Why I’m Writing: Designing What Matters Now and Next
I've spent my career creating experiences that live in invisible spaces - between code and colour, interface and instinct, what we build and what we feel.
Welcome to my ‘Humanity in Pixels’ Series
This is a lens, a journal, a small act of resistance.
A reminder that design is culture-making, memory-shaping, and meaning-building.
Let’s design what truly matters,
for now, and for what comes next.
— Best, Alexandra
My digital journey began in 1999, when I co-founded the pioneering design studio Hi-ReS! with Florian Schmitt - a place where we didn’t just make websites, we imagined new ways for story, image, sound and interaction to come alive. We crafted immersive websites for films like Requiem for a Dream and Donnie Darko, experiences that felt more like digital art than marketing.
We imagined and invented what hadn’t yet been named, before there were terms like UI/UX, human-centred design, digital marketing, strategy, and product. We were led by instinct, emotion, and a desire to make people feel something real through a screen. That desire has never left me.
Today, I lead Yūgen Studio, a creative dojo exploring how story, design, and emotional intelligence can shape more human futures in the age of AI.
We work with individuals, creative teams, and visionary brands to build experiences that feel, provoke, and connect—from immersive installations to poetic strategy.
We operate at the edge of culture, technology, and meaning:
We build.
We write.
We teach.
And we're here for those who still believe that care is a strategy and intent matters.
This Substack is where I reflect, explore, and share my thoughts in public. It’s a space for sharing the questions, patterns, and provocations that shape how we design what comes next.
It's for those who believe design isn't just problem-solving, but culture-making, memory-shaping, and emotion-building.
For the in-between spaces:
✨ Where story meets system
✨ Where poetry meets product
✨ Where humanity is still encoded in the pixels we touch every day
What I write about
It’s where I share essays, stories, and quiet provocations about:
✨ Designing with emotion in an age of AI and automation
✨ Sensory tech and digital empathy
✨ Creative leadership and post-agency life
✨ Experiences that resonate, not just products that function
✨ Building with soul — entrepreneurship for those who care about meaning
✨ Creative culture — how it’s built, sustained, and why it matters
✨ The invisible skills behind legendary work — trust, presence, intuition
✨ The joyful bits — play, collaboration, and making things that matter
Inside, you’ll find three recurring threads:
✨ Humanity in Pixels
Essays exploring the soul within systems, the irrational beauty that still cuts through, and what we risk losing if we automate the human out of everything.
✨ Dispatches from the Lost Internet
Stories from my Hi-ReS! years, strange, cinematic digital folklore from the 2000s that still echoes into today’s AI age. Behind-the-scenes anecdotes, play, collaboration, and making things—and the invisible skills behind legendary work.
✨ Unwritten
Essays, conversations, and reflections, thoughts about why I write, what I notice, and how we keep making work that matters.
Reflections on design, storytelling, and human futures by Alexandra Jugović. © 2025