I admit, I'm slowly getting tired of it myself. But I also believe we have a good 20 months or so still riding the AI hype wave until it starts to slow down.

We've been accelerating massively in the past couple of months. Pretty much every month there is a new "groundbreaking" AI model. Every day there are countless new apps, services and startups promising the world to us. It's the new gold rush. But it will be here to stay. It's almost impossible to even feel remotely up-to-date with the news in the AI space, it's all happening so fast.

It feels like everything is up for grabs right now. The entire world is moving in a new direction. It's possibly one of the biggest moral & technological shifts since the invention of the internet.

Here are a couple of key observations from my perspective, in no particular order.

The moral shift

One of the biggest changes I see is copyright and intellectual property. AI allows us to plagiarize without feeling guilty about it. Something that would've been impossible 10-15 years ago from a moral standpoint, now feels completely feasible.

Some people will hate it, and some people will celebrate it. It depends on who you ask. But the shift is undeniable and the repercussions will be massive.

For example, Adobe now automatically opts you into a setting in which all your work/files are shared with Adobe so they can train their AI models on it. While you'd think there would be a massive outcry, there is very little pushback because the moral shift has already happened in which we're completely okay to surrender all our information to AI companies. The same happened with privacy over the past decade, which is equally dead today. In fact, I'd argue being careful with your data and privacy is a very boomer/millennial concern, and therefore a dying concept (once again, exceptions apply, but generally speaking I believe this to be true).

But then I think about the industrial revolution. It changed the world entirely and put millions of people out of a job who eventually had to re-train and find a new place within the new system. I believe the same to be happening now. The AI revolution is the industrial revolution of the digital realm. It's a firmware update for our society. It's the real computing revolution we've been waiting for.

Sometimes a new technology can only make it when our moral compass allows for it. We've collectively paved the way to where we are today for the past two decades, willingly or unwillingly. We came all the way from a time in which we didn't even share our real names on the internet, to today where we surrender all of our darkest secrets without any second thoughts. It's this moral shift which is driving our current technological advancements.

You can predict new apps, services and inventions solely based on our moral values, or the lack of them. For example, online dating used to be weird and not widely accepted, but today it's the norm. And the reason for this is less about technology, and more about the fact that we as society, slowly started to accept it into our culture. What will it be tomorrow? Something like Gattaca? I don't think we're far away from it.

The generational fight

I truly believe that all dialogue around this topic comes down to different generations. There's technically no right or wrong. Moral and ethics always change, if we like it or not. A moral shift can only happen when there's enough critical mass of a new generation that doesn't resist the new progress. Most people who have a problem with AI tend to be people who are now a bit older, around 35+. (I know, I just said 35+ is old, I'm sorry.) Most younger people seem to either love AI, or have no particular issue with it because that's all they have ever known. It's their technological moment. The same way we had Web 1.0 and the Web 2.0 boom (remember?), younger people now have the proliferation of algorithms and AI. The irony here is that the AI revolution is put in place by a small subset of "older" generations, in order to profit off of the younger generations. It's quite beautiful if you think of it from a pure economical standpoint. But it's also a bet that has yet to be proven – a $600 billion bet at this point. This money has to be made back, and we will be the one paying for it.

The values I was raised on are now completely obsolete, the same way some values my parents adhered to became obsolete the moment my generation took over and created the digital economy we know today.

Given all this, I try to look at it from the perspective of generations. Who's for it and who's against it usually comes down to how native it feels to you, how compatible it is with the worldview you formed when you were young. Our worldview is often shaped during our early years, and then we just hold on to it for the rest of our life. These moral shifts create tension between generations and challenge our definition of what's "right or wrong."

I'm getting lost here. My point is: What you think about AI mostly comes down to how far you are into life. How settled you are. Your professional seniority. How confident you are in your skills and abilities. How much experience you have and what values you hold dear.

The creator economy

When you look at big social networks, all of them have one big problem in common: Only a small percentage of their users would be considered "creators." The majority of people are silent consumers. They browse, they like, they might comment, but they don't create new content. But to keep the platform active and make you spend more time on it (stickiness), the platforms need more content. New content is what makes you come back again and again, and they need CREATORS to create that content for them. In fact, ideally content would just create itself. And that's why social networks absolutely LOVE the rise of AI. Because it lowers the barrier of entry. It gives the average person the tools to create something out of "nothing." The more people do it, the more content is being shared which is then being liked, remixed, commented on and so forth. The cycle repeats, and the numbers go up.

I don't think people appreciate just how much we've changed from just 15 years ago. Today everyone is a content creator, everyone is "productizing" themselves. Everyone is selling SOMETHING. And even if they're not, they're feeding the monster with more content. And it will only get easier and faster with AI.

Someone who was afraid to share an Instagram Reel before is now sharing dozens of them because AI tools make it so easy there are no excuses anymore. Is it a good thing? I will let you decide. But my point is: AI creation tools are a godsend for content platforms, and I can promise you they will milk it to death in every way they can.

On top of that: If the creation and automation of new content is increased, the quality is automatically going down. This results in even more content being created, because the no one feels bad for not adhering to a certain standard for quality.

You don't really care about AI

We're riding the AI wave right now. We're interested in new products and experiences solely because they have the word "AI" in it. AI is still a novel concept.

It's like discovering ketchup, and now we're re-inventing every recipe we already knew but with ketchup. But you can only do this for so long. At some point people will not care anymore. Give it another 20 months from now.

AI will still power everything, in fact it will be the bedrock of our digital experiences. But we just won't talk about it anymore, the same we we're not talking about "being online" as a novel concept anymore, because everything is online anyway. Imagine a bakery nowadays announcing that you can now order their bread online. Congrats, you made it to 2024, who cares.

When we started mymind.com back in 2020, we were one of the first to have AI features. It was nice to talk about them and it was a good marketing strategy. But recently we've scaled down our mentions of AI in our marketing materials because we just got tired of it. Who cares about AI, it's everywhere now and when it comes down to it, people care about what a product CAN DO FOR THEM, and not what specific technology makes it possible. We want mymind to stand on its own, without being attached to any hype terms. I mean we've seen what happened to Rabbit and the Humane AI Pin. Dead on arrival. And they're just one of hundreds of other examples.

AI is still a novel concept as of today, so we might be able to ride the hype train for a little longer, but I am 1000% certain it won't last. At some point you have to BE MORE than just "We're the AI solution in market X." Ultimately we will all go back to what we used to do 10 years ago, just now we do it with AI, which means we do it more efficiently, and that's about it.

AI in design

This is a difficult topic for me. I believe that AI will change the design industry forever. In the future more people will be able to "design." More companies will be able to ship designs without a designer even being involved. Software will be able to design itself, on the fly.

Are you surprised? I'm not. We put ourselves there for the past decade. Designers have worked incredibly hard over the past decade to collectively put themselves out of a job. Design systems and templates are just a small portion of this. "Digital design" has become so standardized that even a toddler can do it nowadays. Most of our apps and websites are now based on the same patterns. They're so reliant on the same "best practice" examples that they're all pretty much the identical. It needs no genius to figure it out anymore, let alone a dedicated designer.

I still believe there will be many designers, some of whom will do "original" work, but most of them will be more like "managers" who just input some stuff in the AI systems, modify it slightly, and move on to the next thing. Not a big difference to how it already is at most big tech companies, just now they can do it even more efficiently.

And due to the lower barrier of entry, we will see even more startups, apps and websites, giving more people access to our global digital economy.

Will I miss the old and golden days of design? Absolutely, I already do. I'm a romantic. And I'm sure due to my passion I will continue designing the old way, but I already know that the new "AI assisted designer" will pass me in the coming years.

I don't believe this is because AI will become necessarily better at designing, I just believe it will become faster and more efficient at it. And in a society in which we value quantity over quality, an AI will always win. It's the name of the game.

The counter wave

In the coming years we will continue down the path of hyper-efficiency and automation. We will continue in our new moral direction in which quality, trust, originality and "human touch" have no particular priority. We will disregard our old human values.

But this is where the counter movement is born. A small group of people will focus again on providing a more "human" experience. A more romantic premise of the world. A more personal experience.

Those designers will position themselves more as craftsmen/artisans, in which not only their work/output is different to automated systems, but where the entire experience of working with a human, a personal connection, becomes the selling point. Because it's not always just about the final end product, often it's how you got there that makes it interesting and worthwhile.

It will be the day where a new app launches that promises "a personal driver" because we're so sick of self-driving cars and we just want a human to drive us, speak to us and connect with us.

One day there will be hotels marketed as having "a human concierge experience" because we're collectively tired of an iPad in our face when we do our self check-in.

Companies who offer real customer support, because it will become a special experience to us compared to AI chatbots, and we're happy to pay a bit extra for a personal experience. (Funnily enough, this is already what modern modern luxury is about these days.)

I truly believe there will be a counter movement, and I can promise you I will be at the forefront of it. Not because I hate AI and automated systems, but because I love to build beautiful, human experiences. I'm old fashioned that way.

Most importantly, I believe that this new counter movement will be pushed by the younger generation as well, the same generation that is now fueling the AI movement. You live, and you learn. Motivated by a sort of nostalgia for a time they've never experienced, they'll bring back older values again. It's like a pendulum that swings. At least that's my optimistic outlook.

The winner

The most important question at the end of it all: Who's the winner of this entire AI race? It's the big tech companies. The ones who own the infrastructure. The ones who own the streets. There are no other winners. AI and the war for computation will always bubble to the top, there is no other way around it. The best AI models and AI tech will be exclusively available to a select few, and the rest will be available to "rent" through your regular cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google etc.).

You might say "no that's not true, AI is amazing because it democratizes information and everyone can run their own models." But I say bullshit to that. Nobody is going to run their own local AI models, the same way that nobody is building their own computer nowadays anymore. We're all using the same iPhones, the same laptops, the same apps and tools. We're lazy. There's a VERY tiny minority who actually still builds their PC themselves, installs Linux, runs their own DNS servers and uses a jailbroken phone. The rest of are completely addicted to the "ease of use" ecosystem. We won't bounce far outside our own walls.

The thousands of ChatGPT wrapper startups are only proof of that. AI technology (which basically is just computation) concentrates at the top because it's so expensive to run, it can only be done well by a very small group of companies, and even they are sweating hard to make it happen. Again, $600+ billion has been sunk into the current infrastructure revamp, and we've only started. AI is a big tech bet, and the only real winner is big tech, if it pays off.

