iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 6h

If I had to guess I would say at least 80% of posts on linkedin are run through AI.

Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 7h

Had this idea for a desk lamp that I put together in Plasticity. I get migraines, and direct harsh lighting can trigger them for me. But I do like patterns and lighting.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Polishing design for Meteor (dark mode).

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I've been working on a reference tool. Jotun is a desktop app, and you can add anything from images to videos to articles to PDFs. I absolutely love it. I collect up the reference I like, put it in a project, and then use it. If anyone is interested in trying it let me know!

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Some product viz and package design.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

People are complex. We have multi-conextual lives and carry multi-contextual motivations.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Purse is a tech company. Fantasy golf that raises money for charities and community organizations. They speak to an American idea of community prosperity that is intertwined with individual prosperity, and that's why when we conceived of their brand merchandise it speaks to the same thing.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Why does most tech merch suck? It comes down to meaning. Most companies never think about what they stand for. What they represent. But fashion companies do. They don't just slap a logo on a shirt. They think about the wearer and what they signal.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Revealed preference doesn't reveal preference. neilsmcwheels.substack.com/publish/post...

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

People are complex. We have multi-conextual lives and carry multi-contextual motivations.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Making complex things look good is harder than making simple things look good. The more parts, the more effort is required to give them some kind of coherence. dub.sh/rCQoj5K

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Tech people love white space. They love using words like 'clean'. But whether or not 'clean' is the same as 'good' is very much a question. IMO it comes down to who your design is for and what you want them to think. Sometimes complexity is the way to go.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This has nothing to do with the quality of design itself. It has to do with the perception of caring. Human involvement means caring. Caring means there is moral intention, and that is evidence of sustainability in the minds of consumers.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Last month a study in the Journal of the Academy for Marketing Science looked at perceived sustainability in design and there is what might seem a counter-intuitive conclusion. People often think human designed products are more sustainable than AI designed products.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Giving a shit continues to be the moat. Design is inherently empathetic. Good design respects the limitations, aspirations and motivations of the user. It doesn't merely enable them, it makes them feel understood. Obviously the beings in the best position to do that for humans are other humans.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I wrote a thing on design ethics. We downplay designs importance, but it is often used to manipulate us. The clearest case is social media. Design guides behaviour, and that is a mechanism of control. neilsmcwheels.substack.com/p/autocracy-...

neilsmcwheels.substack.com

Autocracy by Design

The mechanisms of freedom have become tools of control, but it's no accident. These results are the outcome of systems that are designed for this.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I wrote this in another post, but this is what all technology does. We used to need a whole community for a barn raising, or to help bring in the harvest. We always have to ask if it's worth it.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

This is a general attribute of technology (Marcuse wrote about it). In every case of a new tech we have to ask if the trade-off is worth it. Mechanized farm equipment, probably yes. Facebook, probably no.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

New Meteor page is up. Working on signup and password reset flows and whatnot. Next up is webbased subscription management. Meteorcomics.com

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I'm moving all my domains to Cloudflare and I'm so happy I can't believe it. Over 4 domains I've saved $200.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

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Reposted by Neil @ LaunchBox

Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

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Reposted by Neil @ LaunchBox

Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

What comes to mind when you see this? What does this company do?

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Making complex things look good is harder than making simple things look good. The more parts, the more effort is required to give them some kind of coherence. dub.sh/rCQoj5K

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I'm moving all my domains to Cloudflare and I'm so happy I can't believe it. Over 4 domains I've saved $200.

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The winds of sentiment can change. I expect shifts in culture in the US will move slowly and then all at once. USians do love convenience, though.

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Reposted by Neil @ LaunchBox

Bad + Bitchy Podcast @badandbitchy.com · 17/08/2026

The man who started the Jason Arday harassment campaign is a eugenicist who was kicked out of Cambridge University for racism. These news outlets did not do their due diligence in reporting—on purpose and knowingly observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

observer.co.uk

Nathan Cofnas, the man at the centre of Arday plagiarism ...

The Cambridge academic received numerous complaints from students who alleged that he was endorsing ‘the logic of a eugenicist’

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Pinker is both smart and a shit-head.

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Reposted by Neil @ LaunchBox

Frictionless @frictionlessdesign.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

You might not know his name, but if you grew up in the 80s you know his work. Yasuo Kuroki was the design force at Sony that brought us the Walkman. dub.sh/ajidpc9

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Which of these dudes is the human manifestation of 'IoT but with cows'

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Neil @ LaunchBox @launchboxdesign.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Don't agree. I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding in tech about why we buy products. Tech loves legibility. But legible things are not valuable things. AI will always need human oversight if AI is doing anything of value to humans other than maybe mining.

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