Ace of Cups - Luke Murphy's personal website

On Australia and making new music

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On my recent trip to Australia, I kind of fell back in love with the country. This is a bit of a big deal, as when I left in 2009, I was 100% out of love. I was done with what felt like a small city, and a lot of the intolerance and small-mindedness of it. Also, having spent 25 years growing up there, I think I just needed something different, considering I’d never left the country. Fast forward seventeen years and, well, the world is intolerant as a whole, so it made the good bits of Australia seem way more appealing. The generally chill attitude, the outdoors-ness of everything, the sounds of nature, the weather… I think I’ve also educated myself a lot more on Australian modern history (and a bit on not-so-modern history) and even though it’s still a pretty intolerant place, I now have context for how to fight against the intolerance, which I didn’t have before. Basically, it’s an interesting, rich, and beautiful country, with the same amount of shit that most countries have culturally and historically.

Anyway, that was a very sideways way into what I actually wanted to talk about. Walking around Sydney also started to get my songwriting desire flowing again, so I started to hatch in my head a solo project of songs that were scratching the itch of me wanting to do some naff, twee indie-pop while exploring my complex feelings about my home country (and other stuff that just doesn’t feel right for Brutalligators). With the exception of a couple of Christmas songs, I haven’t written a full song myself for a Very Long time (I think 2005?). It’s rusty, and I don’t think I’m very good at it musically yet, but it’s great to explore.

I’ve managed to write three pretty much finished songs, and another couple of not-quite-there songs. The topics range from the prime minister who disappeared one day, to trying to capture the silliness of Australian summer, to grappling with the fucked history of white Australia, to a random Australian woman I knew for two weeks in London. They’re getting there, and it’s making me feel good, but also incredibly vulnerable. Extremely out of my comfort zone.

So I spent this weekend trying to record the one that was the most finished. This was actually from the Brutalligators cutting-room floor, so I completely reworked the lyrics and put some new music behind it. Also, I haven’t actually recorded and mixed something since about 2005 as well, and I am ridiculously rusty. I think it’s got to a point of a decent demo, but I’m not kidding myself that this is anywhere near good enough.

But fuck it, why not just ship it into the world and make it a thing. So, welcome to the world Burrell Parade. Random, stupid name that’s the street at the top of the road where I grew up in Sydney. I just like the way it sounds, but if someone tells me ‘Mint Patty’ is better (which was my other stupid name idea), I’ll probably switch it.

Oh and I signed myself up to perform for the first time as Burrell Parade at Indiefjord this year. Cue shitting my pants for a couple of months in terror.

Weeknotes - on being a different person in different places

Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I just got back from a weekend in Berlin, walking around and exploring while my partner was off volunteering at a big book event. We stayed in Friedrichshain, nestled between the East Side Gallery and Holzmarkt 25, which is a cool little area just across the river from Kreuzberg, which, after three other trips to Berlin, was definitely my favourite to just wander around and explore. It was giving slight Hackney vibes, with loads of Turkish shops nestled amongst nice cafes and anarchist squats.

I spent the whole of Saturday walking the length of Kreuzberg with podcasts in my ears about the history of Berlin, which was definitely my happy place, but it also made me realise two things about myself and traveling/being alone:

I feel like I’m a different person in different places

This is probably one of the most ‘duh’ observations, but it’s something I’ve noticed over the last couple of years of doing lots of travel for work to different countries. Whenever I have the opportunity to do normal, everyday stuff in another country or city, I feel like a different person depending on where I am. I think I have a pretty ‘spongey’ personality anyway, which I definitely felt when I first moved to the UK. When I moved here in 2009, I felt myself immediately wanting to feel more ‘British’, trying to soak up cultural norms, class systems, and leant into it all a little too much to the point where I felt like I lost a bit of my true identity (whatever that is).

What I’ve recently noticed is that even a weekend visit can bring this out. In Germany, I feel like my thoughts immediately lean into history and sociology. I want to sit and read books, accompanied by too much caffeine, and don some little round glasses (stereotype, ja?). When I go back to Australia, I immediately want to just chill out with good food and beer, not think about anything, and have my thoughts focused on ‘how do I live a good, but effortless, life?’ When I’m in the US, I tend to delve into my political side, wanting to amp up my queerness and get out and protest (probably the least safe place to do that at the moment tbh). In Norway, my design brain comes out, and I want to surround myself with aesthetic stuff.

I mean, I’m pretty sure a lot of other people do this, but it’s something I’ve only just become acutely aware of. It probably also has to do with how comfortable I am with myself… Does anyone else feel this way?

My brain is too loud to handle solitude

The second thing I noticed is how poorly my brain handles solitude without constant stimulation. I find it really hard to walk around by myself without someone talking in my ears, or without something to actively read. What tends to happen is my brain starts circular thinking on topics, and it won’t step until I’ve written it down or talked to another human about it. It’s really frustrating because I want to be able to just sit and experience the world around me, but it’s hard. Probably one to discuss with the therapist…

Currently listening to, reading, and watching

After my recent Australia trip, I’ve been diving deeper into fun Australian indie, punk, and pop. One of my favourite finds was Phil and the Blanks, who make ridiculous, bogan-tinged pop-punk that sounds like a bouncier The Chats. Other than that, I went hard into Harry Styles’ new album (it’s pretty damn good pop), and have been playing last year’s George Gadd and the Aftermath album a lot for my more emo moments. Would highly recommend for a cathartic release of emotion.

On the film front, I’ve been enjoying ridiculous, stupid films. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, They Will Kill You, and Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice all definitely fit that bill, but I think my standout recently was Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which is so stupid but so enjoyable.

Over the weekend, I literally chewed through the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book, A Parade of Horribles, which, as with the rest of the series, is an absolute delight. But my absolute favourite recently was All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami. It’s such a melancholic yet beautiful book that left me aching in a really nice way. If you’re a fan of social outcast literature with a hint of romance (but not really), I highly recommend it.

Weeknotes - How does one be bored?

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

How does one be successfully bored?

Well, I suppose that’s not the real question. The real question is, how do I successfully sit with nothing to do and not feel like I’m wasting time or missing out on something? Even now, instead of sitting and being, I’m choosing to spend a Sunday afternoon ruminating on why I can’t happily do nothing. In the last hour I’ve bounced between looking at my work week, playing some video games, watching some videos, and scrolling my phone. I haven’t been able to focus on any of these tasks properly because my brain is so loud and noisy at the moment.

I think that’s the crux of it, too. I don’t want to be bored – I want to be able to sit in silence and either solely focus on something enriching but pointless, or even just sit with my thoughts. Instead, it’s a constant whirlwind of things I should be doing but I’m not, potential avenues for something that’s a mental focus right now, or (my favourite) replaying something that I’m not happy with in my head from any time in the past twenty years and internally workshopping how I did it wrong and what I could’ve done.

I went through a period in my life when I practiced mindfulness, and I think it really helped. However, over the past five years, I’ve downloaded and deleted Headspace about 5 times and have yet to build any good mindfulness habits. Instead, I feel like my life has been a constant ‘build the car as it’s hurtling down the freeway’ mode, jumping from one side project to another.

So that’s my task at the moment. Start trying to be more quiet. More settled.

Creating more space in my brain.

But in the meantime, I’m going to go back to mentally chasing squirrels.

Currently listening to: Will by Love Rarely
Currently reading: We Love You Bunny by Mona Awad
Currently thinking about: How I can convince all my favourite bands to come play Indiefjord

Weeknotes - New year heaviness

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The air feels heavy, doesn’t it?

We’re four weeks into the new year, and already there is so much shit in the world that keeps happening (primarily thanks to one orange-faced prick). On a personal level, I’m really trying to find the joy in this year, but these four weeks have felt like carrying a backpack full of bricks, with the straps pulled tight so it’s sitting right on the top of the shoulders.

The thing that I’m struggling with mostly is that the last four weeks haven’t been bad on a personal level. I feel like I’m running at work (albeit, it’s still a bit ‘build the car whilst it’s flying down the highway as per), I’ve managed a little escape to the Jurassic Coast for a weekend, played one of my favourite venues in London, kicked off planning for the best festival in the world, and even flexed some creative muscles in both code and design.

That balance of being happy, comfortable, and fulfilled in your personal life while the world seems like it’s going to absolute hell feels hard right now. I feel selfish for wanting to focus on personal happiness when I know it’s one of the only things that’s within my control. At the same time, I feel like I’m not doing enough when it comes to fixing the world. Fuck, I’m not really doing anything, apart from ranting at whoever will listen.

Can the world please unfuck itself?

Anyway, here’s a calming video of the waves at Durdle Door.

</div>

Year in Review 2025

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A Year of Lurking

(Wow that sounds bad...)

</div> <div class="yir25--intro"> <img src="/images/yir25-header.png" alt="Luke looking special" class="yir25-intro-image" />

I absolutely love end-of-year lists and wrapups. I also spend way too much time logging things I consume and enjoy. Not so much in a 'quantify my life and optimise' way of the quantifiable-self tech bro movement, but more so I can look back and see what I've been spending my time on because I have the memory of a pigeon. 2025 was an eventful year – I got married (Marriage 2: Electric Boogaloo), started another company that will drain my money, switched back to advocacy in my day job, released an album, asnd built too many Lego sets. 2025 was also a slightly troubling year, in that the world feels like it's actively going to shit, and not really turning around quickly enough.

While I figure out my thoughts on 2025, I think it's good to look back and see what brought joy. So, here we go... a whole bunch of lists. Let's go.

</div>

My year in music

According to the streaming giant I won't name, I listened to 42,383 minutes of music this year, which is about 4,000 minutes less than the previous year. I think this because I commuted less, and also wrote more. I can't work on anything that requires thinking power with music on, which translates to about 10 minutes less music listening than 2024. However, at the same time I also went to way more gigs than 2024 and bought more vinyl. These are two that I don't quantify, purely because I'd hate to see the effect both have on my bank account, when they're two things that bring me immense joy.

Numbers aside, 2025 was a pretty amazing year for music. I purposely branched out into different genres of music (hello hyperpop, hardcore and K-Pop), and also dove deeper into the UK DIY scene (in large part thanks to Nothing Sounds Good). Some people I am lucky enough to know personally put out some amazing music this year, including Soot Sprite, Really Big, Really Clever, Every Face Becomes a Skull, The Losing Score, Regal Cheer, H_ngm_n, SUDS, and my doppelganger, George Gadd. The state of UK DIY is in amazing shape, and I've probably missed out on some amazing EPs and singles from this list too.

Anyway, here's my top five albums and honourable mentions, as well as my favourite gigs from the year.

Luke's Top Albums of 2025

<img src="/images/yir25-poolkids.png" alt="Pool Kids - Easier Said Than Done" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-album">Pool Kids - Easier Said Than Done

A beautiful record that seamlessly blends pop, indie, and emo. The legends in Dikembe put me onto this record earlier in the year and my god, what a record. The title track, 'Easier Said Than Done', is hands down one of my favourite songs of the last ten years, and lifts my mood instantly.
<img src="/images/yir25-sootsprite.png" alt="Soot Sprite - Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-album">Soot Sprite - Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon

This record absolutely floored me when I first heard it. The mix of emo and shoegaze, with Eli's delicate vocals over their incredible music that shifts from wall of noise to soft and sweet with effortless skill, is unmatched. Soot Sprite should be one of the biggest bands in the world.
<img src="/images/yir25-thebeths.png" alt="The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-album">The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie

In my opinion, The Beths can do no wrong. Their rise to the top of indie-pop circles is hugely deserved, and the songwriting on this album is a masterclass. 'Mother, Pray For Me' breaks my heart every time I hear it.
<img src="/images/yir25-efbas.png" alt="Every Face Becomes a Skull - Be of Good Cheer" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-album">Every Face Becomes a Skull - Be of Good Cheer

One of the most surprising additions to my list, EFBAS have always been a great, solid band, but fuck me, Be of Good Cheer hits incredibly hard. It's 18 and a half minutes of solid screamo/hardcore/I'm not even sure what. This album is the best heavy release this year.
<img src="/images/yir25-suds.png" alt="SUDS - Tell Me About Your Day Again" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-album">SUDS - Tell Me About Your Day Again

In a similar vein to Soot Sprite, this mix of shoegaze and emo is a masterclass in songwriting. I'd heard a lot about SUDS over the last five years, and when we played with them in April supporting Dikembe, I had high hopes. Those hopes were exceeded, and the album that came out at the end of this year is fucking great.

Honourable mentions: DURRY - This Movie Sucks, H_ngm_n - Paper Streets (finally), George Gadd & The Aftermath - Too Many Ghosts…, Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH, Michael Cera Palin - We Could Be Brave, jasmine.4.t - You are the Morning, MUDRAT - SOCIAL COHESION

</div>

Luke's Top Gigs of 2025

Knocked Loose - The Underworld, 14 March 2025

Knocked Loose at the Underworld. Lived up to the hype, and seeing them in this small a venue was insane.
Press Club - Bedford Esquires, 6 July 2025

A perfect live band in a great little venue, but they played it like they were playing Brixton Academy.
Turnstile - Alexandra Palace, 5 November 2025

As much as I hate Ally Pally, Turnstile was an experience. I've never seen circle pits so big.
Fresh & Mammoth Penguins - The Lexington, 9 January 2025

The gig that kicked off my year of gigs. Fresh never disappoint, and Mammoth Penguins are just absolutely joyous.
Brutallixmas - The Victoria, 19 December 2025

Cheeky, but this year's Brutallixmas was perfect. Three amazing bands (and us), and I got to watch Simo crowdsurf while playing bass during our annual RATM cover.

