A newsletter empowering people to bring ideas to life through practical design advice and real-world maker stories
Creativity is for everyone. Great ideas don’t start with perfect plans—they start with curiosity and a sense of wonder. Today, we need more people than ever to take their ideas, daydreams, obsessions, fleeting thoughts, or unique perspectives and turn them into something real.
In a world obsessed with optimization and efficiency, software has quietly improved our lives in countless ways. Yet, there’s still so much more room for fresh, bold ideas. True creativity isn’t about being faster or more focused—it’s about exploration, iteration, and taking risks.
The greatest products and services come from a place of iteration and remixing what you see. Creativity is a collaborative process where each of us accepts the baton from the makers before us and takes it further.
"So who invented the motor car? Ford made it ubiquitous and cheap; Maybach gave it all its familiar features; Levassor provided crucial changes; Daimler got it running properly; Benz made it run on petrol; Innovation is not an individual phenomenon, but a collective, incremental and messy network phenomenon." - How Innovation works, Matt Ridley.
To lead by example, we create beautifully designed and imaginative tools—apps that do one thing well, as simply as possible.
We also believe that fun is the ultimate creative hack. When you’re having fun, you’re open to exploration and discovery. Fun is what drives the best results. Being “focused” can't compete with someone who’s having fun.
Who is this newsletter for?
For aspiring founders, makers, or Indie hackers — helping you to break out of feeling stuck, validate your ideas and and deliver products your users want.
For product teams — looking to better understand user needs and ideate laterally on how to solve them, through modern experience thinking.
For designers, product managers or aspiring ones — looking to work on their discovery skills, so that they can deliver more valuable experiences.
What does this newsletter cover?
This newsletter is new and will cover the following topics over the coming months. If you don’t see a topic or idea listed below which you’d like to discuss or think that I should write about, tweet or email me as I’d love to hear from you ✨
Creative processes, such as:
The process of designing from idea to execution
Iterating on your initial ideas
Techniques for having more ideas
Building your creative muscle
Product Design and User Experience
Helping you understand your user’s why
Continuous learning with users
Understanding user mental models
How innovation works, and understanding the iterative process
Life and mental health
Dealing with Imposter syndrome
Managing the stress of ambiguity
Learning to think like a leader and trusting the process
Reducing feelings of anxiety and depression as a creative
Being mindful of burnout
How to thrive as a solo founder, PM or designer in a small startup
Confidence to pursue your ideas
All the best!
- Josh (@joshuanewton1)
Stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
