iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 12/09/2025

Today marks 18 years since I bought my first iPhone. Never used a case. Never dropped and broke one. (And I held on to my original one)

030

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 13/08/2025

My AC stopped working last night. Rough night. This morning I had ChatGPT help me troubleshoot the problem. Turns out it’s a $30 part and I could replace it myself. ChatGPT gave me the instructions (which I then verified with an electrician friend) and I was able to be up in running in no time.

020

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 30/07/2025

Went to see Fantastic Four last night. My favorite part: 👑

000

Reposted by Jim MacLeod

Rand Fishkin @randfish.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

I'm telling you, ~2015 the era of performance advertising with attribution as a no-brainer growth lever ended. It's just that no one told execs and most are still acting like it works. Post 2015: Brand marketing > performance ads (this story from Unilever is 🔥🔥🔥)

1142

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 27/07/2025

The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the... Via Ann Handley (Back when I was laying out a lot of type, I preferred the en-dash because it wasn’t so gaudy.)

mcsweeneys.net

The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations - McSweeney’s Internet Tendency

“In recent months, a curious fixation has emerged in corners of academia: the em dash. More specifically, the apparent moral panic around how it is...

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 23/07/2025

My latest podcast appearance, on The Business of Marketing, came out today. It's always great to chat with @aleejudge.bsky.social! If you're a marketer or business owner, check it out! www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iw3...

youtube.com

Why Marketers Must Master Visual Design to Drive Business Results (with Jim MacLeod)

YouTube video by A. Lee Judge

021

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 22/07/2025

I resubscribed to Midjourney. ChatGPT’s images are fine for one or two, but after a while, you start to see the massive chasm in quality between the two.

110

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 17/07/2025

This is a great way to define risks associated with entrepreneurship.

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 14/07/2025

I have to thank @s3th.me for suggesting I use Yourls for my shortened links. I can set custom link endings, able to edit the links afterward, and I have analytics on link performance. I have full control over my shortened links now.

110

Reposted by Jim MacLeod

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 25/04/2025

Snoopy once wrote a Batman story. In the 1970s, the Peanuts strip had Snoopy struggling to write a novel. A few years later, DC and writer Len Wein used the text from Snoopy’s story as the captions for a 2-page Batman story illustrated by Walter Simonson.

Page of a Batman comic book using the same copy from the Peanuts strip.

03610

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 13/07/2025

I’ve been thinking about the Windsurf deal falling through and then the top execs jumping ship for a pile of cash. Since this is (at least) the second time we’ve seen this recently, why would someone join a startup at this point? How can talent protect themselves in these #startup situations?

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 12/07/2025

I feel sorry for the Windsurf employees who thought they were about to cash in. And now their company is dissolving before their eyes. #Windsurf techcrunch.com/2025/07/11/w...

techcrunch.com

Windsurf's CEO goes to Google; OpenAI's acquisition falls apart | TechCrunch

Notably, Google is not taking a stake in Windsurf and will not have any control over the company.

000

Reposted by Jim MacLeod

Rand Fishkin @randfish.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Taste is the New Intelligence "Taste is anti-fragile. It gets stronger the more noise you expose it to. When you sharpen your discernment, you stop being swayed by trends. You stop needing consensus. You stop reacting to every new thing like it’s urgent." www.wildbarethoughts.com/p/taste-is-t...

1111

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 09/07/2025

Companies cant lead if they’re waiting for evidence. It takes audacity to do something first. - A Lee Judge

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 07/07/2025

Today I dedicated my time to designing a couple of logos. I had forgotten how time flies when I’m working in Illustrator, throwing every bad idea on to the art board, and then refining. #design

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 03/07/2025

If your product revenue is declining, deciding “let’s make the experience worse” is not a good game plan. Before I got into design/marketing, I ran movie theaters. There are ways to fix this without just making things worse.

