10,000 BCE to 1500 CE
From stone tablets to illuminated manuscript, designers making artifacts and systems for work did things by hand. Cultures shaped the tools that were used and media varied based on utility and resilience.
1500 CE to 1980s CE
The printing press revolutionized Western thought and media, but it was met with familiar resistance. Readers complained of an uncanny effect that machine type had as it imitated the pen strokes and rhythm of handwritten text.
1980s to today
Desktop publishing took the work of entire teams and reduced the steps to a few pushes of a button. Designers could now directly steer what would go on a page and produce materials with a fraction of the staff and cost once required. Many designers protested the changes and accused the new designs as soulless and without craft.
Today
It’s another upheaval: artificial intelligence can create and designers must decide how best to use this new capability. Where is the line between automation and creativity? What are the ethics of remixed UI from an LLM’s trained data? What does authorship look like now?
Horses are faster than people, but in the hands of capable riders can go further, build more, and navigate treacherous landscapes than they could alone.
The rider doesn’t need to move the hooves or direct the eyes, but its steer does ensure the two arrive where the rider intends.
The work of underwriters is fraught with risk. AI can help experts research and coordinate complex overlapping systems.
Whether it’s streamlining reporting processes for investors or helping teams close the books faster, AI is here to help.
When a system serves the public, it needs to work effectively and efficiently. AI can take the tedium out of permits, procurement, and more.
Repetitive asks of designers are becoming a bygone annoyance. Plugins, markdowns, and skills help non-design teams create beauty all their own.
An AI platform deserves an AI-friendly design system, so we built one with generative AI in mind. It’s badass.
What will you make here?
If you can correct AI’s typesetting, investigate better than research mode, and edit machine-made UI to be ten times better, you’re in the right place.
We need curious, fearless, and chill designers who, like our California design heroes Charles and Ray Eames, can take on some of the world’s hardest problems with a mix of wit and play.
