About
I’m Robin, a designer and writer from the UK but now I live in San Francisco. This is where I experiment with storytelling and browsers, rant about typography, and work in public. My current side project is The Cascade.
Abilities
Notes
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The computer is a feeling
A trip to the Computer History Museum.
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Stop calling yourself an IC
Pick your words kindly, carefully.
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Book Tour Simulator 2024
Everywhere, there is kindness.
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Creativity is the byproduct of work
It sure ain’t luck.
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Piranesi
You must read it.
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Instability
The web was not for them.
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Job Hoppin’
That’s what the money is for.
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The New Alt Media
Anil Dash on the future.
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A prototype of the future
Jack Cheng on novels.
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Against Landlords
A grave injustice, a social violence, a threat.
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Design interviews
Maybe this helps.
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Sleepless in San Francisco
What the fuck was up with the mosquito spray?
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Designing The Cascade
A website about the past, present, and future of CSS.
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Longboarding
More nudge, less shove.
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Good and useful writing
Just heckin’ figure things out.
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E-essays
And a vast, sprawling intelligence based on SEO.
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Indoor Kid
Comic books as type specimens!
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Design is a process of getting stuck
“You often solve the problem yourself in the process of writing it out.”
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Good Taste
“Find your taste; everyone else will catch up eventually.”
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The Other Side
And an inherent flaw in the system.
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:has roundup
A million smart and handy examples.
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One endless meeting
The hard part is building stuff, not making decisions.
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Keyboard-first apps
100% keyboard-driven, baby!
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Is there a sane way to use the internet?
What mediums do you want to be more like?
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The Murderbot Diaries
“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”
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Be kind, be cool
A few notes on design principles.
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The Elevator Test
Baby thuds of progress.
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Mini Manifesto
A mighty fine morning for a rant.
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A *New* Program for Graphic Design
Now let’s get started.
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A unified theory of fucks
“Work isn’t a thing that can love.”
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If it doesn’t ship, then it doesn’t count
They have a job to do.
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Be loud about the things you love
Louder, louder still.
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Resolutions are dumb
And a freight train of progress.
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Hitched
We took our vows and then bolted for the exit.
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22 panels
DON’T CROSS BALLOON TAILS…EVER.
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Jusant
Just go play the darn thing.
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I am a poem I am not software
And the boring corporate handshake.
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Figure it out
Teach an anxious boy to fish, etc. etc.
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Stop Using AI-Generated Images
Yawn.
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People and Blogs
A chat with Manuel Moreale.
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Nuform Type
Man, the websites.
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Help is just help
What am I hoping for?
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Cut the Intro
We don’t need a manifesto.
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Design systems, color spaces, and CSS
OK…lch.
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The Cascade
Loving CSS in 2023 feels lonely.
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footer.design
So many opportunities!
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Typographic Malaise
I fear that I’ve seen everything that typography is capable of.
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Meta in Myanmar
Neglicence and genocide.
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Meh
Taking care in the face of apathy.
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Metra Ticket Gallery
Weak in the knees.
In Praise of Shadows
Newsletters
Systems, Mistakes, and the Sea
Söhne
Söhne by Klim Type is perfect but I can’t say why since I mostly roll my eyes at big chunky neo-grotesques. You see them all the time and they look mean in a way that I find unpleasant. But Söhne has a warmth to it that’s missing in the other descendants of Akzidenz-Grotesk. It’s just lovely.
MD IO
MD IO by Mass Driver is another favorite and I use it for captions and code blocks. It’s sort of in the same category as Söhne where I’ve seen endless mono typefaces and shrugged but this one makes me snap to attention. Oh, and make sure to check out the excellent type specimen site, too.