The hottest Digital Design Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Art & Illustration Topics

Joe Gebbia Is Making the Government Beautiful Again

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1205 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
🪑 Design Digital Design
  1. Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder, has moved to Washington to serve as the U.S. Chief Design Officer and launched the National Design Studio.
  2. He’s applying product and design methods to redesign federal websites and services, and has built platforms like TrumpRx and Tech Force to make government tools easier to use and to recruit tech talent.
  3. This design-led push is changing how the government presents policy and programs, updating things like nutrition guidance and retirement information to be more modern and user-focused.

Cursed circuits #4: PLL frequency multiplier

lcamtuf’s thing • 4081 implied HN points • 26 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Digital Design
  1. Latches and clocked D flip-flops store single bits and let signals be sampled on clock edges, providing the basic timing building blocks for digital circuits.
  2. A digital phase detector uses flip-flops to see which clock edge arrives first and produces pulses that indicate whether a tested clock is running too fast or too slow.
  3. A PLL closes the loop by using that detector to steer a VCO, and by inserting a divider in the feedback the VCO will lock at an integer multiple of the reference frequency, turning a low-frequency clock into a higher-frequency, phase-aligned clock.

Cursed circuits: charge pump voltage halver

lcamtuf’s thing • 4693 implied HN points • 02 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Digital Design
  1. Charge pumps are efficient circuits that can double voltage using capacitors. They work by transferring charge between capacitors to create a higher voltage output.
  2. Unlike standard voltage dividers, a specific charge pump design can halve voltage. This is done by using capacitors in series and moving a 'flying' capacitor to balance the voltages.
  3. The charge transfer stabilizes the output voltage at half the supply, which is different from typical voltage dividers since it doesn't depend on the size of the capacitors.

13 Super Useful Chrome Plugins for Front-End Developers

JavaScript Development Substack • 46 HN points • 22 Sep 24
🕹 Technology Digital Design
  1. Chrome extensions can make front-end development easier and faster. They help with tasks like inspecting CSS, testing forms, and analyzing website technologies.
  2. Tools like CSS Peeper and Fake Filler let developers quickly see styles and fill forms automatically. This saves time and simplifies the testing process.
  3. Extensions like Wave Evaluation Tool and Ahrefs SEO Toolbar help improve website accessibility and SEO. They offer insights that can help boost a site's performance.

Doing less: a personal essay

Design Lobster • 818 implied HN points • 16 Jan 23
🪑 Design Digital Design
  1. Designers should strive to 'do less' to avoid overwhelm and prioritize what truly matters in their work.
  2. Constraints in design are essential, as they lead to simplicity and help designers convey their message effectively.
  3. In a world of technological advancements, the concept of 'less' in design becomes more relevant, urging designers to deliver more with minimal elements.
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How to AI

The Intersection • 277 implied HN points • 19 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Digital Design
  1. History often repeats itself in the adoption of new technologies, as seen with the initial skepticism towards digital marketing and now with AI.
  2. Brands are either cautiously experimenting with AI for PR purposes or holding back due to concerns like data security, plagiarism, and unforeseen outcomes.
  3. AI's evolution spans from traditional artificial intelligence to the current era dominated by generative AI, offering operational efficiency, creative enhancements, and transformative possibilities.

Democratization of Design

The Intersection • 138 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
🪑 Design Digital Design
  1. Design tools like Canva have democratized design, making it accessible to everyone, but the quality of design produced may not always meet professional standards.
  2. AI-powered design tools aim to streamline design processes, but they require a fundamental understanding of design to be used effectively.
  3. While tools like Canva have made design accessible to non-designers, the quality of work ultimately depends on the skills and capabilities of the individuals using the tools.

Is creativity the only job left?

The Intersection • 178 implied HN points • 07 Aug 23
🎭️ Culture Digital Design
  1. To stay relevant in an automated age, move upstream in your work, not downstream
  2. As technology evolves, taste becomes a crucial skill for creatives to distinguish themselves
  3. In a world where machines handle repetitive tasks, creativity stands out for its uniqueness and original ideas

Designing the AI Future

New World Same Humans • 11 implied HN points • 07 Dec 25
🪑 Design Digital Design
  1. A research service is focusing on the intersection of technology, business, and creativity to help professionals make sense of rapid change. It targets marketers, designers, strategists, innovators and other knowledge workers who need clear foresight.
  2. The central challenge is crafting an AI-powered future that’s worth living in, not just more capable systems. Decades of design experience suggest feeling, relevance, and human consequences will matter more than technical capability alone.
  3. The approach is to explore these questions through deep essays and conversations so ideas become practical insight. Those resources aim to help people see what’s coming and do work that matters.

