07 / Work Notes

Notes from the workbench.

Working materials, not marketing — the stories behind the decisions, thoughts on design, tech and independent business, and conversations with the people we work with.

Steel tubes stacked end-on in a tight honeycomb, every one identical

E-Comm

Wholesale to Direct.

A working list for brands moving from selling through stores to selling direct — what changes, the few tools you actually need, and why it takes years rather than weeks.

24.09.2026

Three Apple Watch screens from Vidual Inbox: a customer's message with a Speak button, the spoken reply shown as text with a Send button, and a five-second countdown with an Undo button

Ideas

Out of Pocket.

Why Vidual Inbox now has an Apple Watch app, and why, in a house where the children don't do screens, the Watch earns its place by letting the phone stay at home.

19.09.2026

A man in a straw hat and a Keith Haring shirt, seen from behind, watching a ball arc high over a park while someone else runs to catch it

E-Comm

Avoid the Fight.

Shopify is not the whole conversation. On Medusa — the open-source commerce engine for Next.js and Sanity sites — why we didn't use it for Pegoretti, and the brands we would.

16.09.2026

A red, white and orange beach ball hanging in a pale blue sky above the sea

Ideas

Everything you use every day gets a little worse each year. On the moment profit arrives ahead of product, the four things we're responsible for keeping straight, and the compromise nobody has offered us yet.

12.08.2026

A long exposure through a rain-flecked window: a green headland and a wide sand beach, with two neon OPEN signs floating doubled and ghosted across the middle of the frame

Ideas

Paul Found Us.

An AI mentioned vidual.app for the first time — and we found out inside Fly Away Paul, the app we built to catch exactly that. A short note to mark a good day.

29.07.2026

A dense stand of tall conifers, their slender trunks rising out of a lush summer undergrowth of brambles and wildflowers

Ideas

Productivity Without Purpose.

Doing more things in less time is not a purpose. On the common average of the feeds, the rise of fanzines and print, and why taking more care over things and details is the better week's work.

15.07.2026

A lone pigeon in flight, silhouetted against a flat grey sky beside bare branches

Ideas

We Suck at Outreach.

Introducing Fly Away Paul — a research, outreach and SEO tool for people who find self-promotion excruciating. We built it for ourselves first, and it started finding brands we'd never thought of.

08.07.2026

Three cyclists silhouetted inside a timber-ribbed tunnel, riding toward the bright opening where a fir tree stands in the light

Ideas

Shop Rides, via the Strava API.

Regroup's Saturday rides were being posted twice — once to Strava, once to their site. A small app on the Strava API made it two clicks, with live attendance and a calendar file on every ride.

08.07.2026Regroup

A studio desk in hard sunlight, layered with printed matter — gallery flyers, a thank-you card, and a Dario Pegoretti postcard of a painted fork crown

Ideas

Records of Respect

Hundreds of Pegoretti owners once registered their bicycles through a newsletter form. The new site keeps every word — and hands it back the first time they sign in.

08.07.2026Pegoretti

A bicycle frame's technical geometry drawing resting on a graffiti-covered workshop bench, surrounded by calipers, craft knives, pens and a steel rule

Ideas

Made by Hand, Managed by Hand

Why we built Vidual Projects, Vidual Inbox, and Vidual Spaces — a portal, an inbox, and a file system for brands who make things by hand.

30.05.2026

A cluster of yacht sails on a flat-calm lake, white against grey sky, masts pointing up; a small distant building on a wooded shore

E-Comm

Tested Into Oblivion.

Why the conversion-rate industry is a dead horse for most brands — and what actually moves the number when you stop testing and start looking up from the dashboard.

23.05.2026

Italian countryside at dusk, with soft yellow wildflowers blurred in the foreground and a farmhouse on a distant ridge

E-Comm

When (Not) to Leave Shopify.

Almost every piece on this question is written to sell you a replatform — or to keep you on Shopify forever. Here's the version from an agency that only sells what your business actually needs.

21.05.2026

A workshop wall at Pegoretti — handwritten Italian notes in marker and pen, layered over bright paint splatters and brushstrokes

Ideas

Big Feelings

Translating Pegoretti’s feeling — character, personality, chaos and creativity — into a site that does the work of being the brand.

20.05.2026Pegoretti

Pegoretti Color Wall — desktop view, with painted frame thumbnails and the saved-finishes drawer anchored at the bottom

Ideas

The Color Wall

A feature that turns paint browsing into bike commissions. Playful on one hand. Purposeful on the other.

19.05.2026Pegoretti

Three FOLL √3 carbon forks — white, grey and black — hanging on a rod in a gallery space

E-Comm

The Problem of Maturity

Replacing the cart with a musette. Bending a mature medium to fit a singular brand — when the brand earns the bend.

19.05.2026Pegoretti

Testing the Pixii Max Rangefinder Camera on a Frosty Morning

Diversion

Testing the Pixii Max on a Frosty Morning.

A Diversion: the French rangefinder that rides in a handlebar bag. No screen, no second-guessing — just frosty Oxfordshire hills, a red kite, and files that feel like photos should.

18.12.2025

A small black-and-tan spaniel resting its chin on a windowsill, watching a wet autumn garden — a squirrel on a mossy branch, fallen leaves, a car on the driveway beyond

Ideas

Finding Time to Daydream.

From the 2017 archive: on cognitive overload, the case for letting the mind wander, and five ways to make space for it — including a plum on the desk and a phone against the wall.

14.12.2017

E-Comm

The E-Commerce Lifecycle Email Marketing Guide.

From the 2017 archive: the lifecycle email programme that made email Always Riding's highest-ROI channel — what it is, when to send, and why segments aren't just for oranges.

03.12.2017