Think of your repertoire as the accumulation of everything you've ever seen or experienced, distilled down to its essence, ready to draw on whenever you need inspiration.

In one way, our minds are already a big part of this repertoire. The more experience you have and the more you've seen, the better you'll be at your work.

Creatives are expected to come up with ideas, but not just any ideas – original, refreshing ideas. A good creative has the unique skill of pulling good ideas "out of thin air." That's not a given for most people, so we have the luxury of making it our day job.

But the only way we can create something out of thin air is because we've built our own system (even if it's just in our minds) that allows us to capture material and references over a lifetime. We then connect these fragments and "milk" them for unexpected connections, which ultimately leads us to truly original ideas.

And this leads me to the personal repertoire. If you don't have one yet, you should build one. It's the ultimate "bicycle for your mind" to make the most of your already amazing brain.

Nr.1 — The tool

The tool or system doesn't matter really, it's all up to YOU and how your mind works the best. Anything I will write below could apply to any system you might have. You could be using a digital tool, you could be using folders on your computer, or you could be using a shoe box where you collect printouts. Or a combination of all these.

I use mymind for building my repertoire. I am involved with building mymind, which is probably why I find it to be MY personal best solution. Yours might be different.

Nr.2 — The most important part

Your repertoire should be private. Yes, entirely private. The moment you have it open to other people, you're now trying to impress. It changes the entire dynamic of your personal library. Imagine you have your bookshelf exposed at home, for every guest to see. And you make a point of only putting beautiful books on the shelf. Agreeable books. Books that fit the narrative you want to tell about yourself. Books that everyone else reads too.

I'd call this a bad bookshelf. Or at least, it isn't you.

Keep your repertoire private. Secret to only yourself. Don't share it, don't collaborate on it. It's your own garden.

The moment you start collecting JUST for yourself, everything changes. There's no pressure to perform for anybody. There's no pressure to appear likable, on-trend or agreeable amongst your peers. There's no need to curate for superficial reasons like "aesthetic consistency." You are only curating for yourself.

It's a beautiful feeling. Once you fully surrender yourself to it you'll find all kinds of weird things in your repertoire. Real, interesting references that push you outside the agreeable box. You're now free.

In addition, nobody should be able to trace your steps when it comes to inspiration. You're the magician, keep your secrets to yourself and let others uncover them — If they can (:

In my case, since I use mymind it's all private by default. There's no collaboration, no social features, nothing.

Nr.3 — Do not force a garden, give it time and let it grow.

You can't just create your own repertoire within hours, or days, or even weeks. This is a lifelong commitment. A gift that you are giving to yourself.

I know all this might sound a bit philosophical here, but hear me out. You can't just download a million images from some website, or someone else's Pinterest board and then call this your own repertoire. You can't skip the magic.

Keeping images or other references in your repertoire that have no particular meaning to yourself only adds clutter and is completely meaningless in the process of ideation. The entire point of your OWN repertoire is that every piece in it evokes some sort of emotion in yourself. It's the primary deciding factor on WHY you save something into it in the first place. You can't cheat yourself to the top and skip the entire process, you have to climb the mountain.

Only once I have given a reference my own "stamp of approval" does it land in my collection. There will always be millions of kitchen interior references online, but the 100+ I have in my repertoire are by far the best, according to my taste.

So how do I decide if something goes in mymind (my repertoire) or not?

Nr.4 — Collect ambivalently and passively. Not indifferently.

I have to have a strong feeling about something. Ambivalent means having strong but perhaps opposing feelings towards something. If I have this feeling, it's already enough for me to save it to my repertoire, because I know it will be useful in the future. I felt something. But if I feel indifferent about something, that's a clear sign that I will not save it because it's entirely useless to me.

The second part of this is making it a passive habit to find meaning in something, without a clear purpose or an immediate payoff.

Usually, when we are building a little collection of references, we do it as part of the research of a particular project. But this means we're looking at the vast resources of the internet when we want something very specific, to add to an even more specific collection. We're automatically limiting ourselves in the process, as we're only trying to find references that match a certain vibe for a particular project.

But when building your own repertoire, you want your "funnel" open at all times. You want to passively build it up, every single day so it will in itself become a more specific resource in the future.

For example: Every time I browse the internet, every time I see an image that makes me FEEL something, I immediately save it. Even though this image has no immediate purpose. It's not for a current project. The reference truly has no purpose other than one I imagine exists in the future. And this is where the secret is at.

The same way your real mind works is how your own repertoire works. It's a sponge of references, ideas, stories and things you care about. Everything you don't care about (feel indifferent about) doesn't get soaked up by the sponge and slowly fades into oblivion.

This is another reason I love mymind as my repertoire. There are no folders or categories because I find them completely useless and they disrupt my natural flow of saving references for the future. Because if a particular reference has no immediate purpose, there is also no folder or category for it. And I do not want the process of organizing or categorizing to add friction to my saving process.

You simply want to save something, and then move on. Let your collection grow passively over time. One drop at a time.

Nr.5 — Examples of what I save

I save almost everything that makes me feel something. Most of what I save are images of course. But there are also countless quotes, articles, highlights, snippets, products and many random websites as well.

Here are some examples:

I saved this necklace a while ago because I liked the material and overall vibe of it. I knew that I would be working on my own HOVS necklace at some point. All I did was save it with one click, and mymind automatically tagged it for me with chain, necklace and silver. In the future I just have to search for "necklace" and then this and many other references will come up, even though I never even created a folder or category just for "necklaces." I know it sounds almost too simple, but that's what I love about it.

I saved this logo to mymind because I just loved the vibe of it and I know that I will eventually come back to it, either because of the illustration inside, the entire composition, or the wonderful custom condensed typeface. I'll surely reference this later when I am working on a logo for one of my many projects.

Or let's talk about quotes. I save tons of them to my repertoire all the time. Each of them makes me think, they make me reflect. Sometimes I stumble upon a quote randomly while browsing my repertoire and it makes me smile. That's already a win for me. Sometimes a quote inspires me to write an article, like this one here. Sometimes a quote helps me make a point while I'm in a conversation with a friend. I love collecting quotes, and even more so, reflecting back on them on a regular basis.

I also collect random snippets from books, magazines, posters, or other things that could be interesting to me in the future. Some of these are inspiring to me because of their layout, and some of them because of their contents. Many of these have inspired me to write articles, create advertisements for my business or helped me understand the world a little bit better. And again, the beauty is that each of those I have manually collected myself over the past years. I'm not just looking at a random Google search or Pinterest board, but MY OWN repertoire that I've curated. Each of those pieces is valuable to me personally, and I could explain exactly why for each of them.

The examples above are just some of the hundreds of things I collect in my repertoire.

I also save products I like and want to revisit later. A new headset. A motorcycle I like. A car that I've been dreaming about.

I save articles that interest me and then take "Mind Notes" next to those articles to help me reflect on them. I do the same with YouTube videos, but only special ones, ones that I want to revisit and come back to (there are a lot of "trashy" videos I watch on YouTube that don't need to go into my repertoire).

And then I save colors to my repertoire. All the time. I see a nice green, I save it straight to mymind. Whenever I work on a new project and look for nice colors, I come straight back to my repertoire to see what I collected there over the years.

It really could be anything.

Nr.6 — My recall methods

The random inspirational browse

The beauty of having your own curated repertoire is that you can browse through it whenever you feel uninspired and need a little kick in your ass.

I know it sounds almost too basic to write about, but people often collect hundreds of references but then never look at them again. They're buried somewhere on a hard drive or they have Pinterest boards with thousands of images all of which the have no real connection to. I truly believe that the way you collect also influences the way you then re-experience it. As mentioned above, if you are just saving things for the sake if it, you're just building a pile of uninteresting things.

I browse through mymind all the time. When I feel down, I just go there, have a little browse and immediately feel inspired by some of the things I saved, and know exactly what I want to work on next.

Searching for specific references

This is my main use case. Let's say I'm working on a specific print/branding project and I quickly need references for certain materials or print techniques. I just head to mymind, type in what I am looking for and I will likely immediately find it. I never created a folder or collection with "print inspiration" because that would be too broad for me. In my case, I was looking for an example that shows a beautiful "debossing effect" and that's what I searched for, and boom, there it is.

Some other times I might search for a foil stamp example, paper materials or whatever it might be. My repertoire is full of these references which I collected over the years and they serve me every single day.

Serendipity

There's a feature in mymind that is called "Serendipity" and you can already imagine what it is. Instead of showing you a grid of things, it just presents you with ONE item from your repertoire, and only ONE at a time.

It sort of slows down the way you look at things because instead of staring at a big grid of things with divided attention, you only look at ONE item and you make a conscious decision of either KEEPING it or DELETING it. But the real beauty is that it pulls things from my repertoire that I perhaps saved even years ago and didn't even know existed anymore. There are some surprising, serendipitous moments and I absolutely love it. Of course this is very specific feature to mymind, but I am sure you can apply this to any other system as well. You're just trying to break the linear access you usually have with your own database.

Same Vibe

There's a particular feature in mymind that I use all the time. It's called SAME VIBE and it basically finds more images with a "similar vibe" based on one reference image.

If I'm looking for a particular reference but want to find more like it, I just click the "Same Vibe" button. The beauty of Same Vibe is that it's not very literal in a sense that it won't find images that are EXACTLY the same, but it finds references that fit the same mood.

So for example, if I start from the necklace I posted above, I might find more references that have a similar art direction which sort of leads me down more rabbit holes of my own repertoire. Again, it's important to mention here that every image I see, is something I saved personally over the last years. Otherwise I could just go to Google Images or Pinterest, but that's not the point of my own repertoire.

Or another example. Here I'm just clicking "Same Vibe" on a car (an old Mercedes) I saved. I immediately get to see other cars from that era. I never tagged any of these images, I never created a collection or board, none of it.

The beauty of having your own repertoire is that I have all these references immediately available to me, and the beauty of mymind is that it gives me the tools to browse my own repertoire in ways I could've not imagined before.

Conclusion

I could keep talking and talking about this topic because it's very dear to me, but we have to end it somewhere.

To summarize:

1.) Keep your repertoire private. It changes everything.

