Throwback: Everything is a Remix

Despite Mercury being retrograde, I was fortunate to be involved in two exciting communities to discuss AI and design.

AI Collective Istanbul: I joined a small team of enthusiastic AI engineers (real ones, not prompt-copy-pasters-token-buyers) and students who are more interested in a nuanced discussion around artificial intelligence, LLMs and diffusion models. You can follow our LinkedIn page for updates. We hope to hold our first event in late November.

Playground: (UXR) Playground graciously invited me to discuss digital product design with so much AI influence around us (see how I didn't use the phrase in the age of AI?) I am so excited that we are severely overbooked despite being a face-to-face only event. Here is the sign-up page if you want to put your name down on the waitlist.

I am reviewing a lot of material for these events to pick the ones that will be most beneficial for these communities. Generative AI is about creating new artifacts and one of the most insightful documentaries on creativity was Everything is a Remix. When I found it to watch it again, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was updated in 2023! And of course, it covers artificial creativity.

I highly recommend it.

If you want to watch the original too, here is the link.

The 2025 State of UX/Design Organizational Health

Peter Merholz put together a report on the organizational trends in different types of design organizations. It is full of great insights about design organizations in North America and Europe.

Quick note on data: The survey had 765 responses but please note that 679 of these responses came from practitioners in North America and Europe. If you add Australia and New Zealand, the number goes up to 93 percent. There are no responses from China, and only 7 responses from Middle East. This imbalance does not invalidate his analysis; we just need to be aware of the source of information.

His summary takeaways: