Marc Edwards

@BritonBaker @SnazzyLabs @ChristianSelig Worth noting that post I replied to with my animation was someone who worked at Apple. They were involved.

@SnazzyLabs @ChristianSelig Quinn this is from 2020, Christian wasn’t the one who invented it, and neither was this guy, apple did

I’m pretty sure they just saw @ChristianSelig’s 3D model and went “oh ya that makes way more sense than 3 popsicle sticks let’s pretend like we always meant it to be that.”

@BritonBaker @SnazzyLabs @ChristianSelig I can confirm I didn’t invent it, and it’s Apple’s idea.

Vocal effects of Daft Punk: Harmonizers youtu.be/10o0hCybeq4?si…

Vocal effects of Daft Punk: Vocoders youtu.be/bkTFCPQMJkc?si…

Ever wonder what gear Daft Punk used to achieve their iconic robot sound? Longtime fan & musician Marc Edwards researched, bought, & tested around 25 pieces of music gear then published an amazing article and 2 videos covering this topic! Check them out! bjango.com/articles/daftp…

@DanFessler @timsoret @csmartdalton There’s some blur and glow examples in this doc: steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/200…

@marcedwards @timsoret @csmartdalton This is radically different than anything with signed distance fields from what I can tell. I’ve never seen SDFs in vector space for arbitrary shapes - even if that was what they were doing

This isn't getting enough attention. Rive has solved vector feathering! The blur isn't a costly post-process convolution, it's mathematically pure at the vector level = incredible performance even with ultra large kernels. Incredible work from @csmartdalton

@DanFessler @timsoret @csmartdalton Render each segment in its own conservative rasterised triangle and use the SDF in the way you would for antialiasing, but make it wider. shadertoy.com/view/MlKcDD

You’re not ready for what’s @marcedwards has been cooking bjango.com/mac/skala/

@chriswallace @DannPetty To this day, there are so many features that I find essential for product design that Photoshop does and no other design tool gets right. Yes, it’s absolutely the wrong tool, but it’s a shame to have lost so many good techniques and features.

@DannPetty Photoshop is image editing software, it was never intended to be a web design app. People used it bc it worked sorta and there wasn't much else on the market.

Some people are struggling with a few things I've said. Yes, Photoshop lost. Maybe you're new around here, but Photoshop was THE design tool everyone used to design websites and apps. Everyone. But it lost out to Sketch and Figma and now hardly anyone designs these things in Photoshop. Of course some still do but most don't. I still use Photoshop for certain things but never web design or apps. It's dead to me there. InVision didn't lose because of it's marketing–it's marketing clearly worked better than anyone else ever did. They sold us the most simple, basic prototyping tool there has ever been. It lost because it didn't innovate and it's product became the marketing. Studio didn't destroy it as it was already over for them. Studio was just their last resort and unfortunately was too little too late. I wish our current companies treated our community the way InVision did. They were so good to us. Events, partnerships with individuals, investment in individuals, documentaries, and tons of helpful content. People aren't mad at Figma because it's too hard to use–it's not hard to use. It's incredibly easy. They're mad at Figma because they lost focus on designers and got over bloated with useless features no one wanted or needed and started to focus on developers and their Config event. They use a dark pattern for payments and has become incredibly expensive. Plus many other things. They don't do much for the community. If Figma resorts back to focusing on simplifying the design process, give us our magic button one day, rework their pricing models, and focus on community and support individuals and get out of their tight clique, they will continue to be unstoppable for web and app design. I'd recommend they also think about graphic design as well to take market share from Canva (which is where more customers and money is). Yes, it will be hard for a new competitor to take down Figma. Obviously. I don't even want Figma to be taken down. I like Figma, the team, and the idea of the product. I don't want to switch products ever again. But I'm also not dumb. I've seen every tool I've ever loved fall away over the last 20 years. Why wouldn't it happen to Figma too (assuming they don't refocus)? My theory is Figma continues down it's path and becomes an even more powerful "product" design tool for designers and developers. It doesn't refocus but doubles down. They continue to do great but lose the graphic designer and web designer. Webflow or Framer realizes they are one feature away from owning the web design market. One of them will never realize it until it's too late. Everyone will design websites in one of these products and no longer use something like Figma. Figma gets a few competitors but no one will be able to actually compete. Figma is just too connected to the teams and companies that make decisions. Figma does get their pricing model right eventually. Canva continues down it's current path and doesn't care because it's making too much money and crushing all competition already. However, I think a professional tool comes out that competes with Canva without all the fluff. Notice I never once mentioned AI being a deciding factor for these tools. Why? Because they will all have it when it's ready and will be a feature just like having a type tool–it's expected. I didn't proof read this. Hopefully some of it made sense.