</div>

My year in films

2025 was an ok year for watching films. I managed to log 47 films in total, which is probably not all of them, as I'm sure I didn't log some favourites that were comfort rewatches (especially Christmas films). I did try and get out of the house and get to the cinema at least a couple times every month, and managed to see some absolute gems (Ballad, Sinners and One Battle) and some absolute stinkers because of that (Dog Man. So bad).

I managed to catch up on some absolute beauties from previous years, like Robot Dreams, and finally got around to watching some old films that have probably now snuck into my top ten of all time, like Meet Me In St Louis (how have I not seen this before). The Ballad of Wallis Island taking the top spot is not that surprising, considering it feels like it's tailor made for me. Music + Tim Key + awkward comedy + sadness is a winning combination. If you haven't seen it yet, it's an absolute beauty of a film.

Luke's Top Films of 2025

<img src="/images/yir25-ballad.png" alt="The Ballad of Wallis Island" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-film">

The Ballad of Wallis Island
<img src="/images/yir25-traindreams.png" alt="Train Dreams" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-film">

Train Dreams
<img src="/images/yir25-sinners.png" alt="Sinners" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-film">

Sinners
<img src="/images/yir25-onebattle.png" alt="One Battle After Another" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-film">

One Battle After Another
<img src="/images/yir25-kpop.png" alt="K-Pop Demon Hunters" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-film">

K-Pop Demon Hunters

</div>

My year in books

I set myself an ambitious target of 35 books for 2025, and managed to smash it with 47 in total (and I'm about 50% of the way through my last one, but didn't quite get it in). I managed to sneak in a few non-fiction, as well as my usual fare of sci-fi, fantasy and dystopia. Dungeon Crawler Carl feels like it's rewired my brain. It's such a fun, stupid, exciting series, and I can't wait for the next entry. I also finished off both the Legends & Lattes and Her Majesty's Royal Coven series' thanks to my partner's access to ARCs, which was neat. Both are excellent series.

However, it was a reread in Don't Hold My Head Down that quietly snuck into my top five books of the year. I think this is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand more about human intimacy and how much culture and existing systems screw with it, delivered as a really funny, engaging memoir. More people need to read this.

Luke's Top Books of 2025

<img src="/images/yir25-projecthailmary.png" alt="Project Hail Mary" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-book">

Project Hail Mary Andy Weir
<img src="/images/yir25-dontholdmyheaddown.png" alt="Don't Hold My Head Down" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-book">

Don't Hold My Head Down Lucy-Ann Holmes
<img src="/images/yir25-dungeoncrawlercarl.png" alt="Dungeon Crawler Carl" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-book">

Dungeon Crawler Carl Matt Dinniman
<img src="/images/yir25-brigands.png" alt="Brigands & Breadknives" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-book">

Brigands & Breadknives Travis Baldree
<img src="/images/yir25-faithbreaker.png" alt="Faithbreaker" class="yir25-list-image yir25-list-image-book">

Faithbreaker Hannah Kaner

</div>

My year in side projects

It's pretty funny that I started and shelved an event called 'Side Quest' this year, considering my inability to not do side quests. Writing these down made me realise that I still do too many things. This year, I co-launched a new vinyl subscription startup called Nothing Sounds Good, which has been a great way to spend my time each month finding records and writing the zine for it. It's a shame it hasn't taken off like I thought it would, but it still brings me so much joy each month. Still on the music side, I launched two music podcasts (and shelved one), released an album with my band, ran another successful all-dayer (as well as a handful of gigs). That makes me feel pretty accomplished.

On the more work side of things, I helped run WDC again, which is always a highlight of the year, found my joy in coding again via this website and a bunch of projects at work, and started the aforementioned Side Quest. That's not counting the conferences, podcasts, speaking gigs and stupid projects I do at work too. It's been a busy year.

The only thing I think I did purely for myself and didn't really shout about is actually build a gym habit. I've managed to keep up at least twice a week most weeks of the year, and have slowly been building the amount of weight I can lift without destroying my body. It's slow, it's gradual, but I'm feeling so much better in myself. Go me.

Side Quests Started

<details><summary>Side Quest</summary>

Side Quest is an event for tech folks (and others) to talk about the side projects they do. We ran two events in London, and they were both excellent.

</details> <details><summary>Nothing Sounds Good</summary>

A friend and I started a vinyl subscription company for DIY indie and punk earlier in the year. I sold my first vinyl subscription, Wax & Stamp, back in 2020, so it's been nice to get back into it, especially making the zine every month.

</details> <details><summary>This website</summary>

Inspired by Henry at WDC, I decided to finally give my website a facelift and make it more me. I've been (mostly) keeping up with it, too!

</details> <details><summary>WDC 2025</summary>

Technically, this has been going for a long time, but I hosted and co-organised another WDC conference in Bristol this year, and it filled my heart with joy to get so many cool web people together in one room. It was also the biggest one we've done in a very long time!

</details> <details><summary>HTMF Podcast</summary>

At the beginning of the year, I started a new podcast where I talk to DIY band folks about what goes into creating, running and maintaining a DIY band in 2025. I think there's so much knowledge that could be shared around this stuff, and I wanted to get it out there!

</details> <details><summary>Brutalligators Podcast</summary>

To celebrate the album, we did a track-by-track breakdown as a band, which was pretty fun. Not many people listened to it, but hey, we enjoyed it.

</details> <details><summary>HTMF All-dayer 2025</summary>

Another one that is technically a continuing thing, but I'm pretty proud of the fact that yet again we got a great lineup and managed to get over 100 people to buy tickets. I'm not a shit promoter, I suppose.

</details> <details><summary>Brutalligators Album</summary>

The world needs more emo from over forty-year-olds, so we delivered our second record.

</details> <details><summary>Illustrating gig posters</summary>

Another one that is just ticking along from previous years, but this year I've got to illustrate some posters for some excellent bands! I even tried to turn one into a fully responsive web page with animations.

</details> <details><summary>Going to the gym</summary>

I managed to actually build a gym routine this year, which I'm super proud of. Who knew that picking up weights at least twice a week could actually make you feel good about yourself!?

</details>

</div> <div class="yir25--stack">

Side Quests Ended

<details><summary>Side Quest</summary>

Started and ended in 2025. It was just taking up too much of my brainspace, and there weren't quite as many people interested in a non-focused side projects event as I thought there'd be. So, I made the decision to shelve it for the moment.

</details> <details><summary>HTMF Podcast</summary>

Similarly, the amount of work and effort required to lock down guests was just taking up too much brain space. I loved doing the podcast, but with everything else going on, I thought it was time to put it on ice after a handful of episodes.

</details> <details><summary>The print business</summary>

Technically still running, but my god, sales have slowed down. It's still there, but I've decided to not actively add anything for the foreseeable future. But hey, if you want some scandi art that says 'fuck shit up', you know where to find it.

</details>

</div>

Next year in Side Quests

I'm hoping 2026 settles down slightly in terms of side quests... I want to grow Nothing Sounds Good to a point where it at least runs itself (packaging vinyl each month does not fill me with joy). I'd love to keep up the gym habit and not look like a fat piece of shit. I'd also not like to start any long-term commitments this year, as I feel I've already got a few of those.

In saying that, I still have the band. I've also said yes to helping out with Indiefjord, which I've been attending and DJing at since 2016. WDC will be back in 2026, and I'm sure I'll be promoting a hell of a lot of gigs. So basically, not adding anything else to me plate would be helpful.

</div>

Ins and Outs for 2026

To cap it all off here are the things I think are going to be in and out for 2026. This is, of course, based on extensive research and ethnographic study, and not just based on vibes at the end of December. Overall, let's bring back joy, decency, and empathy. Let's yeet fascism, late-stage capitalism, and post-punk into the sea. Let's make 2026 a good one, yeah?

Ins

Giving a shit (time for empathy)
Physical shit (bring back magazines)
Shandying ridiculous beers
Nu-metal (and then emo)
Working from a fjord
Substack (ew)
Reading long-form content
Personal websites tended like gardens
Actual gardening
A million subscriptions
People actually going to small gigs
Being weird on the internet (in a good way)
Horse skulls on sticks

</div> <div class="yir25-insandouts-list">

Outs

AI slop
Stepping on other people's joy
Being a fascist
Going to the office
Beige
Nicki Minaj (fuck her)
Social networks (apart from Bluesky and Discord)
Spicy Margeritas
Hangovers
Limewire
Post-punk
Straight white guys with podcasts

</div>

</div> <div class="bye">

Peace out until 2027 ✌️

</div>

Weeknotes - Digital patina, decision making, and svg filters

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Oh hey, look, it’s a new website. I started tinkering with a new home for my thoughts last December, and even got the bare bones of a website started. Then, of course, it ended up on the shelf like every other forlorn side project. It was only after WDC this year, and specifically diving deep in to Henry Desroches’ personal projects, that I decided to wipe the dust off it, throw it in the bin, and start anew.

I’m really proud of the fact that I got something working and online within the space of a week. It’s completely incomplete, possibly (probably) broken, and needs to get more unhinged (and more serious in parts), but it’s alive.

Committing to continuous improvement

On the website, the one thing I’m committing to myself is that I do at least one update every two weeks. It might be fixing something, adding something, or tinkering with something, but I want it to be a constant, iterative process. I’m also committing myself to not giving a shit about changing things as my whims take me. A personal website isn’t a place to be consistent. In fact, this website will be as consistent as my personality.

In saying that, I have a lot of content to actually get live, so I don’t think it’ll be hard to keep adding for the next year. The next step is to get a changelog live so I can have what I do be more visible…

Thinking about website patina

It’s not the first time I’ve been thinking about how websites age…

One of my favourite things about physical books is the way they build character over time. The slight change in colour. The scuffs at the edge of covers. The shape and bend of the book (proud spine cracker, fight me). All signs of an object that has been used, appreciated, and loved over time.

When it comes to metal, stone, wood or leather, this is referred to as ‘patina’, talking about the change in the surface of materials as they age and change.

What is the equivalent of patina in the digital space? Aside from broken links and out of date content, what else do we have to signify the passage of time and use? It’s not quite the same, but it’s why I like when conference sites include all of their previous event sites as an archive, so you can look through and see the evolution. I’m wondering if more services and products should provide a kind of self-wayback machine? The only problem I see is that historical rewrites could be extremely easy. At least the wayback machine is agnostic and third-party…

I remember thinking about this and wondering if there was a way to artificially reproduce patina based off of stats and age? A slight yellowing of the whites… Rounding off the edges of anything sharp… Adding the slightest of blurs to everything… It’s completely fake, of course, which is kind of missing the point of patina… But still, a project for the shelf.

Thinking about decision making

On a completely different note, I had the pleasure of attending Leading Design in London this week, and there was one particular statement that was said that has really stuck with me. TB, from Adobe Design, talked about how decisions should be made by those closest to the problems. That is, as leaders, we should be enabling way more decision making down the chain, to the people who not only have the most exposure to these areas, but are also likely the most impacted by decisions.

It was putting voice to a problem I’ve seen play out in multiple orgs… And as a solution, this makes so much sense. How do you actually get it to happen though? I would even go one step further and say that you should be aiming for strategy to be bottom up rather than top down. There have been too many times where I’ve seen companies being led down the wrong strategic path, purely because a leader isn’t close enough to the actual users and problems they face. Sure, it’s our job as ICs and folks further down the chain to feed that information up, but I’m coming to learn that second-hand information is only so useful. There’s nothing quite like experiencing the pain yourself, or seeing the pain be experienced first-hand, that can really drive decision making and strategic direction.

But how do we build that level of trust to enable and allow this?

The website tinkering zone

One of the latest things I put in place on the website were some gnarly svg filters lifted directly from Henry’s blog post. The main difference I did was play with the scale and frequency, and then hook that up to both a randomiser, to get the glitch, and a scroll trigger, to make it unravel on scroll. Quite happy with the effect, but who knows, I might get bored of it next week and delete it.

Weeknotes - On not having control

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the semi-regular self-therapy session. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been feeling pretty low over the last week or so. It was only when talking through an issue yesterday that I realised that a large portion of these feelings stem from a feeling of not having control over key situations in my life. It’s funny, because pre-divorce I identified as a pretty chill person. In fact, it was one of the issues that I had that I didn’t care enough about planning, and was a bit too happy to just let other people take the wheel, especially in my relationships. Not only in romantic relationships, but also in friendships, where I lost touch with a lot of people because of what I’d call ‘people impermanence’, but was also probably a far bit of laziness and main-character syndrome. I definitely had to learn how to be a bit more of a driver in multiple parts of my life, and not just let things happen to me in order to fuck up relationships that I had.

Where did this stem from? I don’t think I have a particular fear of abandonment. It was possibly a learned behaviour from earlier parts of my life. Anyway, the problem now is that I feel safe and comfortable when I feel like I have a healthy amount of control. Side note, control feels like a bit of a dirty word doesn’t it? It’s associated with ‘controlling behaviour’, which is centred around removing other people’s control to exert your own. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m just talking about being heard, feeling listened to, and feeling valued enough that my input is taken and considered in a serious way.

