Studio Missive 21: Strategizing for 2026

Hi friends,

Happy Friday! December is really going fast, isn’t it? Here’s what’s happening around the studio this week:

What’s inspiring you?

1. Nic Chan (who I know sometimes reads this blog, hi Nic!) wrote a thought-provoking piece about modern contact page designed: ​“The f*** off contact page”. First, great title. (Also, amazing website.) Like Nic, I’ve been asked to design these too, and there is something odd about them. Contact pages in general are difficult, because contact forms convert poorly. I’m not a fan of Nic’s examples either, but still, she has given me a lot to chew on here. (I’m about to write the lamest thing I’ve ever written: I’m really looking forward to doing some research on contact page designs and their conversion rates over the holidays.)
2. This has been an amazing year for CSS. chrome.dev has the summary (read it in Chrome for the best experience). I just used ::scroll-marker() in a client site this week. I’m really excited about corner-shape() too.
3. It’s not every day that a wordmark knocks my socks off, but the new MAG branding by LG2 blew me away. Could not love the wordmark more.

What are you working on this week?

This is a long one today. First off, I’ve been waist deep in client work all week. I’ll share more about what I’m up to when I can. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking a lot about 2026, and trying to figure out how to take the studio to the next level. One of my goals for 2026 is attracting high-value clients, and the challenge is in finding ways to reach and communicate with the decision makers at those organizations. I feel like I’m at the bottom of a new mountain, and I need to start climbing if I want to get to the next level.

Let me back up a little bit. Earlier this week, I was going to make a video covering my entire website/​brand redesign process from start to finish. I turned on the lights and the camera, knew roughly what I was going to say, and planned on just talking to the camera for a while. Everything is rolling, but I’m just sitting there silently staring at the lens, having an epiphany: a talking head video is a really bad way to tell this story.

Since I was in high school, I wanted to make movies. I am sure I mentioned this before, but for context, I was an award-winning playwright by the time I graduated. In university, I got my start as a freelancer by writing national TV campaigns. I really wanted to work in TV and make movies. I had no idea how to get there. In the end, I tripped and fell into design. (I do not regret this one bit; I love my gig and think I’m insanely lucky to do it.)

But while the camera was rolling, it occurred to me.

Why aren’t I making short films?

Instead of talking head videos, I could make higher-value videos that attach predominantly to my case studies. They can be longer, feature a lot of B‑roll, and include a bunch of voiceover. Talking head sequences could be interspersed in, like a documentary, with multiple camera angles. I’m thinking something like Matthew Encina’s style combined with hints of Tyler Stalman and the calm talking head of Gerald Undone. (But I’m also in love with the wide angle, harsh, naturally lit cinematography of Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Pluribus). My point is don’t hold me to any of these ideals.)

I was already planning to do small versions of this for some videos, but I realized that I could marry all these interests and passions of mine into one job. I could document my visual work in a visual medium, and tell a far better and more valuable story than I could with talking head videos.

The trap of YouTube is that, like any algorithm, you become its employee. You will make videos for it, on its schedule. I don’t want to make videos for YouTube. I want to use YouTube as a platform to enrich the quality of my life.

I am not interested in being a ​“YouTuber.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) However, I am interested in filmmaking the same way I’m interested in design. Both are visual communication tools that use the language of their craft to express more than their immediate content. Film has its own language that great directors learn to speak. Design has its own languages that great designers master.

In other words, filmmaking seems like a natural fit for sharing work in other visual mediums.

2026 is professionally shaping up to be a year where I invest heavily in video production. It’s worth adding that this skillset is value for the content production of a website too. I’d like to start offering it to clients. Hopefully more on all this to say soon.

All this to say that, particularly as we approach the new year, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting about where I am and where I want to go. I’ve got a plan, and now I have to execute.

I’ll keep you posted. 

Nathan

P.S. There will be one more missive this year before I’m off for two weeks over the holidays. See you then.