I design web, iOS and e-commerce products with founders, in small weekly rounds. Eye for the details others miss. Booking Q1 2027.
Nijmegen, Nederland
Joined May 2008
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2 big projects at a time. That's my max.
And I work async. Founders get a short @TellaHQ video from me instead of another meeting, and they watch it whenever they have a gap.
Basically it means their product is in my head every day. No calendar puzzle before every round.
Small rounds only work if the founder can keep up. This is how I make that easy.
AI does my boring work. The choices stay mine.
Layout, hierarchy, what goes on the screen and what gets cut. That part I kind of refuse to hand off.
So as a founder, you're paying for the decisions. The repetitive stuff just goes faster.
I skip the big reveal.
After the wireframes I take 1 or 2 key screens all the way to visual design and just show the founder. Before I touch the rest.
Honestly, most big corrections at the end come from feedback that showed up too late.
Small rounds with the founder. Goes a long way.
Pick one boring task you repeat every year. It's a better AI benchmark than any leaderboard.
Mine is the Tour de France calendar. The 2027 route came out yesterday, so this year's test just started.
The task, every year since ChatGPT came out: all 21 stages in one calendar, with the stage type and the likely winners.
At first: copy, paste, copy, paste.
Then: separate calendars I had to set up myself.
Now: @bot writes straight into my iPhone calendar. One prompt and the whole Tour is in it. Automagically.
Next: this July it will update the calendar after every stage. I'll report back.
Same task, less of me every year.
What's the yearly task you use to test new tools?
ALT A hand holds a smartphone displaying the 2027 Tour de France stage calendar, featuring dates and route details.
Apple is playing a whole different game
Go behind the scenes of Made by Sound.
A story of music, collaboration and craft with @fredagainagain1 and NEST Acoustics. Discover how sound brought the Apple Music logo to life, captured entirely in camera. Just music, made visible.
Day one with a new client is never about design.
It's listening until you know which problem actually matters.
The pixels can wait a week.
Founders, what do you wish a designer asked you on day one?
805 random tags in my @NotionHQ. Too many AI agents writing in it.
So I made a @bot to clean it up. About an hour later: 12 fixed tags, 1,100+ bookmarks retagged.
Now its only job is keeping it that way.
x.ai/bot/yrN-hdSX5YoF0cQ5U0s…
ABSOLUTELY SHAMELESS.
Julia contacted me to work for @yourpersona and mentioned they were looking to hire full-time.
After our call, she took many days to reply. I assumed she was busy, so I let time pass.
Then she came back with a project and said:
“We changed it to make it easier and less time consuming. To preface, it won’t be paid (I wanted to be clear, since I mentioned that in our last call), since we just want fast work so we can speed up the hiring process. We love your work!”
Two things:
1. She never mentioned it wouldn’t be paid on our last call, but I didn’t think much of it.
2.She said she wants to speed up the hiring process.
I worked hard on the project. It took me 2-3 hours, on top of a 24-hour deadline for another client, because I wanted to make a good first impression. I submitted it and waited. I knew I did well, and I was confident my designs were better than anyone’s.
I waited patiently for days. Then she sent this:
“Hey, I have an update! The team thinks you’re a great designer and we would love to work with you, we’re just a little too early to expand right now. We’d love to stay in touch and reconnect in a month or two! I’ll hit you up then :)”
Mind you, she said they wanted to hire fast. Now they’re “a little too early to expand”? And she went on to post this engagement farming post.
Why is she posting this when she’s already “found” me? The team supposedly thinks I’m great and would love to work with me.
I contacted a few friends here on X who have viral posts like mine. They got the exact same message from her.
If you’re not ready to expand, why ask for a free trial and promise a full-time role? And why are you now shamelessly posting this to get people to do more free work and hand over more free ideas for your app?
Seeing more and more websites move from Framer to something more custom built like Claude & Astro
Could this be the end of an era?
Here are my hot takes for today's Apple announcements:
• HomeView is super cool, basically a HomePod with a screen. $299 is steep, but the materials look worth it
• HomeView recognizes up to 6 people on one shared device, yet the iPad is still stuck on one account (helloo?)
• No App Store on HomeView, just widgets and approved audio and video apps. Does supporting CarPlay mean your app gets HomeView for free?
• The core UI sits under the Liquid Glass layer. Haven't seen that anywhere else in Apple's ecosystem, curious how it feels to touch
• No Siri AI (SI?) in the EU, so a lot of today's news isn't that interesting here
• Apple TV 4K is powerful, but why does a streaming box need an A19 at $299? Buy last gen
• HomePod mini 2 is fine, $149 is a lot and the new colors are meh
• 4 HomePods as surround is great. I'm tempted to sell my Sonos setup
• Home accessories with LG feel like the UltraFine monitors again. Wish it came before I bought all my HomeKit gear. Might upgrade anyway.
ALT Three screens of a device show different functionalities: a recipe, a video call with a smiling woman, and music playback details.
ALT A lineup of four sleek, rounded smart speakers in various shades, each with a metallic arm for support and a mesh bottom design.
ALT A sleek, rounded device features a screen displaying a music track and playback controls, mounted on a textured speaker base.
ALT A sleek, modern setup features a large TV displaying a scene, flanked by several HomePod speakers emitting sound waves.
Wild idea that this whole design journey started when I was 10 and my dad installed Photoshop 6.0 for me
What was your first design tool?
ALT A cluttered attic workspace features a desk with computers, books, and a black chair, plus windows and various decorations.
Multiple people asked where I get my clients from.
Both new projects came in warm. One inbound, one referral.
That's how most of my clients find me: through people who already know my work.
The catch when you're starting out: relationships come from experience, and experience comes from clients. And right now the market is brutal.
The way out is other designers.
Give first. Share their work, help when you can, and let the goodwill grow on both sides.
The referrals follow.
Designers who've been at it a while: how do you help juniors land that first client?
Two new projects just came in.
Really happy with both. I needed this win.
Time to go full speed this Q4
ALT A person waves from a computer screen displaying a video call, while a desk with a keyboard and lamp is visible in the foreground.
Booked until February now. If you're a founder planning something for after that, let's talk now: cal.com/thomasmeijer
For those who asked about a tutorial
xitter.cf/ijsthee/status/2107554…