I’m Robin, a web designer, writer and typographer living in San Francisco.
Today I work at Gusto as a product designer but I spend a lot of my time thinking about design systems, front-end development, and UX. I’m also on the team at CSS-Tricks where we write about web design, too. Here though you’ll find an archive of everything I’ve published in the last five years and so I can only offer a word of warning; things certainly got a little weird at one point or another.
Favorites from the Archive
I Don’t Believe in Full-Stack Engineering
There, I said it.
Design Systems at Gusto
Whether you’re just starting out building a complicated front-end, or if you’re getting ready to build a style guide at a large organization then hopefully you can learn from some of my mistakes.
Advice for a young systems designer
There are no heroes or parades for you in this line of work.
How to Read the Internet
A love letter to RSS the community and RSS the technology.
Blogging and Atrophy
How do I see my website? Well, it’s complicated.
With teeth of metal and glass
My excitement for a holiday to NYC was of paramount importance then: as someone that comes from a rural area, would I enjoy it? Would I want to emigrate to New York? What would my girlfriend and I find there? Would she move in with me once we came back or would we just throw caution to the wind and move to America and work together?
Welcome to the club
Make a note of your favourite writers. Now, read their first names aloud.
The Great Unbundling
Somehow I’ve found myself in a room bustling with all the languages of Europe—they’re mixing out in the dusty air around me; Dutch and German, Greek and French, others are arguing in Romanian (or perhaps Italian) whilst they nudge past their elderly counterparts, tourists speaking English. Although they all share their incompatible language with a neighbour, everyone around me can somehow communicate quite easily.
Scrolljacking
These pages that hijack the scroll might look like slides from shiny keynote presentations but as websites they are the usability equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
The Comforts of the Siren
During my holiday I went back to the town I grew up in and listened to the sirens from the Blitz that are still operational and are tested once a week.
There, I said it.
Whether you’re just starting out building a complicated front-end, or if you’re getting ready to build a style guide at a large organization then hopefully you can learn from some of my mistakes.
There are no heroes or parades for you in this line of work.
A love letter to RSS the community and RSS the technology.
How do I see my website? Well, it’s complicated.
My excitement for a holiday to NYC was of paramount importance then: as someone that comes from a rural area, would I enjoy it? Would I want to emigrate to New York? What would my girlfriend and I find there? Would she move in with me once we came back or would we just throw caution to the wind and move to America and work together?
Make a note of your favourite writers. Now, read their first names aloud.
Somehow I’ve found myself in a room bustling with all the languages of Europe—they’re mixing out in the dusty air around me; Dutch and German, Greek and French, others are arguing in Romanian (or perhaps Italian) whilst they nudge past their elderly counterparts, tourists speaking English. Although they all share their incompatible language with a neighbour, everyone around me can somehow communicate quite easily.
These pages that hijack the scroll might look like slides from shiny keynote presentations but as websites they are the usability equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
During my holiday I went back to the town I grew up in and listened to the sirens from the Blitz that are still operational and are tested once a week.
What I’m Reading
Networks of New York
The Ends of the World
My Life with Bob
On Beauty
Jagannath
The Three Body Problem
Dictionary Stories
Tigerman
Spineless
Artful
The Elements of Eloquence
How to be both
Sourdough
The Fire Next Time
Letters to a Young Contrarian
Inside Paragraphs
The Library at Night
The Solid Form of Language
Quickness and Detours
The Bug
Counterpunch
Modern Typography
Adventures in Typography
My weekly newsletter is all about, well, typography, yes. But it’s also about publishing and graphic design. It’s about calligraphy and lettering, display type and micro type (and what those words mean). It’s a newsletter for book nerds, typographers, and neon light enthusiasts. If you’ve somehow found yourself here then I think you might like it.