But when does that just turn into throwing tantrums because you don’t get your own way? I think it’s a fine balance, and usually comes back to one of those key points - feeling heard and valued. When there are multiple parts of your life where you are not feeling heard or like your opinions and inputs are valued, it can make life feel a little bit… futile?

Although I also wonder whether it’s a reaction to the utter shitshow of the world right now (I’m primarily looking at you, USA). When so much of the world is completely our of your control, you try and exert more control over the things in your life you can have control over. I don’t know… Whatever it is, I’m probably not going to find it out by writing about it. Instead I’m going to focus on small things that help — picking up my guitar and figuring out country versions of my songs, watching drag race and dreaming about what I’d do on the show, or listening to the disgusting hardcore bands while stomping around town in a cold, dark February.

Current book:

I had my first DNF of the year with Orbital by Samantha Harvey. I don’t know whether it was my mood or that I’m just not smart enough to enjoy it, but it felt like a slog (despite only being 200 pages) with nothing to really grab on to. Instead, I picked up the second book in the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series, The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson. It’s such a delightful queer fantasy, with just the right blend of action, light vs dark, and humour. The characters are great, and I slipped into the second one like a warm bath. Looking forward to the inevitable tv series or film from this series!

Current music:

I’ve been revisiting Zach Bryan’s self titled album recently. I first listened to this album between Christmas and New Year at the end of 2023, so there’s something about it that feels perfect on wet, cold, dark days. His voice has that lazy, syrupy quality that I love in country artists, and it feels like a warm hug. Definitely needed right now.

How to run a DIY gig

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This article was originally written for the Nothing Feels Good zine in 2023.

Brutalligators have been playing live shows since 2016, but straight out of the gate we got some amazing bookings with bands like Tellison, Fresh, Gaffa Tape Sandy, Don’t Worry, Yr Poetry, Modern Rituals and a bunch of other amazing folks. No, this isn’t an exposé on how Brutalligators are actually all nepo babies, and my dad runs Big Scary Monsters (I think I might be older than them anyway), but that at the beginnings we booked (or co-booked) a lot of our own shows. And it’s not that hard, and you don’t need buckets of cash to do it. You only need a fondness for rejection, an inflated sense of worth and a ‘what’s the worst that could happen’ attitude.

First hurdle: venue. Most venues in London under 200 capacity you can have for a night for between £90 - £150 depending on the size. That will cover the sound engineer, which you will need. Most venues won’t allow you to bring in your own sound engineer anyway, so sorry to your mate Bazza, but you’ll probably have to go in-house. Independent venues are usually better at putting on untested promoters, and are better at responding to you as well. Folks like LNZRT usually won’t touch you unless you’ve got a track record.

My biggest pieces of advice with venues is first - don’t overstretch yourself, and second - pick venues that already do similar gigs. Don’t assume you can fill a 200 cap venue with a band that has only ever played 100 cap venues. Selling out a beautiful small venue like Blondies or Paper Dress Vintage can make for a way more special night than having 20 people at The Lexington. Venues that put on similar shows are golden because they probably already have a good fanbase, and can help with promotion (never underestimate venue footfall). If they put posters up in the venue of upcoming gigs, then that’s a bonus!

Bonus advice: Ask if the venue does free gigs. It’s rare, but some venues still have budget for doing free gigs, so may give you £150-250 to put on whatever you want, or at least a bar split. If it’s a bar split, ask what a wildly successful night usually looks like and what a middling night looks like so you can budget effectively.

Second hurdle: bands. Who to put on? If you’re just starting out, or don’t have a big following, or can’t get more than 50 people in a room for a gig that isn’t your album launch or first ever gig, then tip: don’t put yourself on as headliner. We made this mistake a few times early on. Best case scenario, people come for the band they want to see and then fuck off when you start playing. Worst case, they don’t come because they’re more likely to see the band they want to see headlining rather than opening a show. Genuinely, the best advice for any band you want to play with (below a certain level) is to just ask. The worst that can happen is they ignore you or come back and say ‘nah sorry but thanks’. Fun fact, we asked Nervus to open for us at a show in 2017 not really knowing who they were. Nervus. Opening for Brutalligators. I am an idiot.

Ask how much they expect as a guarantee. If you know you can’t afford to pay a guarantee, set your sights a little lower. Also, do research into whether you think the band can actually fill a room in the city you’re putting it on. Have they played there before? Do they have shitloads of Spotify listens? Is there anyone talking about them online? At the very least, ask the band if they reckon they can actually pull a crowd…

Finally, make sure you have some locals on the bill. Again, rookie error that I keep making, but having locals who will actually pull some folks in no matter what can end up saving your butt when it comes to putting on a show.

Third hurdle: promotion. Here’s a secret: you don’t need thousands of instagram followers or the most stacked mailing list you’ve ever seen. You don’t need to stand outside gigs and flyer (probably). You don’t need to flybill everywhere. These days it comes down to some simple things: Consistently post (probably 1-2 times a week) on social media about the gig. Be annoying and pester the venue and the bands to also post about it. Yes, you have a duty as a promoter to… promote… but at the same time, the likelihood is that those bands followings will be full of people who actually like the band. Do the basics: Post the gig on songkick and bandsintown. Make sure the venue has a poster (a lot of venues will print their own, so ask). Oh, have a poster. Most artists who do gig posters will do it for £30-50, and some might even do it for a gig ticket.

One simple thing I’ve learnt recently is that after you’ve done a social post about the gig, go to the profiles of the bands and start following some of their followers. Great way to spread the word, especially if the band aren’t posting much.

On flyering, I’ve not had it work much before. However, if there’s gigs happening close to the venue (or at the venue) that are very similar, it might be worth printing off some super cheap flyers (hello vistaprint), head down there and hand some out. It’s probably not going to be great, but it might work. Similarly with social ads. It’s pretty easy to end up spending more than you need to trying to promote your show, and end up in negative moneys. If you want to test it, then dive into it with some folks who know what they’re doing.

Third and a half hurdle: Once you’ve started to pull together all of this information, MAKE A BUDGET. Open up your good old trusty Google Sheets and work out how much you’re spending, how much tickets need to be and how many you need to sell to break even. Generally work on getting that number as low as possible to break even. I tend to assume 30-50 people will pay for a ticket on any gig I do, which is pretty low. Also, think about ticketing platforms. You could just do tickets on the door, but the likelihood is that you’ll have anxiety until the day because you won’t know how many people will turn up. To be fair, this anxiety will likely happen because most people don’t buy tickets until the week of unless you’re relatively big. Dice is good and gives you cred by being on there, but they’re a bit of a nightmare to set up and work with. SeeTickets and WeGoTickets are pretty good, but take a decent chunk out of the ticket price (factor that in). I’ve heard decent things about Fatsoma as well. If you’re doing gigs in Bristol, you need to be on Headfirst. A lot of venues have ticketing tie-ins too, so ask them.

Fourth hurdle: running the night. First up, make sure you communicate with folks (I’m terrible at this). Email the bands and ask for tech specs, and email the venue and ask for the venue specs. A week in advance, put together a document called an ‘advance’. This has all the details, including venue address, emails and phone numbers of organizers, soundfolks and venue, parking deets, guest list deets, merch deets, if you’re providing food or drink (ie the rider), load in times (check with the venue first), sound check times (check with the engineer first), set times, what is being provided in backline and all the band tech specs. It’s like a one-stop shop for everyone to know what’s going on. It doesn’t need to look schmick as long as the details are there. Sometimes a simple email will suffice!

On the day, print off the door lists and head to the venue. Make sure you turn up on time and try and make sure everyone sticks to the schedule. You’ll likely need someone to run the door (most folks will do this for £30-50 if you ask around), as I can wholeheartedly say that you won’t have the time or space to do it yourself. For this you’ll likely need a cash float (ask the bar if they can spot you money, or go to a bank beforehand) and ideally a card machine (Zettle or Square do good little ones for super cheap), and either a Sharpie or stamp to mark folks as they come in. If you’re super nice, provide the bands some food, or at a minimum, provide a ‘food buyout’ (usually £10 per person. Often providing your own food is cheaper). A rider (not only alcoholic drinks) is also a nice thing to do, but a lot of venues will provide this with you. Ask in advance.

It sounds like a lot, but honestly, it becomes second nature pretty quickly. Also, there are so many shit promoters out there, that the bar is pretty low to be seen as a good promoter (and probably help your band out along the way).

Finally, bask in the glory. Whatever happens, you’ve probably learnt something, even if that thing is ‘I never want to run a gig again’.

‍

Weeknotes - On live music, attention and social anxiety

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I want to find joy in seeing music again

Last week I went to a gig and actually enjoyed it. That sounds like a daft statement to make about myself, when from the outside it looks like I go to lots of gigs. And to be fair, I do go to a fair number. Last year I counted 29 gigs, and I’m sure I forgot a few. That’s 1 gig every two weeks. The only saving grace is that 13 of them were gigs I was playing, but still. What I’ve found more and more over the last year or two is that I’m enjoying live music less, which quite frankly, sucks.

A large part of it is social anxiety. Being in a crowd of people I don’t know, especially in a context where I want to be liked, sets my brain into overdrive. One of the cool things about playing in a band that plays a fair bit is you slowly start to recognise people and become acquaintances with a lot of them. However, instead of making this better, somehow it makes things worse because it puts my brain into “do you say hello; do you wait for them to say hello; what happens when you run out of things to say; how do you make conversation again; what was their name because they definitely told you last time; actually is that even the person you know; when did you last see them; what if they ignore me” mode.

The second part is my inability to pay attention to something for more than ten minutes. Unless I know the band’s discography back to front, my brain is incapable of standing still and paying attention to a band for more than 2-3 songs. This has nothing to do with how good the band are (although if a band is SUPER engaging, I’ll probably last 4 songs), it’s just that after about 3 songs my brain is telling me that I need to be somewhere else. It’s why I love being able to look up a set list before a show so I can be familiar with as many songs as possible. Otherwise, I’m going outside and will be back shortly after.

Mammoth Penguins being excellent at The LexingtonAnyway, the point of this is that I don’t like this. I’m not a fan of acting this way with live music, because I also genuinely love going to gigs. Last week, by chance, I went to see Fresh and Mammoth Penguins at The Lexington (I missed Atlanta Dream Season, which is a big shame). I had plans, but they ended early, so I thought I’d head along and see if I could get in. I think the lack of pre-planning probably helped (low stakes), and to be fair, Fresh are a band where I know most of the songs, but I came out of the gig having watched Fresh by myself (which is usually a good recipe for self-loathing), and was feeling very happy and positive and in love with music.

So that’s another thing I’m trying to do this year – focus on loving live music again. Or at least being kinder to myself if I pop out for a breather halfway through a set and then come back later.

Current Book:

I’m currently reading Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky. When I was a lot younger I absolutely adored Perks of Being a Wallflower, and that was the main reason I picked this book up. I didn’t realise it was horror, which is not a genre I usually enjoy, but I’m about three quarters of the way through this doorstop of a novel and genuinely enjoying the creepiness of it. It doesn’t hurt that the characters are great, even if it’s borrowing heavily from Stephen King. However, the hissing lady did visit me in a nightmare last week, so I might have to switch to non-horror again after this.

Current Music:

I’ve gone back to Little Simz’ 2022 banger NO THANK YOU last week. I’ve been seeing Doechii’s DENIAL IS A RIVER everywhere (which I also love), which made me really want to listen to Little Simz for some reason. I love a bit of jazzy influence in hip-hop, and Little Simz is so chill and fucking cool. Of course Gorilla is the standout track, but the whole album is a vibe from start to finish.

‍

Weeknotes - on being queer and using clothing as armour

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Once again, I’m trying to make weeknoting a habit again, and we’ll see if it lasts beyond February. But pessimism aside, considering I’m back in a role where writing is one of the primary things I do, so might as well try and make it a proper habit.

Being queer and using clothing as armour

Clothes have always been a way of masking for me. Depending on the context I’m in for a day, I’ve always felt like I’m putting on a costume of sorts to fit within the role that I’m playing that day. It’s usually bundled up with a combination of how safe I feel in being authentic, how I want to be perceived, and how much I need people to like me. Work is a prime example. I’ve been lucky enough over the last 15 years to more or less work in places that don’t care what I wear. However, what I choose to wear each day is directly related to what I have on that day. Do I need to convince someone of something that I’m not particularly comfortable of, then I’ll likely wear something relatively conservative, or more likely, try and anticipate what they’re going to wear and mirror the things they find most important. Am I confident in what I’m trying to convince someone of, and have more of a belligerent ‘fuck you, I’m the expert here’ attitude? I’m more likely to wear something that’s a bit more authentically me.

Embracing my queer identity five years ago has added an extra layer on it for me too. I’ve had a want and a need to express myself more in clothes, and play a bit more with gender stereotypes. However, for the first couple of years it meant a combination of trying to dress more feminine and also, weirdly, more childlike. Dungarees, friendship bracelets, bright colours, loud shirts with dinosaurs on them… Which also was a bit of a struggle when it comes to reconciling that to the ‘wearing clothes as armour’ idea, because it’s inherently making myself more vulnerable. I bought a couple of dresses because I loved the idea of both the subversion and the floatiness of it, but I’ve only been comfortable enough to wear them in my safe safe safe space (ie on stage in my band, because I have the performance nature of it, and we’ve managed to fit into a beautiful queer-friendly space in the scene).

