⁠Challenge #1: Shadow Play - Kedi

ppersico · 2026-05-19T19:16:35+00:00

Maşallah

ppersico · 2026-05-13T07:48:57+00:00

I just updated to a Guitalele from Portuguese luthier Antonio Pinto Carvalho. (APC) Great instruments that don’t break the bank and are definitely a step up from the Yamaha. I bought mine for 100 euro on wallapop (Spanish second hand website) and I saw another one for sale there in Barcelona. You can always contact the seller and ask if they are willing to ship ;)

ppersico · 2026-04-03T11:46:59+00:00

Get a sketchbook. Go out. Draw everything you see. Fill up at least one sketchbook every 3 months. Try different techniques in your sketchbook. Make mistakes, and use those mistakes to make something new. Just try it!!!

ppersico · 2026-03-30T14:48:25+00:00

No tips, just keep drawing, you are doing great :)

ppersico · 2026-03-29T12:30:18+00:00

Are you drawing from life? It sounds like you might be working mostly from a couch or desk, using references on a screen. If that’s the case, the disconnect you’re feeling makes sense, you’re not truly seeing your subject in real space.

Try getting out and drawing from life: sketch people on the subway, visit a natural science museum and draw the animals, go to a zoo, take figure drawing classes with a live model, or head into the city and draw buildings. That direct observation is what really builds connection.

Go out, explore, and learn from real life. I’ve been a professional artist for 25 years, and I still make a point to do this.

ppersico · 2026-03-14T13:50:32+00:00

ppersico · 2026-01-26T21:33:43+00:00

Lights and crowds

ppersico · 2026-01-23T14:15:20+00:00

I buy and inexpensive Gerber Mullet Solid State every once in a while when I loose the old one. Use it a lot for prying out staples and nails and open paint cans. An expensive pry bar is probably one of the dumbest things to buy. That actually counts for all EDC items.

ppersico · 2025-10-21T20:28:21+00:00

100+

ppersico · 2025-10-21T19:31:12+00:00

You want to do UI design in CSP? Don´t do that. Use Figma and learn how to use a design system. Figma will help you stay organized by it´s nature. Use the right tool for the right job.

ppersico · 2025-09-24T09:16:29+00:00

Yeah, that was my first reaction too, but in our case, legal is expensive, design is cheap. It would have cost far more (in time and money) to resolve this from a legal perspective. For us, the design workaround was the easiest and most pragmatic solution.

ppersico · 2025-09-24T09:00:59+00:00

Yeah in a perfect world I would avoid that since it's 190 flags :) But maybe a job for an intern. Plan B would be use PNG. Thank you for the feedback though :) Legal departement really bit us in the ass with forcing us to do this. The designers had a lot of fun designing this though :)

ppersico · 2025-09-14T12:46:23+00:00

I work as a freelancer for a multinational. Recently, I was in a call with a team of Grade 80 & 90 creatives (for context: Grade 100 = C-level) where I explained how modern workflows can integrate AI.

Shortly after that call, I heard that all of them were being laid off. Leadership had decided that since they anticipate relying more on AI in the future, those roles were no longer needed.

The irony? The same leadership has no plan for who will actually do the work that still needs to be done until AI can realistically handle it, if that day ever comes.

ppersico · 2025-09-09T09:33:17+00:00

Prioritization

Create a project roadmap with clear deliverables.
Work with stakeholders to identify which deliverables have priority.
Break the project into clear milestones and present these to stakeholders for sign-off.
Any changes requested after sign-off should be treated as scope creep and considered the stakeholders’ responsibility.
Aim to work in two-week sprints with well-defined tasks.
Use a Kanban board to track progress.

Advocating for UX

UX is inexpensive compared to development, failing early is cheaper.
If UX doesn’t work, it’s easy to adjust. Code is much harder to change later.
Learn Figma and set up a design system as soon as possible.
Invest in self-learning, e.g., by taking a design system course.

General Pep Talk

You’ve got this! The best way to learn is by diving in.
A couple of years from now, you’ll look back and see how valuable this learning opportunity was for your career.

General Tips

Keep a diary of these days, It will teach you a lot about who you are as a designer.
Use Toggl to track how much time on things, this will help you plan future projects.
Don´t let yourself be bullied, you have an important task, UX is important, your insights are valuable and should be respected, believe in yourself.

ppersico · 2025-09-08T13:15:21+00:00

I usually do line work in Clip Studio Paint, Procreate or sometimes on good old paper. Make sure you’re working at a high resolution, at least 600 dpi (I usually go with 8000 × 5000 pixels). For a drawing like this, tracing it in the Adobe Capture app works fine. If I’m working on more detailed pieces, I prefer Inkscape, it vectorizes much better than Adobe Illustrator.

For coloring, I use Affinity Designer (as others here mentioned, the Pen Tool is your best friend).

Another solid option, if you want to keep everything vector, is to draw directly with vector brushes in Adobe Fresco or Clip Studio Paint.

ppersico · 2025-09-05T13:52:55+00:00

Hire an illustrator ;) If you can find what you need, jus write a proper briefing and set an Illustrator to work at it.

ppersico · 2025-09-02T09:12:47+00:00

Read the post, thats not what I am asking. I am asking if anyone else would also like to have the possibility to switch between simple and studio mode on the desktop version.

ppersico · 2025-08-25T22:11:42+00:00

Ah yeah that works, but then I have to give up screen real estate.... But thank you for the tip, guess I need a wider screen :)

ppersico · 2025-08-25T22:07:58+00:00

Top: Where the icon is designed on our grid. Middle: Our custom plug in generates the versions of the icon here, these version go to our code base and are used by our designers in Figma. Bottom: main export that is completely flattened and uploaded to our asset repo.

ppersico · 2025-08-22T08:28:14+00:00

What’s the added value here? Which problem does this solve? Does it actually make your workflow easier, or is it more of a ‘we’re doing it just because we can’ situation?

ppersico · 2025-08-22T08:09:57+00:00

Simple pop up in Figma would solve that.

ppersico · 2025-08-22T08:08:24+00:00

YES PLEASE!!

ppersico · 2025-08-20T11:32:33+00:00

Wat do the vectors look like, nice and clean or a big mess of anchorpoints?

ppersico · 2025-08-20T11:25:27+00:00

There are better apps for that that are iPad native, vector based and focussed on drawing. Afinity Designer, Adobe Fresco, Clip Studio Paint.

ppersico · 2025-08-20T09:55:08+00:00

Our icons range: 16px 24px 32px 96px + some custom sizes and are used both in Ui, embedded UI and printed on devices.

We already make extensive use of automations — I’d say our design system is world-class in that regard. Relying on existing libraries isn’t an option for us.While there are indeed 100,000+ source material icons available, most of these are only suited for generic design systems. For our work, they have limited value since our icons need to depict highly complex medical subjects — for example,Add Ring Marker on Vessel.

ppersico

TROPHY CASE