Masterclass
AI for Designers: Foundations
The Outlook · Masterclasses 2026
A full-day, hands-on workshop on how AI fits into modern design work, and how to use it confidently across the whole end-to-end process.
AI practice
An AI practice 20 years in the making
I don’t think anyone is truly AI-native. But AI has become the medium I work in, the way I design, write, research, build, and lead.
Throughout my career I’ve moved from designer, to full-stack engineer, to serial entrepreneur. In that sense I’ve been getting ready for AI my entire working life, and by that measure, I’m about as AI-native as one can be.
How I work with AI
I use AI across all of my work, not just to write code. Here is where it shows up most.
Design and prototyping
Moving from idea to working interface in hours, and testing in the real material instead of a static mockup.
Writing and narrative
Drafting, structuring, and sharpening strategy, copy, and stories. This site included.
Coding and shipping
Building and deploying production apps across APIs, data, and automation, end to end.
Research and analysis
Reading large, messy systems quickly, finding the pattern, and turning it into a decision.
Critique and review
A second pair of eyes on craft, security, and edge cases before anything reaches a user.
Systems and strategy
Modelling complex domains and operating models so the work stays coherent as it scales.
Teaching and speaking
I also teach and speak about AI
Building the practice is one thing. Helping other people build it is another. I run masterclasses on AI in design, and I speak on where it leaves human judgment most valuable.
Keynote
Beyond AI: Human insight as the advantage
Digital FSI 2025
A keynote on what stays valuable as AI spreads through an industry: human insight, judgment, and the trust that sits underneath good decisions.
Case study
A seven-app product ecosystem, built with AI
Over the past year I designed and shipped seven production apps, on one shared design system, that now run a real events and media business.
Seven production apps One shared design system Designed and built solo
CRM
The people layer: contacts, sponsors, and partners across the business.
Events
Budgets, P&L, and automated billing for every event and season.
Attend
The attendee app: passes, schedules, and the on-the-day experience.
Content
Presentations, schedules, and self-serve for speakers and facilitators.
Hub
The integration backbone that keeps every app in sync.
DAM
A digital asset manager, with AI-assisted tagging and search.
Website
The public marketing site, on the same shared design system.
COPE
Create once, publish everywhere: each app is the canonical home for one kind of data, projected to the others through the hub. One source of truth per domain keeps the model drastically simpler, and always ready for AI.
Under the hood
A real, modern stack
Not low-code glue. The same tools a product team would reach for, designed and maintained with AI in the loop.
- Interface
- React, Tailwind, and shadcn/ui, on one shared design system used by every app.
- Data and content
- PocketBase and Payload CMS, with Go services for the heavier domains.
- Integration
- An event-driven hub (outbox and projections) that keeps every app in sync.
- Infrastructure
- Postgres, SQLite, and object storage, deployed on Fly.io.
- Mobile
- A React Native app, built with Expo, on the same design language.
Integrations
Wired in, not just connected
These run deep. Money, identity, ticketing, and contact data move two ways through the event-driven hub, and the agents read and write across them: applying transactions in Xero, sending email as me through Graph, and reconciling Stripe payments as they land.
-
Stripe
Payments and webhooks, with automatic recovery
-
Xero
Two-way sync, with agent-applied transactions
-
Humanitix
Live ticketing and attendee sync
-
Microsoft
SSO, and email sent as me via Graph
-
Slack
Operational alerts and agent control
-
Apollo
Automated contact enrichment
Agents
Building AI into the product, not just with it
The next step past building with AI is building AI in. Across the ecosystem I have made agents that do real operational work, each one scoped, supervised, and earning its place.
An event producer
Reads every transaction, attributes it to the right campaign with high confidence, and applies it directly in the accounting system. Routine financial work, done before I look.
A digital twin
Drafts and sends email on my behalf, as me, inside a window where I can still step in. Introductions and outreach that would otherwise never get sent.
A support and operations crew
A small roster of named agents that handle support, reconciliation, and operations across the ecosystem, each scoped tightly to one job.
What I bring with AI
I'm a leader with real technical depth, fluent in AI as a working medium, operating at the level where design, product, and the business meet.
What I demonstrate here is exactly that: the technical depth to design and ship production systems myself, AI fluency used across building, research, critique, and strategy, and the judgement to operate where design, product, and the business meet.