iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026

I choose to believe the designer of this random Transformers knockoff packaging I saw was making a direct reference to the cover artwork of Nine Inch Nails’ 1990 single “Sin”.

Nine Inch Nails album cover with an abstract design that looks like “5IN”.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

Lately I’ve been noticing that my judgement of design work is based largely on the perceived motivation behind it. So much modern design (in tech particularly) seems driven by a self-serving need to impress, and I judge it negatively. Whereas design in service to a subject, user, or culture, I […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026

At the day job our design system is documented in Confluence. In a recent Confluence update all images have been stylized with rounded corners, which crop out the square corners of our many assets (the example here should be a fully square button). I don't […] [Original post on merveilles.town]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026

Back around 2006 I had bought an Osborne 1A off eBay, an early “portable” computer from 1982. It was in great condition, fully functional, with original software disks. Looked amazing. Unfortunately somewhere between storage and moves I had lost it. I feel bad about it to this day.

Osborne 1A vintage portable computer in beige and dark grey colors. A small CRT display is horizontally nestled between floppy drives while the mechanical keyboard is embedded into a separate removable panel connected via cable.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 18/08/2026

Engaged in some retail therapy at the design book shop today. I was also hoping to pick up Ruben Pater's “The Politics of Design”, but it was out of stock. Particularly looking forward to Silvio Lorusso's “What Design Can't Do” here!

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 14/08/2026

Had this bicycle scene in my head. Would love to make a seamless loop, but I'm assuming I'd have to switch to Blender's Geometry Nodes for that, which I've yet to dive into. The orthographic camera kind of obfuscates that its a 3D scene, but moving it helps. Had fun with it though!

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

Last night I had the hubris to believe I could match the background color of a video to a website. I had tried this before and it was so painful, but I thought maybe this time things would be different. But alas, no luck. Still seemingly impossible?

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

Some say, “if you want to get out of your head, get out of your house”, and I think that seems like nice advice.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 02/07/2026

Lance Sells is an artist whose work I've appreciated for what must be 20ish years now. Checking in after some time it's great to see he's still producing work: lancesells.com. Beautifully abstract, dark, and inscrutable.

Abstract painting of pink illustrative figures against a light grey background.

Abstract mixed media artwork consisting of blue and red painted plywood, black faux fur, and other assorted items in a minimally juxtaposed geometric configuration.

Abstract graphite and colored pencil drawing displaying the impression of two figures embracing in the foreground with a background figure seemingly walking a dog.

Abstract oil painting consisting of rough horizontal bands of pink, deep red, and dark forest green, disrupted with the impression of low resolution digital distortion.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2026

New release at the day job for aspiring music makers — learn.ableton.com. Hopefully valuable to beginners, but also to those mostly self-taught like me with many gaps to fill. Soft launch today with more to come!

learn.ableton.com

Ableton Learn

Learn the fundamentals of music making right in your browser.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026

[A macOS design take] The Liquid Glass updates in Golden Gate look like improvements that return some confidence in Apple’s design practice (while still leaving some questions about the fundamental direction). But as influential as Apple design is, I wonder what the broader design community can […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2026

During a visit to Prague this past weekend I visited the Strahov ventilation tower, a brutalist concrete structure that vents air from the traffic tunnel below. The surrounding area includes striking government offices and Prahov Stadium, in a bit of […] [Original post on merveilles.town]

Architectural photo displaying a glass and red brick structure against a cloudy blue sky.

A grey decaying brutalist concrete wall and door.

Architectural photo of brutalist glass and concrete structure against a cloudy sky.

Architectural photo of brutalist concrete tower against a cloudy sky.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2026

“It can observe that designers are burning out and leaving. But it cannot follow these observations to the conclusion they demand, which is that the institutional arrangements within which design operates are configured to extract design's value while withholding design's autonomy and authority […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026

"Good design is aesthetic, it's functional, and it's economical. And inevitably it has a moral (or immoral) effect. Design shapes the way we see, think, interact with, and shape the world. Every object, every system, every interaction reflects and perpetuates the values that shaped it.” […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 25/04/2026

Had a great time visiting the Mastering Type pop-up exhibition today at Kulturforum (www.smb.museum/en/museums-instituti…). Getting that IRL design inspiration!

A table top displaying a variety of colorful type specimen books.

A wall of posters displaying a variety of typeface designs.

A group of people are seated observing a typography lecture surrounded by walls displaying typographic posters.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2026

Nice musical collaboration between Jan Jelinek and Alan Abrahams coming up. Very much enjoying this particular track: alanabrahamsjanjelinek.bandcamp.com…. All lo-fi fizz, sparse beats, ambiguous vocal murmurs, and warbly synths. #theStudio

alanabrahamsjanjelinek.bandcamp.com

All One, by Alan & Jan

from the album Take me, I'm yours

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 04/04/2026

Me: Siri, remind me to call my mom this evening Siri: Okay, I've added a reminder to call your mom for this evening Me: *belch* Siri: It's deleted!