2.) Build your repertoire today, and keep doing it forever. The longer you do it, the better it becomes. It's like investing, just that here you're investing in your own idea bank. Your own digital garden.

3.) Collect with intention, but find the perfect balance. Don't throw everything you see into your repertoire, but also don't be so picky that you never save anything. You're not here to impress anyone. Find a healthy balance.

4.) Keep your repertoire clean. Come back often, delete things if necessary and build a relationship with your repertoire. Don't let it turn into a graveyard or a collection of trash you don't care about.

5.) Most importantly: Give it time. Don't rush it. Use it a bit most days, and on some days don't use it at all. There's no pressure involved, and since it's entirely private, nobody will see what you're doing.

Related reading:

The secret behind inspiration

I wrote about inspiration before. It’s a fascinating topic to me personally. In fact, it’s on my mind almost every day. As creatives, its the fuel that powers us through our days, and we are all painfully aware how it feels on those days when inspiration has eluded us. Generally

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

The case for being ignorant

I am sure you know this feeling. You find a new book that you absolutely love. A new movie, a new TV series or even a new hobby such as cycling or designing. It can be anything and everything.

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

I wrote about inspiration before. It's a fascinating topic to me personally. In fact, it's on my mind almost every day. As creatives, its the fuel that powers us through our days, and we are all painfully aware how it feels on those days when inspiration has eluded us.

Generally speaking, there are two different kinds of inspiration:

1) There is "feeling inspired to be inspired." Meaning, the feeling of being motivated to work in the first place. That sense that we are mentally in a good place, have everything order and feel "ready" to get inspired. Some might argue that this kind of "inspiration" isn't required for good work because the real inspiration comes when you're already working. You don't need to "feel inspired" to get inspired – you need discipline. This quote by Chuck Close puts it perfectly:

“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.”

But this is not the kind of inspiration we're talking today. Today we're focused on my second definition ↓

2) I call it the "to think creatively" kind if inspiration. This one is connected to generating original ideas and novel concepts which enable you to do work you haven't done before. This is the kind of inspiration you can influence and possibly even control — And I am going to show you how.

Leave your box, right now.

Too often, we fall into the trap of seeking inspiration solely within our own field. A UX designer who follows other UX designers, a novelist other novelists, and a tech entrepreneur other tech startups.

I see this all the time. Designers who only read books from other designers. UX designers who only browse Dribbble for inspiration. Graphic designers who only visit conferences with other graphic designers.

And if you spend a majority of your time online, algorithms reinforce and amplify this behavior when browsing the web. The more of the same work you look at online, the more that kind of work will be shown to you in the future. There's very little room for serendipity and randomness, the good kind of randomness. You have to make a strong conscious effort to break outside what you see.

While there's value in studying the masters of your own craft, limiting yourself to this narrow view can lead to stagnation and derivative work.

Cast your net wide

Consider the richness you can find when exposing yourself to the entire world instead of just your narrow field.

Imagine a graphic designer who might find inspiration for a new logo in the intricate patterns of Islamic architecture, or the bold color contrast of a modernist painting, or the calm and elegant simplicity of Japanese tea ceremonies.

If you're a designer, expose yourself to architecture, fashion, literature, automotive design, art, movies... heck, anything really. You may as well browse an old kitchen appliance catalogue from the 90s and you'll be surprised how inspiring that is.

This "cross-pollination" of ideas isn't just a romantic concept — it's a practice that has led to some of the most wonderful pieces of work out in this world. I'll give you some fun examples:

Steve Jobs credited his college calligraphy class for inspiring Apple's emphasis on typography and design aesthetics. It truly changed the world, and all it took for him was his dabbling in calligraphy, far away from tech and computers.

In the 1990s, NASA faced a challenge: how to pack large solar panels into small satellite compartments. Engineer Brian Trease found the solution in an art form—Japanese origami. Collaborating with origami expert Robert Lang, they applied intricate folding techniques to solar panel design.

Casting your net wide also means looking beyond high art or professional domains that might seem related. Inspiration can be found in the mundane, the overlooked, the everyday. A stand-up comedian might craft a brilliant joke routine after observing the weird and quirky interactions at a local coffee shop. The way light filters through leaves on a tree might bring an idea for an eco-friendly packaging design.

Even more important, don't limit your search to visual stimuli alone. Inspiration can come through any sense. The tactile experience of kneading bread, the aroma of spices, the smell of perfume, or the taste of a complex wine—each can evoke emotions, memories, and associations. Physical experiences like hiking a mountain or dancing can also shift your perspective and make those synapses in your brain flirt with each other (that's what you want).

Simply put: As corny as this might sound, live your life to the fullest. Try out new things. Watch weird movies. The more colorful, the better. The best designers and creatives in this industry have what I'd call "a personal repertoire" of ideas and experiences. Some of which are documented and many which are just floating in their heads. They've collected all the dots over many years and are now able to connect them more easily. You can't connect dots if there aren't any in the first place.

And this brings me to my next point: Collect your dots.

Build your very own repertoire

This is the secret. A well known secret I should add. Having a system that allows you to capture these distinct ideas is crucial. Over time, these collected fragments can form unexpected connections, leading to truly original ideas and the kind of inspiration you are looking for.

Repertoire is french meaning "the complete list or supply of dramas, operas, or musical works available for performance." More generally, repertoire can also refer to the range of skills, techniques, or abilities a person possesses and can use when needed. But in our case, your repertoire means the amount and the quality of references you both exposed yourself to and collected.

This is what I use mymind for. It's my secret weapon. My private garden of ideas. It's my muse, my inspirational heaven. You may use another tool, or multiple tools, even if its just a sketchbook or a physical shoebox where you collect things in. It's important that it is private to you, because the moment you have it open to other people, you're not yourself anymore and you're starting to curate for others and then it ends up being a whole different thing. It is a requirement for your OWN IDEA GARDEN to be entirely private so you can collect and build your repertoire free of judgement.

Trust me, it makes a world of a difference. In addition, nobody should be able to trace your steps when it comes to inspiration. You're the magician, keep your secrets.

In my next email/essay, I'll go into detail on how to build the perfect repertoire.

Related reading:

The inspiration lie - DESK Magazine

Probably one of the most asked questions I get is “How do you get inspired?”.

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

I love to design things, love to create things, for myself and for others. It's a way of life for me.

Over the past decade I've had the privilege to experience the full professional spectrum of being a designer in the commercial world.

I worked for direct clients through my own service design studio.

I worked as a freelancer/consultant for other design agencies and their clients.

I worked as a full-time designer at large advertising agencies.

And I've worked as a full-time designer at a regular product company.

Even though I had some sort of design role at each of these jobs, they all differ from each other. The work, the responsibilities, the structure etc.

But with all of these there was something missing for me. Something big, something that kept me moving and eventually landed me to where I am today.

Creating my "total work of art"

In German we have this perfect word "Gesamtkunstwerk"often associated with Richard Wagner's operas, which translates to "total work of art" or "universal artwork."

It describes a creation that harmoniously integrates multiple art forms — music, drama, visuals — into a cohesive, immersive experience. As a designer, I've come to see my business from this perspective. A symphony where every element plays a crucial role in crafting a unified masterpiece.

And this is precisely what I was missing before I had my own product company. Working for clients (as in, providing a service) means that I get to do beautiful designs, but I have very little responsibility or ownership when it comes to the implementation and follow-through of those design solutions. It's both a blessing and a curse: you get the satisfaction of a clean "end" to a project – but sometimes you want to go further, and you can't. As a designer you're hired for your specific skillset, with limited exposure to the entire business operation. And for some, that's the ideal scenario.

But I always had this urge to "control" the entire picture, the "total work of art" across all disciplines. It's a weirdly selfish act to be honest. But I find pleasure in "designing" things more traditional designers might not care about, and perhaps that's the WHY behind what I do today.

Let's look at some of the instruments that make up the orchestra of business:

Customer Support

Customer support, often seen as a mere necessity, is one of the things I'm most passionate about. The entire customer experience can be "designed" from front to back. In fact, I'd even argue that customer support is the backbone of your brand-building effort.

It's where you create a dialogue, build community and even more importantly: It's where you build trust. And the beauty is, it's all in the details. The time you need to respond to support tickets, the tone of voice (part of branding) you use when talking to customers — All these things can be designed. And it's something I greatly missed before having my own product company.

Branding

One of the most fun things about running your own product company as a designer? I get to do the branding for it. The visual and the invisible language that connects everything.

Branding is more than just a logo or color scheme — It's a promise, a personality, a story told through every typeface choice, image or tagline. It's the manifestation of "the vision" made visible through the power of design and copywriting. And that's why for me, branding and customer support for example are inseparable. They belong together in the "Gesamtkunstwerk."

Product Design

Product design is at the core of everything. The company wouldn't exist without it. But product design is more than just the functionality and what it does. It's more than just "solving a problem" in a technical way. Product design can be branding and marketing at the same time. A product in itself can have character, it can be designed with intention and imbued with meaning. Some people think that that's the job of branding or marketing, but it couldn't be further away from the truth.

In fact, I believe this to be one of the great misconceptions of this industry. There are many companies out there who try to fix or change their product with a new logo or marketing idea. But you can't. The product is at the core of it all, and you'll have to do a lot of hardcore "marketing storytelling" to change the story of a product that has a strong narrative on its own. The biggest problem many companies face is that they've separated the product from the brand or marketing. They're all different teams with different roadmaps. It's an orchestra of instruments where everyone's trying to play a different song.

Marketing

I love marketing. In fact I was probably more excited about marketing when I started designing than I was about becoming a designer. It came naturally to me because I was deeply fascinated by human psychology.

Marketing is about sharing your company's story. It's the loud speakers you set up – and where you set them up, how often you do so and how loud you make them. The way you do marketing highly depends on your brand and product. You can't apply the same marketing strategies to every company and just rinse and repeat.

Once again, this is where companies often fail because their marketing department is different to their brand department and their brand department doesn't even talk to the customer support team and so on. When there's a disconnect between all these instruments, the orchestra just doesn't work. The "total work of art" doesn't exist because each of them are fighting for their own attention.

—

What I love most is being the conductor, overseeing this entire process. Being the conductor means I can ensure all these elements work together seamlessly. When customer insights inform product design, when branding aligns with marketing messages, the result is a cohesive, meaningful experience. It's truly a designer's dream; for the first time I am able to design every single touchpoint the way I always wanted to.

