The Designer's Gold Rush is NOW
Why I think the best time to be a designer is right now, launching Framer components, and more in today's letter of Creative Prosperity!
Wednesday brain dump from my office...
Holy shit. I've been in the design and development industry for over 13 years, and I've never felt this electric about being a maker in this space.
Everyone's freaking out about AI "replacing" designers, but they're missing the MASSIVE opportunity staring us in the face. This isn't a threat – this is our rocket fuel.
The work that used to take me 40 hours now takes 2 hours. Suddenly, I can code whole web apps without knowing how to code. But here's the kicker: I'm not charging less. I'm delivering MORE. Better concepts, more iterations, wilder ideas. More money. A lot more money.
This May, we started collaborating with Hypra and built them a platform to sell their new kind of imagery through a subscription. It took me 8 weeks to build a marketing site and the whole app. The client loved it. Pre-AI? That's easily 6-8 months of grinding with a team of 4 folks. Now? 2 months. And just myself doing it.
So what’s the thing that gets most important since everyone can now just do stuff?
It’s taste. Anyone can prompt Midjourney, Lovable, Bolt, Visual Electric. Not everyone can look at 50 AI options and know which one has that indefinable thing. The designers winning right now have the sharpest taste, not the best technical skills.
Why the Gold Rush is NOW
Clients don't know what's possible yet. When you show up with AI-amplified capabilities, you look like a wizard. The gap between expectation and delivery has never been wider.
Most big agencies are moving too slowly. I know that from still observing the ones I worked at in the past, before launching my businesses. They're "exploring" AI while we are already shipping with it.
Tools are democratized, but judgment isn't. Every small business thinks they can design their own logo now. Cool. Let them. We're operating in a different stratosphere.
What this means:
I'm taking bigger projects. Saying yes to wilder ideas and to things I was afraid of doing because they are so complex. Spending time on strategy and creative direction instead of grinding production work day by day.
As a small studio of 3, we can now compete with entire teams. I'm booking months out and charging premium rates because clients see the value.
The boring stuff is automated. The creative stuff is amplified.
Real talk: If you're not experimenting with AI daily, other designers will outpace you relatively quickly. This is our iPhone moment.
The gold rush is here. Are you mining or watching from the sidelines?
New: Launching Components for Framer
During the last couple of weeks, I’ve created a few useful custom components for Framer’s official component launch on their marketplace. Why are the new Framer components such a good move by them? You can simply copy and paste them to start customizing. Quick and easy.
For this initial launch, I’ve created a custom self-hosted video player, a range input slider, a social share component, and a scroll text reveal (animation) component.
Curated Picks
Links to things I’ve stumbled upon and like:
Comet Browser – Perplexity’s AI-native browser powered by Perplexity
Nothing Headphones (1) – Rocking these new headphones
Lovable – AI software engineer, started using it in Dec 2024, it has gotten so good!
Polar – Kind of the new Lemonsqueezy & great for online payments
Indy AI by Contra – They launched an AI that scans X and LinkedIn and finds you freelance work. Kinda insane! It works. I recently saw one of my own job posts
From My Desk
What I’m currently working on:
Currently working on a new relaunch for Canvas, my Framer template store. It will support components soon and come in an all-new look!
Launched a new Framer template called Artifact a few weeks back
We’re busier than ever at my agency, and we’ve launched a few very dope projects in the last few months, one of my favorites, and where we are still working on is Hypra
A few months ago, I finished the founding process of my own holding company, which holds Trueform and Y5K as two active companies. This will allow me to allocate my money in the right things and protect + invest it. Might do a newsletter on this soon!
Investment of this year: Bought a WalkingPad, gamechanger!
Thanks for reading! Catching you on the next one 👋
Sincerely,
Cédric
How would you advise on choosing between taking on clients or building a template business?
I’d be curious to read more about how you set up your holding company. Also, how are you using walkingpad? While you work?