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 02/04/2026

Can not believe I got lucky enough to snag this. Signed 15th anniversary pressing of Machinarium soundtrack, edition of 10. Amazing.

Screenshot of Bandcamp website displaying description of Machinarium soundtrack LP and the label “You own this”.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 02/04/2026

“Copy as PNG” as found in Figma and other applications is useful for quickly sharing designs (for example, pasting into a Slack chat) but it sadly discourages considerations of file size. With a few more steps one can choose which compression format is ideal for the subject and adjust settings […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 22/03/2026

Got to eyeball some Dieter Rams classics at the Deutsches Design Museum this weekend.

Braun T1000 CD portable radio, silver and black with small red accents.

Collection of Braun radio alarm clocks in white, black, and transparent plastic.

Braun Studio 2 modular hifi audio system.

Stark white and beige gallery space displaying a variety of objects designed by Dieter Rams.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 20/03/2026

Appropriate album title for someone like me.

Album cover for the band Yazoo displaying the album’s title, “Upstairs at Eric’s”. Two mannequins are sitting at table, with their legs on the seats while their upper bodies sit on the table surface.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 18/03/2026

This was a treat today! I’m reminded that meeting other designers in real life is fun and refreshing. Particularly nice is getting outside your bubble and learning about the difference ways people and organizations are designing. Thanks @fossdesign for putting together a great event! […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 16/03/2026

I randomly found this compilation “While at the Computer: Relaxing Instrumentals” on Apple Music and thought it might be tongue-in-cheek based on the presentation, but it appears to be sincere. Don’t miss their other collections “Relaxing Music for Sex […] [Original post on merveilles.town]

Screenshot of Apple Music displaying the compilation “While at the Computer: Relaxing Instruments”. The cover art shows a keyboard and screen from a 90s-2000s era desktop computer.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 14/03/2026

Mr. Dieter Rams says “good design is as little design as possible.” And Mr. Edward Tufte says “to clarify, add detail.” And I found both worth remembering!

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 12/03/2026

I swear type foundry websites are the best websites.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2026

Question for the typography people — what are your favorite non-Helvetica Helvetica-like typefaces? I’m happy to use Helvetica and co. (Neue Haas Grotesk, Unica) but they’re expensive to license. I’m hoping to find an alternative that’s ideally from a smaller foundry and with affordable […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 07/03/2026

New Bill Callahan is out. My all-time favorite music guy. His new albums usually require a few listens for me to really get familiar, but this nice little track stood out immediately: www.youtube.com/watch?si=0FvJrgDpjH…. #theStudio

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 24/02/2026

That absolutely amazing feeling you get when a login UI actually has the username and password fields on the same screen. 😮

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 20/02/2026

Who amongst us is not somewhat enshittened?

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 19/02/2026

Crypto tokens… LLM tokens… design tokens… tokens… tokens… so many tokens.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 15/02/2026

I’ve been noticing the use of the word “elevate” way more often over the last few months. Elevate your savings, elevate your presentations, elevate design quality… Really feels like another painful instance of corporate LLM speak.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 14/02/2026

Tonight I will try to start making a functioning escalator in Blender. Wish me luck.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 14/02/2026

There’s a particular character to the list of nick names in an IRC channel. Every time you connect you see similar handles, seemingly present (not displayed in an “away” state) yet the channel is silent. Is this person sitting at their computer in that instant, intensely engaged in some skilled […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2026

Reminder to those of us designing software — it’s a much better experience when your UI remains stable during use. Buttons should not move when clicked. The positive example here is @ia Writer. No button chasing required.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 10/02/2026

I heard recently that you age out of e-sports at like 20. I do still really enjoy a match of Quake 3. Maybe I should make it a daily thing and use it to track my inevitable cognitive decline.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 07/02/2026

@lake’s 2026 calendar finally made its way to me in Germany this week (postal service didn’t really make it easy to get). Regardless, it’s a very well illustrated calendar! Getting physical items from independent creators is giving me real mid-2000s internet community vibes. Feels great.

Photograph of a printed calendar displaying the month of February accompanied by a monochromatic line art illustration of an overgrown dilapidated sign.

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 30/01/2026

The demise of Vimeo is quite sad. I remember in their early days, they were a darling among creative types, with a superior user experience compared to YouTube, and real enthusiasm for highlighting independent creators in a community environment. I still have videos hosted with them just for […]

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Eric Carl @ericcarl.merveilles.town.ap.brid.gy · 29/01/2026

On February 12 I will be giving an online talk at THU about my experience designing for Ableton Live: www.trojan-unicorn.com/initiative/s…. I will be sharing some insights around the theme of […]

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