Subpixel Space Reflects on 2016
Happy New Year to friends and followers. This message will detail a brief roundup of notable events that happened in and around Subpixel Space in 2016, and do a bit of agenda-setting for the new year. First, I want to thank all of you for your support. I met more people than ever before through SPXS this year and it's been a pleasure to get to talk, organize events, write, and think together with you.
Importantly, I'm opening up Subpixel Space for writing contributions and other explorations in 2017. If you'd like to contribute, skip ahead to the last section.
..
Writing
Subpixel Space had 5 posts this year:
Architecture at Scale // In which I point out similarities and challenges faced by the two disciplines. I've been approached by a few UX designers about this post who have found it helpful.
Exclusivity and Trajectory // In which I talk about two strategies characteristic of successful brands.
Brand Index // By far the most popular post of the year, containing 5 miniature case studies on brands. Interestingly, many people have asked if I have a relationship with Magazine B because of this post; I do not. The 3-paragraph format was a great writing exercise, and I'd like to take this concept further.
Seeking New Arrangements // In which I explain why digital nomadism will never be popular
Bad Interface Politics // The last essay of the year, published this week, in which I discuss the design of censorship in Facebook's new fake news filtration feature.
I wrote two other essays this year, each over 4,000 words, which went unpublished. Hopefully in 2017, they'll be ready for prime time.
Design & Development
Because my essays generally take a long time to formulate and write, publishing each has been an opportunity to make incremental design updates to the site. I made some special "issue covers" and improved typography this year. I am particularly proud of developing Subpixel Space's flexible custom Jekyll sidebar. Finally, I began to use Are.na as an open bibliography for each of my posts. Subpixel Space is my main web development and project playground, and 2017 will see more experimentation, including completely custom templates.
In addition to my consulting work in 2016, I built and launched a completely new product with a partner, managed it, and essentially retired it.
Subpixel Space Consulting
I spent most of this year consulting independently, but I also had the opportunity to work with several other talented people on a couple projects. Subpixel Space Consulting was brought into being to handle these cases. More on this later.
Mondays
My design practice expanded significantly this year when I made community organization an explicit part of it. Mondays started out as a weekly themed discussion salon on the Subpixel Space office roof in Chinatown, NYC, and has grown into a less frequent but more thoroughly designed and considered space. Mondays also joined Learning Gardens, a very exciting loose meta-organization of similar learning groups—join our Slack channel! If you live in NYC and haven't yet attended, new Mondays will be announced in this email. Going forward, each Monday will still have a specific topic and format, but the resident theme will be "meaning-making."
..
SPXS 2K17
Design, writing, and community organization are three tenets of my design practice that correspond in overlapping ways to the activities described above. Making work, thinking deeply and sharing knowledge, and fostering self-learning and critical engagement... while each is important on its own, Subpixel Space believes that engaging all three is the only way to push forward the field, to be central to the production of new ideas, and to build a rich network of creatives across disciplines. To better take on these themes, the Subpixel Space galaxy will be changing in some important ways in 2017:
Subpixel Space is now open to guest contributions of 1500 words or longer. The general theme of our universe is "digital design discourse," but our subjects were diverse in 2016 and will only get more so this year; almost anything you might already be thinking deeply about is probably a good match. Formats we are interested in include, but are certainly not limited to: regular essay, design critique, whitepaper, Ribbonfarm-style refactoring, formal or informal research, satire grimoire, deconstruction, interview, photo essay, and furthermore weird things. A small honorarium will be paid to guest contributors. If you don't write, but you have an idea for something you'd like to make happen, get in touch with me at tobyshorin@gmail.com.
Next, we've spent time this year developing a few subjects of interest into repeatable, self-encapsulated events that can be delivered at your organization. Inquire at info@subpixel.space.
Workshop: Cult Design Workshop
3 hour lecture and design workshop teaching concrete meaning-making skills and a fresh approach to brand development through discussion of cults. Recommended for designers, marketers, and design-minded founders.
Talk: Supportive Community Economics in Platform Design
60 minute talk about strategies for supporting user communities, adapted from upcoming SPXS whitepaper. Recommended for engineers, community organizers, product designers, and founders.
Subpixel Space Consulting is live and will continue to operate on an ad-hoc, clandestine, per-project basis. SPXS Consulting released the following statement:
Lastly, a final word about 2016. It was a rough year for many people around the world, even for those of us in the Subpixel Space network who are privileged to be living well and thinking about interesting things. However, it was also a trans/formative year for us, and one that galvanized us into thinking more deeply, doing better work, pursuing more meaningful relationships, and being more caring with ourselves. Let's all work together to continue to kindly, compassionately better ourselves in 2017
..
Until next time.