092

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 19/06/2025

My favorite bar in history announced it’s shutting down on Saturday. I got up early to hit deadline so a friend and I can go say goodbye this afternoon.

010

Reposted by Jim MacLeod

Chris Eliopoulos @chriseliopoulos.com · 18/06/2025

Happy birthday to Sir Paul McCartney!

014717

Reposted by Jim MacLeod

Timothy Hughes @timothyhughes.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a letter to employees that the company’s AI push will trim its corporate headcount in the coming years with agents and automation advances. buff.ly/jvAEx6B #Artificialintelligence #Technology #Innovation #Tech #TechNews #ArtificialInteligence #FutureofWork

011

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 18/06/2025

It’s interesting to watch Figma and #Canva position themselves as alternatives to Adobe … only to become Adobe-like conglomerates. www.cnbc.com/2025/06/17/c...

cnbc.com

Canva moves into analytics with acquisition of MagicBrief

Canva already provides popular tools for designing ads. Now it wants to help marketers see how they perform.

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 17/06/2025

I've been contracted to #design book covers for a series of books. I started with sketches on the iPad (Procreate) Brought those into ChatGPT to turn into photos Took those into Photoshop to adjust color and AI to clean up parts Then brought those into Illustrator to lay out the type on all three.

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 16/06/2025

“If you skip the struggle, you miss the growth.” @annhandley.bsky.social talking about the importance of not over relying on AI. Her newsletter is always great, but this one is a good reminder not to outsource all of your thinking to AI. It will make you weak.

121

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 13/06/2025

Yesterday I was asked why I’m so bullish on #AI. As a design student, my freshman year was focused on doing layout and type by hand. We rolled ink onto letters. Then we got a new computer lab with something called Photoshop. I saw the digital revolution. Everyone had to evolve. AI is the same.

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 07/06/2025

Yesterday I gave the talk “Your AI Visuals Are Fine … Until They’re Not” at #EvolveDrupal Boston. I got some laughs, lots of head nods, people taking pics of slides, and a handful of questions afterwards. I consider that a win.

110

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 07/06/2025

My first email address was jmm@keene.edu. I was part of the first group to have email. And you can tell they had no idea what they were doing because they didn’t think about how that naming structure scales.

110

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 05/06/2025

I hope tomorrow’s episode of Pivot isn’t locked yet. I can’t wait hear @karaswisher.bsky.social and @profgalloway.com think.

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 03/06/2025

Thanks to @timothyhughes.bsky.social for including The Visual Marketer in this top 10 list.

110

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 02/06/2025

So disappointed to hear about the upcoming end of Marc Maron's WTF podcast. I've been listening since the early days. With everything he had going on during the pandemic, my wife and I were worried about him. But, I'm excited for what he does next! #MarcMaron #WTF

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 01/06/2025

“It’s no use stewing over things. The best you can do is work the problem, then tackle the next one.” Great advice from The Boston Globe’s profile of MBTA general manager, Phil Eng.

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 01/06/2025

Looking at my newsletter stats, and it's kind of crazy to see that a subscriber who read so regularly just unsubscribed. I kinda want to email them and ask what happened.

List of recent issues of After Design. All but two were opened by the subscriber in question.

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 29/05/2025

I was cleaning up a presentation for a speech I’m giving next week. Then I found an old, rejected book cover design I had created for a client. Next thing you know, I’m redesigning the entire slide template. (It works better now).

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 28/05/2025

This makes sense to me. The drive to rename SEO for the age of AI is ego driven so someone can proclaim that they coined the term. People are searching for answers, and we’re structuring our data and content to be found in those results. That’s SEO.

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 26/05/2025

Listening to the latest #ThisOldMarketing and it dawned on me that I didn’t talk about the use of #AI in my book. I wrote the whole book. I used Grammarly to help with some grammar and structure. Sometimes, I used ChatGPT to find better words or phrases if I was overusing a word or phrase.