That person is wearing a rainbow shirt! They must be queer!At the same time, over the past year I’ve been battling with myself over whether this is actually me. I know that I’m queer, so why do I feel the need to outwardly perform this to the world to get validation? Also, part of my gender identity is fluid and forever changing, and another part is that I’m always somewhat demi-gender — that is, I almost always feel a combination of man, woman and neither. Because of this, there are parts of ‘masc’ that give me euphoria in the same way that there are parts of ‘femme’ that give me euphoria.

At the moment, I feel like I’ve pulled back my style into a kind of neutral, beige, nothing (literally. I’m currently wearing varying shades of brown head to toe). Part of this is probably because I don’t know where I fit, and I’d prefer to blend into the background. Part of it feels like a reset point, where I want to find a way to present myself via clothes in a way that feels comfortable. Comfortable in a sense where I feel like I’m actually presenting an authentic version of myself, instead of conforming to other people’s needs. But also, comfortable in that I’m not trying to overplay or ‘perform’ who I am inside. Also, something that won’t make me feel like I’m detracting from what I’m trying to achieve in that moment, whether that’s talking at a conference, convincing folks of a project at work, singing on stage, or just existing in the town I live.

Is that even possible to have a single style that achieves all this?

Possibly not, but that’s my goal for 2025. To find clothes that make me feel euphoric, comfortable and powerful. Although I’m guessing a large part of that is probably changing the way I look at my inside self as well.

Comfortably beige## Current book: An Academy for Liars

Last year was a big year in reading for me, having read 52 books over the course of the year. I’m still not entirely sure how I kept it up and still enjoyed it by the end, but I’m planning on continuing with books. I’m currently on the last 25 pages of An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson, which is kind of a dark academia horror? It’s tropey as all hell, and a pretty good encapsulation of a ‘booktok’ book, but at the same time is an immensely enjoyable read. The vibes are immaculate, and if you wish Harry Potter had more psychological horror, was about people in their mid-twenties, and they all smoked clove cigarettes, this is for you.

Current music: Knocked Loose - You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

Knocked Loose were a surprise addition to my top ten albums of 2024. I’m the kind of person who enjoys going to a hardcore show, but will never listen to it on the regular. However, I’ve had this album on repeat since September. There’s something inherently commercial and slick about Knocked Loose despite it being completely filthy blastbeats, breakdowns and growls. It’s ended up being my go to album when I want to focus and calm down, which is odd. It’s also an amazing hype up album at the same time. I still don’t know why I love it so much, to be honest, but it’s just hit the spot so well.

I've been using AI and I feel dirty

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT

At OFFF last month, there were a few people who talked about using AI, specifically image generation with things like Midjourney, to aid them when they were creating art. Aside from a few stupid experiments with ChatGPT, I’d pretty much written off using AI to do anything particularly helpful, but thought I’d give it another crack.

There were three areas where I thought it could help: giving me a starting point for gig posters, helping take some of the pain out of social media for event promotion, and giving me a base for a class I’m teaching on design systems. Well fuck me if it didn’t help immensely on all three of those…

Creating illustration via Midjourney

First up the gig posters: I’m not an artist. I have never put the time or effort in to learn proper art techniques, so most of what I do from an illustration point of view is to trace, borrow and copy. I feel shameful saying that, and I’m not talking about plagiarising here, but I can’t freehand draw figures, scenery or perspective to save my life, so getting a reference photo from unsplash or something helps kick me off with a lot of linework… I also have a tendency to never give myself enough time to effectively do anything (hello ADHD), so sometimes the creative well is a bit dry.

Cue Midjourney.

I’ve been using Midjourney to help with prompts, mainly for gig posters, and it’s been glorious. I can generate visual ideas with a super simple idea, and also have the room for happy accidents. I’m still trying to figure out how I feel when it’s really close to the Midjourney stuff and using it relatively wholesale, because, hey I created the prompt that created the picture, so technically I’m not ripping off someone else, but then again, it’s probably pulled from a relatively small pool of sources… I don’t know. Anyway, it’s been pretty cool to play with an inject a bit of life into my scrappy process. Here’s some examples:

## Using ChatGPT to create social media posts

Next up, the posts. I’ve started promoting shows again (here are a couple that are coming up), but one of the things that is super time consuming is scheduling posts to make sure that you keep reminding people that the shows are coming up. It’s mind-numbing, run of the mill shit that is the bread and butter of putting something on - “Hey - come to our show and buy a ticket wooo”. I’d like to think that there’s room to be creative, but considering I cram my life full of shit and don’t do this as a job, it’s pretty hard to carve out time.

So after seeing a TikTok, I thought I’d give it a crack… I fed in the most bullshit, wordiest prompt I could based off of the original TikTok, which was this:

“I want you to act like a social media manager. I need you to create a social media post for the following platforms: Twitter and Instagram. This post needs to promote our event, Darkest Timeline Disco, which is a queer and DIY indie disco, with a live performance from the band "Slash Fiction" and is happening on June 22 at Signature Brew Haggerston. It needs to highlight how much fun the event is, and create a sense of fomo. I need you to focus on making it aesthetically pleasing, on brand, eye-catching, and a little click baitey. I need you to capture the attention of current followers and new ones. I want this post to be creative, unique and have some witty fun.”

And here is the output:

Twitter Post:"Get ready to dance the night away! The Darkest Timeline Disco is back and better than ever! With live performances from the amazing band Slash Fiction, this queer and DIY indie disco is the place to be on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston. Don't miss out on the fun! #DarkestTimelineDisco #SlashFiction #QueerIndieDisco #SignatureBrewHaggerston"

Instagram Post:"Ready to have the time of your life? Join us for the Darkest Timeline Disco! This queer and DIY indie disco is happening on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston, with a live performance from the amazing band Slash Fiction. Get ready to dance, sing, and have a blast with us! Trust us, you don't want to miss this event. #DarkestTimelineDisco #SlashFiction #QueerIndieDisco #SignatureBrewHaggerston #DanceParty #DIYDisco"

Next up I wanted it to create me a calendar for the next month of posts, so I fed it this prompt - “Based on this post I want you to continue and create a content calendar with the same parameters, ensuring each post is varied and interesting, counting down to June 22. I need 3 posts a week for two months. The posts should alternate in focusing on different aspects of the event, including the DJs, the band "Slash Fiction", and bringing together the queer community.”

Aaaaand it outputted this:

Week 1:Twitter Post: "We're kicking off the countdown to the Darkest Timeline Disco with our amazing DJ lineup! Get ready to dance the night away with some of the best queer DJs around. June 22nd can't come soon enough! #DarkestTimelineDisco #QueerDJs #DanceParty"Instagram Post: "It's official! We're thrilled to announce that @slashfictionband will be headlining the Darkest Timeline Disco! Get ready for an unforgettable performance on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston. #DarkestTimelineDisco #SlashFiction #IndieDisco #LiveMusic"

Week 2:Twitter Post: "The Darkest Timeline Disco is more than just a dance party - it's a celebration of the queer community. Join us on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston for a night of love, inclusivity, and good vibes. #DarkestTimelineDisco #QueerCommunity #Inclusivity"Instagram Post: "Get ready to dance to the beat of some of the best queer DJs in the city! Our lineup is packed with talent and ready to keep you moving all night long. June 22nd can't come soon enough! #DarkestTimelineDisco #QueerDJs #DanceParty"

Week 3:Twitter Post: "We're counting down the days until the Darkest Timeline Disco! Join us on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston for an unforgettable night of music, dancing, and good times. #DarkestTimelineDisco #IndieDisco #LiveMusic"Instagram Post: "What's a disco without some fabulous outfits? Start planning your look now and get ready to strut your stuff on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston. We can't wait to see what you'll be wearing! #DarkestTimelineDisco #DiscoFashion #DIYDisco"

Week 4:Twitter Post: "Get to know our incredible headliners, @slashfictionband, before they take the stage at the Darkest Timeline Disco! Their unique blend of indie rock and electronic beats is sure to get you dancing. #DarkestTimelineDisco #SlashFiction #IndieDisco"Instagram Post: "We're all about bringing the queer community together at the Darkest Timeline Disco! Get ready to connect with like-minded people and make new friends on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston. #DarkestTimelineDisco #QueerCommunity #Inclusivity"

Week 5:Twitter Post: "The countdown continues! Get ready for an epic night of dancing and good vibes at the Darkest Timeline Disco. We can't wait to see you on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston. #DarkestTimelineDisco #DanceParty #GoodVibes"Instagram Post: "We're all about supporting local talent at the Darkest Timeline Disco! Our amazing DJ lineup features some of the best queer DJs from around the city. Get ready to dance to their beats on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston. #DarkestTimelineDisco #QueerDJs #LocalTalent"

Week 6:Twitter Post: "Have you started planning your disco outfit yet? From glitter to neon, we want to see it all on June 22nd at Signature Brew Haggerston. Get ready to shine! #DarkestTimelineDisco

Now, there are a few issues with this. One, they obviously got a lot of the details wrong and goddamn there’s hashtags everywhere, but I genuinely think with a little bit of tweaking this could provide a good basis to save a ton of time in creating these kind of posts. I think this was the least impressive, but still a pretty decent place to start.

If only it could automatically schedule them too…

Using Notion AI to create snippets of a lesson

Finally, one that actually helped me in my day to day job. I’m currently teaching a bunch of folks about design systems from scratch. It involves covering off A LOT of different areas. All of these areas I have a fair whack of knowledge in, but not all of them I’ve written down before, and I’ve been a bit time and cognitive function-poor these last few weeks. So, I thought I’d give Notion AI a go to help take the drudge out of pulling in some definitions.

I asked it to give me definitions of a federated and a centralized design system team, and it outputted these:

“A centralized design system team structure involves having a dedicated team responsible for the design system that is separate from other design teams in the organization. This team is responsible for the development and maintenance of the design system, and works with other design teams to ensure that the design system is being used effectively.”

“A federated design system model involves each design team having its own design system team, which is responsible for the development and maintenance of the design system for that particular team.”

The federated one is a bit off the mark, but was still a pretty good start. I then asked it to list out the pros and cons of each:

Some potential advantages of a centralized design system team structure include:

Consistency: Having a dedicated team responsible for the design system can help ensure consistency in design across all products and teams.
Efficiency: A centralized team can work more efficiently and effectively than separate design teams, as they can focus solely on the design system.
Standardization: A centralized team can establish and enforce design standards more easily than separate design teams.

However, there are also some potential disadvantages to a centralized design system team structure, including:

Siloing: A centralized team may become isolated from other design teams, which can lead to a lack of collaboration and communication.
Lack of context: A centralized team may not have the same level of context or understanding of specific products or teams as those teams themselves.
Slower feedback loops: A centralized team may experience slower feedback loops, as they may not be as directly involved in the day-to-day work of product teams.

Some potential advantages of a federated design system model include:

Contextual knowledge: Each design team's design system team has a deep understanding of their specific product and team, which can lead to more effective design solutions.
Collaboration: A federated model can foster greater collaboration and communication between different design teams and their respective design system teams.
Flexibility: A federated model can be more flexible and adaptable than a centralized model, as each design team's needs and priorities can be taken into account.

However, there are also some potential disadvantages to a federated design system model, including:

Inconsistency: A federated model can result in inconsistencies in design across different products and teams, as each design system team may have different approaches and standards.
Duplication: A federated model can lead to duplication of effort, as each design system team may be working on similar components or patterns.
Lack of standardization: A federated model may not be as effective at establishing and enforcing design standards across the organization as a centralized model.

To be honest, I was pretty impressed with these answers. Yes, I had to tweak, add and delete a few in there, but it was a good way to confirm the things I already had in my head, and save me from having to write them down.

Then as a test, I thought I’d see how effective it would be to write an audit workshop plan…

Workshop Plan: Running an Initial Audit on Your Design System

Objectives

Understand the current state of your organization's design system
Identify areas for improvement in the design system
Prioritize and plan the next steps for improving the design system

Participants

Designers
Engineers
Product managers

Materials

Access to the organization's design system documentation
Whiteboard or flipchart
Sticky notes and markers

Agenda

Introduction (10 minutes)

Welcome participants and explain the purpose of the workshop
Review the objectives and agenda for the session

Current State Assessment (60 minutes)

Divide participants into small groups of 3-4 people
Assign each group a specific area of the design system to review (e.g. style guide, component library, design patterns)
Instruct each group to conduct a review of their assigned area, looking for strengths and weaknesses in the current state of the design system
Have participants record their findings on sticky notes and place them on a whiteboard or flipchart

Group Discussion (30 minutes)

Facilitate a group discussion to review the findings from the current state assessment
Identify common themes and areas of consensus among the groups
Discuss any areas of disagreement or conflicting feedback

Prioritization and Planning (60 minutes)

Have participants work together to identify the most critical areas for improvement in the design system
Use the feedback gathered during the current state assessment to guide the prioritization process
Have participants create a roadmap for addressing the identified areas of improvement, including specific action items and timelines

Conclusion (10 minutes)

Recap the key takeaways from the workshop
Thank participants for their time and contributions

Follow-Up

Share the findings and action plan with relevant stakeholders
Schedule regular check-ins to track progress on the action plan and make adjustments as needed

I mean, it’s pretty generic, but also pretty spot on. Especially considering an audit is something that you will probably need to tweak based on your needs.