@DannPetty Skala is coming.

@jonkantner @CodePen I assume you’ve seen this? dribbble.com/shots/4645074-…

@marcedwards @CodePen Well, since I was aware of `mix-blend-mode`, I already had an idea of how to do the color part, so that didn’t take me long at all to figure out. I’ve spent most of my time on the animation.

Some fun with `mix-blend-mode` for creating a 3D glasses-like motion effect for this spinner codepen.io/jkantner/pen/x… @CodePen #CSS

Hot new Figma plugin by the legend @marcedwards just dropped. Pinwheel is for exporting color variables as Design Tokens JSON. It might be the first plugin to do this with full support of sRGB and Display P3. And? it’s free.

There’s lots of ways to blend between colours, and many of them are useful. OKLCH can look great, but it’s not ideal when the hues you’re blending are too different. Pinwheel supports four types of colour blending when creating gradients.

We’ve just released a new app! Pinwheel is a Mac app for converting colors and creating design systems. bjango.com/mac/pinwheel/

Say hello to iStat Menus 7! What’s new? Everything. iStat Menus 7 is a full reboot, sporting an all-new design with hundreds of big and small improvements. bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/

@DannPetty I hope this is already clear, but just in case it isn’t: I’m pushing back because I respect you. I see the future as an optimistic one for the future of design. Everything in the world is becoming software, so the need for designers will continue to grow.

Our design industry is rapidly changing and so many people are about to be left behind. AI is going to destroy design careers. Use it as a tool for now, but sooner than you think, design careers as we know will never be the same. Some of them needed to go anyways, but it's going to take so many more. If you think that's false, you should hear about all the ways design has changed in my 20+ year career. How many new design tools I had to learn. I was designing websites before there were iPhones. I was designing websites before we over complicated the process and needed teams of hundreds of people to make them. We already know change is coming. Change is constant. It's unwise to think otherwise. While some design leaders are embracing it, starting business around it, those that are not are getting further and further behind. And you won't notice it until it's too late. Then you'll rush to play catch up. Every website and product practically looks the same already. And we're ok with that. We're becoming ok with average looking stuff. We're ok with cookie cutter (it seems). It's proven. It works. It's fast. It's super easy to replicate. AI will only make it easier. The designers that can only replicate are going to be replicated themselves...by AI. Designers are so lost we're now on how to be creative, they result to exhausting everyone with motion everywhere possible to counteract the identical designs in an attempt to provide some level of uniqueness. We also have all these cliques in design now. The tool gurus. The Awwward chasers. The design founders. The design influencers. The UX-only club. The UI dreamers. The design reply guys here...and so many others. While we all use to be one, now everyone thinks they're better than the other but the only true king might soon be AI. So maybe, just maybe, we should all become one again? Stop fighting each other every day on this website and behind each others backs. No better time than now. AI is the new design leader. Even our design tools are attempting to take away majority of the process by designing for us. Sure, it's a tool to take advantage of now, but what happens next? We never wanted AI to design for us. We wanted AI to help us. Basically, use it to your advantage before it takes advantage of you. I fear for the average designer. That job is changing and that makes me sad. Design is the greatest job in the world. Especially when you're allowed to be creative with it. I'll never forget what one of my teachers told me in design school ages ago. They said, "Design is the best job in the world because I get to be creative all day." I've pursued my career with that mentality and I badly hope everyone reading this does too. We have our jobs now because these companies need profit. To get profit, they need design. To get design, they need us. But what happens when that changes? If you're early career or the average designer out there, maybe my advise right now is to master AI before it masters you? I don't know. But don't ignore it. And if you think I'm being fearful, dishonest, out of character, or whatever you want to call it - this is just me sharing my current thoughts just as I have done since 2009 here. If you hate it, feel free to unfollow and leave. This is my Twitter account. Not yours. If you're building a product with AI and want to quote to me with your shoulders held back and head high, cool. We're looking at you to teach how to shift the career of the next generation designers. Not just bulldozing for profit. I don't hate AI. I embrace it. I challenge it. It AIn't taking my job anytime soon and it won't yours if you learn to adapt when necessary.

@DannPetty Also, if training on copyright data is deemed illegal, all the current models are utterly screwed. There’s enough cases in play that one may be decided in favour of copyright owners. My advice to juniors is the same as always — get good at the fundamentals.

@DannPetty Has design changed in the past 20 years? I’m not sure it really has. Someone who is familiar with Adobe’s apps and HTML/CSS from 2004 could be teleported to today and get up to speed very quickly. I’m not even sure LLMs and image gen is going to radically alter things.