Hi, I’m Markus

I’m a writer and independent researcher drawn to the ideas hiding just beneath the surface—where design, technology, and culture overlap. I write to make sense of what is changing, but also to hold on to what deserves more attention than the feed usually allows.

My work moves between thoughtful essays, conversations with interesting people, and useful discoveries gathered along the way. I’m especially interested in creative practice, the internet’s quieter corners, and the small details that shape how we see the world.

This space is where I collect those threads. It is part notebook, part archive, and part invitation to slow down. I hope the writing here offers a little perspective, a useful spark, or simply something worth noticing.

When I’m not writing, I’m usually saving too many links, revisiting old magazines, or looking for the next unexpected connection. You can explore recent writing, browse selected notes, or get in touch here.

— Markus

What we lose when photographs get too sharp

13 Sep 2026 Markus Reed

Resolution is not the same as seeing. Why extra sharpness can flatten the thing you meant to keep, and what the older, softer files still know how to hold onto.

Photography Essays

Why every interface still looks like a dashboard

7 Sep 2026 Markus Reed

Dashboards promised control; they delivered the same grid, again. On the visual language that ate the web—cards, charts, and a sidebar standing in for thought.

Design Technology

Three tools I keep opening and one I finally closed

2 Sep 2026 Markus Reed Members-only

A short inventory of software that survived, and the one that finally did not. Three tools I still open every week, and one I closed without a replacement.

Process Technology

A week in Lisbon with a camera and no itinerary

26 Aug 2026 Markus Reed Paid-only

Five days, one camera, no list of sights—Lisbon as light, tiles, and the hour when cafés empty. Walking until the pictures start to arrive on their own, unplanned.

Photography Cities

The typeface that made a city feel slower

22 Aug 2026 Markus Reed Members-only

A custom typeface commissioned for a tram network, and how a few points of letterspacing changed the pace of a street—until the city itself felt slower to walk.

Design Cities

Buildings that refuse to photograph well

19 Aug 2026 Markus Reed Paid-only

Some facades reject the lens. On glass, glare, and cities that look better in memory than in files—buildings that will not sit still long enough for a photograph.

Cities Photography