Robin Rendle
Robin Rendle
Robin Rendle
I’m Robin, a British designer, writer, and typographic nuisance from San Francisco. Today I’m a designer at Apple although previously I’ve made software at Retool, Sentry, and Gusto as well as for clients like Buttondown and XOXO.
Latest Posts
After long bouts of work—months and months uninterrupted—I become a slug person; small hurdles spike my anxiety, my anger flares at the slightest confrontation, I notice fewer jokes, fewer attempts on my part to make people laugh. My...
Jim Nielsen: Prototyping is moving. It’s the meeting, the considering, and the conceptualizing, but with iterative progress in a concrete artifact. When you’re done, you’re left with something tangible — as well as experiential knowledge...
In this fantastic video, Dan Olson looks at the grossest parts of the publishing industry; the exploitation, the predatory behavior, the high tolerance of spam by publishing companies, and how grifters push freelance writers and voice...
Type specimens are getting buck wild these days. Here’s The Food Issue, a website by Commercial Type, that’s a tiny magazine and type specimen. But, also: Helena Fitzgerald! Helen Rosner! Robin Sloan! What a great idea for a thing....
Someone asked me for advice about their career a while ago and even though I absolutely do not feel qualified enough to give advice to anyone about this, here goes nothin’: Blog! Blog your heart out! Blog about something you’ve learned,...
I am burrowed in a small cafe with soft music in the background and a warm coffee in hand. The heatwave in the bay area has broken and today I have nothing to do but read and write and read some more. I ought to to update the /newsletter...
I made a lil micro-site for the newsletter I’m kicking off tomorrow morning called How Not To Make A Book. Here is me quoting me: There’s almost too much to care for; the design, paper stock, binding, proofreading, logistics, then—not to...
Back in 2009, Cory Doctorow described how to write like the wind: Researching isn't writing and vice-versa. When you come to a factual matter that you could google in a matter of seconds, don't. Don't give in and look up the length of...
My favorite typeface right now is Magnet by Inga Plönnigs. I’ve been working on a side project for the last couple of weeks that I’ll be sharing with y’all this weekend and Magnet has been by my side the whole time, making me look much...
Sprints and backlogs and pointing tickets—the nigh-on universal method for making software today—is stupid. All this junk around the work makes software slower and more difficult to build. It’s form-filling monkey work and the only way...
Ages ago, Marcin wrote this great piece about printing a small batch of books: I’ve recently found myself wanting to print a small run (15 copies) of a book. I approached this knowing pretty well what I wanted: a simple, old-school book...
I don’t think I’ve ever linked to Alphabettes before but this blog is thoroughly worth adding to yer RSS feed. I stumbled over the website again today doing some research for a little thing and forgot how joyous it is. The Alphabettes...
I missed this 2022 update for MD System and this particularly lovely specimen website: MD System’s standard width is designed for running text and punchy titles alike. Its proportions are geared towards readability and an overall natural...
My relationship with the internet is changing. I don’t really have a home on the web now, a place I can go to log-in, kick back, and doom scroll. That makes me happy for many reasons—yay for no abuse and casual violence!—but also sad for...
Jeremy wrote a great piece about how we treat our work: Here’s the thing: there’s good work and there’s working hard. What matters is doing good work. Often, to do good work you need to work hard. And so people naturally conflate the...