About
My Philosophy: An Analog Approach to Digital Designs
I build websites for a living and spend most of my free time avoiding them.
Is that a total contradiction? I don't think so. The question I keep coming back to is what it would mean to build things for the internet that don't exploit the worst habits of the internet. Scrolling, outrage, isolation and slop... the list could go on. But you probably already know if you're reading this.
On Fumio Sasaki
I read Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki during a period when I was rethinking a lot. Sasaki's minimalism is functional. The fewer things you maintain, the easier it is to give real time and care to things that matter. That logic transfers to websites, as well. What can you remove? What's left when unnecessary corporate incentives are cleared away and the web becomes a place to facilitate human connection?
Slow Technology
I'm not anti-technology by any means. Unfortunately, though, I've found that a lot of these so-called "helpful tools" suck a whole lot of time out of the things we claim are important to us. I used to keep a smartphone on me "in case of emergency", and then somehow years passed by without touching a canvas because I was "too busy". Coincidence?
I advocate for a slower use of technology. I believe in taking time to decide which tools really will benefit us and move the world in the direction we want to see it. How can we use these tools to improve and increase real-world, in-person, human-to-human connection and creativity?
Analog Practice
There's a resistance in analog tools that digital tools don't have. When I need to remember my grocery list, I pull out a notebook. When driving somewhere, I ask for directions beforehand and write them down (it's not as scary as it sounds, I promise).
Yes, this lifestyle is inconvenient. But that friction forces slowness. I keep analog tools at the center of the studio partially because I love how they feel in my hands (who doesn't love a good iPod Classic), but also because the resistance is genuinely useful. It keeps me grounded in my creative practice as well as in my own mind and body.
Writing Longhand
Most designs start as writing. I draft longhand, in notebooks, usually away from a desk. My current favorites are coffee shops, park benches, wherever. Writing by hand allows a different kind of thinking than typing. It gives you time to mull things over, create worlds in your head, draw outside the margins and have a little more fun. Plus, it's an excuse to buy some nice stationery :)
Relationship to the Internet
I work inside the internet, which means I think a lot about what it's actually for. A web designed primarily to harvest attention functions more like television than genuine communication. What interests me is less common, but still definitely out there: a site that connects two specific people, serves a specific purpose, and then steps aside.
Most tools commercially available are unusable for this philosophy... but in my humble opinion, it's the only kind of website worth building.
Artistic Worldview
The work I care about most, in any medium, is carefully considered and earned through years of practice and hard work. A ceramicist who makes one kind of bowl, exactly right. A photographer who returns to the same subject for twenty years. There's a version of that for web work. It's the standard I hold myself to, because restraint only means something when you know exactly what you're restraining yourself for.