cofounder @airfoilstudio and don’t want to list my exes here
San Francisco, CA
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omg just noticed they actually updated the design for the female officer mascot!
the old version encoded an assumption that only women wear skirts, the curled lashes were deemed unnecessary, and together they risked reinforcing gender stereotypes and sexist bias so they changed her outfit and removed the eyelashes.
whoever pushed this deserves a raise🫡
this isn't convergence, it's been a playbook in asia for decades. korea ran it on the whole country: the police got a blob with big eyes in 1999, the transit authority put faces on buses, the national assembly BUILDING got a mascot, and ofc every app has one
when an institution needs to be trusted faster than it can be understood, it grows a face 👁️👄👁️
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full article in KR: jungle.co.kr/magazine/201838
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this isn't convergence, it's been a playbook in asia for decades. korea ran it on the whole country: the police got a blob with big eyes in 1999, the transit authority put faces on buses, the national assembly BUILDING got a mascot, and ofc every app has one
when an institution needs to be trusted faster than it can be understood, it grows a face 👁️👄👁️
pretty interesting that the category is converging on the same visual grammar almost comically fast too.
you’ve got a blob, a face, some “eyes”, you gotta give it some soft geometry, add in some emotions via animations, & of course a very friendly affect.
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i've been working in digital for a long time now and it's left me craving things that feel real, physical, like you could touch them
that's what i love about our brand and website work for Refresh
Refresh is a benefits and communication app for employees that plugs into whatever hr, payroll and insurance tools the company already runs and puts each person's benefits, perks and announcements in one place on their phone. most of their users don't have a desk, so that app is the only version of "hr" they'll ever see
we thought the one thing employees actually touch should feel like it was made for people. so our brand team asked what people-made culture looks like outside an office. the answer was on the walls of London, Toronto, and SF where our teammates lives
that inspiration became the foundation for the visual language. loud color, and brush strokes our brand designer Rikki drew by hand
the strokes aren't for decoration. they scatter, then converge as you move through the site and the rest of the brand . which is what the product does, taking a pile of separate apps and landing them in one place
the design still lives on a screen, it's still digital, but it feels like someone made it with their hands. that's the part i love so much
kudos to everyone involved, so proud of this team 🤍
Airfoil x Refresh
Employee benefits usually sit in a long list of links or are spread across a portal, so most people never use them.
Refresh came to us with a different idea: a guided journey. It means a system that knows your benefits, your health history, and your current stress level, and offers you what you need in the moment. In short, a system that is designed to serve the person.
We designed the website around the same idea, so the site itself is a guided journey.
Thank you to the Refresh team for trusting us with the creative direction and brand, full website design and copywriting, all the way through to engineering implementation!
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my time at @valiocon left me thinking not only about what I learned, but also about how I want to work.
there’s something special about a room full of people who care deeply about the work without making the room about themselves. the details mattered. the people on the other side of the work mattered. the process mattered. so did the person the process was shaping.
as both a designer and a founder, I’m constantly moving between two altitudes: deep in the details one moment, zoomed out to the business the next. being at valiocon reminded me that these aren’t competing modes.
a designer’s care can shape how I build the company, not just the work we make.
every speaker brought something distinct. among many thoughtful talks, the ones from @graceongrid, @willlenzen, @andersDrage, @wesleyBancroft, and @saturday happened to meet me exactly where I am in my own journey.
their ideas left me thinking about a few things: identity can be intentionally built. empathy gives the work meaning. taste catches up through iteration. work shapes the person doing it. and our abilities matter most when they benefit someone else.
together, their ideas gave me a clearer picture of how being a designer and a founder can strengthen each other: design shapes how I build the company, and building the company expands how I think as a designer.
some of the most meaningful moments happened outside the talks like hearing new friends share what inspires them and keeps them going. thanks for sharing, especially @LinusEkenstam and @_mordechai
grateful to @drewwilson for creating the space for this community to come together, connect, and be inspired by one another 🫶🏻
can’t wait for the next one!