This holistic approach results in more than just commercial success (I hope). It provides a sense of creative fulfillment, something I was missing before. Moreover, this method fosters more genuine connections. In today's often impersonal world, offering a thoughtfully integrated experience makes people feel understood and appreciated. They're not just buying a product; they're engaging with a brand that speaks to them and speaks with them.

Of course, running your own business isn't always smooth. There are challenges—financial pressures, operational annoyances, market shifts and so on. But the beauty is, each problem becomes a chance to improve some aspect of my operation through the lens of design.

In the end, I get to be a designer the way I imagine a designer to be.

Related reading:

Why I love running a business - DESK Magazine

If you’re interested in psychology, build a product and run a business. It is a vocation inherently about the human mind. To create an effective product, you have to understand how your user feels and what they need (or what they don’t realize they need) and then create it for them. To brand your business, …

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

These fundamentals extend far beyond the canvas, spreading throughout every aspect of design, from graphic arts to cinema or even architecture.

Mastering them is essential to becoming a better designer. These guidelines serve as our foundation and they help novices to understand harmony, balance and proportion. All these "rules" provide a framework which hopefully help you achieve visually pleasing (some might say "correct") design solutions.

These "rules" have been around for many decades before "Design" as we know it today even existed. Starting with the rule of thirds in photography, the golden ratio in architecture or color theory in painting.

In the beginning these rules used to be more holistically inspired, but over time our fundamentals and guidelines became more granular and specific. Today we have design rules for almost anything. These rules have been mostly defined by accessibility, efficiency and productivity.

To an extent, it's reasonable. When something "works," we try to methodically take it apart and create some rules around it so we can replicate it and streamline the process in the future.

But over the past decade we've become increasingly reliant on these rules, for many good reasons I must say:

1) Following design rules is easy. It gives more people the tools, direction and ability to work within an industry they might not be naturally talented or seasoned at. It's not always a bad thing, especially when you are a novice.

2) Following rules is like a recipe for success. Almost like a "painting by numbers" where you just connect the numbers and suddenly you've painted a fairly decent picture. You drew it yourself, but you also kind of didn't.

3) It gives you the illusion of competency and this satisfied superior feeling when you can correct someone by saying "well, that's not how this is done according to Human Design Guidelines, paragraph 5, section 174." — Especially with social media and influencers this has become even more apparent.

So what happens when we become too religious about these rules? What happens when fundamentals become unquestionable laws? The work becomes boring. Or at best, the work becomes predictable.

"Learn the rules, then break them." This principle, often attributed to Pablo Picasso, suggests that mastering the fundamentals is essential – but real creativity lies in knowing when and how to take away power from those very rules.

The answer to all this lies in using our eyes and hearts.

Great designers don't just see, they perceive. They look beyond the surface, sensing the emotional impact of their work. A slightly off-center composition might create tension, while an unconventional color palette could evoke nostalgia. These choices might break the rules, but they FEEL RIGHT because they resonate on a deeper level.

This tension between "correct" and "feels right" is particularly evident in the film industry. On one side, we have blockbusters designed to sell—movies that follow a proven formula to maximize box office returns. These movies often adhere strictly to established design principles. Think of the ubiquitous orange-and-blue color grading in action movies, a technique that exploits color theory to make scenes pop. Or consider the perfectly timed story beats in romantic comedies, engineered to elicit predictable emotional responses.

While these techniques are effective, they can feel manipulative, like we're being guided through a pre-constructed emotional journey. The design is "correct" according to industry standards, but it lacks soul. It's as if these films were created by algorithm rather than artistry.

And in a way, we've all become slaves to the algorithm. Following overly strict and tedious design rules removes us from the "it just feels right" artistry and puts us almost at the same level as machines. Data-driven design is what we call it.

On the other hand, we have movies that are pure art — films that prioritize personal expression over commercial appeal. Directors like David Lynch, Wong Kar-wai, and Andrei Tarkovsky are known for their highly idiosyncratic visual styles.

These filmmakers design with their hearts, using their experience and personal perspective to capture feelings rather than just images. Their work might not always be "correct" by traditional standards, but it feels profoundly right to those who connect with it. These films don't just show us a story; they make us experience it viscerally.

In our increasingly data-driven world, where algorithms and analytics often dictate design decisions, we need more heart-led design. A/B testing and user metrics have their place, but they can't measure the ineffable qualities that make design truly resonate—qualities like charm, wit, or something that is just inherently human.

This isn't to say that design rules should be discarded entirely. A designer needs to know the rules to break them effectively. And of course, a UX designer or those working within a pre-existing and strict design system may only have so much room to break rules. The point is not making a square button a circle just for the hell of it, to fit in some of your personal flair wherever you possibly can. The point is to design more from the heart. If it feels right, it may be right. There are many ways to solve for something, and it doesn't always have to be the current standard.

Naturally, the more experience you have, the more you can trust your instincts and it will take many years to get there. As I said already, the rules are there at the beginning for a reason.

Related reading:

The day you became a better designer - DESK Magazine

This blog rarely addresses subjects such as “How to solve UX problem XYZ” or “How to set up a perfect grid” for a reason. While these are valid topics and plenty of other platforms publish articles about them, they have no place here. Ask any designer you admire for advice and they won’t tell you …

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

This is the kind of "bitter pill to swallow" advice my loving mother gave me when I was a teenager.

It’s the kind of advice my greatest mentors from the past would have given me. Mentors I call mentors for a reason, even if I didn’t like what they had to say in that moment. The words I didn’t want to hear, but needed to hear. Even today.

The best advice I've received in my career was from people who didn't care about my feelings, but cared about me becoming a better designer. After all, that’s what I wanted (and still want) to be.

If you’re not yet alarmed by this intro, keep reading ↓

1. Nobody owes you anything. You deserve nothing, you earn everything.

You’re young. You just finished studying (or not). You think you know everything. You think the world owes you: An interesting job. A great team. A high paying salary.

But in reality, nobody owes you anything. There are thousands of designers like you, millions even. And this isn’t meant to make you feel bad. It’s meant to make you feel motivated, to be and become better than those around you. Or just better than who you were yesterday. Respect is earned, not given.

Be humble and confident at the same time. Expect nothing, but take what you can and make the best out of what you have.

The beauty of climbing a mountain is to climb it, not to magically appear at the top.

2. Blaming others gets you nowhere.

It’s easy to blame your boss. It’s easy to blame your client. I did it, and you did it too. But sometimes we have to know where the line ends.

If your 10th client project happens to be a "client from hell" project, you may have to take a closer look at yourself, because the one thing they all had in common — Is you.

This isn’t about your ego. This isn’t about being hard on yourself and falling into a deep depression. Once again, knowing that the only person you can effectively blame is yourself, can empower you. This is about you advancing in your career and becoming better at what you do. Once you realize it all lies with you, YOU now have all the power you were giving to others before.

The only way to become better is by changing what is in your control, and most likely that is yourself. The way you work, the way you communicate. Blaming someone else closes one door and tends to help very little. Taking on responsibility opens a thousand more doors for yourself. And I say this, even at the chance that you have every right to blame someone else. Because even then, it's rarely helpful.

Blaming others is the easy way out. You can do it at any point in your life, but it's worse when you do it when you're young and inexperienced. It's a lovely escape, I do and did it too, but if you indulge in it for a little too much you'll get lost in it.

3. Nobody owes you feedback on your work

As designers we always think that it is our RIGHT to receive good feedback. We believe (perhaps due to formal schooling, or just lack of real-world experience) that we are entitled to receive constructive, well structured, helpful and ideally friendly feedback. We want it exactly the way it suits us. But the reality can't be further away.

If someone does give you great detailed feedback, then that is due to the goodwill and perhaps the communicative skill of the other person. But you can’t expect it in the same way as expecting others to say “bless you“ when you sneeze. They might do it, but they don’t have to. It’s their courtesy.

Get off your high horse. Work with what you got. If you want better feedback, ask better questions.

Good feedback is a luxury, not a right.

4. Your creative director isn’t your savior

The role of the creative director is to creatively guide you. They’re not there to do your work, even though they may be able to. You can’t expect a CD to tell you each and every single step of what to do, because that defeats the purpose entirely. That’s what you are here for.

Whatever you get from a creative director, is what you get. Take it. Some are better, many are worse. And most are just different from each other.

A great creative director knows when they see great work, but someone still has to produce the great work, and that’s you. You may wonder "Well why they don’t just do it themselves then?" — Well, here's a different question: If they could do it entirely themselves, what do they need you for?

Think of your CD more like a partner. They try to do their job, and you try to do yours. And in reality, if the work ends up being bad, it's the creative director who gets the blame for it. They're in it as much as you are, and likely even more.

The beauty of the creative director relationship is that YOU might be able to do the work, but the creative director is able to tell if its good work or if it isn't. You might be too inexperienced to tell the difference, but one day you will, and that's when you become the creative director. But it's a long journey to get there.

(and yes, there are also a lot of bad creative directors out there, the title alone means nothing)

5. You’re responsible for your own growth

There's this strange misconception that it is the role of the company or manager to be responsible for your growth. At some companies this might be true, but if it is, then I'd consider this a luxury and you're lucky to have someone who cares about your personal trajectory. But most of the time, this is not the case.

If you feel stagnant at your job, you don't have to wait around for your company or manager to do something about it. Take matters into your own hands. Take responsibility and grow. Decide what you want, and then take it (or pursue it). I know this is difficult because the chance of failure and rejection is high, but the alternative is doing nothing and then blaming other people for nothing happening (see #1 above).

I fell into this trap many times myself, hoping for a company to help me realize MY dreams... only to learn that absolutely nothing is going to happen if I'm not the one doing it.

You'll meet all kinds of wonderful people in your career. Take what you can, but keep your expectations low and move with purpose. Mentors change all the time, and sometimes you didn't even know that someone was a mentor until years later when you realize how much they helped you, without you even knowing.

In the end, it's all you

Perhaps that's the single takeaway from this essay. It's the advice I need to hear myself from time to time. It all starts with me, and it ends with me.

I had a lot of weird expectations as a young designer. I blamed my boss, I blamed my clients, my co-workers. I expected everything, but I offered nothing. I was just a kid with dreams and somehow I assumed everyone around me is just here to help me make my dreams become reality. Only until I learned, everyone is too busy with their own dreams. Just like them, I don't need permission and I don't need to wait around for others to help me achieve mine.

