{"id":8674,"date":"2026-07-21T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/?p=8674"},"modified":"2026-07-21T10:11:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:11:42","slug":"weekly-design-links-07-21-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/weekly-design-links-07-21-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Design Links \u2013 07\/21\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m still playing with AI, and the thing I’m using it for most isn’t straight coding, generating images, or writing. The part that’s been most helpful is process and tooling. I’m working with AI (mostly Claude Code) to develop tools and processes that help me create what I want faster or at greater scale. I’ve written about streamlining these posts, but I’m also using it to organize my life, build database tooling for a new project (coming soon), connect systems, and run data collection and analysis. These aren’t visually exciting, but they’re huge leverage for how I’m working and thinking about what I make. Tools matter. They accelerate the work, and they change the nature of the work in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Shader Lab<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shader Lab is a portable React runtime for Shader Lab compositions exported from the editor. It supports three main use cases: Render a composition directly in React, use a composition as a texture in your own scene, and use Shader Lab effect layers as postprocessing over your own scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dot matrix loaders for every app<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

55+ free and open-source loaders, built with React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and shadcn. Install one, copy the code, and make it yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Random<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Wiki Spy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Objects from Wikipedia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAC\u2011HUNT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

you’re the ghost \u2014 corner Pac\u2011Man before he clears the maze<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graphic Design\/History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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IKEA Canada arranges familiar homeware into World Cup team flags<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collaboration with marketing firm Dentsu Creative, the Bring the World to Life campaign features IKEA goods arranged by shape and colour to create vignettes of 18 different flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do America\u2019s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A menu describes what a restaurant serves\u2014but a menu also describes is being served. They reflect the class, gender, political, technological, and environmental shifts of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Web Design\/UX\/UI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Designing with web standards: The playbook for this AI moment<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffrey Zeldman helped end the browser wars by making the case for standards. We are starting that journey again and we should follow his example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free The Icons<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple should end their prohibition on shapes in MacOS app icons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Museum of the Human Web<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The web was made by people. Not by algorithms, not by models, not by machines that dream in code. By people in rooms, garages, and workshops arguing over protocols, shipping software on floppy disks, building companies from nothing, and connecting the world one awkward, brilliant, human decision at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industrial Design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Uniball’s Chunky Lose-Proof Carabiner Pen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uniball’s got you covered with their chunky &knot pen, a 0.5mm ballpoint with a robust carabiner and super-strong magnetic closure. It’s lose-proof, and runs $35.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m still playing with AI, and the thing I’m using it for most isn’t straight coding, generating images, or writing. The part that’s been most helpful is process and tooling. I’m working with AI (mostly Claude Code) to develop tools and processes that help me create what I want faster or at greater scale. I’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[13,56,14,74,49,21,20,29,19],"class_list":["post-8674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-links","tag-graphic-design","tag-history","tag-industrial-design","tag-random","tag-tools","tag-ui","tag-ux","tag-video-games","tag-web-design"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ikea-canada-flag-world-cup-campaign.jpg?fit=1536%2C864&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8676,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions\/8676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}