Spotlight

What are you working on?

I worked at a bank for five years and resigned in August. Now I'm freelancing or building my own app.

I have a draft document called “What do I want to do next?” which says, “Focus on craft and don't forget why you resigned.” I want to bring artful expression to product design.

I'm freelancing ten or eleven hours a day, but a lot of it is work I already know how to do. I'm doing it for the money, but then I think, why did I resign?

Are you getting through tasks faster without pushing yourself creatively?

I do finish faster with AI, but it's difficult to challenge myself when timelines are tight.

With Swatch This, I built the camera's 3D model without knowing Blender. I thought, let me learn how to do 3D and make the camera. Who cares? If it doesn't push me forward, what's the point?

Is the goal of pushing yourself creatively to become an indie developer, or to build skills for the job market? Or is it just, “I don’t know, I just want to get better”?

It's kind of “I don't know.” At the moment, I just want to try and improve myself.

As execution gets easier, I want to become someone who has good ideas. I have about 2,000 cards in mymind, including a whole space for video games.

Some Pokémon TCG cards form one big visual. Maybe I could use that for achievements: you collect cards, and they make an image.

Another reference is a Japanese pin that changes as you tilt it. Imagine using the gyroscope so a card gets pixelated when you tilt your phone. It's a physical object, but who says you can't do that in an app?

Do you chat with other designers often?

The design scene where I live isn't very mature. I tried ADPList, but it felt too formal. Through the Spotted in Prod Slack, I met a Dutch designer I still talk to. It's nice to have someone I can casually ask for feedback.

On Twitter, there are people I follow, and we keep liking each other's work. I'm pretty sure they feel like, ‘I don't want to say something bad,’ because we've been talking for a long time.

I feel like there are only two situations where you get honest feedback: you're really good friends and can be direct, or it's an actual critique session where you have to be honest. I don't really have that.

How do you decide what to spend your creative time on?

Whether I think I'll improve.

Swatch This feels good enough now. I've squeezed a lot out of that bottle of creativity. I'd rather put another two weeks into something new.

I want to focus on ideation and art direction, not getting an app to 100,000 users.

Where do your best ideas come from?

The place I get the least inspiration from is apps.

I was using Polaroids in Swatch This when I saw a photo of sunlight falling on Polaroids. I hadn't planned the daylight shader, but I sent that picture to Claude and asked how to make it.

The passport design came from Animal Crossing IDs. If I'm designing something with a letter, I'll look at actual letters and postcards.

Early in my career, I worked at a bank and mostly looked at Mobbin. All the credit card screens looked the same. Then my manager asked for something unique.

Your manager asked you to do something unique?

He said, “Come on, all card screens look like this.” If I only look at apps, I'm limiting my creativity to apps.

My source was the problem.

I look at game UI databases and save things from Moonlighter and Genshin Impact. Maybe there's a HUD, a tooltip, or a card I can take something from. A mobile screen is smaller, but you can still use elements of those designs.

How are you thinking about the future of app development?

For my next app, I want the proof of concept fully vibe-coded: I do the art direction—screenshots and mood boards—and Claude builds it. I spent a lot of time making assets for Swatch This. Can I build a nice idea with less intervention?

Swatch This took two months. That's two months I haven't spent trying other things. I don't know if I'm going the right way. It's trial and error.

So committing to one art direction comes at the cost of exploring others?

For me, the limitation is time, not money.

Exploration is the most fun. After that, a user wants a button or a way to save an image, and the design system is already there. I can tell Claude to use a tray we've used elsewhere. I'm building, but I'm not being creative.

The exploration phase was much shorter than two months. I spent the rest turning it into a product, without getting the value I wanted.

Do you still enjoy building and fine-tuning the product?

I still enjoy fine-tuning interactions.

But on Swatch This, I'm only working in its hand-drawn game style. I don't explore other aesthetics because they aren't relevant to the app.

The more I explore, the more I can refine my taste.

What's your ideal timeline for your next project?

The diary app went from the first screenshots to the App Store in ten days. My V1s have taken no more than two weeks, even with a full-time job: a week for art direction and a week to build.

Those are the best two weeks. After that, it becomes more of a chore.

Do you curate broadly or for a specific product?

About 90% of the time, it's broad.

Every morning, I spend thirty minutes to an hour looking at things and saving them to mymind.

What are your favorite apps on your phone right now?

Bump changed me as a designer.

I'd been working on design systems, and my creativity was at an all-time low. Bump felt like it was screaming at me to do something. I took screenshots and recordings like crazy. I don't use it much now, but I won't forget its impact.