CHICKENPIEEverything
on the desk.
Things I’m making, places I’m going, and thoughts that made it onto paper.
63 papers in design work
91% of Designers Use AI Now. That's Exactly Why Your Hand Matters More.
91% of designers use AI weekly now. That killed AI as a differentiator and made texture, typography, and a visible human hand the new premium signal.
Open paper
6 AI Art Tool Tips That Stop Your Marketing Images From Screaming "AI"
6 quick tips for using AI art tools like Nano Banana and Gemini 3 to make marketing visuals that don't scream "AI" — prompting, texture, consistency, and a pre-publish check.
Open paper
Five Design Quotes From This Month That Actually Mean Something
Five named quotes from real designers this month, decoded — with the Chickenpie stance on each and the one thread connecting all of them.
Open paper
Stop Hardcoding Colors: Build a Real Design System with Figma Variables
A hands-on 9-step tutorial: wire a Primitives, Semantic, and Brand variable system in Figma so your whole file updates from one place, light mode and dark mode included.
Open paper
The Design Industry Agreed AI Kills Junior Designers First. The Data Says Otherwise.
The consensus says AI automates juniors out first. Figma and Autodesk data say the real contraction is hitting mid-level production roles instead.
Open paper
How to Art-Direct AI Images So They Stop Looking Like AI
Nine steps to art-direct AI image generation like a photographer, not a wishlist — light, texture, junk tokens, and the two spots (hands, signage) that always give it away.
Open paper
I Tried to Build a Clickable Lottie Squeeze Toy. It Took Three Tries to Feel Right.
Watch three failed attempts to build an interactive Lottie squeeze toy — from a dead mousemove hack to a broken freeze-frame click, to the segment-based fix that finally feels tactile.
Open paper
Three Design Trends Are Actually Real This Week. Two Are Cope.
Five design trends made real waves this month. Three have data behind them. Two are aesthetic cosplay dressed up as a movement. Here is the breakdown, trend by trend.
Open paper
Everyone's Buying "Imperfect." Almost No One's Earning It.
The design internet agreed on "imperfect" this week. A graded, honest read on all five 2026 design trends — and which are already a Midjourney preset.
Open paper
How to Composite a Product into Any Background Using Photoshop Generative Fill
Drop a product into any background in 10 steps using Photoshop Generative Fill — with matching light, shadow, and zero obvious AI tells.
Open paper
The '10x Designer' Story Is Half True. That's What Makes It Dangerous.
Everyone agreed: AI makes designers 10x more productive. Here's the half they didn't say out loud — and why it matters for your career right now.
Open paper
Make Anything Scroll Into View with Pure CSS (No JavaScript)
Four lines of CSS. No JavaScript, no npm, no IntersectionObserver. Here's how to build scroll-reveal animations that run on the compositor thread and work in every major browser.
Open paper