Vision

the overarching north star guiding this creative exploration

What do Yayoi Kusama, an Apple product designer, and Virgil Abloh all share? A creative process involving experimentation and iteration.

Designers, artists, freelancers, and creative directors alike pour countless hours into painstakingly refining their creative journey, from idea to output. But the messiness and unpredictability of the creative process gets in the way. Curating inspiration is laborious, gathering feedback and implementing updates is disjointed, and bringing the final product to light is a struggle. Something has to change.

What I believe

Curation cuts through noise and creative clutter.

In a world of information overload, creatives are inundated with endless choices to navigate. There’s so much visual content to sift through before starting a project. How do we go from massive visual data sets to curated results? Consider opportunities to surface highly relevant design styles, case studies, color palettes, and typography pairings to nurture concept development.

Generative inspiration helps ideas compound.

New concepts aren’t created in silos, and there’s delight in sourcing and cross-referencing diverse ranges of visual inspiration. Beyond that, combining different ideas at unique intersections and generating original output can spur novelty and imagination. Consider opportunities beyond today’s mood boarding tools (Pinterest, Are.na) and ways generative AI can play a role in this landscape.

Creative tools should be multiplayer.

The creative process is highly collaborative and our tools are meant to reflect that nature. Beyond design tools like Figma, what other parts of the process can become more collaborative? Consider opportunities at the ideation stage (shared mood boards, sourcing ideas/concepts) and at the feedback stage (sequencing reviewers, gathering input and approvals across stakeholders).

Guiding Questions

How does the future of creative tooling evolve in the age of AI?
How can generative tools empower more individuals to visualize their ideas?
What new features will design software need to meet user needs for speed and quality?
How do we infuse taste / individuality / style into works of design?
Can agents streamline manual work to free up time for creatives?
What are ways to make the creative process multiplayer, from ideation to creation?

i.

Prototypes

a selection of early stage experiments and prototypes around new creative tool product concepts

1. Namu - a product for sharing works-in-progress
2. Palette - concept iterations for a color palette creation tool
3. Unspool - an interface experiment pairing literary texts with analogous images
4. Music Millennium - a digital archive of music ephemera from the millennium
5. Homecraft & Artdive - image filter discovery tools
6. Bento - a curated newsletter digest with generative media
7. Atelier & Cloister - generative apparel designs and tech pack creation
8. Makerforms - a tool for designing high quality merch

Product Principles

I. Make it easier to go from idea to iteration
II. Twice as good, twice as fast
III. Take the grunt work out of creative work

ii.

Events

a series of events I hosted across SF & NYC from 2023-2025 — gathering the creative community

Creative Code Showcase with Gray Area - June 25-26, 2025
Geotype Launch - May 25, 2025
Seah Studio Launch - January 18, 2025
Artist Circles with Verci - October 28, 2024
Collaborative Drawing Night with The Office of Ordinary Things - July 18, 2024
Creatives Jam with Madsci - June 10, 2024
Design Jam - March 26, 2024
Design Office Hours - February 29, 2024
Paint & Sip with Verci - October 9, 2023
Maker Night with IDEO CoLab Ventures - August 2, 2023
Studio Session with Verci - June 22, 2023
Show & Tell with Betaworks - May 24, 2023
Tiny Demo Time with Madsci - April 27, 2023
Maker Night - March 22, 2023

iii.

Conversations

a collection of conversations with creatives across the technology, music, and art industries — seeking shared challenges and product opportunities through user interviews

PRODUCT DESIGNERShravani Kasralikar

WRITER & RESEARCHER - FORMERLY MSCHFJessica Zhou

ARTIST & GRAPHIC DESIGNERWill Diamond

BRAND DESIGNER, THE BROWSER COMPANYJess Wang

PRODUCT DESIGNER, UBER - FORMERLY NBA, THE METCarolyn Chen

FOUNDER, THE BRAND DOULA - FORMERLY GOOGLELola Adewuya

CREATIVE & PHOTOGRAPHERKyla Rain

CREATIVE TECHNOLOGISTAsh Herr

ARTIST MANAGER, THE KILLERSRich Kepler

INTERFACE RESEARCHER - FORMERLY MIDJOURNEYMatthew Siu

FOUNDER, THE LUNA COLLECTIVESophie Gragg

ARCHITECT, GENSLERKelli McGrath

DESIGNER, IFPAbigail Africa

BRAND STRATEGIST & COPYWRITER, PRACTICEMakisa Bronson

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER, BAGGU - FORMERLY NOTIONAlex Hao

CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST - FORMERLY METASharon Zheng

FOUNDER, PRESQAdam Saleh

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER, KESHKI Katherine Bonsi

FASHION DESIGNERLiz Shevelev

DESIGN DEVELOPER, KITH Chloe Mario

TEXTILE DESIGNER Jess Kim

UI/UX DESIGNERYeji Seo

CREATIVE TOOLING

MS98.25

This is a series of early stage explorations that will serve as the foundation for the next creative tool. All prototypes, events, and interviews have been held between 2023-2025.

Creative Tooling

Explorations in Future Forward Thinking