Jealousy List 2021
Shout-out to all the work that made me jealous this year
Since 2015, Bloomberg Businessweek staff has published a Jealousy List of work that they recognize as top-notch.
At Bloomberg Businessweek, we read—a lot. We also listen to podcasts and watch a ton of stuff (often with borrowed passwords). Sometimes we read, watch, or listen to something that we wish we had published. To recognize a job well done, the magazine’s staff and many of our contributors in the Bloomberg newsroom have compiled our annual yearend Jealousy List. Congratulations to those on this year’s list, we hate/love you. —The Editors
h/t pxlnv
In the spirit of sharing great work, I wanted to create a similar list focusing on some of the great work that I’ve come across this past year (and I wish had my fingerprints on it). If anything this exercise has taught me that there isn’t a great place for showcasing small tools and side projects (aside from being lost in the noise of Twitter) and maybe a meta-side project would building such a place.
Automator
As if everything that Jordan Singer makes doesn’t make me jealous, this Figma automation suite is certainly one of the most worthy of this list.
Links: automator.design
Cron
I don’t love using Google Calendar, but I do love using Cron. Cron is a native app that provides an interface to Google Calendar, has some stunning UI design, and a very robust keyboard-first approach.
Links: cron.com
Radix
Radix is a set of un-styled, accessible, and highly composable components for React ready for your next project created by the Modulz team.
Links: Radix, radix-ui on GitHub
Minimal Shapes
I remember when Adrian started playing around with Blender a few years ago… Fast forward and now he’s got the most beautiful collection of wallpapers and textures.
Links: Minimal Shapes on Gumroad
Typefully
It’s been a few years since a new Twitter client did something completely different. Typefully completely re-imagines how you create content on Twitter, optimizing your threads, and making the authoring experience feel more civilized and focused. Made by the talented Mailbrew team.
Links: typefully.com
This Bowl
Kathy made this bowl (amongst many other beautify ceramics) and I love the glaze, size, and shape.
Links: The bowl on Twitter
(mac)OStalgia
I’ve said it before — but I am a sucker for vintage internet nostalgia, so Michael Feeney exploring what various modern apps would have looked like in MacOS 9 is really up my alley. Complete with a MacOS 9 UI kit for Figma.
Links: swallowmygraphicdesign.com
Everything that Vic makes
I’ve tried picking up 3D / Blender about five times, but the learning curve is so steep that I eventually just gravitate toward spending my free time on things that I’m already pretty good at (making music, hacking on side projects, drawing, painting, etc…). Vic’s 3d work has always been inspirational because it is just so damn playful and I love that she posts Twitter threads of her process so you can see how the work evolves.
Links: Vic’s 3D work on Twitter
Open Peeps
Open peeps is a really nice set of customizable, diverse, pay-what-you-want set of hand-drawn people illustrations by Pablo Stanley. Comes packaged up as a file for your favorite web graphics editor (Figma, Sketch, Xd) and is under a Creative Commons license. The drawing style isn’t over-done (yet) so if feels unique compared to other similar libraries.
Links: openpeeps.com
brianlovin.com
Brian Lovin’s site redesign features an app-like interface, internal commenting system, stack-tracking system, and more features that stretch the boundaries personal site and personal app.
Links: brianlovin.com, briOS on GitHub
Poolsuite Mixtapes
The most nostalgically drunk website minted a set of very chill mixtapes mix CDs mix playlists for your infinite summer party.
Links: poolsuite.net
COBE
Need a WebGL globe à la GitHub or Stripe homepages? Look no further. COBE is a 5kB library for generating a globe on a WebGL canvas.
Links: cobe.vercel.app, COBE on GitHub
Sleeve
Sleeve is a custom music display for Spotify, Apple Music, and Dopler that allows you to personalize the UI in almost any way imaginable. I almost built something similar to this a few years ago because I really disliked how bloated the Spotify player UI was, but this solves that problem in a much more flexible way than I could have imagined.
Links: replay.software/sleeve
Companion in a Box
The only NFTs that I’m legitimately jealous of. Fellow GitHubber @mkwng created a beautiful system of companions that hang out in said box.
Links: companioninabox.art
Bueno
Bueno is a no-code toolkit for NFT creators, it makes creating all the permutations of a collection a lot easier to manage. This type of thing feels like the future of NFT creation as it democratizes the process significantly.
Links: bueno.art
Read.cv
Maybe the anti-LinkedIn professional network? Read.cv is a platform created by Mehdi Mulani and Andy Chung which allows users to create a resumé-like profiles and share a bit about what they’re working on.
Links: read.cv
What are some projects that have made you jealous from 2021? Let me know on Twitter.