Anders Drage (@AndersDrage) profile picture

Used to help startups and established companies design products and experiences for screens. Now: Design Director & Co-founder @ MICROMILSPEC.

Oslo
Joined April 2008
Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)Photo by Anders Drage (@AndersDrage)
[New] SELECT WORK, 2010-2026
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Everyone, this kind of attention to details deserves more than 4500 eyeballs. Superb work Kevin!
meet petal, our new mascot at @Dessn_ai wanted it to feel alive, with personality and to look like a real piece of folded paper
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Anders Drage retweeted
I wanted to share more about Components in @paper to help everyone plan for the upcoming launch. We've been hard at work and we have something truly next level to ship soon. 1. Components dev is going very well. We don't set hard deadlines, we're a "release it when it's good" kind of product, but I'd estimate ~1 month or so. Certainly before EOY. 2. Creating one shared world from your codebase to the canvas and back is the priority. We don't want to just repeat the abstractions from existing design tools; we want to fix the fragmented workflow between developers and designers. But we also don't want to add cognitive load or engineering concept while you're designing. Principle: designing with components should feel familiar, designer-first, and then also happen to align to your codebase effortlessly. No tool has ever pulled this off yet. 3. The initial components release will be mature and include: slots, variants with props, React in, React out, and full agent support. Components from your codebase can also run real code, so components can have logic, dates, and math. 4. Agents can read and write components quickly, accurately, and with low token usage. To your agent, components in Paper just look like React, which means they already know exactly how to use them. I'm so excited to share Paper components with the Paper community. Thanks for your patience as we do the R&D necessary to ship something next level 🙏
Replying to @jmsbaduor
Getting super close on components! It’s a huge system to build. We want to make sure to get the design right so we don’t end up with the same issues that other design tools have, where it’s creating two worlds between the codebase and the canvas. Paper’s components will be React in and React out, so you can stay in sync without translation (and they can even run their code logic)
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Anders Drage retweeted
I don’t use Figma anymore. For the past six months I’ve been uploading my consciousness directly into the ether and allowing the work to manifest through minor disturbances in the electromagnetic field. You think you are seeing the aurora borealis that's actually my brain waves. It’s a much more intuitive process. I sit completely still in my office until a founder somewhere develops a sudden inspiration for their brand positioning but in reality it was me clipping them in their brain stem, smiling down on them like one of God's children. People keep asking what tools I’m using. I understand the question. I used to think that way too. But asking me what tools I use is like asking a glass of water what software is wetness. Its a meaningless question. I don’t design anymore. I am the pixels. I am the logo. I am the little bit of space between the 'r' and the 'n' that you better make sure is kerned properly. When you increase the font size I experience physical growth. When you cut a vector point, my consciousness goes into quantum superposition. This is where the industry is going. If you're not on board, you're going to get left behind. My entire design system now lives in the collective unconscious. There’s no documentation. Your team will simply wake up knowing the button radius. If someone uses the wrong shade of blue they’ll hear a high pitched ringing sound until they correct it. Developer handoff has been so smooth since I started working this way. My effigy appears at the foot of the engineer’s bed and I open my mouth. The CSS comes out at a frequency only their fillings can receive. We’ve eliminated all meetings. I no longer send clients presentations. I enter their dreams as a white horse with an already complete interactive brand guidelines. They’re free to leave feedback by speaking into a bowl of room temperature water. I receive it immediately and disagree with it on a cellular level. Transcending this outdated material plane is my standing Tuesday meeting. Some people are uncomfortable with this. A procurement manager recently asked whether I could provide an SVG of the logo and I just told her to close her eyes and remember the first time she felt truly understood. She looked annoyed and just said their print vendor needed an SVG by today. A big adjustment has been personal. My wife asked if I could help bring in the groceries. I explained that I now exist simultaneously across every customer touchpoint. I think there’s a lot of fear right now about what happens when designers stop needing tools. But the people who adapt will be fine. You just have to be willing to let go of a few outdated ideas. Like having a body. Being legally distinguishable from a gradient. Anyway I am open for new branding projects this quarter.
