Happy to say, after over a year of inactivity here, I will be getting back to regular transmissions. Long story short, I’d let the site fall way behind on updates, and a vulnerability led to it being compromised, which required me to take the whole thing down until I could focus on a fix. We’re still in the process of optimizing things, but now the site is on a secure footing thanks to Justin Holt, who specializes in Craft website development.

So what have I been up to in the meantime?

A lot of the same. Still employed after DataStax was acquired, and crossed the one year mark at IBM last month, where I’m now working with the design system team on a refresh of Carbon. Still entertaining all my interests and hobbies, collecting design ephemera, and stacking books at a rate that far exceeds my ability to read them all. Occasionally, I share some of these things on Instagram, though I’ve definitely dialed that way back. I’ve just been posting enough to let people know I’m still alive, I guess.

A recent development of note though, and probably stemming from my no longer being in a creative director role at a tech startup, is I’m feeling the itch to get back to the sort of things I was pursuing as an independent designer and illustrator. When I took the job at DataStax, it required a lot of my time and energy, to say the least. Now free from that, I’m more inclined to spend time in the office during my off hours, doing personal work.

I also feel like maybe the tech industry’s total immersion in AI has had the effect of leaving me with more creative energy in the tank. With every product now revolving around AI, and every part of doing the job involving the use of AI (it's pretty much mandated in tech), there seems to be less need or time for the sort of creative output that drove me in the past. But even without AI in the picture, I suppose the fact that I have now landed fully on the “product” side of things is more of a contributing factor, with the work being more about usability, functionality, etc. Rather than visual communication. It is a different kind of problem solving than graphic design, which I miss. So I'm going to take the creative reserves and burn them on my own projects.

Where I can also say, I have zero desire to use AI, be it for writing, illustrating, designing, or art-making in general. Readers here can rest assured, everything I put out into the world of my own accord is still the product of whatever onboard brainpower I am working with, and my own aging and increasingly aching hands. Generative AI pretty much runs against all of the reasons I do any of it for myself, and I also know people still want to see art and thinking that springs from actual humans minus the input or output of an LLM. I certainly do.

That said, with Justin’s help updating my websites, I’m now revisiting Speculative Identities in a serious way. Overhauling the site’s design, from both a branding and user experience perspective. And would say my mockups are about 80% of the way to a place where I could hand things off for development. Maybe as soon as next month. Then I can shift to the fun part, researching new material and tracking down creators who are interested in talking about their sci-fi identity work. Excited about that.

Before I end this transmission, I’ll share a few screenshots as a sneak peek. I don't want to give too much away, and some decisions are still in flux, but these snippets give an idea of how I’m evolving the look (colors, type, etc) and some small clues about new things I’m adding. Once I relaunch, I’ll have more to say about the changes, likely in a blog post there.

Hopefully more soon. And stay tuned for more regular transmissions here.