I'm Patrick, a product design leader and the writer behind Unknown Arts.

Each week, I explore the evolving creative process in the age of AI: hard-won lessons from my career, what great creatives can teach us, how technology is reshaping work, and how we can keep creating meaningfully in uncertain times.

Shaped by more than a decade inside the tech industry and a degree in political philosophy, my essays weave together product design, philosophy, psychology, and a healthy dose of pop culture. Technology, especially AI, runs through my writing, but always in service of a bigger question: how we create and how we find meaning in the process.

The name Unknown Arts is inspired by the ancient story of Daedalus, who used his creativity to invent a way out of the labyrinth. In the same spirit, I’m exploring paths through today’s creative maze and what they reveal about our future.

What to expect

Every Monday, I'll land in your inbox with insights and practical approaches you can apply to your own work. (Expect morning pacific time, I live in Los Angeles)

📚 Free resource for subscribers!

I curated 100 reading suggestions from top professionals in design and technology into a FREE Notion database. It’s a fantastic selection across a wide range of topics that combine to support a well-rounded skillset for the modern creative builder!

Every new subscriber will receive this database in their welcome email. All you have to do to get it for yourself is subscribe and check your email. 👇 ✉️

🏁 Begin your journey

There are 170+ free articles in the Unknown Arts archive. While each edition stands on its own, I’ve curated 25 pieces that form a good introduction. They’ll help you explore the key themes and ideas I've been developing:

Career & Craft

• 24 Things I Know After 10 Years in Tech, I Wish I’d Known in Year 1

• The Dawn of the Tech Generalist Renaissance

• Your Perfectionism is Lying to You

• No Country for Junior Designers

• 10 Books That Shaped How I Think About Tech, Life, and Creativity

Mental Models

• 10 Heuristics to Simplify Design Decision-Making

• The Enduring Power of the MAYA Rule

• Default It, or Design It

• 5 Proven Sets of Design Principles and How I Use Them

• The Creative Cold Start Problem

Tech Shifts

• 25 Predictions for AI and Creativity in 2025

• The Rise of Software as a Workforce

• The Great Creative Unbundling

• The Inconvenient Truth About AI and Jobs

• The Moment AI Surpasses You—and What Comes After

AI Design

• 8 Design Breakthroughs Defining AI's Future

• The End of Design Certainty

• Computational Thinking is the New Literacy

• How Vibe Coding Improved My Data Viz Prototypes

• My Creative Technology Stack for 2025

Startup Design

• The Era of Design Entrepreneurship

• The Design IMPACT Framework

• Design to Win: Using Competition to Unlock Better Design

• 7 Insights for Navigating B2B Design

• Why You Should *Curate*, Not Create, a Design System

Why subscribe?

By subscribing, you join thousands of forward-thinking creative professionals and entrepreneurs who see technology as a tool for mastery and care about creating quality work that last.

If that resonates with you, you’re in the right place.