Related reading:

Dear young designer

Dear young designer, If you feel like your designs are more like strung-together hacks, you’re on the right path. If you’re waiting on feedback from your creative director, don’t wait. Keep exploring other options. Move on to the next task. Never sit around. If you want to

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

When you dreamed about doing what you’re doing now - DESK Magazine

Something I’ve noticed while talking to design students is a romanticizing of the industry. When first learning design, there’s this notion that when we become designers we’ll do only beautiful, world-changing work. Then, we enter the industry and learn things aren’t exactly as we expected. It’s understandable that young designers think this way. In school, …

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

After about 8 years I'm finally happy to announce my new home on the internet. It feels a bit like the old days again.

This article (first introduced to the readers of my DESK newsletter) l entirely dedicated to this relaunch. I'll share all my thoughts with you on the WHY, WHAT and HOW.

✦ Step 1: Make sure you're on your computer. The bigger the screen the better. YES, the website works on mobile too, but it would be a shame to experience it there first.

✦ Step 2: Hit play here. Then you are listening to the same music as I listen to while writing this article. We're now entirely connected.

✦ Step 3: → Visit my new website — Have a scroll, enjoy it as long or as short as you like.

✦ Step 4: Come back here and keep reading my deepest, most useful (or useless) thoughts on this redesign. You might end up liking it.

↓

The personal internet is back, baby!

I haven't touched my website for about 8 years. And for the past 3 years I've been more urgently thinking of what to do with it. I did countless designs, but every one of them felt... meaningless. There's no point in designing something if you don't even know where you're going. How do you find the answers, if you haven't even started asking the right questions?

What do I want my new website to be?

But let's re-phrase that question to make this a bit easier on myself.

What do I NOT want my new website to be? Now we're talking. This is the right place to start.

– I DON'T want it to be some standard, "boring" and meaningless portfolio just to show my work that you visit once, but then never again. I've done this plenty of times over the last decade. Where's the fun in that?

– I DON'T want it to be a generic agency website with "Work, Services, Contact" and "We create solutions for visionary brands" slogan that mirrors thousands of other studio websites competing for the same work (no offense). I'm frankly not even looking for work (exceptions apply), so it doesn't make any sense to position it this way.

– I DON'T want it to be something trendy that impresses a small group of designers which is then out of style less than a year from now and I have to do it all over again.

Now that I've found out what I DON'T want, I can think of what I DO want.

– I want this page to feel like a hybrid between professional (my work) but also personal. Like an ultimate throwback to how websites used to be when they were the only place on the internet for us, before our social media profiles took over.

– I want this page to feel nicely designed, but also timeless in its approach. In fact, I don't want to touch the design for the next 10 years. I need to restrain myself and find the perfect balance. "Will I like this in 5-10 years from now?" It's like getting a tattoo.

– I want this page to feel like a treasure trove of things that interest me, from my designs and experiments to the things I enjoy outside of work. I want the site to have the potential to grow in all directions, almost like a weird sort of archive/collection of things I enjoy, expanding over the years.

– I simply want this page to feel like ME. My new home on the internet. In a world were we left personal websites behind, I want to bring it back.

And this is where I landed

Of course, this is a never ending process. My new website isn't finished, it never will be. But that's the whole point. It's the framework that counts for me, the system that supports my multitude of interests.

My new page is as close as possible a reflection of who I am. Because my motto is: I create, therefore I am.

Quick facts:

✦ My new website is built with Semplice
✦ My site is hosted on Flywheel
✦ My blog+newsletter is powered by Ghost

THE HOMEPAGE

This is where you find the majority of my commercial/professional work. I killed over 50% of my old portfolio work and focused on a multi-disciplinary mix of projects I'm proud of. Many of these projects now happen to be my own products/companies. Client work is taking the backseat with this new site. I changed over the years, and so should my portfolio.

Each layer is carefully curated and branded with slideshows to give you a quick view of the brand universe of each project. Not too little, not too much. Lagom; as the Swedes would say. Mixed in between these project layers you will find my "Design Artifacts" which are pieces of work from my design archive. They serve as both a break between the more heavy projects, but also give you more sense of the depth of work available.

The design direction is a bit of a throwback. In fact, I got inspired by some of my old portfolios I did back in the early 2000's after browsing my own archive. Fixed container width (you'll notice this on bigger screens), restrained animations and layout, no fancy scroll-hijacking or anything that annoys the hell out of you when visiting the site more than once.

The new HOVS site is far away from any current trends. I wouldn't be surprised if you are not blown away by it, because that's the entire point. I envisioned the design to feel as relevant in 2005 as it would be in 2030. Solid, timeless, informative and extendable. My once-a-decade redesign.

But lets dive into some of the sub-pages.

ESSENTIALS

The "Essentials" page is an outlet for me to share some of the products I use on a daily basis, some of which are my own products. Of course, the list will grow over time. On one hand this gives you a little bit of insight into my personal taste and who I am as a person, but it might also help you discover new things for yourself. In the future I hope to extend this list with more quirky objects that I am surrounded by on a daily basis.

ESSAYS (the blog)

This is my blog, what you're reading now, as you already know it. It's a separate page and not affected by this redesign. With close to 1000 articles published, the DESK blog has become a big archive of my thinking over the past years. I refer to it often, and I will continue to add to it for the years to come.

THE WEEKLY

It's my newsletter. Now with a beautifully updated sign-up page which you are welcome to share with friends, so they may sign up to receive my emails as well.

MIXTAPES

They say that making a mixtape for someone is a form of love language. It takes time and love to pick the right songs, put them all into a list, into the right fitting order, design a nice cover for it and then share it with a friend. This is what I do with my mixtapes page. Custom designed mixtape covers (I love doing those) and curated songs for you. There will be many more mixtapes coming, each with a different theme. So keep an eye out, as this page will be updated frequently.

BOOKS

I took some of my all-time favorite books, designed a custom book cover for them and listed them all out for you to see. This is my "Books" page. All my reading recommendations in one place. And here as well, this list will continue to grow, so you have a reason to come back whenever you need something new to read.

QUOTES

All the wisdom I've collected from those books and elsewhere, all in one place for you (and me) to enjoy. Call it cheesy, but when I have a bad day, I just have to read the right quote and I immediately feel better again. The quotes someone subscribes to often tell us a bit more about them. And with my new website, I have a place for all the thoughts, humor and advice I try to internalize, handpicked from inside mymind. I will continue to update this page as the years go by.

THE PRAXIS

There has to be some sort of About page, right? That's what this is. Who I am, what I do, and what I did. Pretty boring, if you ask me. But it has to be there.

ARTIFACTS

This page is an extension of the "Artifacts" layers on the homepage. Here you will find everything that didn't fit in elsewhere. From old client work, personal projects from the archive or simply just experiments. Almost like a moodboard of random snippets of my work that isn't represented anywhere else. I already have dozens more queued up to be published over the next weeks.

PHOTO ARCHIVE

(this page is coming soon) I love photography, it's a big hobby of mine. And for the first time, I will show a very limited and curated collection of them on my website. Before I only shared them on Instagram, but it's a bit of a shame running around with a medium format camera and then only putting them close-cropped on Instagram. It's like putting my photos in prison. I'll let you know once this page is LIVE, should be within the coming month.

That's it!

Well, at least for now. In the future I have other sub-pages planned, like a small shop where you can purchase prints and other goodies. And then of course, a true DESIGN ARCHIVE of sorts because I practically killed 90% of my client work from the past two decades which are now nowhere to be found. So in the spirit of making this a real HOME on the internet, an archive needs to be there, even if its just for me or my grandkids.

And of course

Big THANK YOU goes out to my team. While HOVS might be my studio and represents my personal interest, there's an entire team behind me that does great work on all of our combined projects (mymind, Semplice, Carbonmade) — and for the first time in my career, I involved my team on my website.

THANK YOU to Andrew who helped with the final implementation, custom code, animations and testing. This page wouldn't be online without you.

THANK YOU to Surya who helped with design explorations of each sub-page and put his beautiful design hands on the special book covers. I am still jealous you got to work on those.

THANK YOU to Lizzy who's been listening to my rambling for years, proofreading my copy and helping with the tone of voice of the page.

THANK YOU to Mike, my partner on Semplice who has continuously provided feedback on the design and helped with many other things as well. And yes, my website is of course built with pride, and made with Semplice.

Related reading:

A love letter to my website - DESK Magazine

This is a declaration of love for personal websites, written from years of thinking on the subject, reviewing thousands of portfolios, building websites for friends and bookmarking those of strangers. It’s a subject I’m so passionate about, I built my business on it. And recently, it’s become a matter of principle. Not long ago, the …

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

My team and I went all in and designed a custom book cover for each of those books — Because after all, I want it to look special on my new website.

But for now, I figured I would share a selection of those books with you. The full list will be available to you the moment I share the new website.

So let's go ↓

Disclaimer: For full transparency, there are Amazon affiliate links on these books below. This means, if you (as well as many more people) happen to purchase one of these books, I might be able to retire entirely on millions of dollars in affiliate payouts. (More realistically, I might be able to buy myself a cup of coffee from it). However, all of these are my own personal recommendations of books I love – nobody asked me or paid me to share them.

Damn Good Advice

It's a short book. It's by George Lois. They call him "The Original Ad Man." Some say that "Mad Men" the series was based on him, loosely. His work is iconic and so is his character. I was lucky to have met him in New York a couple years back. He reminds me of "the good old days" of advertising. The golden age of creativity.

→ View on Amazon

Meditations

"Meditations" is a collection of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius. He ruled as Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD. The book consists of his private notes to himself written over the course of many years. The book is mainly about core concepts of stoicism. Rationality, virtues, mortality and self-mastery.

It's a terrible book when you try to read it at the wrong time in your life. But it's a fantastic book once you're ready for it.

→ View on Amazon

Philosophy of Boredom

Possibly one of my all-time favorite books. And it flies damn well under the radar. As the title suggests, it's about Boredom. What Boredom is, where it comes from and how it might be the source of all good and evil (no kidding). It's a great topic, especially in today's time in which we both have more boredom than ever, but at the same time, more remedies for it as well. It's a curious paradox this book uncovers.

