Clarence Kwan, Chief Creative Officer and Partner at NewWorld
Grafik Paragraph #49: NewWorld Interview, Jony Ive and OpenAI, Figma Conf 2025, Toil Studio One Yr Party, Made with GSAP
Hey, what's up.
OpenAI just acquired Jony Ive’s startup.
This might be the strongest bet on design-led thinking in the history of tech.
Jony is famous for designing Apple’s most iconic products, including the iPhone.
I’m hopeful this move will spark a wave of design investment across industries.
And that excites me.
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State of the Craft: OpenAI’s $6.5 billion deal for Jony Ive’s team of 55 creatives averages out to $118 million per employee—making it the second-highest per-employee acquisition in history.
Clarence Kwan, NewWorld
Clarence Kwan is Chief Creative Officer and Partner at NewWorld, where he oversees brand strategy and creative. A seasoned design thinker and cultural strategist, he’s shaped iconic work for culture-driving brands like A24, YouTube, and more.
NewWorld has an amazing Substack you should check out. A favorite issue of mine includes their “American Trust Crisis Explodes” report.
Jony Ive, do we all care again?
Across from the massive Moscone center I was sitting in for Config in San Francisco, was Jony fucking Ive giving a talk at Stripe Sessions.
His talk felt like hearing an alien from another planet. Creating products with care? Thinking about users beyond squeezing dollars out of them? What a loony am I right!
It’s in stark contrast with the optimizing, kpi’s, layoffs, stock buybacks, ARPU, TAM’s and now pay for play Kleptocracy the world is moving towards.
And clearly the talk resonated (500k+ views and counting).
If we’re moving to a world where machines may do all of our jobs, are we all more drawn now to this emotional language around design?
So much emotion in fact, that watching Jony and Sam Altman’s launch video left me thinking, are you guys gonna make out?
Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch echoed this sentiment of care.
”Good design is a signal that you care. People prefer products built by people who care. Markets reward good design. The end.”
Config 2025
This year I had the chance to fly out to Figma’s annual conference in San Francisco.
It was awesome.
The talks, the after parties, great conversations, so many new connections. If you get a chance to go, its totally worth it.
My very short wrap-up on the product updates is:
Figma Buzz: A Canva Competitor
Figma Sites: Wonky but has potential
Figma Draw: Great, can’t wait to ditch Adobe
Figma Make: Yawn! Another wrapper over Claude
The best part is undoubtedly the talks, they’re all available for viewing on Youtube. I made a list of my favorites in a post on Cringedin.
Toil Studio: One Year in Party
Celebrating one year of producing, designing, and creating something bigger together. We launched our one year party here in Brooklyn, New York.
Huge thanks to everyone who came out, the place was bumpin! We’re hoping to do more parties in the future so keep your eyes peeled.
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Inside Access Below
💬 Extended interviews with bonus insights
📁 Templates, tools, and resources
🧠 Behind-the-scenes at Toil
⚙️ Personal workflows and systems
📡 Also On My Radar
State of AI in Design Report
AI is transforming design. But how, exactly?
AgencyHabits
Go behind the scenes of real agency businesses.
🔭 Bonus Insight: Clarence Kwan
MK: What’s a system or operational shift you made recently that’s made your team stronger?
CK: Our world is changing faster than ever and I don’t think it makes sense to look at design, story and research in separate vacuums anymore. The pace at which technologies, tools and mediums are moving requires on-the-job training every single day. This has forced us as an agency to collapse traditional silos and work in a hyper-disciplinary manner. Understanding every aspect of every project is mission critical, which is why we have embraced Cultural Intelligence as a foundational practice. Typographers can’t work in a bubble. Copywriters can’t ignore algorithms. Strategists have to be prompt engineers. And we have to be prepared for everything to change again in the blink of an eye.
📚 Resources
Competitive Analysis for Designers