I don’t have everything figured out, but these things are happening

I never thought that a pause could get me so active.

Just today, when I calculated how many days have passed, I realized it’s exactly 70 days, a little over two months during which I’ve been constantly surprised by everything that has happened and how things have started connecting in ways I couldn’t have predicted.

I think summarizing all of it is partly an exercise to evaluate how much closer (or farther) I’ve gotten in that search for purpose I mentioned in my last piece. But I also believe doing this might help someone, not in a “look at everything I’ve done” kind of way, but more like, “look, things start moving when you decide to take that first step.”

I got back to workout, and it makes a difference

It might seem like the most disconnected point from everything else, but it’s not at all. Working out at the studio or going for a run in the morning truly makes a huge difference, both for my physical and mental health. In fact, the days feel noticeably “lower” when I don’t exercise.

I reconnected with Creative Mornings

On my last day of work, I managed to sneak out in the morning to attend Creative Mornings MX, which, coincidentally, was also making a comeback after being on pause since the pandemic. Since then, I’ve gone a couple of times: first, to a talk about accessibility and inclusion in tourism, and more recently, to a talk about the importance of paying attention to how we consume news media, how populations are represented in it, and the power of choosing the right words when we communicate. Both talks were incredibly interesting and thought-provoking.

I got back to my sketchbook… sort of

Since January, I’ve had the chance to attend a sketching session with Sketching with Lisa, and it made me so happy to realize how much I enjoy sitting down to draw without pressure. I also joined the first Online Sunday Sketch Brunch organized by Julia Vanderbos, and even though it was at 4:00 a.m. for me, I truly enjoyed it. I found her community to be very kind and laid-back.

I still have that itch to organize something like that in Mexico, but I’d love to connect with at least one other person to co-create it and get it off the ground faster than I would on my own.

I’m now co-host at The Design Kids (and I love it)

I’m still so glad I went to that session back in December and had a chat with Gabo about helping organize The Design Kids activities in the city. It definitely reconnected me with the community and has led me not only to meet incredibly talented designers, but also truly great people, always open and ready to have a good time.

This might be where I’ve been focusing the most lately, not because it takes up a huge amount of time, but because I’m convinced it’s a great platform to help students and recent graduates connect with the real world of design and, hopefully, give their careers a boost, something many from my generation didn’t get.

With that in mind, I’ve been working on building relationships with universities to get closer to students, and thankfully, doors have started to open. Very soon, we’ll be hosting our first event at a university.

Also, as a co-host, we’ve already run three editions of #TDKTuesdays, all super fun and cool.

Chellas y ya, featuring The Knots

A super casual meetup to grab a beer and meet new people, where we had a short talk with The Knots, a duo of 3D designers looking to challenge themselves outside their agency work.

Puras Morras

We wanted to take advantage of March, Women’s Month, to hand over the mic to five incredibly talented women working in different areas of design.

Tiff Bazán, a charismatic and determined 3D designer and design lead at a crypto startup, hosted the session, which also featured Nic Ochoa, a fierce and super talented freelance illustrator; Florula, a textile designer holding down her handmade fort at Disney Mexico; Mitzi Castillo, another 3D artist who had a huge cheering squad (I still think she should do standup); and Scuaren, who spoke about how she uses creative challenges to stay inspired while working a corporate job.

PosterJam

We decided to test a more hands-on activity to see how it would land with the community. Inspired by the Studio Feixen typographic poster generator that Salih shared in the TDK Circle, we adapted the idea and I wrote a Mexa-style version that combined pop culture characters with hilariously “México mágico” scenarios.

Online talks that blew my mind

As part of this reconnection effort, I came across several online events I managed to attend, and I don’t regret a single one.

Designing for brands in music, by Studio Herrström

A look into the evolution of the music business and how branding fits into it. Super insightful on how design works for platforms like Spotify, how fan engagement is prioritized, and how personalization plays a role. They also shared their Cultural Echo Design Framework, a 7-step method for designing with cultural context in mind, plus a Figma template. So good.

Frontrow 2025 | Online conference for web designers

I missed the first day, but thanks to Alisa Dizzy’s account I joined the second and attended the talks by Alisa, Brad Frost, and Ali Angco. Definitely an inspiring overload, Alisa’s explosive growth on social media, Brad’s Design Tokens course, and Ali’s Secure UX Framework blew my mind with all the possibilities to explore.

Exploring the evolving roles of UX design, by Oracle

A session organized in collaboration with Centro. It’s not often a corporate company opens up to showcase their work, their team, and how they’re raising the bar in UX design. Their improvements in medical UX and the implementation of Redwood, their design system, are thoughtful and purpose-driven. I’d absolutely love to be part of processes like that.

Open up with Brad Frost

Brad teamed up with Smashing Magazine to create this safe space and talk about the things we don’t usually discuss in design — uncertainty, burnout, and all the challenges that come with the industry. I even got to participate briefly; it was funny when Geoff and Brad suddenly realized I was in the call. You can find the session [here].

Algorithms by Patreon for creators

Who isn’t a fan of Karen Cheng’s work? As soon as I heard about this talk, I knew I didn’t want to miss it. Karen, along with Tiffany Tan, spoke about how they navigate platform algorithms today while staying true to their creative spirit and keeping their business afloat. Spoiler alert: it’s all about the fans, yes, just like Studio Herrström said a few weeks earlier. They also shared the State of Create 2025 report, which, believe me, has some really interesting insights if you’re into creating.

Smashing Meets Modern CSS

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript keep getting better, and since web is my most recent focus, this talk felt almost essential to help me catch up.

Julia Miocene’s micro interactions left me speechless, and seeing all the new CSS features in action through Adam Argyle’s examples confirmed there was real value in attending.