→ View on Amazon

Kitchen Confidential

Honestly, all books by Anthony Bourdain are great. They're great because he was great. They're great because his stories are so well written, you feel a strange satisfaction while reading them, as if you'd experience them through him, even while sitting comfortably on your couch. I dearly miss him and his stories.

→ View on Amazon

Creativity, Inc.

Ed Catmull is the co-founder of Pixar, and this book is an inside look into his strategies and leadership philosophy. I enjoy books like these in particular because Pixar somehow managed to become this creative powerhouse while at the same time gaining big commercial success. And those two things usually don't go well with each other, either you're big and boring, or you're small and creative. But Pixar somehow managed to foster a culture in which amazing work is done, that also happens to be commercially viable.

→ View on Amazon

The courage to be disliked

Some might say it's a self-help book, and it may as well be one, but it's a bit different than others. This book takes the form of a dialogue between a philosopher and a young man. Through their conversations, it presents key ideas from Alfred Adler's school of Individual Psychology.

The book is about taking responsibility, focusing your energy on the right things and finding meaning through personal missions rather than others' expectations. It's a great book and will likely want to make you dive deeper into the Austrians' School of Philosophy and Alfred Adler.

→ View on Amazon

Total Recall

If you know me, you know I am a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not so much about anything in particular he did, but simply his character of perseverance. He somehow managed to become incredibly successful in multiple professions and areas of his life. From a bodybuilder to successful actor and governor. And those are just the highlights of his life and career. If you don't feel ready to commit to an entire book, I believe there's now also a short documentary on Netflix modeled after this book (of course with a lot less of the wonderful nuance and details a book can provide).

→ View on Amazon

Basic Economics

Possibly one of the best books every written. Timeless all the way through today. The beauty of Sowell is that he writes in a simple, straightforward and accessible style. He makes concepts that are usually reserved for the few, available to the masses. From microeconomic/macroeconomic concepts, down to analyzing economic challenges through the lens of incentives, supply and demand, risk and opportunities. If you want a book that "explains the modern world to me," then this is where it all starts. It's not just a primer on economics, but also human nature.

→ View on Amazon

Man's Search For Meaning

One of the most powerful books you will ever read. "Man's Search for Meaning" chronicles Viktor Frankl's experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in the midst of suffering, which he titled logotherapy.

→View on Amazon

PROPAGANDA

I initially found out about Edward Bernays from a documentary called "The Century of Self." Turns out, Bernays is the founder of PR (Public Relations), which was his idea of "Propaganda but during peace times." The book is essentially about the the conscious manipulation of public opinion. Possibly one of the best books you can read if you're a designer, or just someone who wants to understand the dynamics of marketing, PR and advertising (which are all interconnected).

→ View on Amazon

Thank you very much for reading. Once my new website is online later this week, you will be able to access my entire book recommendations list on a special page, which include all the above and many more.

When you discover something you truly love, it's only natural that you want to dive deeper. And today, one of the first places many fans turn is online communities dedicated to analyzing, discussing and celebrating the object of their affection. You're already so much in love with this "new thing" yourself, you want to engage with other people who share a similar passion, and perhaps even find some validation of your feels.

At first glance, it seems like a dream. You can finally share your enthusiasm and connect with like minded people. You bond over in-jokes and fan theories. You finally found your people.

But there's a dark side to these communities too. While you might surf the initial high of your newfound shared obsession, this is also exactly what might start to taint your original love for the subject.

What started out with an almost childlike, honest and innocent love for something, now starts to to feel a little more performative. The more you wrap your identity into the community, the more you run the risk of having your personal takes picked apart and challenged. What once sparked joy can quickly become a source of self-doubt, toxic introspection and criticism over the most insignificant details.

I experienced this many times myself. I found a new movie I absolutely loved. Full of joy and energy I'd head to Reddit or other online communities, only to then learn why the movie is "officially terrible." The main character I thought was hilarious? Officially not funny. The plot I thought was unique and interesting? Not approved. And so the self-doubt starts. And I haven't even started engaging with anyone yet. It can only get worse from here, eventually leading me to revise my own initial judgement based on popular opinion.

Or I'd get into a hobby such as cycling. I start out loving it, just for the sake of doing it. Then I start connecting with the "cycling community" and my passion starts to fade. I experience the same happening with the design community and many other niches.

There's this tendency for hardcore online fans to develop an almost insular groupthink mentality where any deviation from the accepted narratives is ridiculed and pushed away. This can make it rather difficult for yourself to retain your individual relationship with the subject. After all, you're human and you feel safer within the group.

In the end, the initial wonder and fascination you had slowly fades as you battle your way through the internet arguments. Searching for validation, or even worse, doubting your own judgement and taste on something that is inherently subjective.

So by all means, indulge in what makes you happy. Enjoy your passions, share them with others and connect with like-minded people. But be cautious of allowing them to define and influence your own personal appreciation for that thing.

There's beauty in distance and naivety, even when it comes to your hobbies and things you appreciate. It's one of those qualities I appreciate in children, they see the world only through their eyes. Their innocent and almost 'ignorant' view of the world creates the wonderful sparkle in their eyes. Only as they grow older and are told what to say, how to behave and how to think — That's when they lose their childlike wonder.

In a way, that's also the entire back story behind mymind. The idea of keeping it all private is what makes it special and different. The moment you don't have to perform for someone else, you're just yourself. The moment you don't have the subconscious fear of justifying every decision, you're not just behaving different, you're simply yourself.

Be yourself.
Love what you love.
Enjoy things for what they are and what you see.

Related reading:

Some hobbies should be sacred - DESK Magazine

If you follow me on Instagram you know it’s no secret that I love photography. I don’t consider myself a professional photographer, yet I’m fairly serious about this passion of mine. Over the years, multiple opportunities came across my desk from potential clients asking me about my photography services. Many of them were an appealing …

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

How do you know what you like anymore?

“Did you see Turtle Boss yet?” Tim asked over brunch. “I saw it,” said Katie over a mouthful of hash browns. “It was so freaking good.” “Good?” said Sam. “You actually thought it was good?” “Yeah, it was incredible. Everyone’s saying so.” “So you thought it was incredible or everyone

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

Going this route meant that I had to figure myself out. I had to carve my own path, find my own voice both in my work as well as how I present myself to clients.

But at the same time, I was also lucky to have been part of a creative industry at the right time. A time at which every designer I knew or looked up to had a very strong personal voice and style. There was a lot of "them" inside their work. Regardless if you liked a particular style or not, you couldn't deny the fact that the work was full of personality.

It may have been the graphic design of Stefan Sagmeister, the unique type work of Louise Fili or even the more modern (and now old) web studies like 2Advanced, NorthKingdom or Fantasy Interactive in their heydays. Almost every portfolio you saw, even not-so-well known designers, had a certain aesthetic. A certain style, a certain opinion you could find in the details.

Looking back at all this today, I believe this attitude was born out of the surrounding culture at the time. Differentiate yourself and avoid fitting in at all costs. Of course we had trends (not as big as today) but those who followed them knew they were boring. It wasn't something that was rewarded and usually you were more motivated to start a trend rather than follow one. After all, isn't this the biggest compliment a designer can get? As a true designer, following a trend is an insult to our own competency. Something that brings sleepless nights (dramatically put).

But then over the years, the communities became bigger. The clients became bigger, the trends became bigger and for the first time on the internet, we developed and followed global design systems, "agreeing" on visual languages set by big corporations (Apple's design language as well as Google's Material Design).

Soon enough, we had hordes of "creatives" who all just tried their best to fit in. Thousands of portfolios that all look the same, undistinguishable from each other. In fact, you can barely tell the difference these days between someone with 2 years of experience and someone with 15 years of experience by looking at their work. Both of their work looks "good" by today's measurement. A direct result of the standardization and templatization of the design industry.

None of this is particularly wrong. You could argue that global design systems set a new standard that allow most websites and apps to unify and streamline their user experience. You could say that the web was un-useable before. And you're probably right, we really did come a long way. But at the same time, isn't it beautiful when your work has your unique fingerprint on it? When your own work has an opinion? Depth? Something to say?

Maybe it's the punk in me speaking, maybe it's the lost artist that should've never become a designer in the first place. But I enjoy seeing the YOU in your work, because otherwise whose work is it anyway?

Related reading:

How to Find Your Own Design Style - DESK Magazine

I get a lot of emails from young designers often asking me on how they can find their own unique style.

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

According to some statistics I didn't fake myself, about 70% of all people abandon their New Year's resolutions already by the end of January. Which by my calculations, is today. It makes sense. Most of our resolutions are either unattainable or too generic. Things like "work out a lot, be healthy" or other vaguely ambitious goals are just too easy to break as they aren't specific enough.

I tried New Year's resolutions myself and always failed horribly. I think the problem was that I focused too much on certain things I WANT to do, but then life just happened and boom the year was over.

If that resonates at all, I might have something for you.

I now write an ANTI to-do list, which is kind of like a resolutions list, but more focused on things I want to cut out of my life. It's like calling myself out and building a system around my current state, rather than around some imaginary future version of me.

When I cut out the things I don't want, it makes room for the things I do want.

It also feels easier for me to focus on specific habits, patterns or thoughts, rather than having a foggy goal like "be healthy." For example, it feels more actionable to cut alcohol or sugar from my diet than to broadly "eat well." It's more specific, and it focuses on the negative part of my life I want to get rid of. In turn, I'm more healthy automatically.

Some of these points are more actionable, and some are just little learnings and reminders I want to focus on more in 2024.

1. Stuff is just stuff. Avoid it unless it helps me create.

I grew up in a fairly poor family and that's in my head all the time, even though I have more now. When I spend money on a nice camera or something else, I always start regretting it, even if I know I can afford it. I try to be extra careful because I fear being on welfare again.

I know it's a good thing to be careful with money, but this specific pattern of mine is bad because I'm internally punishing myself for no reason. I've worked for what I have now and I know what I can afford. To enjoy and make the most of life, I put certain rules in place for myself, and one of them is: Money spent on equipment that helps me create or experiences such as travel is NEVER wasted money. Another exception might be stuff I could consider as assets, or things that help me live a healthier life (such as sports equipment).

You might ask: Is your camera worth all that money? Yes, without question. It might be more expensive, but it helps me to create something meaningful to me. It may be not an asset in itself (as it will lose value over time) but the value I gain from using it for my work makes up for it 100x.

The same goes for travel or paying for experiences that will be with me for my entire life. But otherwise, I try to not waste money on useless stuff, things that just sit around and look nice. Less stuff, more creating.

2. Stop being jealous

This is a hard one. I wouldn't call myself jealous, but sometimes when I'm uninspired or unproductive I get jealous and angry at other people who have it figured out more than I do. The thing is, jealousy rarely makes you better or brings anything positive. Both professionally and especially privately, jealousy is the thing that ruins relationships.

It shouldn't hold me back from admiration for what other people do, but jealousy has absolutely no place in my life. I think there is a thin line between admiration and jealousy. It's easy to tip from one into the other without noticing it.

And as I'm writing this in 2024, I feel the need to put even more emphasis on this particular point because jealousy has never been easier in a world in which we're bombarded with the accomplishments of other people. We're constantly comparing ourselves online, if we like it or not. It takes a strong mindset and a degree of self-reflection and self awareness to understand how it happens and how we can avoid it.

As the cheesy saying goes: Compare yourself only with who you were yesterday.

And the other cheesy saying: Comparison is the thief of joy.

"You’re offended when you fear that it might be true." -@naval

3. Stop taking things so seriously

Yes, some things in life are serious and not everything is always fun. But taking life too seriously and searching for negativity in everything isn't making my life better. And I'm saying this more for myself than anyone else, because you have all the right (and opportunities) to take as much as you want seriously.

But for me, seeing the world through such a dark and heavy filter doesn't do myself any favors. It sucks being angry, grumpy and miserable all the time. And quite frankly, there are millions of things today to be upset about. The list is endless and if you look at common discourse online, you know negativity is at the center of everything.

Even if things suck big time, I usually try to make fun and focus on the good things. Every time I get worked up about something, I try to stop and ask myself what concrete thing I can do about it myself right now. If I can think of something, I do it. If I can't, I try to focus on other productive thoughts. It's a simple choice that makes my life so much better. I choose not tp settle for the glass-half-full life.

As Marcus Aurelius already said: “You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

4. You know nothing. Avoid assumptions.

I know nothing. The moment you meet someone for the first time you know NOTHING about that person. Nothing about their past, their struggles or their childhood. We're horrible at mind-reading and assuming what the other person thinks or means, yet we still keep doing it. We like to put people into categories because it's easier for us to make sense of the world that way. It's biology and simple survival mechanics. Even if we think we're the smartest person in the world, making broad assumptions is usually the most unproductive way of thinking.

It doesn't mean there are no evil people in this world, and surely some people just want to see the world burn. But I strongly believe in always giving the benefit of the doubt. That means I try NOT to jump to conclusions and always give people a chance to clarify their behavior, even if other people have already made up their minds. Just reading the news, most people read only a headline online and let it decide what they believe for them.

We live in a world where we value feelings over facts, and while this seems very human, it's also extremely dangerous and may be counterproductive in many cases.

The older I get, the less I pretend to know things I don't actually know at all.

5. Stop trying to be friends with everyone

It's just impossible. I choose to get rid of one-sided relationships and toxic people in my life. I give them one or two chances and then I leave. I've spent years trying to be friends with certain people or wondered about "why don't they like me" until I found out this isn't about me, but about them. I don't run after people for too long. I move on and invest in the people who make my life better.

I learned that the older you get and the more "successful" or happy you are, the more people will hate you for that. Some people dislike happy people because they're jealous and miserable themselves. I'm sometimes that person myself. And that's okay, it's not my problem. Move on.

In Adlerian psychology (written by Alfred Adler, an Austrian psychotherapist) there's this concept of "The delegation of tasks" in which he describes how you can identify "life tasks" and assign them to either yourself or someone else. One of the ways to achieve happiness is understanding what is your task and what is someone else's task. If someone doesn't like you, it's simple: Whose task is this to figure out? In many cases, it's the other person's problem/task, not yours.

By removing unhealthy relationships from my life, I have more time and energy to focus on positive, healthy relationships. I understand there's a learning in hardships, but you don't have to fall in love with the endless hardship of a toxic relationship. Knowing where the line is... that's difficult, but once you do, everything changes for you.

6. Stop making excuses

I love making excuses because I'm a master procrastinator. The reasons I make excuses is due to many reasons, but mainly because of FOMO (Fear of Missing out) or because I'm just bad at taking risks that aren't necessarily calculated risks.

And that applies to a lot of things. Shutting down a project that's going nowhere, quitting your job or not leaving your hometown you hate so much. One of the tricks that helps me is usually to ask one simple question: "Will I regret quitting my job and taking this risk when I'm 60 years old?" Usually the answer is no. I might regret it in the short term, but in the long-term I'd probably regret more staying at my shitty full-time job than quitting it.

Adding perspective to my decision always helps me make a decision. It's hard to get our of our own heads sometimes, until you get that birds eye perspective.

7. Stop blaming others around you for not getting what you want.

I'm getting better at this myself. I used to always blame other people. I didn't tell them in their face, but I did it silently. I'd blame my boss for not promoting me, I'd blame my friends for not reaching out, I'd blame other people for making me feel miserable.

But in reality, it was rarely their fault. Blaming others is easy and if I think hard enough about it, I can ALWAYS find a reason to blame other people if I don't get what I want. It's easy to play the victim, I did it countless times myself. It's classic child mentality – if you don't get what you want, start crying and screaming loudly. Make sure your parents look like fucking idiots in the toy store for not getting you that Lego castle you believe you deserve so deeply.

In recent years, I learned that every time I silently blamed someone else, I could've just easily looked at myself and fixed it right there. The reason I didn't get a raise at my job was because I never asked. It goes back to Nr.4 in this list. It's easy to make assumptions, jump to conclusions and then blame someone else. It's also damn convenient.

I learned that if I feel something is unfair, I can openly and respectfully talk about it. Some things I fixed within hours where I was silently being grumpy about it for over a year.

8. Give less fucks

Giving less fucks doesn't mean not caring about something. It means managing your household of energy to stay a relatively happy and useful human being. It means knowing that you have a limited amount of energy available, and how to dispense that energy.

The world will push and pull you in a thousand directions everyday. Other people will tell you what's important right now in your life, if you don't decide for yourself. By the end of the day, you'll be drained entirely without having achieved anything.

I try to care less and focus more on using my energy wisely. To give less fucks about things I can't control. Focus on the things I can control. I may not be able to control the waves, but I can be the captain of my own boat. Or give even less fucks, and ride a surfboard.

Here's a quote that's fitting (I know I've shared it before):

9. Stop assuming I'm always right

I try to remind myself of this every single day. It's important to have strong opinions and educate yourself as much as possible. But it is as important to not make your opinions a fact that you can't stand up for. People who know me know that I have strong opinions, but they also know that the moment they give a good counter-argument, I'm the first one to give up my opinions and change my mind. It's not always like this, but I try.

I believe very strongly in this attitude. Have opinions, share them, make yourself heard. But be open to challenge your own viewpoints. Strong opinions, loosely held. It means that you have to remove the ego. Some of the biggest thinkers and wisest people in history have followed this principle.

This quote by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon brings it to the point:

“Be stubborn on vision, flexible on details."

10. Avoid consensus & the madness of crowds

I possibly got this from my hippie mother, but it feels even more relevant today in the age of.... the internet?

I try my best to not think in consensus terms. I try my best to avoid aligning my thinking with any one person or any one group. In my eyes, it's lazy thinking. I'm not sure if it has always been like this, or if the internet has just exposed this behavior, but I notice that many people think very simply based on their group attachment. They select 5-10 stickers or badges, put them on their chest and speak in slogans for the rest of their life.

Very few people really have their own opinion. Very often, their opinion is just the opinion of someone else. Perfectly prepared, warmed up and served medium well.

I'm not above this, and I'd argue not many people are. All our opinions are shaped by other peoples' opinion. It's how this all works. The question is just, how many opinions do I require to shape mine?

Did I just take a ready-made opinion based on zero insight or experience? Or did I come up with my own unique point of view made of dozens, of not hundred of references combined with my own experience and lens on life? That's a question I ask myself. I want to be confident to have my own opinion. It doesn't need to be the popular opinion, it doesn't need to be the trendy one either... but I want it to be mine in a way in which I can articulate the WHY — Especially to myself.

I wish you all a wonderful new year! If you enjoyed this article, feel free to forward it to your friends, that's what it is made for.

I'm kidding. Or maybe I'm not, I guess we'll never find out? (:

AI is everywhere today. And it's all just the beginning. It's impossible to ignore and I can already say as much now, it will be with us for a very long time to come.

And you probably wonder, where has it been before? Why is it suddenly moving so fast? And the simple answer is: The models for AI have been around for more than a decade, many of them are nothing new. But what is new, is the advancements of hardware chips, computing power and the willingness to spend large amounts of money on it. And the timing is just perfect. We're at the tippity-top of digital consumerism. The ultimate late-stage-capitalism phase. It all makes sense if you think about it. For millennials it was the internet. For Gen-Z and beyond, it will be AI.

I would even argue, the only reason AI has started taking off so quickly can be summed up in the picture below:

But what do I really think about AI?

It's a difficult topic, because there's a difference between what I think of AI as it stands, and what I wish AI would be used for. After all, AI is just a technology, a tool. You can use it for good things or for bad things. The problem often is that we don't know what good or bad is anymore and the only way to find out, is to find out.

What I do know is that AI as a baseline technology is inevitable, which is why you'll be seeing it in pretty much every app. The same way every single text editor app has auto-correct, every app will have AI.

You could argue that AI isn't human (bad) and that it takes away a certain accountability. And that's true. But auto-correct already helps me write more efficiently by not worrying about mistakes I make. Does that make me a bad writer? Probably not.

AI technology is going to change all our underlying systems. Even existing things such as auto-correct, search indexes or other automation tools will be entirely replaced by their smarter AI counterparts.

Today we might call it a "special AI feature." Tomorrow we just call it, well, nothing. Because it will simply be the new baseline technology and expectation for any software out there. The same way we find it completely normal to connect to the internet, chat with friends, send emails and see floating cursors of our co-workers flying around in our documents. It used to be special, magic. But today it's normal, and AI will be soon very normal too.

