Thoughts on design, technology, and the things in between.

Some thoughts should not disappear

This journal is a place to give ideas a little more room. What you find here is not just commentary, but perspective. Ongoing reflections shaped by practice, observation, and a bit of curiosity.

↓ Articles

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Big Fish, Bigger Fish, Monster Fish: Keep Up With AI

Every week, a bigger fish shows up. A small tool gets replaced by a bigger platform. Then the monster fish arrives and promises to do everything at once. At some point, it stops feeling like progress and starts feeling like noise. The real issue is not the tools. It is the pace, the pressure, and the constant sense of being one step behind.

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From prompts to pipelines: AI in Design Systems

Most people still use AI like a plugin: Open it. Prompt it. Copy the output. Move on. But that is not where this is going. AI is shifting from isolated interaction to workflow integration. And in design systems, that changes everything. This article is about why prompting is not the skill, why pipelines matter more than single outputs, and why control will become the real advantage.

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Shit in, shit out: Designing with vibe coding

I see a lot of teams jumping into vibe coding right now. Fast results. Quick screens. Instant output. But the moment you look closer, everything feels generic. That is not an AI problem. That is a direction problem. Shit in, shit out.

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The fear is real. And the agency world feels it first.

AI is not just changing workflows. It is putting pressure on the logic many agencies were built on. That is why so much of the current conversation is driven by fear. Not because people resist technology, but because they can feel the market shifting underneath them. 

From Silos to Systems: Why Bridge Skills Matter

Bridge skills are becoming one of the most valuable capabilities in design and product work. Not because they sound impressive, but because real progress rarely happens inside silos. This is about: why the ability to connect worlds is becoming more important than ever.

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Build a future where humans matter

Sounds obvious. But look at the systems we are building right now. This article is about: on where human value is shifting – and why control needs to be designed, not assumed.

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Handmade is the new cool

Everyone can produce now. But not everything resonates. That is why I have been thinking about 'handmade' work again. Not only in the literal sense, but as a quality. Work shaped by taste, judgment, restraint, and a clear point of view.

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From UX to AX – Designing Intelligence at Scale

Interfaces are no longer the product. Systems are. We spent years designing screens. Now we need to design systems that act.

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Feed the monster – Tech industry burns through everything

The tech industry moves faster than ever. But it starts to feel like it is burning through everything:  Roles. Skills. Stability. Meaning... At some point you have to ask: Is this still progress – or just acceleration without direction?

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The future of Design Systems

Most design systems are not future-ready. They may look mature on the surface – components, tokens, documentation, governance – but that is no longer the real test. What matters now is whether a system can hold up when scale increases, workflows speed up, and AI starts changing how output is created.

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Business Transformation in the Age of AI

AI is changing more than just tools. It is changing how work gets done – and who does it. So what is the role of business transformation now? Not replacing people. Not chasing efficiency. But designing how humans and machines actually work together. I wrote down a few thoughts on this shift.

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It's not 'Design vs. AI' – It's 'Creativity vs. Repetition'

The new article is about why taste and judgment matter even more in a world of infinite generation.

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Prompt to Design to Code: Rethinking How Digital Products Get Made

I look at the emerging shift from prompt to design to code and why workflows like Claude and Figma feel bigger than just another AI demo. For me, this points to a new digital design value chain that is worth paying attention to.

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It’s Not About the Tool. It’s About the Outcome.

There are hundreds of tools out there. New ones every week. And still, many people feel like they are falling behind. Maybe the problem is not the tools. Maybe it is what we focus on. Sharing a perspective on why direction matters more than tools.

Design systems for multi-brand realities

Consistency is easy. Expression is hard. Especially when one design system needs to serve multiple brands. I wrote an article about what that really means in practice, where most systems break, and what needs to change.

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Burnout or Backbone? The Real Value of Experience in Digital

There is a narrative that experienced people in digital are burning out. But what if we are looking at it the wrong way? After 20+ years in the industry, I see something else: experience is not fading — it is becoming more valuable.

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From UI Library to Operating Model: Rethinking Design Systems

Design systems are often reduced to what they contain: tokens, components, patterns, documentation. But in complex, multi-brand environments, their real value sits elsewhere.

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Where human judgment meets machine output

AI is everywhere right now, but adoption stalls because the most important layer is missing: the moment where human judgment meets machine output. This article is about why this “in-between” is where things actually break – and why designing it is key to making AI work in real organizations.

Düsseldorf, 00:00

Micha Brandt
Design Lead & Design Systems Architect

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