About Me
Before pixels, there was clay. And before clay, leather.
I started making things with my hands as a teenager, cutting and stitching leather goods, then found my way to the potter's wheel in college. I went on to spend 19 years making and selling functional stoneware at the American Crafts Marketplace. That time taught me something I've never been able to unlearn: good design is felt before it's understood.
Leather, clay, pixels
The materials changed. The discipline didn't. A mug has to sit right in the hand before anyone notices the glaze, and an interface works the same way.
My influences come less from Western guild traditions than from Japan: the shokunin ideal of lifelong devotion to a craft, and the mingei movement of SÅetsu Yanagi and Shoji Hamada, who found beauty in honest, everyday objects made for use. They taught me the difference between craft and craftsmanship. Craft is the work. Craftsmanship is the person behind it, and the standards they hold over time.
The work today
For more than 26 years I've worked where craft, code, and strategy meet, across non-profits, government, and enterprise. I was Digital Director at Catholic Relief Services, and today I'm a senior product designer at a large federal consulting firm, working at a scale where small design decisions reach millions of people. The full story lives at peterkaizer.com.
Why I write Design Bytes
Design Bytes is where I think out loud about why before what. Before we choose a tool, a pattern, or a model, we should know what problem we're solving and for whom.
That question matters more than ever. AI isn't just a more powerful tool; it's a different kind of tool: probabilistic, opaque, and capable of being confidently wrong. I'm interested in sustainable ways to bring it into a human-centered practice without handing over the judgment that makes design valuable.
If you're new here, start with Beyond Craft: The case for craftsmanship or Your Design System Has a New User. It's a Machine.
What you'll find here
- Craft and design history, from William Morris to Material Design
- Design systems, and the machines now reading them
- AI in practice: where it helps, and where it doesn't
Mise en place
In a kitchen, mise en place means everything in its place before the cooking starts. I've carried that idea through every craft I've practiced. Preparation isn't a delay. It's a form of respect for the work.
That's the spirit of Design Bytes. If it resonates, subscribe and new essays will land in your inbox.