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Anders Drage retweeted
Shuffle is overrated. I hired a spider. 🕷🕸️
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In 2019, I interviewed remotely for a role on Apple’s evangelism team. I thought it was going pretty well. Then, at the end of my presentation, someone turned on their camera. There had been an unnamed participant on the call the whole time, camera off. I’d assumed it was a meeting bot or something. It was John Geleynse. I’d seen him on stage so many times, and suddenly he was on my interview call. I was a little starstruck. “Hey Anders, nice to meet you. Now we’re going to do some speed dating.” He asked me to grab a pen and paper and draw an Apple Watch, an iPhone, an iPad, and a MacBook as rectangles, keeping their sizes proportional to each other. I fumbled through drawing some rectangles and held the paper up to the camera. I have no memory of what happened after that. All I know is I never heard back 😂
Back in 2021 I interviewed at Vercel and I failed badly. I couldn’t implement a debounce function and was stuck for like 30 minutes. It was pretty embarrassing. 10 months later (2022) I interviewed again and got the job. Don’t give up!
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40% of the design process was deciding whether to center the icons next to both lines of text or align them with the title. Looks stunning though Ian!
Heres a peek at what I’ve been working on at @Tesla for iPhone Duo
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I think the 6 and 0 should be closer in height.
Primer día como herrero, espero que el cliente quede satisfecho 💪🏻💪🏻
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Met @ridd_design at @valiocon and you could immediately tell he has many gifts and talented beyond normal measure, but 1) the timing of this product is insane 2) the distribution of the launch is equally insane. Well done dude.
introducing @inflight the missing feedback layer for prototypes ⇢ works with any agent ⇢ supports pinned comments + video ⇢ turns feedback into next steps for Claude
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Anders Drage retweeted
Me next Monday.
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Anyone have good examples of a portfolio with live examples of the work? cc @joshpuckett @ridd_design
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I think I read it here (but can't find back to it) - but to have a close relationship with someone, you have to have frequented talks. "How did that job interview go?" or "How did the renovation project go?" is a lot better than "What's new since last time we spoke". The former is frequent check-ins while the latter is just catch-ups. The original post was better explained, but this has helped me tremendously in deciding who I want to do frequent check-ins with and who I do catch-ups with.
One change I made this year was having more catch-up calls with friends & fellow creatives; at least one per week. It's been one of the most positive things I've done in a long while. In the busyness of life, don't forget to tend to your need for connection & community.
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You've now shown it, so I think legally you have to??
Page icons, should we?
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Also, everyone is asking for an seperate archive icon. We would not hate if it was a folder, time capsule, cabinet or something along these lines. @vladmoroz
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Most important meeting of the week
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Please feed - give me more of this content. Conor and Elizabeth, this is beauty.
Our wedding invite! @domesticetch and I got married. It was all very beautiful. This was our invite. I drew the art, and Elizabeth did the type and letterpressed them.
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The horizontal scrolling community salutes you 🫡 This is beautifully done.
New portfolio is live (!!) 15 years in design in New York, compressed into 8 chapters. Less a collection of case studies, more a career told as lived experience. You're looking at the eight things that shaped the space between who I am and what I like, make, and care about. They just happen to be represented with gummies instead of company logos. Honestly, this site is just an excuse to share a collection of personal stories because I enjoy writing. Each chapter breaks down into what I expected, what I found, what followed (The Premise, The Reality, The Plot). It's equal parts reflection, advice, and a look at some things built along the way.
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Goat is back again. That guy is soo cute
I haven't designed some icons in a while.
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Yearly reminder: when installing cabinets with adjustable feet, set them to the same height BEFORE moving them into place. Please do not “wing” it and adjust after. Don’t ask me how I know. A tape measure works. A combination square like this makes it faster and more precise.
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