My PSDs are a War Crime (and a love Letter to Chaos)
Every designer has their sacred space.
Some build pristine, color-coded libraries in Lightroom.
Others have Illustrator artboards that look like modern art.
Every group, every layer, perfectly named and nested.
And then there’s me.
I use Photoshop like it owes me money.
My workspace?
Pure digital entropy.
My files? A study in madness.
There are “FINAL” files stacked on “V2” files stacked on “SERIOUSLY_THIS_ONE_FINAL.”
My desktop? A graveyard of exports I can’t bear to delete.
And I wouldn’t change a thing.
Photoshop: My Holy Ground and Eternal Curse
Open one of my PSDs and you won’t find a grid.
You’ll find:
- Layers named “Rectangle 937 copy copy”
- Color swatches I swear I invented mid-nervous breakdown
- A group titled “Maybe better???”
- 6 unused adjustment layers that I refuse to delete, just in case
It’s not a workflow. It’s a fever dream. But somehow, it works.
This is where brands are born.
Not in Behance-perfect files.
In the chaos of Ctrl+Z, masked smart objects, and “wait — why did that just disappear?”
Illustrator Is for Clean Work. Photoshop Is for War.
I jump into Illustrator for the clean stuff — logos, type, lockups.
But Photoshop is where the real personality lives.
Grain. Halftones. Posterize layers.
Noise overlays I’ve carried like a family heirloom across four laptops.
My Smart Object stack is deeper than most people’s trauma.
I don’t always know how I got the effect — but I know it looks sick.
I’m not here to make pixel-perfect systems.
I’m here to make something you can feel in your chest.
Creative Genius at 1AM Is a Real Thing
I’ve built entire identity concepts at night, lit by nothing but my monitor and spite.
Somehow, the brush tool speaks more clearly after midnight.
I’ve designed logos that shout at the top of their lungs — and thumbnails that whisper, “You need to watch me.”
Do I remember exactly how I made that glow look like lightning?
No.
Do I have 37 versions of it in a folder called “Glow”?
Absolutely.
Illustrator Files Are Church. My Photoshop Files Are a Dive Bar.
You don’t go in expecting order.
You go in for magic.
Behind every “flattened copy” is a masterpiece in progress.
Behind every half-visible layer is an idea I’m not ready to kill.
I’ve built entire posters on a single layer with 40 adjustment stacks.
Would I recommend it?
No.
Would I change it?
Also no.
If Your Layers Panel Is Tidy, Are You Even Designing?
Listen — I get it. Naming layers is cute.
But you know what else is cute? A brand system that moves people.
If your file isn’t slightly terrifying, did you even wrestle with the idea?
Adobe Chaos Is Creative Fertilizer
Old files are like time machines.
I’ll open a 2021 After Effects comp and find an animation I forgot I even made.
Or a design I scrapped because it “didn’t work” — that now inspires a whole new direction.
These tools aren’t just software.
They’re archives of obsession.
Let It Be Messy. Let It Be You.
Your files don’t need to impress other designers.
They need to help you chase that gut feeling until it lands.
So if your PSDs are heavy, chaotic, and full of strange ghosts from projects past?
Welcome. You’re one of us.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go figure out what I meant by “color scheme = haunted gas station, but make it luxury.”
