When Systems Think Without Designers

This week's issue has a lot I'm excited about, including:

Good design removes, but AI design keeps adding
Cold email is the connection you've been wanting
A beautiful grotesk font calibrated for UI grids
And 7 moreI'm also cooking up a few new projects I'll share here first. One helps you build agentic skills faster and the right way. The other is a fully opinionated UI design system. Both are coming soon.

Most Interesting

Words of Type

An illustrated typography wiki covering everything from alternates and anchors to ampersands and anatomy. Each entry has historical context, illustrated examples, and usage notes: sharp reference for designers who want precise vocabulary around typefaces and lettering.

Design + Development

What Figma Made Visible

Switching from front-end dev to Figma sharpened one designer's systems thinking, but now AI tooling is removing the exact friction that built that knowledge.

Building a Design System Specced for Engineers and Agents

Evil Martians built a design system for Currents, a lean team running AI coding tools with no designer in the loop. They share their AI-assisted audit process, north star UI approach, and how they structured components so both engineers and LLMs can read them.

Innovator Grotesk

A neo-grotesque variable font built for UI. Nine weights, obliques, 250+ Latin-script languages, and vertical metrics tuned for buttons and icon alignment. Includes OpenType alternates, a high-legibility set, and a full implementation manual.

Tech + Innovation

Dither Image Online

A free browser tool that converts photos into retro pixel art and stipple effects in real time.

Dieter Rams Never Touched a Computer. His Rules Still Govern AI Design

Rams' ten principles (restraint, honesty, clarity, etc.) turn out to be exactly what AI product design keeps violating.

Running Local Models is Good Now

Vicki Boykis ran local models on an M2 Mac and found that Gemma 4 finally makes local agentic coding worth doing. She walks through her actual tool stack, real tasks she completed, and her setup with Pi and LM Studio.

Work + Mindset

You Got Faster. Your Company Didn't.

AI-generated documents don't eliminate work. They redistribute it. Skip the editing pass and every reviewer absorbs the cost in fact-checking and extra reading. One person's time gain becomes the whole team's slowdown.

America is Headed Toward the Infinite Workweek

AI coding agents were supposed to free up developers' time. Instead, managing multiple bots demands constant oversight. The Atlantic looks at why more automation is producing more exhaustion, not less.

Why I Email Complete Strangers

Most people talk themselves out of sending the email. Good Internet Magazine traces why cold outreach feels so fraught, why email outlasts every other medium, and what actually happens when you send it anyway.