves in 3D, but it is still early days! This is a huge opportunity space to shape the future of 3D and AR at Adobe. We believe that tools shape our world, and by building the tools that power 3D creativity we can have an outsized impact on our world.
Ketchup goes AI…? Heinz puts DALL•E to work
Interesting, and of course inevitable:
“This emerging tech isn’t perfect yet, so we got some weird results along with ones that looked like Heinz—but that was part of the fun. We then started plugging in ketchup combination phrases like ‘impressionist painting of a ketchup bottle’ or ‘ketchup tarot card’ and the results still largely resembled Heinz. We ultimately found that no matter how we were asking, we were still seeing results that looked like Heinz.”
Pass the Kemp!

[Via Aaron Hertzmann]
“Some total rando named John Nack blogged about it”
“Oh my God… Who is this Dave Werner guy and what kind of government lab built him?” So I raved back in 2006 (!). Dave was only a student back then, but his potential was obvious, and I’m so happy he reached out in 2012 and became the designer on my then-team. Now 10 years later, he reflects on his journey in this characteristically charming, inventive little video: