Welcome to the first edition of Weekly Wanders!

This is a weekly newsletter where I document what all happened this week. I’ll share the things I created, published, and—generally—thoughts on what I got up to this week.

Contract Work

I spent most of this week designing a concept graphic for my work with the Space Force. It was a nice break from the interface and experience design. Something static, that’s one size, with clearly defined needs and desired outcomes. A breath of fresh air.

Throughout the process I:

• Developed a quick color palette derived from the Space Force’s logo colors using Learn UI’s palette generator

• The graphic included a lot of circular and curved typographic baselines, so found and used Type Tool, a free Figma Community Plugin.

• Kerning type on a curve is a pain and takes a LOT of time. That’s why I saved it for last, after everything else was approved and set—onto the type.

Unpaid Work

1. I co-hosted the second Job Seeker’s Support Group in Active Voice’s Slack community this week. It was great fun. We meet fortnightly, and going to form accountability groups based on what we each need.

2. Booked my hotel and flight for an upcoming work trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

3. Met with what I imagine will be my last mentee on ADPList. I’ll be posting about it—why it’s my last mentorship session on ADPList—next week. Will find a way to keep the mentorship practice up, just outside of the platform.

4. Published 11 things on my website this week. Here are some favorites:

   • Erika Hall’s definition of design

   • Saturn has twice the number of moons of all other planets in our solar system..combined

   • Time travel and see how Utrecht—one of the largest cities in the Netherlands—transformed from a 1993 car-centric city to a 2025 cycling-centric city.

5. Started writing the Preface for my book, Wired for Design—a memoir about neurodivergence, design, and the internet.

Not work

• Playing Echoes of Wisdom on the Switch, great fun.

• Had a drastic haircut that the barber had to take a before and after photo with—felt right being the first day of Spring.

• Baked a couple loaves of bread last weekend.

• Welcomed my new nephew home on his first day leaving the hospital after being born the week prior.

What am I reading?

I picked up Seth Godin’s The Practice again. It’s a wonderful book that reads quickly, full short but impactful chapters. I couldn’t get past the first few pages without stopping to write it down some quotes and start an entry on the book in my journal.

What I’ll end on is this—his definition of practice:

“…a persistent, stepwise approach that we pursue for its own sake and not because we want anything guaranteed in return.”

Thus begins a weekly practice of reflecting and sharing what I got up to during the week.