So you love everything about AI?

I'm unsure about it. Mainly because of the predominant use cases for it right now, which to me seem incredibly uninspiring and meaningless. But perhaps that's just because the right people haven't gotten their hands on AI just yet.

For some reason we decided that the first thing AI should replace is creating Art. Yes, the most wonderful romantic activity that is possibly THE definition of what it means to be Human. Why would we ever try to replace or automate it? The same applies to writing, or creating "content" (which some would argue is also about art and self-expression).

I understand why it feels so magical. In particular, the less talented you are, the more likely you'll love using AI to create art or anything else you weren't able to create before. AI helps you skip the 10.000 hours needed to be good at something, and jumps straight to the point at which you're able to create something mediocre. But mediocre might be good enough, because we've long forgotten what it means to create something great.

The AI field to me right now is mostly filled with charlatans and misguided intentions. But in a way, I think that's perhaps the nature of how these things work. There's beauty in decentralization and crypto, yet it has been tarnished by charlatans and opportunists. Looking back, it was the same case with the internet as a whole. Perhaps we just need to wait for it all to mature.

The primary use case for AI is efficiency. The question is just, where do we like to apply this efficiency to? Should AI help us do our tax returns and bookkeeping, or should it help us create our art and content?

Ultimately, I believe AI is taking over our creative tools because we're much more in love with efficiency than we are with creativity. There's a deep lack of integrity and personal pride these days, and the rise of AI automation is underlying this trend.

Perhaps this is just the romantic inside me speaking. Someone who believes that some things are sacred. And not just for the sake of it, but because it's truly the only thing we have left.

As humans we may be here on this world for many reasons or no reason at all. What's the meaning of life anyway, other than what you make of it?

When it comes down to it, the beauty of life is the ability to create art, to express yourself and to spend time with your friends and family. I do think those things are sacred to a degree that I do not want to OPTIMIZE or ANALYZE them to death.

I've already seen apps that help you optimize your relationship with the help of AI. Their premise is to "Make faster connections with AI" or "Optimize your friendships." It is in terrible, poor taste. It makes no sense. These are ideas that can only be dreamed up by someone who has never really dreamed before. (They remind of me of the book "The Circle," which I've mentioned here many times.)

But none of this matters. My opinion doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. We're racing toward technical advancements with childlike ignorance of the consequences. There's almost a beauty to that in itself.

The irony of it all is, I am a pro-tech, forward-thinking person. I love technology and I love everything about Artificial Intelligence in itself. But at the same time, I'm a romantic. I love the idea of technology being used in harmony with humans.

After all, I'm a Designer. I love designing things with intention and a strong opinion. AI will be part of my toolset, but it won't take away my integrity and pride of creating things that have soul.

Related reading:

When good is no longer good enough

It wasn’t long ago I’d see a 3D rendering or piece of highly detailed art and feel blown away.

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

What is quality anymore?

One might say the quality of everything has improved – our TV screens have never been more crisp & vivid, our systems and software never more refined, our roads and highways never more paved.

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

We so rarely do discounts for our products that I thought it was worth publishing here, as many readers here often ask me for them.

But before I get into it: Discounts and deals are very easy to do for large corporations or companies who are heavily subsidized by investment money. But they're often hard or simply impossible for smaller and more independent companies who are already undercutting their prices on a daily basis just to keep up. So I want to take the chance here to say THANK YOU to all the small businesses out there who still try to offer discounts and deals to keep up with the big guys.

And thank you to everyone who supports any of my companies and products. Thank you from myself and the teams who are part of these products. It's because of you that we can keep building, and that I can keep writing for DESK as well (which has been entirely free for 7+ years now).

✦ 30% off the annual plan on mymind.com

This is the very first time we're doing this. Never before did we have a deal for mymind, but for the next couple days only, we're offering 30% off the annual Mastermind plan (for the first year) for anyone who upgrades from the FREE plan to Mastermind.

For us this is a big deal and we hope it is for you as well. If you signed up to mymind and currently have a free plan, you should see the discount applied at the checkout (click here to upgrade your plan, if you are logged in)

PS: We're working on MASSIVE updates to the mymind experience, both on desktop and mobile, which should all release over the next couple weeks. This product has become a big priority of myself and I'm proud to see how far we've come over the past 2-3 years.

✦ Up to 30% off on Semplice.com

Semplice has already been around for more than 10 years now and CyberMonday is the ONLY time of the year we offer a deal. Both for existing as well as new members. If you're a member of Semplice and want to upgrade to the latest and greatest V6, you get 30% off. If you're a new member, you get 20% on a brand new license.

And don't forget, Semplice is a ONE-TIME purchase. There is NO subscription. If you're planning on building a website or portfolio in the coming year, it's more than worth the investment.

→ 30% off for existing members

→ 20% off for new members

✦ 2 months free on Carbonmade PRO

And lastly, we have Carbonmade. Around since 2005, it's older than a couple of us and still going strong.

If Semplice is a bit too involved or complex for you, and you want something quick and easy to build your portfolio with (hosting included), then Carbonmade is the perfect choice. And only this week, we're offering the first 2 months entirely for free on the PRO plan.

This means, if you sign up with this link, you can launch your portfolio right away, no credit card required. You can just go LIVE as soon as you want and enjoy the PRO features for 2 months as well.

→ Get the deal here

PS: If you're curious between the difference of Semplice and Carbonmade, here is a good comparison.

✦ 100% off my "Let's go to NYC" ebook

Yes, not a typo. Entirely free. If you're interested in moving to New York, I once wrote a little ebook with tips & tricks from my experience. If you use the discount code "ILOVENYC" at the checkout, you can download it entirely for free (expires Wednesday this week)

Enjoy! (:

Thank you for reading and thank you again for being a supporter of my work, it means a lot to me and I hope you enjoy the little deals above.

Yet the same advancements that allowed this evolution are also rewinding it.

Technology, machinery & factories, massive online retailers and now, artificial intelligence, have made a society prioritizing efficiency and accessibility over quality. If you look closely, you can feel it.

We are surrounded by poor quality things, acquired quickly and easily. We can get a fast food meal in minutes. We can furnish our entire home via Amazon next-day delivery. We can find solutions and express our ideas in seconds with the help of ChatGPT.

We are becoming numb and accustomed to low quality, making it hard to recognize what's actually good anymore. That is, if we're even bothering to look.

But quality is still out there, thanks to the precious few still striving for it:

The passionate chef who, despite a McDonald's on every corner, is dedicated to making the best gourmet burger in his city.

The master carpenter who knows she's up against IKEA.

The watchmaker who, in a world of Apple watches & other cheap wearables, builds timepieces that outlive us, and even the generations after us.

Those who search for quality can still find it.

And those who experience quality can still appreciate it.

We know good food by the signs our body gives us after eating it. We know a high-quality chair by the way it feels, the way it smells, the way it ages. We know good design because we can connect to it, understand it, use it.

We know good things innately, because we need them.

Striving for quality – as a consumer or creator – puts us up against a world designed for overconsumption, efficiency, disposability and speed. We must work harder to find it, sacrifice more to get it, and accept risk creating it. Today, making something of quality means not only providing something good to the world, but showing them what it means.

Creating and seeking quality affirms its value. It reminds people of the difference that quality can make. That quality food, furniture, music, design, films, art, writing, products, services, experiences, can be worth the wait and the price.

Quality is still out there, and the quest to create it is a noble and fulfilling one.

A website for your side project.

This could be a page with a simple grid of your lifestyle photography.

Or a gallery of gradients or illustrations you make for fun in your free time.

Or a one-pager of GIFs and images of your 3D experiments.

Or a page documenting your travels around the world.

It will take you literally 5 minutes to drag a folder of images onto the screen, add a headline and share it online. Your own little marketing page and press release, broadcasting your work to the world. It's easy to create and simple enough to be shared. A bite-sized introduction to you and what you're all about.

I've made one-page websites for all kinds of side projects, including an ebook I wrote and a personal library of color palettes. They took off immediately thanks to their simple, visual, sharable nature. I wasn't pitching myself to be hired, pointing visitors to my resume or asking anything from them at all. I was just sharing something I enjoyed creating, with the hopes others would enjoy it too.

Inevitably, people who discover these pages find their way to my portfolio, because it makes them curious about me. They discover my side projects without any prior knowledge of me, and they want to learn more. Before I know it, they're at my portfolio – they may even eventually become my collaborator, client or partner. All because of a simple page I published once, that continues to live on and point back to me and my other work.

Here are a few nice examples of this strategy, all made with Semplice.com and Carbonmade.com:

A personal travel journal

Anna Rising made a website to document her travels, including photos, blog entries and a travel log detailing her calculated Carbon emissions for each trip.

Visit Anna Rising's travel journal →

A lifestyle photography website

Søren Jepsen created a website solely for his lifestyle photography work. He brands it so well, it almost feels like a publication.

Visit The Locals page →

A page of colorful illustration experiments

This website by Alycia Rainaud is focused entirely on her psychedelic color experiments.

See Alycia Rainaud's gradient gallery →

A one-pager for 3D work

Jon Vio's made a one-pager with a GIFs and images of his 3D experiments, along with a brief introduction.

See Jon Vio's 3D world →

A marketing page for an ebook

I launch marketing pages for nearly every side project I do, including one for a book I wrote about moving to NYC. This one probably took me an hour to create at the most, after adding images, writing a summary and linking up a buy button.

See the Let's Go to NYC page →

Related reading:

Exceptionally good non-portfolio sites built with Semplice

Semplice is first and foremost a portfolio builder, but the smartest creatives and studios find it useful for a whole lot more.

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

When your portfolio is a brand in itself

We’ve said that a portfolio should be curated. This brings the picture of you are and what you want into clear view. Few portfolios accomplish this better than The Locals.

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

The most underrated page on your portfolio - DESK Magazine

There’s a page I don’t see on portfolios as often as I’d like. When I do, it feels like a treat. I go through all the other pages on the site first. I scan the homepage, usually click straight to the About page, followed by a few case studies. Finally, dessert: The Playground page. A …

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider

One video, article or side project can change your life - DESK Magazine

One piece of content, one little thing you create or publish, can change everything you do in the future. One article you write and publish can change your life. One video you upload and share can change your career. One little side project you create and publish can change the course of everything…

The DESK MagazineTobias van Schneider