I’m John McArnold, a design agency owner, recently retired and newly relocated to Austin.
Most of my career was spent at agencies, big ones and small ones, and the last twenty years running a boutique shop of my own. The work taught me that the design decisions people argue about in a meeting are rarely the ones that determine whether the thing works. That’s most of what I write about here.
I’m also an early adopter, sometimes to my own cost. I’ve paid full price for hardware that shipped unfinished more times than I’d like to count, which is useful, because you learn more from a product that disappoints you than from one that behaves.
Hydrocode Design is a journal, not a portfolio. No clients, no pitches. Occasionally I’ll link to something else I’m building.