Again, I’m not sure how I feel about this because there are definitely some areas where it spits out absolute nonsense, but it also feels like it takes a lot of the drudgery and thinking time to create common, easy, useful things in your day to day work. I think my biggest concern is that it also takes away the thinking steps so that existing patterns and systems can become easily entrenched because of a kind of network spreading effect. The more people use it, the more it feeds its own results into the learning model, the more it reinforces that whatever it creates int he first place whether it’s right or wrong.

There’s still a lot of ethical implications to consider

It’s been interesting to have a look at how AI can streamline a lot of my processes, but there are still so many ethical considerations to be made when it comes to using AI in day to day work… There’s the self-perpetuating propping up of existing systems of discrimination. There’s the fact that this could be a new industrial age, which in an ideal world would herald an age of leisure, but in reality will probably cause mass unemployment and widen the wealth gap. There’s the fact that this technology is being driven and shared by VC backed companies, which probably means that the benefits won’t be seen by lower socio-economic or less privileged groups. There’s also the environmental impact. There’s also simple things like redefining plagiarism, IP, and ownership.

Basically, there’s a lot of shit to figure out. In the meantime I’m going to go back to creating nightmare fuel on Midjourney.

‍

Weeknotes - good creatives vs douchebag creatives

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT

This week has been primarily focussed on OFFF Festival in Barcelona. Nic and I decided to use our L&D budget this year to download a dose of inspiration into our brains (vomit) by watching a whole bunch of talented artists, designers, illustrators and filmmakers share their work. It’s only been one day so far, but I’ve already walked away with a few things:

* Flat design is done. All hail Cinema 4D, Blender and god knows what. I know this isn’t a particular revelatory statement, as flat design was a thing in 2012, but I thought I’d see way more illustration and traditional graphic design here, but almost every project is either film or 3D work (and folks, can we kill it with the crazy particle effects please). It also makes me realise how far behind the curve I’ve gotten. I am officially getting old. I don’t know what it is about 3D and motion tools, but I have a mild panic attack whenever I open them, and to get anything that feels in any way decent seems to take about 12 hours, and who’s got time for that.

* Imposter syndrome is a bitch. To satisfy my brain farts, I was trying to draw on my iPad while the talks were happening, and every time the pencil hit the screen I wanted to hurl the entire thing across the room. I don’t know whether it was the talented people on stage, or knowing I was surrounded by lots of other great designers, but it felt like everything I was trying to draw was crap. I couldn’t draw a circle without it turning into a weird egg. I couldn’t draw a face without it just looking wrong. I feel like my technique is just dogshit. I know I can create decent things, but my brain is getting in the way of it. Fuck you, brain.

* The last talk of day one was a talk from a Swedish agency called Snask, who have most recently done a whole bunch of batshit ads for Klarna. I mean, their work was ridiculously excellent, but their whole ethos made me want to down all my tools and start my own shop. Despite my general hatred of agencies, there’s a few out there that seem to be doing it right. I think it comes down to two types of people – there are the ones who create because they feel it is their right to do it, and they are uniquely talented individuals. That their design, art, words, whatever need to be in the world because nobody else can do it. They overthink, overanalyse and most of their work feels like masturbatory mansplaining. There’s an entitlement and desire for power that it reeks of, and unsurprisingly, it’s most older, white men who fall into this category (but not exclusively). Then there’s the people who create with a bit of a ‘why not’ attitude. They create because it fulfils them, it’s fun, it scratches an itch, and there’s weirdly, despite all that me-centric stuff, way less ego in it. It’s a fine line between douchebag and inspiring, but Snask are firmly in the latter camp and I want to someday strive for that too.

Although writing a fucking 5-minute manifesto about what is and isn’t douchebaggery in the design space is probably not a great start.

‍

Weeknotes - maybe i should just go sit down

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Time to get back into this weeknoting thing…

* The week started with a little recording session. After recording our album in 2020 and 2021 and releasing in late 2021, we’ve been remarkably quiet on the new music front. To be honest, after pouring it all out in that album I’ve been a bit light on inspiration and motivation when it comes to lyric writing. Attempts at structured writing prompts, brain-vomiting on to the page and getting together and doing it collaboratively have all still been like pulling blood from a stone. Finally, it feels like things have started to click (albeit slowly), and I’m starting to write songs that feel good. I’m also trying to keep them all on a single (broad) theme of acceptance. Being happy with what I’ve got, learning to move on, exploring and accepting my identity and how that sits within the world, confronting shittier parts of my past… all parts that are rife.

But back to recording… the rest of the band went down to The Bookhouse studio (manned by Tom Hill who is a DIY legend) and tracked our next single What’s Next back in February, and we spent Monday night screaming into a microphone in a living room. It still floors me the quality you can get out of some relatively cheap equipment (a condensor mic, audio interface, DIY soundproofing rig and a copy of Logic Pro). Once a little compression and EQ was on there, it was sounding halfway professional if I do say so myself. Let’s wait and see what Tom says, though…

* I had a much needed ‘put the world to rights’ session with Amy in the pub this week. The bit of the conversation that got us very animated was about taking up space, especially when viewed through an intersectional lens. Sure, both of us have facets of our identity that mean that we feel we should be taking up space that has traditionally been held by straight, white, able-bodied men, but at the same time we both have a fair amount of privilege. Should either of us not be speaking at meetups and conferences because of this? If we take the slot is it going to go to someone more deserving of the platform, or is going to just be filled by another boring old white dude?

It came up again this week when I was offered a slot on a DEI event to talk about inclusive design practices, and I passed the opportunity on to someone else because ‘why would anyone want to hear about DEI from a male-assumed white person’, and it was pointed out by some of my lovely colleagues that, actually, a lot of POC and women are a bit tired of having to constantly talk about DEI, almost as if that’s the only facet of themselves that’s worth talking about.

I don’t think there’s an easy answer. I think it’s just a matter of taking up space where it feels right, and you feel like you’re saying something that adds to the world, yet at the same time viewing it in an intersectional way. Sure, I’m queer, but I am also male-assumed, white, from a middle-class background and able bodied. My experiences are completely wrapped in the privilege I’ve been afforded in life, and I need to remember that, and therefore allow others to have more space because of that. But also, I shouldn’t assume that I can’t talk about issues of representation, diversity, inclusion etc because of that.

‍

Passing Problematic

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published in Darkest Timeline Discozine Issue #1. If you want to pick up your copy and support the DIY and queer music scene in the UK, you can do so here!

‍

“But what’s the point if you’re married to a woman?” – That was the question that was levelled at me the first time I attempted to come out as not male and not straight. It’s also one of the external factors piled on with many internal battles that delayed my acceptance of my own identity as Queer. It was only after not being married that I allowed myself to actually talk about the fact that I was genderqueer/non-binary or pan, as it was the only time I felt I could externally legitimise my own feelings and not feel like a giant imposter. Someone who didn’t belong in the LGBTQ+ community because they passed as straight and cis-gendered.

Straight-passing is a complicated thing. I’ve definitely felt it be used dismissively. Like I wasn’t a fully-fledged member. Kind of like how bi folks just ‘haven’t made their mind up yet’. Or the concept of ‘questioning’ as a sexuality (that’s a topic for another day). I’ve also heard it be levelled in a similar way to accusations of cultural appropriation…

And I understand it.

Straight-passing or cis-passing is a huge privilege. I express in a relatively male way most of the time (I’ll unpack that later). While I strongly identify as non-binary, it still means that I can easily walk down the street without fear for my safety, fear of judgement, or being seen as an Other. Similarly, I am now in a relationship with a cis-gendered female, and, as a result, I present as a heterosexual man to most people. This means that it’s unlikely that I’ll be subject to homophobic abuse or violence. I have immense privilege because of this compared to a lot of other trans folks and people in queer relationships.

My ability to ‘stealth’ parts of my identity is a privilege that’s not afforded to everyone. As I mentioned, I still express relatively ‘male’. Why? I’m not sure, and I’m still unpacking. There’s a psychological safety that comes with it, but there’s also a whole lot of gender dysphoria sitting inside too. I only realised this recently when I discovered that feeling a full disconnect between your head and body isn’t as ubiquitous as I thought. In contrast, putting on a dress for the first time, and wearing it in a safe space (the DIY queer emo scene is amazing), made me feel such euphoria and comfort with myself. I’m pretty sure that a lot of the way I express my gender is wrapped up in how much anxiety I’m allowing myself to feel, which then keeps me relatively closeted regarding gender-expression.

And there’s the cost. While straight-passing affords a level of psychological and physical safety, it can also wear down your sense of identity. Your sense of belonging. Your resilience. How much of your authentic self you’re able to express in the world, and knowing that you’re not going to have that expression be trivialised if you’re not ‘expressing’ enough. Feeling welcome amongst people you identify with.

And when you’re consistently made to feel like you’re lesser or not entirely welcome, it erodes your sense of self. It slowly erases your identity.

The whole point of Queer is an embrace and celebrate that people are uniquely different. While we need to be aware of the privilege afforded us, it’s also important to take up some space and share our stories. That way, we might be able to help someone else embrace who they are, and allow them to be more of their true self in the world.

ADHD and managing side projects

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT

This is a version of a talk that I gave to You Got This! in September 2022. If you'd like me to give this talk at your meetup or conference, let me know on Twitter!

I have a serious side project addiction, and have ever since I was at uni. Over the years this has manifested as a musical theatre director, actor and lighting designer, a cabaret company, theatre critic, an indie club night, a vinyl subscription company, amateur brewer, gig promoter, poster illustrator, ghost walker and various other things. Some of these lasted 6 months, some 6 years. Some of these were mildly successful, some were really not. A similar thing has happened in my professional life. Since I’ve been in full-time employment post university, I’ve held roles in marketing, PR, social media, design, product management, front-end engineering and advocacy. This is not me standing here and asking you to acknowledge how great and varied my life has been. This is more so I can stand here in disbelief and wonder how it only took until 2020 before I realised I probably have ADHD…

What is ADHD? It stands for Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is often marked by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. In 1987 ADD and ADHD got bundled into ADHD officially, and in 1994 they revised the categorization to include subtypes, which are:

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, combined type
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, predominantly inattentive type
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type

ADHD springs from executive dysfunction, which basically means there’s a deficit in the cognitive processes that regulate, control and manage other cognitive processes. In adults, according the NHS this results in things like:

carelessness and lack of attention to detail
continually starting new tasks before finishing old ones
poor organisational skills
inability to focus or prioritise
continually losing or misplacing things
forgetfulness
restlessness and edginess
difficulty keeping quiet, and speaking out of turn
blurting out responses and often interrupting others
mood swings, irritability and a quick temper
inability to deal with stress
extreme impatience
taking risks in activities, often with little or no regard for personal safety or the safety of others

And if you think you’ve been seeing ADHD a lot more recently, that’s not surprising. Between 2007 and 2016, diagnosis of adult ADHD in the US shot up by 123%. Although I’d say this isn’t because of a bunch of people jumping on the bandwagon, or a generation of “defective” people, but more because there is a lot more informal education around it, mostly thanks to the internet, and the fact that we’re slowly shedding a lot of the stigma that revolves around ADHD, and neurodivergence in general. Which is a good thing.

There’s a whole bunch of interesting facts that I could go into about ADHD, like the fact that it is twice as likely to be diagnosed in men than women (mostly because women are much more adept at masking), how it’s often misdiagnosed in adults as depression and anxiety, as they share a lot of the same markers… Or how research suggests that much like other neurodivergences, ADHD exists on a spectrum, and isn’t clear-cut.

But that’s not what I’m hear to talk about today.

Instead I wanted to share with you some of the traits that i’ve identified as things that help or hinder my ability to not only do side projects, but live my life generally. It’s worth pointing out right now that this is my experience, and is not going to be a catch-all ‘this will work for you’. There might be some things that work here for everyone, and some that are specifically effective for me. Anyway, let’s get to it.

## Lack of organisation and forgetfulness

First up, lack of organisation and forgetting things. This one is a big one, and one that I feel like I’ve only really started to nail in the last three years. With so many projects, you’d hope that my brain is neatly organised lists things to do. Like Tom Cruise in minority report, throwing things around a screen like its nobody’s business. It’s more of a tornado of chaos, with random things flying at me at inopportune times, vying for my attention.

One of the ways I’ve learnt to manage this is via lists, or more specifically, my own version of bullet journalling. I’m not going to go indepth on bullet journalling, but I recommend reading The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. There’s a lot of good stuff in there. A lot of crap too. Filter it out to see what works for you. But for me, creating monthly, weekly and daily to-do lists and notes allows me to pull the soup out of my head, get it on paper, and stop my brain from obsessing over it lying in bed at 3am.

Next up, low friction reminders are your friend. If there is something you need to do by a certain time, don’t be afraid to use Siri or Google Assistant to remind you. Slash remind is my favourite command in Slack. If it allows you to not drop everything to complete the task there and then, or allows you to not let it fall into the forgotten pit of forgotten tasks forever, then that’s a good thing.

