State of the Apps 2023
2023's yearly breakdown of the apps and digital services I use.
27 November 2023
2023's yearly breakdown of the apps and digital services I use.
Back in 2013 I left Park City, Utah for a month long solo trip through the Californian coast. During my last days in Park City, a warm, sunny spring day, I was kinking back barefoot in a picnic from a mountain hiking trail overviewing the old town.
I snapped a photo of the old town in the valley and my lower legs where in frame. I didn’t think too much of it. After two and a half years of traveling it ended up becoming a series of 42 pictures in 41 cities from 17 countries. A little art project documenting my journey as well as the progress of new tattoos on my feet and leg (no, it has nothing to do with fetishes).
This is how I went through the process of deciding Why, How, and What to say online.
Having studied graphic design, if I had to put it into words, what I feel would be the most significant positive impact I could have is in making design education more accessible, and the internet is the best means to that end at this time.
A list of all the apps and web services I find indispensable for my digital environment in optimizing it for my personal and work life.
Shamelessly inspired by the Cortex podcast and their yearly breakdown of what apps they use, I’ve found it helpful to tag along and document the tools I rely on at the moment, if anything, for my own reference.
The main factors I take into consideration when choosing an app for my set-up are:
A brand is much more than just the face of your business. A brand is the set of qualities that your audience associates with your business, the value that they assign to your business. Which words come to the mind of your prospective customers upon the first interaction with your business? Do they see you as an established expert in your field or an inexperienced newcomer? Do they place more trust in your business or in your competitors’? How much are they willing to pay for your products/services?
All the brands that belong to a common market compete for the consumers’ attention and loyalty. In order for your brand to stand out over the competition, the consumers must identify with certain qualities portrayed by your brand. Maybe they are looking for something affordable and accessible, or maybe they seek a high-end and exclusive experience; Perhaps they are looking for a traditional brand with classic values, or maybe they identify more with a modern and trendy brand.
Every brand aims to grow a base of loyal customers. In turn, this results in a greater competitive leverage, a larger share of the market, a larger number of customers that your business can profit from.
Moreover, a fruitful base of loyal customers allows your business to raise the prices of its products/services. A “tax” that loyal customers are willing to pay for continued satisfaction from a familiar brand that they identify with, as opposed to the risk of trying out a different brand for the first time with potentially disappointing results.
Director and artist Thomas Blanchard’s vimeo page features a set of ethereal videos bursting with colour.
“Memories of Paintings” is an experimental dreamlike video rocking us smoothly through circular moves. The visual compositions have been created out of paint, oil, oat milk and soap liquid.
Nicholas Gurewitch’s whimsical humour has been featured in many editorial publications, but it lives online at The Perry Bible Fellowship.
The cartoonist’s most recent venture —titled “Notes on a Chase of Melancholia, or: A Little Death”— is a grim and humorous graphic novel about the dysfunctional relationship between Death and his child.
Roughly ten years have passed since Gurewitch started to develop the initial story until the definitive novel was finally published. The laborious technique chosen for the project —inspired by the style of artist Edward Gorey— consists in tracing each panel entirely by hand on scratchboards, with no margin for error.
Ever since the memorable 1984 Super Bowl commercial, Apple has become one of the most exemplary case studies on Brand Identity Design. Understanding why consumers worldwide are willing to pay a surcharge for products carrying the captivating apple logo —products that perhaps nowadays don’t really differ that much from its knockoff counterparts manufactured in Shenzhen, China and sold at a minuscule fraction of the price— is key for building strong brands and profitable businesses.
To me marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world; it’s a very noisy world, and we’re not gonna get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us. […] Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it that we stand for, where do we fit in this world.
Join my mailing list to receive updates about art, design, tech, and more.
your data is safe