Peter Smart

Most deep tech brands lead with complexity. Quantum breakthroughs. AI models. Patents and roadmaps. But luxury brands learned long ago that the story of craft matters more than the craft itself. Taste isn’t about elitism—it’s about restraint. It’s knowing what not to show, what not to say, and when to let silence do the work. As deep technologies like AI and quantum computing move from the lab to the world, the companies that lead will be the ones who communicate with elegance, not excess. Because when everything is powerful, taste becomes the real differentiator.

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Pentagram finally has an product design partner. great interview with Piotr Woronkowicz. He doesn't have a process, he has a philosophy. "We really listen and ask who the client is and who the audience is – it’s really about those two things the most. You need to understand what you are going to solve, and you need to communicate a lot. And, mostly, it’s about problem solving and really understanding what the issues are – following the user experience bit by bit and seeing if you can simplify that process."

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👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾This report articulates something many teams struggle to quantify… Design systems aren’t just internal tools. When they’re treated as real infrastructure, they shape customer trust, speed, and how a brand shows up. When they’re not, people feel the gaps long before teams see the impact.

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I often repost other people. Especially super smart people like Alex Wolkomir. Here he highlights ‘The State of AI in Design Report” and his takeaway (along with his expertise) was: “This isn’t a shift from design to AI. It’s a shift in design itself. The most effective teams I’ve seen aren’t asking “how can designers use AI?”—they’re asking “how must design evolve to govern, guide, and ground it?””

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Bringing your design vision to life requires clarity, expertise, and precise execution. The latest AJC Design blog outlines the five systematic phases we use to guide clients confidently through every decision—with transparency and attention to detail. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/eFX4yYk9

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A few months ago, in collaboration with Thomas Sonsalla, I had the opportunity to delve into the proliferation of GenAI tools aimed specifically at our world of product and interaction design. If you're interested in what we found, please check out the report (https://lnkd.in/g7MNB-Gg), which includes our perspective on how design leaders can best position their teams in the coming years. ----------- From my personal perspective, there’s a troubling disconnect between the top-down mandates to achieve X% additional efficiency across all roles by leveraging AI and the current maturity and readiness of this technology to integrate into real workflows. We’ve seen many companies make big bets through layoffs, effectively taking a sledgehammer to themselves to become lean in the short term. GenAI has become the shiny poster they’ve slapped over the cracks to pretend there’s an underlying plan. Until more reasonable leadership emerges, this leaves product designers in a world where they’re being asked to cover more ground in less time, with less collaboration, research, and iteration—while simultaneously proving they’re doing it by leveraging immature and ill-defined technology. In many cases, designers are being asked individually to reconcile these conflicting pressures, which will likely lead to wasted and redundant effort, and is unlikely to produce scalable or reliable practices within organizations. At minimum, I think design leaders can help their teams by defining a shared approach and setting clear expectations—so designers aren’t left in the limbo of wondering, “Am I supposed to be as efficient as possible and fear being left behind, or should I be continuously investing in figuring out whether these new tools can actually help me?” Efficiency—especially at scale—requires investment in experimentation, adaptation, and refinement. Organizations need to decide whether they want to invest upfront, hoping the technology will pay off through early adoption and adaptation, or hold back as late adopters, focusing on proven workflows to achieve maximum efficiency today. Anyone telling you they’re doing both is, in truth, telling you they have no idea what they’re doing.

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In the realms of CGI, motion design, and branding, we often celebrate flexibility. Yet, without structure, flexibility can lead to chaos. Conversely, excessive standardization can stifle creativity. The key lies in balancing the two — establishing systems that support innovation without constraining it. 🧩 Standardization Enables Scalability To deliver consistent, high-quality work across diverse teams and projects, certain standards are essential. Benefits of standardization: - Efficiency: Streamlined workflows reduce redundancy. - Consistency: Uniform practices ensure brand coherence. - Onboarding: New team members integrate more smoothly. Areas to standardize: - File naming conventions and folder structures. - Version control and asset management. - Feedback and approval processes. 🎨 Flexibility Fuels Innovation While standards provide a foundation, flexibility allows creativity to flourish. Advantages of flexibility: - Adaptability: Tailoring approaches to unique project needs. - Exploration: Encouraging experimentation and novel solutions. - Responsiveness: Quickly adjusting to client feedback or market changes. When to be flexible: - During initial concept development. - When exploring new technologies or techniques. - In response to evolving project scopes. 🧠 Industry Example: BUCK’s Collaboration with Hulu Buck’s development of a design system for Hulu exemplifies this balance (https://buck.co/work/hulu). They created a modular framework that maintained brand consistency across various platforms while allowing for creative storytelling and character-driven narratives. This approach ensured both efficiency and originality in their campaigns.

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"We had an unusually stable decade in tech" so here's what Emmet Connolly thinks designers can learn from major transitions in years past 👇

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“The future isn’t about replacing human creativity but expanding what our creative brains can do.” I completely agree, Stephen McGilvray. In a recent DESIGNWEEK piece, Stephen got to share the thinking behind our approach to AI that is guided by transparency and human-first thinking. From early signal-spotting to creative direction and rapid prototyping, AI helps us move faster and smarter, but never at the expense of judgment, empathy and ambition. It’s why we believe AI should support creative thinking, not lead it. Read the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/eNPi2aZR

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Chuffed to be featured in Design Week's latest piece: “What’s the design hill you’d die on?”, alongside some brilliant voices from across the industry. Some really valuable lessons in here that properly ring true, especially Tassia Swulinska's input around making mistakes and embracing the chaos. Whether you’re beginning your design career, deep in UX, leading a creative team, or just someone with strong feelings about your design process or strategy, it's well worth a quick read. Be great to hear your thoughts and input. Thanks to Rob Alderson for the feature. #designweek #productdesign #designbeliefs Atomic

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You don’t need to design everything at once. You need to design the right things first. What sounds simple - start small - is actually one of the hardest things to do when building a design system. In our latest ebook, design leaders share their insights - like this one from Joe Cahill, Creative Director at Unqork - on how to keep your design system alive, get buy-in from teams, and make engineers your allies. 👉 Built by Netguru experts, featuring lessons from VISA, Wolt, Delivery Hero, and Allegro. 📘 Grab your copy: https://lnkd.in/dwyY6nNT

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Episode 4 of Q4D: Questions for Designers is live. A conversation with Eric MacDonald on long term growth in design, responsibility in practice, and the idea of being a conduit rather than a reservoir in creative work. Full episode available now on Spotify. https://lnkd.in/gJKQrXDv

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Forget pixel-perfect execution; the future of design leadership lies in crafting the *logic* that creates pixels. This isn't just a catchy phrase; it's the core of the monumental shift Generative UI brings to our design landscape. As Creative Directors, we're not just witnessing the rise of AI; we're poised to become the architects of entirely new digital realities. 🎨 Generative UI is empowering us to move beyond manual layout creation and into the realm of dynamic system design. Our focus shifts from meticulously placing every element to defining the intelligent *rules* and *principles* that allow interfaces to personalize, adapt, and evolve in real-time for every single user. ✨ This is where the true human-AI collaboration shines. We become masters of "prompt engineering," curating the design tokens, component libraries, motion rules, and brand DNA that guide the AI's boundless generation. This liberates us from repetitive tasks, freeing our cognitive energy for strategic thinking, deep user empathy, and the pursuit of emotional resonance. Imagine hyper-personalized user experiences delivered at scale, where interfaces genuinely anticipate individual needs, reordering elements and suggesting features on the fly. Yet, crucially, this deep personalization is governed by *our* strategic intent, ensuring brand consistency and a cohesive user journey. Generative UI isn't about automating designers away; it's about *amplifying* our impact. It's a creative partner that accelerates iteration, generates diverse mockups to spark new ideas, and transforms our workflow into a dynamic dance between human vision and AI's capacity. Let's embrace this exciting evolution. Our role is becoming more strategic, more creative, and more profoundly impactful than ever before. How do you envision Generative UI empowering your team and reshaping the human element in design? Share your insights! 👇

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If your design team is overwhelmed but the backlog continues to grow, it’s not a design problem. It’s an operations problem. That’s what DesignOps fixes. DesignOps makes three things clear: ⚪ People: who does what, and what skills you’re missing ⚪ Workflow: how work gets requested, prioritized, and reviewed ⚪ Business: how design connects to goals and shows impact When those aren’t clear, you get: 🚩 Random requests 🚩 Too many meetings 🚩 Lots of rework 🚩 Burnout When they are clear, you get: ✅ Faster decisions ✅ Better quality ✅ Predictable delivery Quick check: What’s your biggest pain right now: intake, feedback, resourcing, or tools?

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A lot of design work is about optimises existing systems: faster processes, clearer communication, smoother journeys. To many designers, this can feel dissatisfying and demoralising, especially when you know that you're just band-aiding over bigger issues. At best, nothing really changes, and at worst you're helping broken systems become more resilient. I've seen many designers fundamentally abandon HCD or design thinking toolkits for other systems change approaches, because they're sick of providing tactical fixes to systemic problems. My message to our teams and clients over the years has been something else though: as a designer, you don't need to choose between optimising existing systems and being a change maker. In fact, i'd argue that Design thinking isn't just compatible with systems change — it's essential to it. In our latest newsletter, I share how we use familiar design methods to do systems change work: disrupting systems rather than optimising, questioning rather than accepting, transforming rather than iterating. Your HCD skills are more powerful than you think. https://lnkd.in/gG4JMc3p

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Design Systems: The Foundation of Every Great Digital Experience 💪 Consistency isn’t luck, it’s a solid design system. A strong design system brings structure, clarity, and speed to every product, helping teams move fast without losing craft. It’s where innovation scales and brands stay recognisable. 👉 How are you using design systems to work smarter and build better? #designsystems #userexperience #designagency

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Traditionnal design processes were built for a different time. The AI-native era needs a different kind of design partner. One that thinks at the speed you build, integrates into the workflow you already have. The way I think about design has always been applied, not conceptual. Every output needs to be immediately usable. Every decision needs to connect directly to what the product ships next. In practice that means: • Clear actionable UX direction, not a full research report. • Interfaces delivered in a way your stack can consume directly. • A design system crafted at the product level, not the entire company. • AI-friendly guardrails that keep everything coherent as your product scales. Everything compressed to what is most impactful now, not in 3 months. That's what Ghostudio is here for. If you want to learn more about it: ghostudio.design/services See you around! ✌️ G

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