Finally, and on a similar note, try and learn to embrace letting things go and forgetting them, in the hopes that they’ll come back later. One of my favourite things to do when I worked in an agency was when I got back from holiday, deleting all my emails with the knowledge that if someone REALLY needed to get back in touch with me, they’ll email me again. Fuck fomo.

## Hyperfocus and hyperfixation

Next up, hyperfocus and hyperfixation. This was definitely one that I wasn’t aware of until I started reading up on ADHD. ADHD isn’t just about an inability to focus. It’s about having trouble regulating focus. This means that there are times when I get into a blinkered hole of focus and nothing can distract me for hours on end. It’s even led to people in my life insisting I get my hearing checked because of my lack of ability to filter when someone is talking to me when I’m in this state. It also shapes itself at a more macro level with becoming fixated on an idea or topic for days or weeks. New hobbies, interests or ideas can seem like they’re core to your being for a short period of time and then just be forgotten almost instantly (Side note: It’s also why people with ADHD are more susceptible to addiction).

This can obviously be handy, especially when you think about starting projects. That all-consuming focus can help you start things, get them off the ground and put in the hours required to make whatever it is successful (for a time). On the flip side, it can also blind you to the downsides of whatever it is you’re starting. It can also mean that when that fixation is over, you’re left with a project that you don’t particular want to do anymore.

One of the ways I’ve managed this with side projects or things I want to start is through self awareness. It was something I picked up in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy of labelling and analysing thought patterns that have helped me realise when I’m hyperfixating. Labelling it almost takes some of the power away, and then, even though it’s hard, I can choose whether to focus on it or not. It doesn’t always work, but it can help judge whether something is worth fixating on.

‍

Constantly changing tasks, inability to concentrate, not being able to complete

So let’s swing the other way to inattention and what this brings about. One of the markers that has dominated my life is that I am top tier at not being able to multitask. Or, more accurately, I will have 20 different tabs open constantly switching between trying to write a talk, check twitter, book a hotel, respond to an email, update a website and organise a time to chat with my mum at the weekend. And by 20 different tabs I mean 120. The bullet journalling has helped quite a lot with this, as it helps bring some order to the tasks that need doing. Radical focus, of shutting everything down and forcing myself to do one task at a time is another one that is sometimes needed.

However, a weird side-hack that I’ve found has strangely worked in most cases is partnering up on side projects. Ideally, partnering up with a neurotypical person, but partnering up with anyone. This helps spread the load, and also gives you a chance to split things in a way that helps you maintain focus on the parts you actually enjoy. Most of the things above (especially the things that have lasted) have been co-run. I co-ran a vinyl subscription business. I co-DJed an indie club night for five years (and festivals and gigs). I co-host a beer podcast. I co-manage the band that I’m in.

One of the things that I’ve found is that if I’m beholden to someone else to complete something, especially if a deadline is set, there is way more chance it will get done (probably at the last minute, but hey…).

Losing interest in things

The other side of hyperfixation is that things can feel a bit faddy if you look back. There’s a good chance that the thing you’re investing loads of time into becomes uninteresting, or a burden after a while. There are two things that I’ve tried to keep in mind with this: Everything is an MVP, and quit (or at least reassess) when it feels like work.

Back in 2012, a friend and I birthed Early Doors Disco. We started it in a rush of excitement with a real problem to solve. We wanted to dance to trashy indie music, and nowhere was open early enough for our old souls to do it. We had two major problems standing in the way: We had never DJed, and we had never put on a clubnight, so had no pedigree with venues. We took an MVP approach: All we needed was gear, some googling, and a venue to give us space. We chose a deliberately quiet night (Wednesday), looked up how to do it and gave it a go. What’s the worst that could happen. By month two, we had 150 people in a sweaty club on a Wednesday night dancing to Vampire Weekend at 8pm. We had two rules: If it took longer than a couple of days to plan, it probably wasn’t worth it, and if it ever felt like work, we’d stop doing it. It took 5 years, a podcast, festival slots around the country, ill-advised gig promoting and 4 different club themes for the interest to properly peter out. Now, we DJ a small indie-pop festival in the fjords each year. Knowing when to quit is really important.

Recognising when it’s all a bit too much

And this has been one of the biggest challenges for me. When I have nothing on, I feel restless and bored, like I need to be creating or doing something. When I have loads on, I feel overwhelmed and find it hard to complete anything. It’s a constant balance to keep this in check, and I have to keep an eye out for signs (of usually the latter). Stimming is a big one. Repetitive behaviours start happening more when I’m uncomfortable, stressed or overwhelmed. Rubbing the ends of my fingers against each other, shaking my leg on the ball of my foot, scratching my head. These are usually a sign that something is off balance and I”m heading to burnout or panic attacks, and recognising these can help.

So, have I nailed it? Not really. Is it getting more and more manageable with time? Definitely. I hope something in here is mildly interesting or provides some comfort or help if you recognise any of it, or at least provides awareness for some folks of how some other folks minds’ work. I look forward to coming back and sharing some more techniques as I continue to learn about it.

First I have to clear a few things off my todo list.

‍

Impulsivity vs Hyperfixating

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Brains are weird. I’ve been trying to be a lot more aware of the thought patterns I have over the last 2.5 years, and my partner and I discuss stuff like this a lot. We’ve discovered that we both approach tasks in different ways…

There are two common symptoms that come into play here: impulsivity and overthinking/hyperfixation. My immediate reaction to any task, decision, or just about anything is to jump in with both feet and figure out the details along the way. Because, hey, anything that comes up as a blocker can be dealt with when we get to it. However, this has bitten me in the arse many times.

The worst of it is usually at airports. Like the time I booked my flights for a conference last minute, only to discover, at the airport, that I had booked for a month later (cue another expensive last-minute flight purchase). Or not reading Covid restrictions carefully enough and realising that both of us didn’t have the required paperwork whilst trying to check into our flight… for the flight home 😬.

More mundane, but an ongoing challenge, is that it also means I find it really hard to set realistic deadlines at work, which is something that I keep getting better at but is always a struggle.

I’ve had to train myself to be super thorough in particular contexts (flying overseas, preparing for a gig, launching big projects at work), but it needs to be something I can allow myself to hyperfixate on and let my overthinking brain go into overdrive. This brings me to those two… My partner is almost the opposite. They have a tendency to stop and overanalyse what’s going on and need to make sure all the ducks are in line to make a decision. Going out for a drink? Then what time does it close? Where will we get food? Do we need to book anything? What time is the last train? Who is going to be there and do they want to be there? Will it be overstimulating there? A seemingly simple decision can spiral into an anxious mess of overthinking.

In saying that, all of those questions are valuable pieces of information where the right answers combine to make a good night. Also, that kind of thinking is great if you’re planning anything that has implications (which a lot of life does). On the flip side, impulsivity is great to have a sense of ease in life. Or realise that choosing what to have for lunch doesn’t require a spreadsheet. In different contexts, either can be a super-power or a massive hindrance, and it’s about teaching ourselves the coping mechanisms to make life easier where our brains don’t naturally want to help us.

(for me it’s bullet journal lists… but that’s another post)

Weeknotes - front-end conferences and millennial angst

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT

— Conference season has kicked off again in earnest after the last two years of staring at a Zoom screens, and I am utterly delighted to see faces from Twitter in person again. Last week saw Pixel Pioneers in Bristol, and as well as saying some favourite faces on the lineup, there were some great new folks I’d never come across as well. First up is a kind of new face. Jhey is a new DevRel Engineer at Google on the Chrome team, and he seems to be at every conference in Europe and the US this year, but with good reason. Jhey manages to find the most creative ways of explaining the new cool available in Chrome, such as :has via Tic Tac Toe or showing how you can control device orientation data in DevTools by cracking a safe. His codepens are worth checking out to see some of the bonkers way he plays with CSS, and if he’s at an upcoming conference, definitely check him out.

The other talk that got me all excited was Rachel Andrew’s thorough ‘What’s new in CSS’ talk. CSS has been making some huge strides in the last few years, with some super exciting things reaching support very soon (container queries, anyone?), but there were a bunch of things available now (some behind flags) that I’m looking forward to digging into with design systems in mind. First up, color-mix and color-contrast, which will be amazing for setting colour palettes and for shortcutting accessible colour combinations. The other one that I haven’t quite got my head around yet is the aforementioned container queries and subgrid, which seem like they might change how we do layout quite dramatically.

— I finally watched The Worst Person in the World at the weekend. It’s such a beautifully shot, perfectly performed piece about the knotty, messy way that relationships work. Julia is an extremely relatable, if not massively likeable, millennial character. The way she approaches everything she’s doing in a kind ‘what the hell am I doing’ way, despite being well-educated, privileged and intelligent, is probably going to resonate with a lot of people between the age of 25 and 40. Also, it has a number of beautifully shot surreal set pieces that will have film nerds salivating. Definitely recommend checking it out.

— At the weekend I discovered the joy of mixing Aperol with tonic and lemon juice. Goddamn this is one refreshing, tasty drink.

‍

Weeknotes - A small note on Plants and ADHD

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT

— About 8 years ago when I was working with Microsoft, our team did the Belbin test to know our personality types so we could understand each other a little better. Amusingly, the results came back that all but one of us was a Plant, and one of us was a Co-ordinator, which is the perfect combination of people for good ideas, but absolutely no chance of finishing things. It probably won’t come as a surprise, but I was not the Co-ordinator...

Back then, I wore the Plant badge with pride. I was a creative. Sure, I “might ignore incidentals, and may be too preoccupied to communicate effectively” and I “could be absent-minded or forgetful”, but I had IDEAS!

What an arrogant knob.

What I didn’t realise then was that not having attention to detail, taking time to communicate well and generally being disorganised weren’t things that I should accept as inevitabilities and move on, because hey, I could come up with some sweet ideas and be enthusiastic about them for a whole two hours. Being aware of blind spots is important, as is not beating yourself up about things that are in your nature, but there are also tactics you can employ to balance or counteract these things that make life slightly easier for yourself.

For me, recognising behaviours meant that I can stop myself from racing ahead with reckless abandon. Reading up about ADHD, and techniques to manage it (bullet journalling and lists yo) really helped with the forgetfulness (I’ve never been diagnosed with ADHD, but why wait for diagnosis if the techniques help you now...). And recognising that hey, maybe I should take some time out for someone to check through my work and be open to critique and feedback might actually help with elevating my work because some of those details get fixed.

I was reminded of this this week because the new year is when this usually flares up for me. The arbitrary marker of a new year feels like a blank slate, and I naturally fall into wanting a million and one projects and saying yes to absolutely everything.

This year I’m trying to tone that down. Do a bit of Marie Kondoing of ideas. Will this spark joy in me if it’s still going in a month’s time? Will picking this up and dropping it have detrimental affects on myself or the people around me? Am I just filling my brain with more cruft?

Or fuck it, I might just pick up Taiko drumming instead.

‍

Weeknotes - I cant believe I chose the mountains every time you chose the sea

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT

— I finally got my hands on Los Campesinos! The Universe Replied and promptly devoured it in a couple of sittings. For those who don’t know LC!, they’re a seven-piece band from Wales who make some of the most interesting angular indie-pop meets punk meets emo that exists in the world today. Their back catalogue is really varied, from the angular, completely nuts party times of Hold On Now, Youngster to the much more introspective and brash Romance is Boring to the outright pop bangers on Hello Sadness and Sick Scenes.

The Universe Replied is an oral history of the band from the beginnings to the making of Romance is Boring, and interviews all current and past members, the producers, the label owner and their PR folks, for a interesting deep dive into what it was like to be a marginally successful band in the mid 2000s.

It’s pure fan service, but I love getting under the skin of why someone wrote those lyrics, or why that song sounds the way it does, or why that person left when they did. I also love that the author, music journalist Brendan Mattox, includes footnotes for every band, label, club and film reference, so that nobody is left excluded from the story. It’s something that made me think quite a bit about how to write more inclusively... Also, I think it’s time for my second LC! tattoo (LC!4LYF)...

The universe replied: An oral history of Romance is Boring by Los Campesinos— I also managed to slot some time in to see the new Mamoru Hosoda anime film, Belle, this week. I really enjoyed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Mirai, and after that standing ovation at Cannes, I really wanted to see this on the big screen. It’s a really good anime film. Probably slightly overblown and melodramatic for non-anime fans, but the characters are interesting enough and the story hits where it needs to. The soundtrack is, as to be expected from a quasi-musical film, beautiful, but it still doesn’t hold a candle to Makoto Shinkai’s work (who has a new film coming out this year and I’m really excited).

However, the one thing I absolutely adored was the visual style in the non-cyber world scenes. The combination of over-saturated, highly-realistic backgrounds, that almost look like a photo and watercolour laid on top of each other, with the ultra-simplistic, almost flat, character drawings is really effective. I was sat there wanting to watch just that for hours on end. They have an almost meditative quality to them. It’s a very Hosoda aesthetic, and I am so here for it.

A scene from Belleby Mamoru Hosoda— I childishly poked the bear on Twitter the other day from zeroheight’s account that provoked yet another whole discussion around ‘source of truth’ when it comes to design systems, and pulled all of the ‘code is all that matters’ folks out of the woodwork again. What i didn’t expect was it settling down into quite a good discussion about ‘source of truth’ as a concept that helped me solidify my problems with why ‘code is always the source of trust’ rankles me so much.