TDK asked me a few questions

With the redesign of The Design Kids’ website came the opportunity to answer a few questions for a feature on the site. You can find it here.

I spoke on a podcast and survived

Claudio, a friend and former university professor, was kind enough to invite me to be part of a new project he’s working on — one that explores the intersection of design and business in the context of small and medium enterprises in Mexico.

I wasn’t nervous, but I couldn’t help jotting down a few notes so I wouldn’t forget what I wanted to say. And honestly, I totally get the appeal of podcasts now — it was super chill and enjoyable. So much so that the 60 minutes we had flew by. You can watch or listen to the episode here.

Learning never ends (thankfully)

Learning new things is like a hobby for me, so I started a few courses.

Meta Front-End Developer

I’ve finished the first of nine. I’m currently in the middle of the JavaScript module, it’s a bit complex, but so far, so good.

Prompt engineering

This one has been a bit tougher for me due to the format, but overall it’s confirmed I haven’t been doing too badly. In fact, I was already prompt-engineering shortly before generative AI became popular. But wow, this world moves fast.

Subatomic: The complete guide to design tokens

After a short email exchange with Brad Frost following FrontRow 2025, I decided to take this course. What the Frost brothers are doing to bridge the gap between design and development in design system implementation is huge, and definitely worth learning. Unfortunately, it’s the one I’m moving through the slowest, but I’m staying patient.

I finished Soraya Coach’s new website

I’ve also tackled some lingering tasks that were keeping me up at night. The main one was this. The last time I redesigned Soraya Coach’s website was back in 2020, and while it worked well during the pandemic, since around 2024 I’d been feeling uneasy about it, unable to find enough time to rethink it.

Like any design project, let’s just say this is the first iteration of the new version. There are still things I want to improve, not everything came out quite right in Webflow (yes, animated ribbons, I’m looking at you).

I updated my portfolio (and learned how to use Framer)

After the Oracle session, I realized my portfolio badly needed an update. Since I spent my first month mostly resting, it wasn’t until mid-March that I sat down to work on it. And with web projects under my belt, Behance didn’t really feel like the right place anymore.

So I evaluated my options:

• Bootstrap: Easy and fast with Bootstrap Studio, but making the site look really good would take time, plus I’d need to pay for hosting.
• Webflow: More visually interesting, but pricey in Mexico. Design is quick but not quick enough for the time I wanted to dedicate. It makes more sense for people with dev knowledge (which thankfully I have), but I didn’t want to spend that much time. Hosting it outside of Webflow to save money meant even more time configuring and coding everything.
• GitHub and Netlify: Writing the site from scratch, or almost from scratch, was the least viable. Definitely the cheapest, but the most time-consuming.
• Framer: After FrontRow 2025, I was intrigued by the claim that it was fast, and it really is. Even without having used it before, it took me about 2 or 3 days to finish the site (again, it’s a first iteration). It’s also super easy to tweak, add new pages, and publish with a single click. It’s a bit pricey too, but being ready in 3 days was worth it.

I designed my card… and it has superpowers

Well, actually It’s not a business card, it’s an NFC card that links to a custom-designed landing page on my website. With it, I checked off two things I’d been curious about: creating an NFC card and using one of Framer’s interactive components.

When I first heard of these cards, I thought it was absurd that people were charging around $30 USD for printed versions. I knew learning how to make one myself would be cheaper. And again, this is just a first version.

I built a generator for TDK’s PosterJam

As I mentioned earlier, we were inspired by a typographic poster generator and wanted to create our own version for one of our sessions, and it turned out great. It was just a tool, of course, but making it was super fun. For now it’s not responsive, I spent 2–3 hours on it last week. You can try it out here.

The things that aren’t happening (yet)

Up to this point, it might seem like I’ve gotten closer to something like a purpose, one I still can’t quite articulate or put into words. But I’ve at least stayed curious, creative, and open to meeting incredible people.

Still, the experience has had its rough edges, and it’s important to talk about that too.

The current job market is weird

It’s only been a couple of weeks since I started checking job postings and applying on different platforms, but sometimes I get weirded out by how the system works these days. AI-powered application screeners don’t seem to be doing a great job at filtering people.

Processes are odd, recording yourself answering ultra-hypothetical questions, tailoring your resume and cover letter for each position… it’s exhausting and can be discouraging.

Am I worried? Not yet, and I don’t think I should be. I’m also working on a freelance strategy and currently implementing it. But now I get why people talk about how hard it is to find a job. I know the right opportunity will come, I have no doubt. Better to stay busy than anxious.

I haven’t been sketching or playing piano

And what bothers me about both is that it’s just fear, plain and simple. Fear of being bad at it, of being slow. It’s super obvious I’ve been sticking to my comfort zone, web design.

I don’t think I need to do everything at once, but it’s clear to me that fear has held me back from doing these two things.

I haven’t gone back to therapy

Last year, therapy was one of the best things I had, it gave me clarity and helped me understand my processes and motivations. But in this uncertain stage, I feel like I need to talk more.

Lately, I’ve been caught in looping thoughts more often. Maybe that’s what pushed me to write this, to track the progress and keep moving forward. But I definitely need to go back at some point. Everyone should.

The only certainty I have is to keep moving forward

I don’t know why I always end up with anAustin Kleon’s phrase, but honestly, I didn’t intend for this to be such a long piece, and I truly hope that whoever reads it doesn’t get bored and finds some kind of value in it.

And my whole point is this:

If you feel like making changes in your life, prepare yourself and take the leap. There’ll be ups and downs, but it always gets better eventually.

Yes, it’s been said by many, many people before, but it’s until you live it, that you really begin to understand it.

I’ll do my best not to wait another 70 days before writing again.