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PixelPerfect is a series dedicated to creatives who thrive on the intersection of design and technology. Hosting individuals from across different disciplines, we will get to know their process, tools, and inspiration.  Our first guest is designer, illustrator & video game designer Hassan Kittany  who also works at the Wix.com  Design Guild: How would you describe your role? I’m a designer on the WOW! team. My role ranges from doing research for new products we’re developing, to creating content for these products, to testing, helping design, defining, and tweaking them. What are your favourite tools, apps or software you use on a daily basis? Aside from the AI stuff that comes out every other day (which I try my best to keep up with): For brainstorming, I’ve been using FigJam a lot lately. It’s where I write all my notes, save references, and do most of my thinking for my Senior Thesis. But beyond that, it’s my favorite place to start a project from.For collecting and organizing INSPO, I've been using are.na  a lot, something about how it works feels nice, every new reference you find, feels like a gem you discovered.And for any thought that pops into my head, I use the good ol’ Notes app. It’s easy, straightforward, and it works seamlessly across both my phone and my laptop. Which interest or passion came first - design or the technology behind it? I’d say design, I started drawing before I was even two years old. But there was always a technological orientation to it. I have drawings (and full sketchbooks) from as early as 9 years old where I drew and “designed” imaginary smartphone lineups and invented fictional brands for them. I drew screens for made-up mobile games I imagined. I was obsessed with this stuff for a while (part of it was due to my dad owning an iphone 3G when it came out, it was the first smartphone we had, which blew me away). But all those tech "fascinations" ultimately stemmed from a desire to create and be creative. When you start working on a new project or brief, what guides you first - technical scope or visual inspiration? As a designer, I never start with the technical scope. I usually begin with an idea (even if it’s unrealistic) and then shrink it down to fit my technical limits (whether that’s time or knowledge). I try to figure out how to implement the “out of scope” parts through creative solutions. That’s not to say technical scope isn’t important, but if you start out with thinking about limitations, the idea probably won’t turn out so creative. That being said, sometimes I like to flip this idea on its head, and start from a technical feature. Sometimes I’ll code something without thinking too much about it, or I’ll see a video showing a cool thing you can do with code. I’ll play with that, and discover that I can iterate on this and create more with it, from there, a new project guideline starts to take shape. It's like doodling in my sketchbook and turning one of the sketches into a fleshed out drawing. What’s your advice for a designer who wants to dip their toes in the coding world? Start with very simple programs. It’s okay if they don’t look good or seem impressive at first. Allow yourself to learn and understand this whole new language. Start small, with very simple programs, then build on that, and over time, you’ll find yourself doing more complex things naturally. I highly recommend starting with p5.js  - it’s super popular for creative coding (a lot of the creative coding projects you see online use it). Pick up a tutorial on YouTube and follow along step by step till you get the feel of it. you can then tweak things and, with time, you’ll feel confident enough to start from scratch on your own. I recommend The Coding Train  - he has a wide range of tutorials, they are well explained and fun to watch.. I also recommend the channel Emergent Garden  - he doesn’t do tutorials, but he does really interesting creative projects through code, his videos are very inspiring and show you what’s possible with this medium. What is the single most important benefit of being a designer who also understands code? First off, in my eyes, code is a tool to create stuff with, and knowing more tools means you can create more things, which is good. But in real-world scenarios, understanding code (even slightly) goes a long way in working on collaborative projects that consist of both designers and programmers. It helps bridge the communication gap. When you understand how a programmer thinks or talks, you can better convey what you want. It also lets you prototype your ideas faster and better. That's why I love all the new tools like Lovable, Figma Make, etc, they're essentially prototyping tools, but now instead of saying "Hey look at this idea I have" and it's a static Figma design, where I have to explain how it would theoretically work, I can now say "Hey look at this idea I have, and it actually kinda works and is interactive, let's make a real project out of it!". Do you still use a sketch book or digital only tools? Every day. I’ll never give up sketchbooks. It’s like a force of habit or even a form of meditation for me. I need that physical feel even when I’m working on the most digital stuff. Even if I’m not working on anything , I try to draw something in my sketchbook at least once a day. (Which explains the many  sketchbooks over the years.) How do you stay inspired and up to date with design tools and developments? I watch a lot  of YouTube - interviews, AI updates, research breakdowns - you name it. I’m always checking Twitter too. I also keep up with keynotes from big tech and design companies, and I like to watch interviews with designers I love. The channel  AI Explained  - is great for AI updates. Theo T3  & ThePrimeTime  -  are great for programming news. Aside from that, I let the algorithm do its thing. If you like or save one programming post, the chances are you’ll get two more next time you scroll. Like those, and boom! Your feed is now filled with posts about programming. Share a link to a website/ online project you admire and explain why, on both visual and technological terms.  One project I really love is  Refreshed by OpenAI . It’s actually a video, not a website, but it’s one of the most beautifully executed design showcases I’ve seen in a while. Visually, it’s pretty minimal and clean, but there’s SO MUCH personality in it. The typography, the pacing, the little micro-movements and animations, the immaculate sound design. It’s one of those pieces where everything feels intentional, but not overdone, as if this is how these design elements exist in nature. On the tech side, even though it's just a video, it still communicates a lot about how the system would behave interactively (Especially those first 20 seconds). The transitions, the logic of the layouts, the modularity of the components, all of it hints at a very robust, well-thought-out design system that could easily translate into code. It’s a great example of how design and technology can align conceptually, even when you’re not seeing the code itself. Thank you Hassan!