I started my design career just as desktop publishing took off.

Suddenly, designers didn’t need typesetters or color transfers; we could do everything on-screen.

Now, 35 years later, it feels like that era is closing.

Agentic AI is about to do for decision-making what DTP did for production.

Showing prototypes to expert users?

Make the numbers realistic.

When the math doesn’t check out, they’ll focus on that instead of the design.

I struggle when projects are designed to impress decision makers more than help day-to-day users.

Sometimes you can do both.
But too often, the “sizzle” wins—and the real problems stick around.

Before Figma, we had X-actos, wax rollers, and spray mount.
Paste-up wasn’t fast—but it was weirdly joyful.

Lines of type you could touch. Boards and tissue you could hold.

I miss when design was a little more physical—and a lot more fume-y.

HBO is changing its brand name again. Back to HBO Max. At this point it can officially be considered dissociative identity disorder.