“Work backwards,” he said.

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.”

That was Steve Jobs, by the way. As a designer, it makes total sense. He’s describing UX.

But how on earth do you “work backwards” to a product that doesn’t even exist?

The thought hit me like a brick last weekend, when I looked at my passion project: WarlockWolf.

My sketch for WarlockWolf’s overall tone

See, I realised my entire professional life has been based on clients bringing something to the table: a product, a service, a piece of tech, etc.

My primary objective has always been clear as day: to strategise, elevate and design around the brands’ product.

But with WarlockWolf, there is no clear product.
No feature list. No tech. No shiny USP.
It’s just a name, a world, an ambition.

This introspection made me realise that I was building WarlockWolf through the lens of a business.

The truth is that I had already been working backwards to Steve Jobs’ advice by using my art as the product.
How embarrassing, and incredibly limiting. It’s not what I had envisioned for it.
Art shouldn’t be “the thing I sell”, it should be the side effect of the world I’m creating.

When world building became my mission, the objectives became clear.

Then, I did the next best thing: design

From a business perspective, one might call it silly.
Like, duh. It’s textbook to start by defining a problem, then solving it visually.
But honestly? I think the problem is that I’m getting ahead of myself.

This is my passion project.
Fuck the conventions.
I’ll let art speak for itself, then design my way into clarity.

WIP of an artwork I’m creating (30/11/2025)