iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The little flourish at the end is a detail that M — N Associates didn't need to include, but I'm really glad they did. Gives some #Vestaboard vibes.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

POV: Apple acquires Substack ✨ A quick Liquid Glass experiment made with Apple’s Icon Composer Beta. What app should I give the Apple treatment next? Drop your suggestions below 👇 #UI #Apple #WWDC

A frutiger aero style rework of the Substack app icon, in line with Apple’s new Liquid Glass design aesthetic.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

iOS 7 was genuinely revolutionary. Clean typography, generous whitespace, and readable text became the foundation for every touch interface that followed. iOS 26 feels like the opposite, and is accessibility hell. #WWDC #iOS #DesignSky

Marketing image of the new iOS 26 interface with a hand-written “Nope!” annotation.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Experimented with a ‘liquid glass’ look in Figma. It’s gonna take some getting used to, and makes Figma lag like crazy with all the effects! #liquidglass #WWDC #DesignSky #UI

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

45-minute experimental hero design on the theme of ‘*upside-down’* 🙃 Loved how the display type turned out — huge fan of Fontshare when I need expressive type in a hurry. #figma #DesignSky #UISky #UIDesign #webdesign

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

📸🪐🖨️🎨✨ This month’s round-up of cool stuff features: a killer film-look camera app, more space stuff, printed risograph animations, scary chemicals, and more! open.substack.com/pub/tomaylin... #designsky #design #graphicdesign #newsletter #risograph

open.substack.com

Rust, Film, and Pixel-Peepin’

Discover the best film-look camera app, AI tools, space mission patches, risograph animation, and more in this month’s creative roundup.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

This is great! Such a neat usage of Midjourney 💪

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Thanks - it’s one of the doodles from my newsletter. All my friends called me a turtle when I was growing up 🐢 (I had a long neck)

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Well, that’s definitive! Thanks for sharing.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Hey Delia. Nice to meet you 👋

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Who else is posting about visual/graphic/UI/UX design on Bluesky? While some of Design Twitter has moved over, I’m really struggling to find the cool visual design stuff here on Bluesky. If you make (or know someone that makes) cool visual stuff - leave a reply. #designsky #UI #UX #graphicdesign

A doodled cartoon character exclaiming “Designers wanted!”

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Still better than when everyone was using Poppins.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Wow, small world! Great job 😊

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Love the rule-breaking overlaps and bold z-index choices from Vino Potable. A clever way to make the visuals stand out and pull focus to the product. #designsky #UI #UX #figma #UIsky #webdesign #dev

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Thanks, Todd! I aim to do a new challenge every week.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Back to the one-hour UI/UX design experiments! This time with keyhole as the prompt 🔑 Super pleased with how the light peeks through on hover, adding some anticipation for the user. #designsky #UI #UX #figma #UIsky #webdesign #dev

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Experimented today with offset looping patterns to portray circular economies/cities. #designsky #UI #UX #webdesign

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

In this month’s round-up of cool design things: • A website that looks like engravings ✒️ • Caring for yourself (through a birb 🐦) • Silky smooth microinteractions 🥵 • Random pre-2012 iPhone videos 🎥 • How app design changes around the world 🌏 #designsky #UI #UX #UIUX #substack #newsletter

theshellout.com

Virtual Pets, Nostalgia, and Engravings

and satisfying micro-interactions

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Love this pricing page interaction design from Cursor. The little shadow/fade on the mask really sells it. Definitely adding this one to my monthly newsletter of cool finds. #designsky #UI #UX #webdesign

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

Hell yeah. Excited to push for more creativity this year!

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

I see loads of “CHECK OUT MY DESIGN!” posts. Instead: • Give context: Client work, passion project, or experiment? • Get people excited: What’s interesting or worth sharing? What does it mean to you? Why is it worth someone's attention? So… what’s your latest design project about? #designsky

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Bespoke/interesting interaction design. Feels like the future.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Reminded today of these beautiful motion graphics by 4096 www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Df... #designsky #motiongraphics #motiondesign #synthwave #motion #aftereffects

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

I think it’s a reasonable skill to start with if you don’t do 3D. If VR/AR takes off, 3D experiences will become increasingly relevant. But I feel like there will always be 2D planes to interact with, at the end of the day.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Same here! In the same boat when it comes to work. A shame not to share all the cool stuff I make 9–5.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Indeed - Bluesky is an experiment for me, as I’m not a huge fan of social media. But finding interesting projects from small designers is fantastic.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Icon-wise, I’d have something ‘undo-feeling’, since the button would be reversing the action of the AI.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

While popular, I’ll still get a lot of clients that reply “It’s just too clean and needs some interest.” Especially with generative AI, there’s lots of room for maximalism too!

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Congrats on your first mobile design 😊 I know this is tactless self-promotion, but I have a newsletter with monthly design inspiration if that’s your kinda thing. I’ve just joined Bluesky for the ‘Design Twitter’ discoveries just like this.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Great read – subbed. Although I mostly write about visual design personally, game design is such a great insight when it comes to UX.

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Congratulations on what seems like a fruitful and exciting year!

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Hey there. You’ve probably arrived on this page because you know me from my writing at theshellout.com I have no idea if I’ll use Bluesky. Is joining another social media platform really the answer? I’m here to find cool things people have designed – hopefully like Design Twitter #designsky

theshellout.com

The Shell-Out 🐢 | Tom Ayling | Substack

Your informal monthly dose of cool stuff from the world of visual design and tech. Expect a light-hearted, turtle-paced journey through UX/UI, branding, and product design ✨. Click to read The Shell-O...

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Tom Ayling @tomaylingdesign.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Beautiful. Couldn't help but smile!

A screenshot of a website with a blank screen, and 'It's now safe to navigate to another website' written in the centre.

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