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i’ve seen Phil give many, many talks over the last 6 years, but this one at @valiocon was his best one yet.
can’t wait to share more about what we announced today!
stay tuned ;)
Phil and I are heading to @valiocon and it’s my first time visiting san diego/oceanside!
pls send food recs🫶🏻
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Phil and I are heading to @valiocon and it’s my first time visiting san diego/oceanside!
pls send food recs🫶🏻
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it took us 2 years and 3 cities to find out designers don't like commuting and prefer comfort of their own home 😭
we had offices in seoul, singapore and toronto, with plans to expand around those hubs. people came in, only sometimes, so we closed it down and redirected the funds for their benefit
being remote works in our favor anyway. we hire from all over the world, everyone comes with different references, different cultures, different visuals they grew up looking at or have exposure to. the inspiration and talent pool got wayy bigger.
one downside for me is losing the in-person energy i still crave for -- that's why we plan offsite meetings and dinners with the team 🤍
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found the easter egg!!!!
Launching something new today…
Designers can now build anything they can imagine. @shedsgns and I want to make it easier to find all the awesome stuff they’re bringing to life.
Introducing Built By Designers:
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we don’t just design things anymore. we make them.
builtbydesigners.com v1.0 is live.
me & @PhilHedayatnia have been collecting some of the coolest things designers actually shipped: tools, experiments, side projects, weird little ideas, real products.
all in one place now ~ go find something good and send us what we missed.
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3 years working with @Colosseum and they’ve never once asked us to play it safe, always full creative freedom!
congrats on the new brand and can’t wait to keep building wild stuff together🫡
Today, we're proud to introduce the new colosseum.com.
If you visited our website any time since our launch, you were greeted with an edgy hacker theme, complete with glitchy ASCII graphics and all-caps fonts. The cyberpunk terminal window brought to life.
That was a good fit when we launched Colosseum in early 2024. Crypto was in a smaller corner of the Internet, Solana was ascending from the depths, and we were aiming to attract weird and innovative product ideas.
In many ways, nothing about Colosseum has changed. We're still inspired by the devs, the experiments, and the irreverent founders. But as crypto grows, and our arena with it, we felt our brand was due for an update.
Beyond just the modern hacker, we're also inspired by history. We drew from the great innovative periods and contests of the past which have been featured in our writings and hackathon themes: The Renaissance, the Volta Prize, and the World's Fair.
So we wanted something not completely old, and not completely new, but a little of both. And most of all, we wanted to capture the spirit of competition. After all, Colosseum runs the largest hackathons in the world, where the most ambitious crypto founders compete.
Lastly, a huge thanks to our design partners @AirfoilStudio for all of their hard work. We welcome you to the new Arena, and can't wait to see what you build.
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today i learned that back in the 18th century, people in love would trade tiny portraits of just one eye. since it was just an eye, only they would know whose it was. how cute is that 🥹
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took a few weeks off X, came back to find out my cofounder is famous lol
jokes aside, cofounder privilege means seeing the work before the internet does. i've watched @PhilHedayatnia build something every day and this archive is only the beginning!
For most of the last century, companies hired serious designers, illustrators, and artists for the most boring document they published: the annual report.
I built an archive of 3000+ of them, spanning 1945-1991.
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If you've wondered where I've been recently, I gave an interview. This is a very difficult time for me. I'm trying to bring my mom home, and I could use your help spreading the word. Please watch, and please share.
interview: piped.video/watch?v=JlK2a6yv…
website: bringmymomhome.com/
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my two fav designers🫶🏻💙
You've probably seen these billboards in Times Square, or these posters across San Francisco.
@ben_issen walks us through his creative workflow from concept to campaign in 2 weeks, including how he used @figma Weavy to explore, iterate and ship.
13 minutes of pure value.
Full step-by-step breakdown is now live on YouTube.
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shoutout @AirfoilStudio for the officewarming gift
(all the way from singapore!)
appreciate thoughtful vendors who really take care of their customers, going above and beyond
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