Color Palettes, Leaf Music, and NeuralSVG

Generative Arts Collective • 65 implied HN points • 16 Feb 25
🎨 Art & Illustration Digital Design
  1. Creating generative art involves using programming to make things like color palettes or music inspired by nature. These projects let you explore creativity with technology.
  2. NeuralSVG is an interesting method for generating vector graphics from text prompts. It helps create more structured designs, which can be really useful for artists.
  3. Using tools like Blender and Three.js can make it easier to design stunning generative visuals. Tutorials are available to help you learn these skills step by step.

L-Systems, Elm Puzzle Generator, and Skia

Generative Arts Collective • 65 implied HN points • 09 Dec 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Digital Design
  1. L-Systems can create beautiful patterns like trees or snowflakes using simple rules. They're fun tools for exploring nature-inspired designs.
  2. Elm is a programming language that makes it easy to create SVG images. You can use it to generate puzzles and get creative.
  3. Skia Canvas lets you use the HTML Canvas API outside a web browser. It's great for making graphics on both servers and desktop applications.

The Medium is the Mentality:

⭐️Bob’s Newsletter • 19 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Digital Design
  1. Understanding how different mediums influence us is crucial in today's digital age.
  2. The evolution of media ecology shows how technology shapes human relations and cognition.
  3. Balancing the benefits and risks of social media and AI requires cultivating digital mindfulness and awareness.

#56 The invention of corridors

Design Lobster • 239 implied HN points • 22 Feb 21
🪑 Design Digital Design
  1. Corridors reflect changes in societal relationships and the need for privacy in architecture.
  2. Consider the spirit and fun that can be brought out in design, even in digital mechanisms like clocks.
  3. Simplicity in design forces focus on the real problems, delivering substance over ornament.

Let's stop keeping Pantone relevant. Adobe can disappear along with it.

The 21st Century Proletarian • 19 implied HN points • 04 Nov 22
🪑 Design Digital Design
  1. Question the necessity of traditional industry standards like Pantone and Adobe in the digital age. Consider alternatives and challenge the status quo.
  2. Empower individuals to create their own color systems and liberate design from corporate influence. Encourage innovation and free access to color.
  3. Advocate for a design revolution by rejecting outdated, overpriced software, and working towards a more inclusive and progressive design community.

#34 When design makes us afraid

Design Lobster • 19 implied HN points • 21 Sep 20
🪑 Design Digital Design
  1. Design can intentionally evoke fear or other emotions to engage users or visitors, like the Hongyagu bridge engineered to wobble and create unease.
  2. Design is evolving to provide entertainment value beyond just functionality, with emotional journeys becoming a key aspect in various fields.
  3. Design should prioritize human behavior over technological convenience, as highlighted by Stewart Brand's quote advocating for human-centered design.

#21

The Nibble • 9 implied HN points • 19 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Digital Design
  1. Spotify expands AI DJ feature globally
  2. Beware of MTFE, a crypto ponzi scheme
  3. Google Docs and Slides now support Markdown natively

Cyber Physical Symptoms

Cybernetic Forests • 0 implied HN points • 04 Nov 21
🕹 Technology Digital Design
  1. Symptoms in technological systems indicate underlying issues that need attention.
  2. Approaching problems in AI and cyber-physical systems as 'cyber-physical symptoms' can help identify imbalances between digital and social elements.
  3. Considering the concept of 'Hormesis,' where appropriate amounts of digital and analog elements are integrated, can lead to stronger system designs.

How to turn linear phase into truly linear phase

filterwizard • 0 implied HN points • 17 Sep 24
🕹 Technology Digital Design
  1. FIR filters can have phase jumps that can affect signal quality. To fix this, one method is to use two filters in series, which cancels out unwanted phase jumps.
  2. Another approach involves tweaking the filter's impulse response to eliminate negative values in the Fourier transform. This ensures a smoother phase response without major changes to the filter's function.
  3. It's important to over-design the filter's stopband due to the adjustments made. This way, the overall performance remains reliable and avoids distortion in the filtered signals.