Design Literacy

This primal way of design exists in how early humans shaped tools & rituals, how children imaginatively arrange toys, and how investors rely on taste to back early companies. I see this type of design everywhere in my work with founders, engineers, salespeople, and investors—they are all designers in their own right. It is innate—it just needs ... See more

Ask someone to define design, and they’ll likely describe what designers make—architects draft buildings, graphic designers create logos, industrial designers shape products, and software designers make apps. This is how we typically understand design, by its outputs. The weight of these definitions grows heavier over time. The older the craft, the... See more

While AI can generate endless “perfect” outputs, the crucial design decisions are innately human: which questions to ask, guided by feeling & relationships rather than pure logic, and aligning execution against context and strategy. AI might generate hundreds of landing page variants, but it takes design sensibility to know which will genuinely... See more

Designing is not a profession but an attitude – László Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion 1947

When he built boats, he wasn’t selling fiberglass and chrome—he was selling performance, adventure, and freedom. Many customers wanted a piece of this world, drawn in by his passionate, authentic vision of what boating could be. My favorite of his taglines captures this energy: “The ultimate off-road vehicle.” The t-shirt featured a gleaming sportf... See more

Design as orchestration

But at the time, I questioned this approach. Why study semiotics when I could be building a portfolio site? Why pull all-nighters just to endure brutal critiques—tossing the work away and starting over? But the process—thinking, making, critique—proved transformative. The school wasn’t teaching design as ornamentation or styling. Instead, it was an... See more

My father’s single-minded attention to both detail and experience mirrors the approach of the best founders I’ve worked with.

Design and the profession of the designer must transform from a specialist function pushing pixels into a universal attitude of resourcefulness and inventiveness. We move beyond asking if designers should code to embracing design as a universal capability. This mindset adapts to any medium and isn’t focused on acquiring technical skills, tools, or ... See more

The designer must see the core as well as the periphery, the immediate and the ultimate. If obsession fuels this work, orchestration makes it productive.