# week 4 of 2026 **January 25** ![[zarapicken_messythinking.gif]] [Zara Picken](https://www.zarapicken.com) creates wonderfully simple editorial pieces that feel like layered pieces of paper. I love the bold style and intense colors. This image fairly accurately captures how I've been feeling these days. Chaos in every direction. --- A few weeks late for posting here. Life has been busy. Turns out being prepping and launching two new-to-me classes takes up far more time and mental bandwidth than I expected. Once again overloaded with classes again this semester. Awesome students and fun classes so that's a relief. It is going to take more time outside of class to stay prepped this time around. Hope that doesn't affect the frequency of my posts here. Anyway, on to the cool stuff… ## design stuff [Motion Folios](https://www.motionfolios.com) is a site of curated motion graphics work. Tons of time-based inspiration. [Detail Design](https://detail.design/) is a curated celebration of small details in good design. Nice inspiration for UI work. [AetherCSS](https://aethercss.lovable.app) is a free Liquid Glass, Glassmorphism & Neumorphism CSS Generator with live preview. As soon as Apple announced Liquid Glass we knew this was going to become a thing. Some pretty good options if this is your thing. ## art stuff [Jaunty Art](https://jaunty.art) creates cute deranged art that can be celebrated as interesting memes. Buy something from him! ![[jauntyFrog.png]] [Designing 101 Dalmatians](https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/designing-one-hundred-and-one-dalmatians) from [Animation Obsessive](https://animationobsessive.substack.com/) is a wonderful breakdown of how they got the very non-Disney look for 101 Dalmatians. This has always been one of my favorite movies, partially because of the cool mid-century illustration style. The big trick was Xeroxing the drawings directly onto cels and overlaying onto soft colored shapes. ![[dalmations.webp]]] ## small web stuff [Dealgorithmed](https://buttondown.com/dealgorithmed) is a new newsletter about removing yourself from the corporate-controlled web and ubiquitous platforms. Built by [Manuel Moreale](https://manuelmoreale.com/thoughts/welcome-to-manus-website) who also runs the [People and Blogs](https://peopleandblogs.com/) newsletter. You should totally subscribe. [A Website To Destroy All Websites](https://henry.codes/writing/a-website-to-destroy-all-websites/) is a manifesto about "how to win the war for the soul of the internet and build the Web we want". This should be required reading for all web workers who want to break from the algorithms and platforms. ## web project stuff [Wplace](https://wplace.live) overlays a collaborative painting app on a map of the world. You can zoom in anywhere and draw in the style of Microsoft Paint. Tons of interesting stuff worth exploring even if you don't make a mark of your own on the world. [Optical Toys](https://optical.toys) is a collection of interesting optical illusions with explanations on how they work. Fun to side-scroll through and explore. [The Pug In A Rug](https://puginarug.com) is a useful useless site that gives you a moment of zen in your hectic day. [Neato Cal](https://github.com/abetusk/neatocal) is a tool to print a full year calendar on a sheet of paper. This is a more expansive option that builds on similar tools I shared last time. You can edit settings to get a more personalized calendar. [EZ-Tree](https://www.eztree.dev) is an online procedural tree builder with a crap-ton of sliders and adjustments to play with. Could be used to generate for 3D modeling but mostly (for me) serves as a fun zen toy. Fun ambient music too. Built using [three.js](https://threejs.org/). Worth checking out that site to see some of the other cool 3D web things being built. ![[tree.png]]