This one’s going to be pretty meta.
I began the year by releasing software for iOS, and by the end of the year, I didn’t even own any Apple products.
I released Ambidex, a family of custom controllers that allow people to play retro games in the Delta app in new orientations. I’ve heard many positive reviews of them, and I’m thrilled so many people have downloaded and tried my designs. At the time of Ambidex’s release, 8,500 people had downloaded my previous controllers. Going by the number on Delta Styles, the download count is now 22,653! I’m so absolutely stunned by that. Thank you to everyone who gave it a shot.
I then tried something new: making wallpapers. This was a photoshop/figma project for me to use more of the tools I don’t often use day-to-day. I made a new wallpaper every day for six months. Some of my favourites are here on this reddit post. The “project” page for this is still in my drafts.
As a designer, I’m also very behind on filling out my portfolio of projects. Filling it out has become a project of its own (told you this was going to get meta). Once a week, I try to put up at least one older project. Sometimes I do them in batches. The “portfolio” section of my site doesn’t get a lot of traffic, so I feel like I can tinker there without much hassle. What is an achievement for me is that this site looks largely unchanged from 2024. I figured out what I liked last year, and I’ve continued to build on top of it.
This site doesn’t get a lot of traffic at all, since it’s a personal blog. What does seem to get numbers is placing my stuff on Reddit. The Ambidex post has 20k views. My post about switching to android has 50k views. Just posting a couple of my wallpapers got me 112k views. Of course, some things I had hoped would be more popular just aren’t. But that’s social media for you. I’m grateful for any attention my work gets, just like anybody else.
Two things I’m proud of that also didn’t get much attention: new seasons of two of my podcasts. I produced seven new episodes of International Object in the winter, returning the show to its guest-interview format I originally had in 2013. And I got to have five emotional and excellent conversations with my friend Mikey on You Chose Poorly. Give them a listen if you like.
I’ve got a pretty good idea for a personal project for next year. I hope you’ll like it, too.
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