Design

I love that @marcthiele always commissions inspiring opening titles to kick off his @btconf events, and I had a lot of fun putting this jazzy sequence together for this year’s Berlin edition: vimeo.com/744154897

something something design systems youtu.be/Ef7hQ35bfIU

For a profession predicated on providing clarity, “product designer” is about as vague a job title as I can imagine.

Did you know I make a zine about algorithmic art called Plus Equals? You don’t have to be a computer nerd to enjoy it. You can read it for free online and help support it by buying the print edition and other merch. Check it out!

plusequals.art shop.robweychert.com

First batch of Plus Equals orders ready to go! 📦🚛✈️ shop.robweychert.com

First gig poster I’ve designed in ages, for tonight’s @HTRK_ show at @PhilaMOCA!

Plus Equals is also now available in print! Visit my new shop to buy subscriptions, individual issues, and posters. Plus Equals will always be free to read online, but if you want to support my work, buying something at the shop is a great way to do that. shop.robweychert.com

For this issue, inspired by Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, and Battle Chess, I designed a chess set and merged its pieces 57 different ways.

The fifth issue of Plus Equals, my algorithmic art zine, is out now! plusequals.art/05/

“This project isn’t just a missed opportunity; it’s a generational failure.” inquirer.com/columnists/phi…

This feels like a genuinely fresh take on Swiss modernism, and I’m here for it. creativeboom.com/inspiration/ne…

One of the more satisfying pieces of merch to come out of something I designed (in this case, new branding and website for @philamoca).

Excited to unveil the new branding and site design I did for @PhilaMOCA, a beloved Philly institution for underground culture: philamoca.org

I’m going to focus on making art full-time for awhile and see what happens, but if you know of a design and/or illustration opportunity you think might suit me, please do hit me up. 🚀

On my way out the door, I wrote about the article layout framework I designed and built for @propublica, which feels like an appropriate coda to this chapter of my career. propublica.org/article/inside…

Editorial design is a many-splendored thing. Cliché as it may be to say a picture is worth a thousand words, there’s no denying that even the most skillful and vivid deployment of the written word can benefit from a thoughtful visual presentation. Photography, illustration and video can humanize a story’s characters. Charts, graphs and other data visualizations clarify complicated concepts. Typography and color set an emotional tone. And bringing cohesive form to it all is… See more →

Let me begin by saying I promise this post is mostly good vibes. Skip ahead if you like, but if you’ll momentarily indulge my pessimism: What a stupid time to be alive.

2021 was supposed to be the year the vaccine gave us our lives back, and while it did for some of us to some degree, its international distribution predictably favored wealthy nations, and the long-simmering anti-vax movement here in the wealthiest nation of… See more →

This time around, I decided to overthink isometric projection.

The fourth issue of Plus Equals, my algorithmic art zine, is out now! plusequals.art/04/

In addition to what I’ve learned over the years from so many others, ideas and skills these generous folks shared online had a direct impact on this project: @davidwalshblog, @vika_grabowska, @ebensorkin, @jonpinhorn_type, @j98, @trysmudford, @desandro

twitter.com/robweychert/st…

Robtober is what I call the horror movie binge I do every October. After I redesigned my site in 2017, I started documenting the event each year with a horrifically custom-designed blog post, getting a little more elaborate each time. This post goes behind the scenes of the 2021 edition.

The data

I generate my site with Jekyll, and a custom-designed post like Robtober gets its own unique layout file. To keep things tidy, all the… See more →

Love this handy bookmarklet from @jenko that makes it easier for folks in the UK to watch Robtober movies! 🙌🏻📼🙌🏻 twitter.com/jenko/status/1…

Many years ago, my bff @jasonsantamaria spookified his site design every October. It was a revelation, the web design equivalent of a Halloween costume. I’m proud to keep the fun tradition alive. twitter.com/robweychert/st…

Chase away the Monday blues with 425 compatible seamless patterns! 💫 twitter.com/robweychert/st…

Here’s all 425 tiles hanging out together in one image.

This issue creates a set of 425 tiles, any of which can seamlessly border any other on any side.

The third issue of Plus Equals, my algorithmic art zine, is out now! plusequals.art/03/

I just visited a marketing agency site and the homepage said ACCELERATING BRANDS THROUGH OMNICOMMERCE and I have never closed a browser tab so fast

I used to think perfection was unattainable, but then I found this Cramps poster (X3 Posters, Bob Linney and Ken Meharg)

“vacation”

A @lynnandtonic launch day is always a good day 🎉 twitter.com/lynnandtonic/s…

You don’t have to be a pedantic graphic designer to be offended by someone marking this moment of catharsis for a city of 1.6 million people with the typographic equivalent of a fart noise.

Its set of 720 combinatorially generated images is also meant to offer an opportunity for reflection on a turbulent moment in a turbulent national history.

This issue is a crash course in photography, print production, and digital imaging, and its art indulges my affection for halftones.

The second issue of Plus Equals, my algorithmic art zine, is out now! plusequals.art/02/

More of this, please! twitter.com/gavinpurcell/s…

I love this post from @cassiecodes using a practical example to explain a few SVG concepts that are as simple as they are powerful. cassie.codes/posts/swipey-i…

It’s been pretty exciting to see our new article page design at @propublica come to life these last few weeks. More behind-the-scenes details to come! propublica.org/article/2021-a…

I’m not a math or programming whiz, so my hope for this project is that by demystifying algorithmic art for myself, I can demystify it for others too. twitter.com/robweychert/st…

The first issue creates dozens of images from different stacking orders of a series of striped cards with geometric shapes cut out of them. plusequals.art/01/

Hey, I started a new art zine! plusequals.art

Apropos of nothing, I decided that the first of the old entries I’d bring over to V7 would be granular ones:

• Daily Haiku: A section of the fourth version of my site, beginning back in 2005. As the name suggests, I wrote a haiku every weekday based on the Dictionary.com Word of the Day. Each haiku was originally its own entry, but when I brought them over to V6 a few years ago, I consolidated… See more →

I began last year’s “That Was 2019” post by expressing disappointment in my immune system’s poor performance that year, so let me begin this year’s wrap-up by praising that same immune system’s effectiveness in 2020. More than 1.8 million people died of COVID-19 in 2020, a disproportionately high 340,000 of them Americans, and I didn’t get so much as a head cold. I spent much of the year being grateful for my health and financial… See more →

Hey Philly screen printing friends: Is there a place in town I can email a stencil image and have them make a screen for me?

New old work: I redesigned our Cabinet Cards a bit for the incoming administration. features.propublica.org/cabinet-cards-…

As always, spend some time with this, resize your browser a bunch, soak up all the fun and brilliantly executed details. Lynn just rules. 🏆 twitter.com/lynnandtonic/s…

After fretting for months over what CMS to use for my site redesign, I’m relieved to say I’m just staying with @jekyllrb. v7.robweychert.com/blog/2020/12/v…

For awhile, I had basically resigned myself to the idea that the massive amount of stray content I’m planning to bring home (thousands of tweets, Flickr photos, etc) would necessitate moving my site onto a LAMP stack CMS. I started poking around in WordPress, which I hadn’t touched in years, and Craft, which I use regularly in my work at ProPublica. The former felt bloated and the latter’s setup presumed a level of back-end know-how… See more →

As perfect a Friday blog post as they come. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 twitter.com/raygunray/stat…

And when you benefit from someone else’s shared knowledge, let them know! It will probably mean a lot to them. I know it does to me.