Martin Wright — Blog

It's Monday morning.

Squarespace got me publishing again by removing friction, but it also limited the parts of the work that matter most.

Fast tools make it easier than ever to get something working.

It's hard to move in the regular spaces right now as a designer without noticing the continuing noise about AI.

This week I launched a small web app, Tone Ladder, which was my first serious step into product development assisted by AI.

The process of building Tone Ladder and how trying to make a half-formed idea real forced me to rethink the problem entirely.Tone Ladder grew out of...

I’ve been building a web app called Tone Ladder to solve a problem I believe exists in digital design: we’re really bad at colour, and our tools...

A year after making the decision to go freelance, here’s a report from the fieldSo, we made it a year.

We often treat maps as deliverables - neat, tidy artefacts to show what we’re building.

I recently had the pleasure of designing the brand and identity for ecosyste.ms and promised myself I’d keep track as we went so that I could write a...

It’s been a little while since my last weeknote; Not because I haven’t had a lot to say, but because I found writing falling down the priority list...

I love designing, all aspects of it - from the squishy people side: the way organisations should be set up to function, to the technical side:...

I turned 42 this week.

I took a couple of weeks off weeknoting.

A short weeknote for 106.

This week, I juggled some design work, betrayed my design roots with Canva, and got out of my comfort zone for a local networking event.It’s FOSDEM...

Balancing work with having builders in at home.

This was a short week, broken up with a catch up with old friends and punctuated by a day off helping move house.

I’ve been writing my weeknotes a little while now, and since starting I’ve wanted to codify exactly what weeknoting means to me, what I do it for, in...

Incredibly cold weather didn’t stop me this week, starting a new phase of my project, looking towards the speculative next contract and enjoying some...

It’s Sunday, I’ve got washing in the machine, a beef stew in the slow cooker, and a hot cup of tea.

Week 11.

Ten weeks.

This was a bit of a tough week, we’re in the last moments of preparation before a soft launch of the project I’ve been working on and the 80:20 rule...

This week I had a little think about money and opportunity cost, and I bought an obnoxious new cycling jacket.This week felt the most normal since...

Weeknote seven, and week two of freelancing.

For three years I was part of an operational leadership team running a large design department, which at its largest was over 120 strong, with...

What a week.

An eventful week of mixed emotions.

As a Design Lead at TPXimpact, I've had the privilege of leading teams through many projects, each with their own challenges and opportunities.

We’re really on the home stretch now, with four working days left at TPXimpact.

Two weeks left at TPXimpact I find myself not quite wrapping up, but definitely on the home stretch.On my project we’re coming to the end of a set of...

I made it back for a second go.

It’s time for a new season of weeknotes.

After years of flirting with the idea, I've recently decided to take the big, scary step of going freelance.

It’s been a couple of months now, and it’s probably time I wrote (and thought) about the biggest change to my web presence since I dropped WordPress...

We’re back for a third and final part of my series about diagrams.

Continuing from my previous post about making simple diagrams, here’s a follow up set of tips and information to give you the confidence to present...

Recently a colleague asked me to give them a 101 on how I make diagrams.

How I unlock better decision-making with my favourite coaching promptWhen coaching, I have a prompt I fall back on time and time again, I picked it...

After a couple of years working in central government teams I noticed something.

One year and a bit into my new role at TPXimpact I’ve begun to reflect on how my first senior leadership role is going, and how adopting the...

So, you’re working from home?

For the money, the Ikea Bekant standing desk is a great choice for any workspace.