Importantly, I'm opening up Subpixel Space for writing contributions and other explorations in 2017. If you'd like to contribute, skip ahead to the last section.
..
Writing
Subpixel Space had 5 posts this year:
Architecture at Scale // In which I point out similarities and challenges faced by the two disciplines. I've been approached by a few UX designers about this post who have found it helpful.
Exclusivity and Trajectory // In which I talk about two strategies characteristic of successful brands.
Brand Index // By far the most popular post of the year, containing 5 miniature case studies on brands. Interestingly, many people have asked if I have a relationship with Magazine B because of this post; I do not. The 3-paragraph format was a great writing exercise, and I'd like to take this concept further.
Seeking New Arrangements // In which I explain why digital nomadism will never be popular
Bad Interface Politics // The last essay of the year, published this week, in which I discuss the design of censorship in Facebook's new fake news filtration feature.
I wrote two other essays this year, each over 4,000 words, which went unpublished. Hopefully in 2017, they'll be ready for prime time.
Design & Development
Because my essays generally take a long time to formulate and write, publishing each has been an opportunity to make incremental design updates to the site. I made some special "issue covers" and improved typography this year. I am particularly proud of developing Subpixel Space's flexible custom Jekyll sidebar. Finally, I began to use Are.na as an open bibliography for each of my posts. Subpixel Space is my main web development and project playground, and 2017 will see more experimentation, including completely custom templates.
In addition to my consulting work in 2016, I built and launched a completely new product with a partner, managed it, and essentially retired it.
Subpixel Space Consulting
I spent most of this year consulting independently, but I also had the opportunity to work with several other talented people on a couple projects. Subpixel Space Consulting was brought into being to handle these cases. More on this later.
Mondays
My design practice expanded significantly this year when I made community organization an explicit part of it. Mondays started out as a weekly themed discussion salon on the Subpixel Space office roof in Chinatown, NYC, and has grown into a less frequent but more thoroughly designed and considered space. Mondays also joined Learning Gardens, a very exciting loose meta-organization of similar learning groups—join our Slack channel! If you live in NYC and haven't yet attended, new Mondays will be announced in this email. Going forward, each Monday will still have a specific topic and format, but the resident theme will be "meaning-making."
..
SPXS 2K17
Design, writing, and community organization are three tenets of my design practice that correspond in overlapping ways to the activities described above. Making work, thinking deeply and sharing knowledge, and fostering self-learning and critical engagement... while each is important on its own, Subpixel Space believes that engaging all three is the only way to push forward the field, to be central to the production of new ideas, and to build a rich network of creatives across disciplines. To better take on these themes, the Subpixel Space galaxy will be changing in some important ways in 2017:
Subpixel Space is now open to guest contributions of 1500 words or longer. The general theme of our universe is "digital design discourse," but our subjects were diverse in 2016 and will only get more so this year; almost anything you might already be thinking deeply about is probably a good match. Formats we are interested in include, but are certainly not limited to: regular essay, design critique, whitepaper, Ribbonfarm-style refactoring, formal or informal research, satire grimoire, deconstruction, interview, photo essay, and furthermore weird things. A small honorarium will be paid to guest contributors. If you don't write, but you have an idea for something you'd like to make happen, get in touch with me at tobyshorin@gmail.com.
Next, we've spent time this year developing a few subjects of interest into repeatable, self-encapsulated events that can be delivered at your organization. Inquire at info@subpixel.space.
Workshop: Cult Design Workshop
3 hour lecture and design workshop teaching concrete meaning-making skills and a fresh approach to brand development through discussion of cults. Recommended for designers, marketers, and design-minded founders.
Talk: Supportive Community Economics in Platform Design
60 minute talk about strategies for supporting user communities, adapted from upcoming SPXS whitepaper. Recommended for engineers, community organizers, product designers, and founders.
Subpixel Space Consulting is live and will continue to operate on an ad-hoc, clandestine, per-project basis. SPXS Consulting released the following statement:
To contact Subpixel Space Consulting about research, development, artist residencies, anti-fascist software, sponsored writing, design, or events, message info@subpixel.space.SPXS Consulting is a globally distributed network of creative thinkers. Our members are engaged in projects at the forefront of technology, design, global finance, education, and a diverse range other fields.Our locations:New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Berlin, Prague.
Lastly, a final word about 2016. It was a rough year for many people around the world, even for those of us in the Subpixel Space network who are privileged to be living well and thinking about interesting things. However, it was also a trans/formative year for us, and one that galvanized us into thinking more deeply, doing better work, pursuing more meaningful relationships, and being more caring with ourselves. Let's all work together to continue to kindly, compassionately better ourselves in 2017
..
Until next time.
Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to Subject Matter by Toby Shorin: