In order to remain consistent on as many platforms as possible, we use Source Sans Pro, Source Serif Pro, and occasionally Source Code Pro. They are robust in their variety of weights, clean and easy to read at small sizes, elegant and professional at larger sizes, while remaining modern and timeless.

I still find I explore ideas best with pencil and paper. I will no doubt be poorly sketching out my random thoughts on how to approach what I want to create on Tuesday. Several years ago I bought my first Panobook (by StuioNeat), and I’ve stopped using Moleskines and all other notebooks all together. They fit perfect along side my keyboard, wonderful integrated and subtle grid with hash lines, and beautifully packaged. You should get one or three.

Work smarter, not harder is a terrible cliché that is completely true and I wish there was a better way to say it. For decades I custom created wireframes and site maps and user flows. Hell, back in 2008 or so I create a website called Web Without Words which was an early precursor of many tools we use today (may she rest in peace) for wireframing. But rather than spend lots of time on something clients quite often either didn’t value or didn’t want (which does not mean you shouldn’t do it, if nothing else they are invaluable to internal processes regardless of the tepid responses from clients and stakeholders), I started to use Whimsical. It has a great blend of simplicity and feature sets that allow me to explore ideas, understanding problems, collaborate on processes, and blah blah blah. I even used it to tried and understand what was happening in the German TV series Dark. It did not work. It’s inexpensive and immensely useful, check it out. I will likely skip any wireframing or user flow exploration.

So boring. But yes, I like almost everyone else who design websites or digital products, I use Figma — sometimes I even create brands with it. it is natively in the cloud (meaning it has some built in version control, though I wish more robust like Abstract with branching and deploying), has prototyping tools (making InVision unnecessary. Sorry InVision, it’s true), and create collaboration and sharing capabilities (goodbye Sketch and for the 13 people still using AdobeXD). You get it. I don’t know how much I will be designing within Figma on Tuesday, but there’s a 86% chance I will.

One of the big reasons I feel I can create a fairly expansive and effective website isn’t just because I’ve been doing this for over 25 years (though that is a huge factor), it’s because I am able to use tools which greatly increase my efficiency and ability to create things. The website is built in and hosted through Webflow. I was incredibly skeptical of “no-code” tools (such as Wix and SquareSpace) because they all lacked the ability to build whatever I wanted without compromises. When I experimented with Webflow by building LAIM, I became quickly enamored with the possibilities. And that has yet to subside. AND NO, I am not at all in anyway affiliated with or paid by Webflow. I just truly think it is a game changer. Is it the perfect tool of everything? Of course not, there are several things I wish it did (like allow calc() functions, alllowed for simple user-submitted CMS additions without the need for Publishing, added some user-based access controls within the CMS, etc), but it’s pretty fantastic.