I completely understand that, at the end of the day, the coded components are what the users are going to see when they use your product. I also acknowledge that if a component, style, or whatever, only exists in design, and stays in design, it’s going to be useless. However, the state of a product is always in motion throughout the entire product process, and when we look at the individual pieces of a design system, the ‘source of truth’ changes as a change ripples through the different parts of the process.

Hear me out.

For working product orgs, there are usually multiple teams working on the same product. Paralell workflows, especially when there are chances that design teams could be touching the same styles, components and patterns, should work in an agile way, using whatever the latest changes to a style, component or pattern there are. This means that there will be some times that teams are working with elements that haven’t made it to production yet. It may be an edge case in most instances, but I think it bears noting.

I think the important thing with ‘source of truth’ is not where it sits, but that it is accurately documented. That is, a single component should be clearly stated where the source of truth currently lives, whether that be in code, design or in spec form.

I don’t know, I feel like I’m still formulating my thoughts around this one, but I’m curious to hear what other people think. I don’t think it’s quite there yet... Hit me up on twitter if you want to have some arguments discussion.

‍

What is a design advocate?

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

At the risk of this sounding like a support group — Hi, my name's Luke and I'm a design advocate. Believe me, telling people you're a design advocate is a quick way to get people to stare blankly at you, or at worst, assume you're some kind of self-aggrandising transformational consultant who is trying to sell you their LinkedIn post on 10 ways you can earn money while doing next to nothing! So, I thought I'd pen this little missive to explain what it is that a design advocate actually does, where it came from and how we do it at zeroheight.

So what the heck is a design advocate?

When it boils down to it, a design advocacy department is part of a marketing department. You're doing activities that should, in the end, promote the business or product you work for, and your end goal is probably going to be about either getting new customers or retaining existing customers. The difference to traditional marketing tactics is that you're specifically doing audience marketing and evangelism marketing. Audience marketing is pretty simple. It's just taking an audience-first approach to the marketing that you do, and thinking about what they need. It's like taking a product design, problem solving approach to marketing. Evangelism marketing is like word-of-mouth marketing, but on steroids, where you invest in people who have knowledge and skills within the area, and build up their authority and trust in relation to the company they work for.

In general, there are usually two ways design advocacy works: by acting as an expert in the particular product you're working for, and helping people with not just the how-tos of the product, but also the areas around your product (eg. knowing zeroheight, but also knowing design systems and how to stand them up within a company), and by doing thought leadership in the space that your product exists in - trying to build trust, authority and awareness of your product via association.

So is this thing new?

In the wider context of tech, advocacy or evangelism is not new. It's gone by many names, including tech evangelism, developer relations, developer advocacy, platform evangelism... the list goes on. Tech companies like Microsoft or Google have huge departments of developer evangelists, as well as community evangelists, who do this kind of things as a volunteer. Because design has only been taken seriously as an integrated product function for the last 10-15 years, it's taken design a little bit longer to catch up, but you'll still find design advocates at most design tooling companies, or product companies who have large designer audiences, such as Adobe, Google, Invision, Microsoft, Figma or Sketch.

So what does a design advocate actually do?

When it comes down to it, design advocates usually do a combination of three things: content creation, community management and consultancy.

First up, content. Content marketing is one of the key arrows in an advocate's quiver. From written content to webinars to podcasts to building plugins to designing resources to speaking at events to just tweeting a whole lot, content is a great way of building up your reputation as a thought leader, educating people around products, processes or just plain ol' knowledge building, and creating a long tail that leads back to your business. It builds word of mouth, reputation and trust, and is a great 'one-to-many' way of doing things.

Next, community management (both online and offline). First off, you want your customers (and potential) to feel taken care of. While you may have customer success teams to do the day-to-day, having somebody who can talk on the same level as your customers (or potential customers) is a great way to build trust. Next, just being present and noticeable is an automatic way of building word of mouth for your company. As long as you've built a good reputation, you (and your company) will be top of mind. Finally, influencer relations. Word of mouth is great coming from one person, but it's more effective if you're getting it from all over, and it's super effective if those people have a large audience. It all sounds very transactional, but actually, a lot of it is actually just having chats with really nice people, helping them out and occasionally giving them resources when they need them.

Finally, consultancy. As I mentioned briefly, design and developer advocates generally need to have experience in the field they're talking about. How else will you build trust if you don't actually know what you're doing? Part of the job of a design advocate is to be a helping hand with customers (and future customers), and to bring a bit of expertise in when needed. This can take the form of actually joining in on success and sales meetings, or working closely with those teams to make sure the content you're creating is helpful to customers and leads. Also, as someone who spends time talking to the community, there's an element of providing internal consultancy to the product teams as well!

So what about zeroheight?

First off, there's the area of expertise that we cover... Design advocates at zeroheight need to be design systems and/or DesignOps nerds. In terms of what design advocates at zeroheight currently do, our big focus at the moment is on content and community - researching and sharing what it takes to build the gosh darn best design system and DesignOps orgs in the world.

We spend most of our time writing for the blog, hanging out and talking on Slack communities, creating podcasts, chatting with influencers and Zooming customers to find out what makes them tick. On top of that we've got more of the same planned, as well as reports, webinars and events in the next six months.

Why would a designer "stop designing" and start avocado-ing?

One of the big questions I get asked, especially from more junior folks, is why someone would stop being a Product Designer, UX Designer or Front-end Developer, and start being a Design Advocate? Especially because they feel it would create a career gap if they ever wanted to get back to 'real designing'.

To begin with, while you may not be putting pixels to screen very often as an advocate, you are solving problems constantly. Writing a piece on where the source of truth with design tokens should be or how to write design principles requires a heck of a lot of research, identifying problems and coming up with solutions. Also, as most senior product designers know, the more senior you get in design, the more your job revolves around consultancy, people-handling and high-level problem solving, which is exactly the space that advocacy sits in.

From my personal experience, being involved with evangelism early on (I was an agency lead, and then a programme manager with Microsoft's developer evangelism department for a while) massively helped my career as a designer. Not only was I learning from the best folks in the industry via conferences, reading, writing and conversations, but I was building a strong network that has helped me ever since in both freelancing and in-house design positions.

Where can I sign up?

Of course, I'm currently hiring another design advocate for my team (4 and growing), albeit in the Bay area and not where I'm based. Otherwise, keep an eye out on the zeroheight careers page, or check out folks like Abstract, Figma, Sketch, Adobe and other design tools. If you want to have a chat about being a design advocate, then you can always drop me an email at luke (at) zeroheight.com.

‍

Weeknotes - I wanna move to Switzerland

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

— Let's start with some music. First off, my band finally released their first single from the new album FINALLY, which is super exciting (and we filmed a stupid video with crocodiles). Aside from listening to my own voice, I've been hitting quite a lot of The Sonder Bombs, Hospital Bracelet and Origami Angel in the last week, and I'm so excited about the state of music right now. None-dude-fronted bands are the future and makes me want to sit down. But then I get bored (Thanks Bo Burnham for personally attacking me).

— zeroheight announced their Series A funding last week, after months of building up to it. It's pretty darn exciting, mainly because it means we're growing the team even more, including my first opportunity to hire someone in the US. I'm really excited, because I get to build out a team of Design Advocates who actually get to... well, advocate. Still pinch myself that my job is entirely about educating people how to build great design systems, build great teams, build good designops practices and generally do better design.

— I finally started reading Mike Monteiro's Ruined By Design this week, after it's been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for 12 months. The ethic and moral obligations of design have been weighing heavy on my mind, especially since getting into this role, and I want to work more and more about ethical design into what I write about. This is a great primer on how capitalism has fucked the world, and the role that designers have played in this. I highly recommend it to anyone who makes any kind of product decisions to read this and take it to heart.

— I've been exercising my illustration muscles a bit more again at work in an attempt to create some fun merch we can send out. This little guy below probably won't ever see the light of day on any official merch, but it was fun to try and reinvent the zeroheight logo...

Little grafitti zeroheight boi‍

Weeknotes - Proud of myself and the loner I've become

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

— A bumpy start then... after committing to myself that I'll start blogging weekly, I completely forgot about it seven days later. Rocky starts are the best starts though, right?

— The last two weeks have been lots of planning. There's been planning for work, where a second half of the year strategy is now due, including how we follow up on DesignOps Island Discs, as well as planning for Brutalligators (my band), as our first proper music since 2019 (covers and Christmas songs don't count). As part of this, I've been flexing my design and illustration muscles and creating way too many concepts that will likely never be used. My current favourite (aside from the one we went for) is below...

— We had another great, albeit poorly attended, Clubhouse on Wednesday (it happens every Wednesday at midday. Follow me to be notified when it happens). This time it was around what makes a good first Head of Design, and how it's different to being a HoD in an established place. In particular, there was an interesting discussion about leading on craft vs being completely management focussed. I've always assumed that Design Managers are now relatively common in 4+ designer design orgs, but it sounds like that may not be the case. So going from a role where you are a creative contributor, to a role where that isn't necessarily expected can be jarring for both the business and the designer stepping up.

— On design things, there was a great article written last week by Nathan Curtis about setting up your design system component workspace so it follows the API design of what will make it into code. It's an amazingly nerdy piece, but I feel there's something missing in the expectation that all designers should understand system design. Anyway, I tweeted about it, so if you want to argue with me go and do it there.

— Say Anything's 2005 classic ...Is A Real Boy has soundtracked most of the last two weeks, but late last week's weather was completely overtaken by German duo Mar Malade. It's like if The Cat Empire and Vampire Weekend had a bastard poppy lovechild and is perfect for sticky hot days.

— Finally, my amazing partner has just launched her website as a freelancer. After spending the last three years finishing off her degree while holding down a full-time job looking after three kids, she's now tackling a new challenge and starting up a creative business doing illustration, design and just about anything else that falls under the creative umbrella. Her website is over here, but her instagram is where most of the action takes place, so go and give her a follow.

Sad illustrations in pink are where all the cool kids are hanging out‍

Weeknotes - I am not the Fred Astaire of words

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

— Another six months, another failed half year of writing. Although I've been writing a lot more over on the zeroheight blog (and learning loads along the way), my home on the web has been sadly neglected. So, in an attempt to start again, I'm giving Weeknoting a go. A weekly collection of things I'm thinking about, doing or worrying about. Will anyone want to read it? Who knows. Will it help? Probably. As with anything in my life, I'm taking the 'let's throw shit at the wall and see if it sticks' approach.

— COVID reared its annoying head again this week, with the boy having to isolate from school because of a positive case in his school. I don't know whether it was the fact that we now live in a place where we each can have our own space, or that he is just getting older and can sort his own shit out, but it was a hell of a lot easier than it has been. I also did my first lateral flow test, which unsurprisingly, is a deeply unpleasant experience. Just thinking about how much it tickles makes me shudder.

— I don't know whether it's the standard 'It's July, so let's light a fire under our arse', but this week has seen a whole bunch of things kick off in unexpected ways. From looking at taking over, or at least getting involved in, multiple design events in London 👀, to talks around formalising Got The Hump Day a bit more, to talking to the ever lovely Stu Robson about sponsoring and getting involved in something tokensy and fun. Next week I'm going to start organising DesignOps Island Discs volume 2 as well, and I've got two offers out for Design Advocates at zeroheight 😱🙃. This week also saw our new Community Manager start, which makes team member number 2 and an awesome addition who is most likely going to kick it in the dick.

— I've been diving into more Los Campesinos! in the last week, hitting Hello Sadness quite hard. Every Defeat a Divorce (Three Lions) is the ultimate alternative football song without being a football song. I pulled Half Empty by Little Hands of Asphalt again this week as well, which was easily one of the albums of 2020. His voice is like syrup, and his turns of phrase are always like an overexcited cuddle and it's the kind of easy-going indie-pop that lights up summer nights. He's also just released a new emo-adjacent band called Flight Mode, who are like a more recent Death Cab for Cutie or a less country Pinegrove (without the problematic parts).

— Finally started the fourth plate of Food Wars, which continues to be equal parts weird, uncomfortable and amazing. Who knew that a sports-meets-action-meets-ecchi-meets-satire about going to a cooking school would be this addictive. Isshiki is my spirit animal.

Centralising or Embedding your Product Design Team

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

A problem that seems to come up a lot within small to medium size product companies is whether you'll get more value out of your Product Design team being embedded within your different teams, or a centralised team, where work is centrally managed and designers can be 'contracted' out to projects or teams.

The problem is, neither solution is La Roux-level bulletproof, but there are a bunch of reasons why you might swing towards either system, even if it is as a short-term solution.

## Embedding in teams

It feels like every company goes through a phase of reading the 'Scaling Agile @ Spotify' whitepaper and holding it up like Moses on the mountain as the One True Way of operating. That is, cross-functional squads, with each function also having a tribe. We did the same at Memrise in 2017, and they still do a modified model of it today. In saying that, not even Spotify still follow this model by the book.

Personally, I really like the embedded model. Having, at the very least, Product Managers, Product Designers and engineers on a single team, with a single purpose and a high level of autonomy, works really well for empowering your people to get good work done and focus hard on where they need to go. Output tends to be higher quality, design tends to have equal power alongside product and engineering, and development is speedier and more iterative.