200

Reposted by Jim MacLeod

Seth From Philly @phillycodehound.com · 25/05/2025

Podcasters on Bluesky! I made a feed that is for sharing tips and tricks and discussions about podcasting. Use: 🎙️or #PodcastersUnite to post to it.

232

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 23/05/2025

Making some progress on the slides for a speech I’m giving in a couple of weeks The copy is already written and the basic graphics have been created. Now I’m just designing the slides

Screenshot of an Adobe Illustrator window with multiple art boards made up of slides

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 18/05/2025

Just ordered a few extra copies of my book to give to attendees who ask good questions during my session at #EvolveDrupal on June 6th in Boston.

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 18/05/2025

I was so focused on my new website this week that I forgot to finish my newsletter. Wrapping up issue #93 now so it can go out tomorrow morning. Topics: HBO Max rebranding Benefits of Being Discovered by AI Are AI Chatbots Replacing Search Engines? & more www.linkedin.com/newsletters/...

linkedin.com

After Design | LinkedIn

Jim MacLeod | Helping marketers sharpen their visual skills with insights on design, marketing, and AI.

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 13/05/2025

Trying to figure out which jobs are AI proof (or at least AI resistant). It’s an interesting time. What I’m not doing is ducking for cover and hoping that AI doesn’t come for me. #AI is your friend or your enemy. The best part is you get to decide.

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 13/05/2025

Bad #design is like wearing a rumpled suit. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, but it may give people the wrong impression. – Unknown

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 12/05/2025

Wondering why Google search is so bad these days? Because it can be. It hasn't had any competition for a long time. But Apple just revealed its looking at AI alternatives. I go further on this topic in this week's newsletter: www.linkedin.com/pulse/ad92-p... #SEO #Marketing

linkedin.com

AD92: Prepare for the Future of Search

In this issue: Why Search is so Bad Apple's Big Revelation on the Future of Search Using ChatGPT to Drive Technical SEO New Podcast Interview About The Visual Marketer Design Quote of the Week Why is…

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 12/05/2025

I’m building a new personal site and as I get closer to finishing the functionality, I’m starting to explore how it will look. Picking a #design style is the hardest thing when there are no guardrails.

010

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 10/05/2025

It’s been over a month since I had caffeine. 10/10 highly recommend (except for the first 2 1/2 days)

120

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 10/05/2025

We still love to watch people who are great at what they do. The late, great Kim Jung Gi would do live drawing sessions. Could AI create art like him? Sure, probably. But it can't replicate the experience of watching him be amazing in person.

110

Reposted by Jim MacLeod

Brian Mac Mághnais @brianmcmanus.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Creativity is more valuable in the business world than academic intelligence

3212

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 10/05/2025

If you like music and typography, Rockabuy Records has a series where the shop owner tries to guess the artist/album while just seeing one letter on the cover art. Fun way to kill a few minutes. www.instagram.com/reel/DJbcieh...

010

Reposted by Jim MacLeod

Alex Jimenez @alexisrjimenez.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Anthropic rolls out an API for #AI-powered web search Developers using it can build Claude-powered apps that deliver up-to-date info techcrunch.com/2025/05/07/a... ##DigitalMarketing #SEO

techcrunch.com

Anthropic rolls out an API for AI-powered web search | TechCrunch

Anthropic is launching a new API that allows its Claude AI models to search across the web.

011

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 08/05/2025

A friend of mine was looking at a $700 course to learn how to use AI in his industry. I told him he could use AI to learn that. After his brain stopped melting, I volunteered to teach him how to learn AI from #AI. If anyone else is curious, let me know.

110

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 07/05/2025

In Chrome incognito mode, if you click and hold on the refresh button, you get refresh options.

000

Jim MacLeod @jimmacleod.com · 05/05/2025

Since it’s basically impossible to keep track of which channels my sports teams are on for each game, I used ChatGPT to create calendar entries. And I filtered it to only show the games where I have access to those networks.

000