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Tokens are cheap right now for the same reason Facebook ads were cheap in 2014. Somebody is buying market share.
That phase ends. It ended in paid media, it ended in cloud, it ended in streaming. Consolidation arrives, the subsidy stops, and the price finds its real level. Inference bottoms out at GPUs and electricity, not software margin, so its real level is not low.
The question I now ask about every automation I build: does this survive tokens costing 10x?
• n8n for anything that doesn't need judgment. Triggers, parsing, API calls, file moves, retries. It can't be repriced if it never calls a model.
• MCP for context. The model pulls what it needs through tools instead of swallowing a 40k dump on every call. Same answer, a fraction of the tokens.
• OpenRouter so no lab is load-bearing. Price triples, you change one string, you route to whoever stayed cheap. Lock-in is what makes a price hike stick.
Today that stack buys you margin. After consolidation it buys you a business.
Cheap tokens are a phase. Architecture is permanent.
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What should a platform for tokenized private equity look like?
Probably not like another traditional bank.
For ICME, the client wanted a visual direction that felt modern, disruptive, and native to a new kind of financial market.
The challenge was finding the balance: make the experience bold enough to feel different, while keeping a complex product understandable and credible.
I developed a digital-brutalist direction with retrofuturist touches - oversized typography, hard contrast, pixel textures, raw layouts, blue gradients, and controlled motion.
I worked with Arash Attar and the ICME team across the landing page and parts of the wider product interface. This video focuses specifically on the landing-page experience.
The goal was to:
— Explain tokenized private-company equity more clearly
— Create a memorable visual identity for the product
— Speak to both investors and founders
— Make financial technology feel ambitious rather than conventional
Would this visual direction make you want to explore the product - or should financial platforms feel more restrained?
This is amazing, man.
Good job!
Designing the moments between money and trust.
A few screens from an ongoing fintech product we’re working on.
Financial products have a strange design challenge:
they need to feel simple enough to understand, but serious enough to trust.
For this product, we’ve been working across flows like subscriptions, account management, portfolio-related information, and customer support — with a focus on making every interaction feel intentional.
The goal isn’t to make fintech “look modern.”
It’s to make complex things feel obvious.
Clear hierarchy.
Less cognitive load.
Stronger interaction patterns.
And a visual system that can scale as the product grows.
Still a work in progress — but here’s a little glimpse at where we’re heading.
The screens strike a good balance between reassurance and personality—the trust cue is clear without making the flow feel sterile. The card hierarchy also reads well at a glance.
“You’re too expensive. I’ll just use AI.”
I think every designer has heard some version of this by now. 😅
Yes, AI can make something in 30 seconds or even less. But getting an image is very different from knowing what the brand ACTUALLY needs.
The tools are getting faster and more accessible. What still takes experience is knowing what works, what doesn't, what to change, and when to stop.
What do you think clients will value most from designers as AI keeps evolving?
The question is basically: what's the context behind the decision?
AI can generate 100 packaging options. It can't tell you which one makes sense for a brand expanding into a market where soft pink reads very differently than it does back home. Or why the typography from three...