Embedded teams make your designers feel less 'guns for hire', who get design briefs punted across the fence for them to go and deliver, and also helps get around an 'us vs them' culture between design and the rest of the business. Similarly, if you can still maintain some Design Team-wide rituals, like critiques, stand-ups, demos, retros etc, you can have a strong, unified design culture within the company, even if the designers don't work day-to-day on the same areas of the product.

This sounds like a glorious, wonderful scenario, and for the most part, it works. But there are downsides, and there are ways this model can break down. First off, the downsides across the board. The squad level autonomy makes it easy for design and product decisions to start diverging across the board, and more effort needs to be put in to avoiding inconsistencies, duplications and differing levels of experience quality. Another problem I've seen is that the squads can start getting some insane tunnel-vision, as you tend to be focussed on a single problem for long periods of time. This can impact the quality of your output, as your ability to see the woods for the trees is diminished.

Now for some scenario-specific downsides. This model works best when you have at least one, ideally two, designers per squad, and everyone is a strong T-shaped designer (ie. strong generalist, with strengths in particular areas). Ideally you'd have at least one senior on each squad, who has the experience and depth of knowledge to make strong product decisions. If you have more than 2 squads, that's a fair chunk of headcount.

Next, you need to be on the same level as the other squad leaders (ie. the Product Manager and the Engineering Manager/Lead). If you don't see eye to eye; if there's a power mismatch; if you don't all have the same expectations, you can end up in a shitty situation where you are miserable and achieving anything feels like pulling teeth.

So, in summary:

PROS

Designers (plus Product and Engineering) are empowered, engaged and feel responsible for the success of the product
The quality of the work tends to be higher, and work is done in a speedy, iterative fashion, due to depth of knowledge and comfort
Everyone feels included in the process and heard

CONS

Experience quality across the board can suffer, with inconsistencies and duplications due to lack of communication between squads
Tunnel-vision can cause a bit of a 'can't see the woods for the trees' scenario, where teams can't effectively solve the problem because they don't have the distance needed
Works most ideally when you have headcount for at least one empowered senior designer on each squad, who has a depth of knowledge and is trusted
Needs team cohesion and everyone on the same page

ADVICE IF YOU'RE GOING TO GO EMBEDDED

First off, make sure you have enough team members to go across squads. We made this mistake at first, with one designer serving 2-3 squads at a time. The squads weren't happy because they didn't have enough love or attention, and the designers weren't happy because they didn't have time to go deep enough into anything.

Second, a senior on each squad will make everyone's jobs easier, and make sure there aren't any weird power imbalances happening on key decisions. This will only rear its head after a while, and you will likely end up in a situation where a junior designer is constantly being told what to do by a Product Manager, which results in the worst of both worlds.

Finally, if management don't want to grant actual autonomy to the squads, the Pros list halves. On the flipside, it means that the squads need to be fully aware of the accountability they now carry as a team. If they don't deliver, they need to expect diminishing levels of autonomy until they regain trust.

## Centralising your Design Team

Centralising a Product Design team gets a bad rap. Sure, there are elements that don't work, and there are reasons that the embedded model is the new cool, but there are definitely situations where a centralised Product Design team makes sense. First off, what do I mean by 'centralising'? This means that all the Product Designers sit within a single team, and works best when you have someone dedicated to doing Design Program Management, which could be the Head of Design, or a dedicated person. The team effectively works like an agency, with internal stakeholders (usually PMs) sending through a brief, spec or product requirements doc. It's then up to the team to accept or reject the project, prioritise and resource it.

One big advantage of this model is that you will almost always have a strong design culture, as you sit and work together day-to-day. Another is that it allows for flexible resourcing depending on the project, which can be a boon when something juicy comes along. It's also a lot easier to keep the consistency and quality of the experience up, as you've all got max visibility on all the projects going on at one time. The model can work really well when you have strong product leadership, and are in a situation where the design team is very junior-heavy. This way, more of the product strategy and definition can happen at the product level before being briefed into designers.

Downsides? Straight up, this isn't a sustainable model for attracting or keeping talent. The main reason is that this also causes the designers to feel disempowered and lacking in autonomy. This is the flipside of that final advantage, as no matter what, a lot of the product decisions end up happening up the funnel, and by the time the designers get to it, it's often a 'Shut Up and Colour In' job. This way also promotes more of an us vs them mentality within the company, and the teams can end up feeling really siloed. Finally, because designer jump around on different parts of the product, it takes a long time to build up deep product knowledge in a particular area, which can mean that this model is great for optimisations, but really rubbish for anything dealing in innovation.

PROS

Promotes a strong design culture, because the designers all work day-to-day with each other
Easier to maintain consistency and quality across the product
Designers won't get bored easily
Allows for clearly defined specs, briefs and workload, which is good if you have a particularly junior team

CONS

Designers can feel disempowered and lacking in autonomy
Design can end up feeling like a 'Shut Up and Colour In' function
Can foster an us vs them mentality between design and other functions
Can lead to no one

ADVICE IF YOU'RE GOING TO GO CENTRALISED

For me, centralised makes sense as a stepping stone to building a strong embedded team. It makes sense if you have a small team, and need to service a lot of needs, but is not solving the underlying problem of not having enough resource. It makes sense if you have a lack of empowered senior Product Designers or design leaders within the team, but is not solving the underlying problem of not having the right kind of resource to have design function as it should. Basically, centralised teams are a good 'for now' solution.

But, if you feel like you need to go centralised despite these things, my big piece of advice is to invest in strong Design Program Management. This allows somebody to dedicate their time to making sure projects are properly specced, prioritised and resourced, that the team is delivering what they set out to deliver and that the wider company is happy. If you don't do this, it will be down to the team to cover this off, which will take up 40-50% of their time.

Where can I find out more?

That was more Federalist Papers and less TED Talk, but if you're still aching to read more, I highly recommend Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner's Org Design for Design Orgs as a first port of call. Without knowing it, I've been under the influence of this book for years (thanks to previous bosses being more well-read than me). In a similar vein, but slightly different, Om Suthar's The Natural Evolution for Design Leadership is a good breakdown of the pitfalls of the embedded model. I linked it up above, but Courtney Kaplan's What's a Design Program Manager and How Can My Team Get One? is a good primer on Design Program Management.

‍

A blank slate

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

There’s nothing like a new year for a blank slate. There’s something about the arbitrary marker of time that makes you feel like anything is possible. Yes, I can climb that mountain. Yes, I can take on that massive project that I have neither time nor energy for.

This is the spirit with which I’m redoing my website for the n-teenth time in preparation for a new role (which I’m very excited about). I need to get back in the process of writing, so this post serves two functions: One, dusting off the writing cobwebs, as the last thing I wrote about not in a forum post was the ill-fated character I created at Memrise, that was so hated by users that they created userscripts to get rid of him, and there was widespread rejoicing at his demise.

Secondly, I want to do a kind of ‘here’s what to expect’ slash call for topics of things I want to write about. While a lot of the DesignOps type stuff will definitely be sitting on some of the more official ZH channels, I want to use this space talk more widely about design, inclusion and diversity, and maybe every so often sneak in a music recommendation or two (because it’s what fuels me as a person).

At the moment, the main areas I’m interested in diving into are:

Design and globalisation, as started five years ago (god I’m getting old) in this Medium post
How to set design orgs up for inclusion and equality
The effect of service design on society’s systems, and its role in inclusion and all the systemic isms
Why Josie and the Pussycats is this generation’s Citizen Kane

That’s what’s rattling around my head at the moment at least. I’d love to hear thoughts and expansions on the above. Similarly, if you’ve got any suggestions for areas you’d like someone else to scratch their chin about over an overpriced beer, then let me know below.

Web Celebrities - a bad term for a good thing

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Ever since I got involved in the design and dev community online, the whole ‘web celebrity’ thing has been a topic that keeps coming up. Not only does it seem frowned upon to be someone tarred with this brush, like it was even their doing, but also can open up those people to some pretty nasty stuff. I’ve talked about it briefly online before, but I thought I’d jot down my thoughts on the whole ‘web celebrity’ thing…

For those who didn’t know, before I picked up the creative mantle at 33 Digital, I was one of their social media folks, helping companies find the right people to talk to online and then advising how they could talk to them (and sometimes even doing the talking). As you’d expect, the finding is a big part of the job, which meant that we spent loads of time not only building influencer lists, but also monitoring and analysing the way they talk (to the point where 33 actually built their own tool to do it). It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, there will always be people online who have a greater amount of influence than the rest. From a brand perspective it’s easy… if you can get one of these guys to talk about your stuff in a good light, it’ll reach more people’s ears and carry some weight. This works wonders for product-based industries, where most of the influencers are commentators, writing about things that are happening or being sold, but it’s a much more nuanced thing when it comes to a service or skills-based industry like ours.

This is because the influencers in our industry haven’t developed their profile by commentating, but through actual working in the industry. Generally, a profile is raised in one of three ways: Consistently designing or building amazing or useful things, either as part of their job or as a side project; Sharing their ideas or insights in a way that teaches and inspires; or being an active member of the community and building networks of people over a considerable amount of time. Interestingly, none of these are usually born of a desire to be ‘internet famous’ (I haven’t met an influencer yet who doesn’t cringe at the term ‘web celebrity’), but a passion for their craft and a desire to see others do better work.

The criticism that is levelled at the influencer is usually around them not fitting into the first category, as if building and designing things constantly is the only way to warrant having a voice. However, the other two types of influencer have equal, if not more, value than people who are constantly building or designing. This is because sharing is such an integral part of maturing our industry, and just because someone has the skills to design or build amazing things, doesn’t mean they can effectively communicate the how and why of their process, or postulate on what might make their skill better. Similarly, they may not have the networks to amplify their work across the industry, informing others of their techniques, tools and processes.

There’s one person in particular who is often targeted in these barbed comments, with questions raised about what makes them qualified to speak, write or teach (or influence) when they haven’t ‘shipped’ something in almost ten years. I’ll admit I questioned the whole thing myself until I saw them speak a number of times and realised that what made them so popular on the speaking circuit was their ability to communicate and connect with an audience. They are a good teacher, and obviously have enough passion to keep up with the industry that it doesn’t matter that they hadn’t built or designed a product in a few years.

That’s where I think the distinction is with this argument. These people aren’t celebrities, but influencers. As long as they are using this influence ‘for good’, by sharing their ideas, practices and learnings to teach and inspire, our industry will continue to flourish, with more young designers and developers ‘coming up the ranks’ to continue the cycle of sharing and learning.

These people haven’t asked for this title to be thrust upon them, and some carry it better than others. I’m pretty sure 80% of the influencers in our industry wouldn’t think they are necessarily influential, but the things they share and the people they inspire is worthy of a bit of admiration, and we shouldn’t judge them because of that.

This was originally posted on Medium as part of the I.M.H.O collection.

Ace of Cups - Luke Murphy's personal website

On Australia and making new music

Weeknotes - on being a different person in different places

I feel like I’m a different person in different places

My brain is too loud to handle solitude

Currently listening to, reading, and watching

Weeknotes - How does one be bored?

Weeknotes - New year heaviness

Year in Review 2025

A Year of Lurking

My year in music

Luke's Top Albums of 2025

Luke's Top Gigs of 2025

My year in films

Luke's Top Films of 2025

My year in books

Luke's Top Books of 2025

My year in side projects

Side Quests Started

Side Quests Ended

Next year in Side Quests

Ins and Outs for 2026

Ins

Outs

Peace out until 2027 ✌️

Weeknotes - Digital patina, decision making, and svg filters

Committing to continuous improvement

Thinking about website patina

Thinking about decision making

The website tinkering zone

Weeknotes - On not having control

Current book:

Current music:

How to run a DIY gig

Weeknotes - On live music, attention and social anxiety

I want to find joy in seeing music again

Current Book:

Current Music:

Weeknotes - on being queer and using clothing as armour

Being queer and using clothing as armour

Current music: Knocked Loose - You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

Other articles I’ve been working on

I've been using AI and I feel dirty

Creating illustration via Midjourney

Using Notion AI to create snippets of a lesson

Workshop Plan: Running an Initial Audit on Your Design System

Objectives

Participants

Materials

Agenda

Introduction (10 minutes)

Current State Assessment (60 minutes)

Group Discussion (30 minutes)

Prioritization and Planning (60 minutes)

Conclusion (10 minutes)

Follow-Up

There’s still a lot of ethical implications to consider

Weeknotes - good creatives vs douchebag creatives

Weeknotes - maybe i should just go sit down

Passing Problematic

ADHD and managing side projects

Constantly changing tasks, inability to concentrate, not being able to complete

Losing interest in things

Recognising when it’s all a bit too much

Impulsivity vs Hyperfixating

Weeknotes - front-end conferences and millennial angst

Weeknotes - A small note on Plants and ADHD

Weeknotes - I cant believe I chose the mountains every time you chose the sea

What is a design advocate?

So what the heck is a design advocate?

So is this thing new?

So what does a design advocate actually do?

So what about zeroheight?

Why would a designer "stop designing" and start avocado-ing?

Where can I sign up?

Weeknotes - I wanna move to Switzerland

Weeknotes - Proud of myself and the loner I've become

Weeknotes - I am not the Fred Astaire of words

Centralising or Embedding your Product Design Team

PROS