First of Kind

Colin Dunn, a designer-turned-founder who built Visual Electric to bring AI to brand and marketing. He talks about why branding and branded marketing are a perfect fit for AI. He explains narrowing product focus to graphic designers, designing model-aware interfaces, and scaling a small AI-first team. He also outlines a future of on-demand, AI-powered brand systems.

Henry Modisett, product designer and design leader who built AI-native design at Perplexity. He discusses why Perplexity built an AI browser, design pillars for AI-native interfaces, coordinating design across products, rapid shipping and dogfooding, hiring and managing designers, and preserving ownership while scaling.

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a Thank you to our partners!Cursor — https://cursor.comFramer — https://framer.comGranola — https://granola.aiLinear — https://linear.appPerplexity — https://perplexity.com"Last winter in the dappled light of a redwood grove, I met @bryce for the first time in front of a camera..." reads the tweet from @soleio.At the conclusion of our conversation last winter in that dappled forest, I was struck by this new profile of founder he was describing. There were new tools opening new avenues for a creative to build and explore opportunities in entirely new ways. As someone who has an insatiable appetite for the new, this felt like a founder profile worth exploring.So when our three hour chat (edited down to about an hour) in the woods was winding down, we made a proposition — "Do you want to develop a show with us?"We left the question of format open, but the general idea of exploring the edges of designers as founders and builders was something we all got excited about digging into deeper. As we dug in, the ideas and format became clearer. And if you were to stop Soleio on the street, here’s the pitch for this series —This project came together around a simple question: Who are the designers in tech that are the first to pioneer a new way of doing things? What does that archetype look like in practice?In music, we have genre-defining artists. In software, we have first-of-kind designers.This is a show where we talk to the people pushing the frontiers of design into new directions and capabilities—whether at the helms of new businesses or as practitioners of a new craft.The series is called First of Kind, capturing the emergent and evolving nature these first of kind founders and creatives across a wide range of mediums. We let Soleio take the lead on guests, and nearly all six were his immediate ideas for dream conversations. We’re releasing them all at once, in their entireties, and plan to share a supercut of themes we saw across them once a week for the next month. Guests this season include:— Henry Modisett, Head of Design at Perplexity— Colin Dunn, Cofounder of Visual Electric— Jessica Hische, Cofounder of Studioworks— Julie Zhuo, Cofounder of Sundial— Nicholas Jitkoff, Cofounder of /dev/agents— Susan Kare, Design IconThis is all new for us. We’ve never done a series like this before. We’ve never collaborated with someone creatively like this before. And we’ve never had support from sponsors before. On all fronts, it's been a home run of an experience.These focused conversations were incredibly fun to facilitate. The guests were gracious, insightful, and have entered seamlessly into the world of indie. As for collaboration, we could not have hoped for a better partner in crime than Soleio. Given that our first meeting was recorded, it felt natural to continue building that friendship in front of, and behind, the lens. Seeing his creative process in action was both eye opening and inspiring. His ambition and cadence across all aspects of his life put a battery in all of our backs — a true First of Kind himself in so many ways. Building together over the last few months has been a tremendous privilege and honor.When we started this, our plan to was simply underwrite it as indie. But as word spread, companies we deeply admire offered their support as well. So, with much gratitude, we welcome Linear, Cursor, and Perplexity to the First of Kind family. Each has deep roots in the worlds we’re exploring here, and we’re incredibly grateful for their support.So, that’s First of Kind. I hope you enjoy watching and learning from these as much as we enjoyed making them.