Studio Notes.
Short, practical notes on brand, web, social, AI, and the tools small business owners actually touch. Tutorials in the foreground; news and perspective pieces as they happen.
Browse by skill
Pick the thing you're trying to get better at. Tutorials are the bulk of what's here; news and takes mix in when they fit.
AI & Design
Claude, Figma AI, Firefly, and what AI is actually changing in the design workflow.
Canva
Brand Kit, Magic Studio, templates, and practical Canva workflows for non-designers.
Figma
Variables, auto-layout, Dev Mode, and Figma basics for people who don't use it full-time.
Adobe
Express, Firefly, Acrobat, and the Adobe tools that actually matter for small teams.
DaVinci Resolve
The free pro video tool. Including the Resolve 21 photo editor, the Cut page, and export presets.
Automation
Make, Zapier, n8n, Notion. Workflows that earn their keep.
Web & Discovery
Performance, SEO, GEO, Google Business Profile, schema. The unglamorous stuff that moves the needle.
Design Fundamentals
Hierarchy, typography, color, layout. The stuff small business owners consistently get wrong.
State of Craft & Industry
Where design and creative work are heading. Career shifts, taste, the agency model, craft vs. generation.
What I’ve Learned
Lessons from building real projects. What worked, what didn’t, and what it might mean for your business.
Latest
New notes, news reactions, and perspectives. Chronological, most recent first.
Sora Got Shut Off Today. Here's What Designers Actually Do.
OpenAI killed the Sora app today and pushed everyone into ChatGPT. The lesson is portability. Own the input, not the platform.
Veo 4. What Actually Changes.
Google's Veo 4 launched April 15. The practical headline is 30 seconds of character consistency in one shot. Here's what that's good for and what to skip.
DESIGN.md is the Portable Brand Spec We Needed.
Google open-sourced a markdown spec for design systems on April 21. It's tool-agnostic, AI-readable, and Apache 2.0. Why this matters for anyone running a brand across more than one piece of software.
'HeyGen Avatar V'
'15 seconds of source footage to a fully articulated spokesperson. previous HeyGen avatar work required a structured recording session. Multi-look (different outfits, settings) from one source recordi'
What Building Ruck Authority Taught Me About Adding Layers
A month of building a content site that grew into a content engine. What I added, in what order, and why each layer earned its keep.
Claude Design Just Launched. Here's What It Actually Does.
Anthropic released a new tool today for making designs, decks, and one-pagers from a description. What it does, who it's for, and if it's worth your time.