Scribble – February Edition
Recently, I stumbled upon a photo of Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, playing Dragon Quest with his son sometime in the late ’80s. Instead of spending the evening working, I found myself downloading the Dragon Quest III remake, hoping to recapture a sliver of my ’90s childhood.
There’s something strangely magical about old games. Pixels are just tiny dots of colour—on the Game Boy, you could count each one individually. In essence, they’re just little blocks on a screen that change—but together, they create infinite worlds. I remember nights huddled under my blanket, holding a lamp for light, immersed in Pokémon battles or exploring the land of Hyrule in Zelda. My Game Boy Color’s screen was smaller than a credit card, yet within those four centimetres lay a portal to another world.
I’m now in my 30s, and that feeling of wonder and whimsy is getting harder and harder to find, even though we’re surrounded by the most cutting-edge devices, technology, and media. There’s something to be said about the rawness of things—the absence of detail, a certain charm.
For an hour or so, I wasn’t thinking about deadlines or worrying about clients. I was just a kid under the blanket, wandering through a far away land.
Heres to magic and staying a kid,
Will
Projects
CrowdBuilding Re-brand
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working with Momkai on the new CrowdBuilding brand identity. It’s been very interesting to see how a large design agency operates—from the initial pitch to how they navigate meetings.
Communication with clients has always been my weakest trait, so this experience couldn’t have come at a better time. As you may know, I’ve been focusing on improving this over the past year. Reassuringly, even at the highest level, good communication is only part of the process. There are still challenges, disagreements, and difficult moments—no project is ever truly simple, and even large agencies face client struggles. The new branding is set to launch at the beginning of April.
MOSS Ecommerce
For the new sailing season, I’ve rebuilt MOSS from the ground up in Shopify. It was a huge undertaking, as the booking system is highly customised. It’s still in the tweaking phase but is now live for all to see. This new system replaces the previous setup, a mix of Webflow, Stripe, and Airtable, all connected via API calls and webhooks. The new system not only makes admin tasks much easier but is also optimised for SEO. I’ll write a more in-depth article about this later in March.
Alex Burg
Annual 2024
These monthly newsletters are compiled into my studio’s yearly annual, alongside projects, work, and other writings. The 2024 edition is well underway and will be released on my site in late April.
I’m currently deciding between a riso print at my friend Aafka’s studio or a more traditional press printing. Both have their pros and cons, and since I’ll be printing four batches of 25, I want to keep costs as low as possible.
Other things
Studio
Moving in to the studio this month! After I travel back to Amsterdam. I finally have a dedicated place where I can work on my art and book projects. Looking forward to this!
Futureland
My friend Kent has recently released FutureLand, a customisable habit-tracking app.
Futureland Computer Entertainment, Inc.
GoodForm
I’m putting the final touches on GoodForm, a series of articles exploring what defines and elevates form—the foundation of visual aesthetics. The goal is to refine my taste, train my eye, and articulate why something is aesthetically pleasing—whether it’s mathematically sound or driven by something less tangible.
I’ll be diving into graphic design elements like typography and logos, as well as architecture, photography, and nature. The research and writing process has already been a lot of fun, and I'm excited to publish the first posts!