I grew up with computers in the house. My dad (RIP) was always early on new gear; we had a Macintosh II in 1988, and I still use the old Image Writer II box for storing historic newspapers. The dot-matrix printer felt like a revolution—it was the thing that finally pushed the typewriter aside after more than a century.
Later we switched to Windows, still in the pre-internet era when machines were built by people you could actually meet. In the Bay Area in the early '90s there were still "computer shows" on fairgrounds—local builders and hobbyists at folding tables, selling machines they'd put together. A lot of them thought their booth might become the next Apple or Microsoft. There's only one Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, but that kind of ambition mattered. I think a lot of that spirit has left the tech world: too many big companies playing it safe instead of asking what's actually next.
Arts by Dylan is a one-person operation. I'm building it the way I want it—the story, the products, the tools—and I didn't have the software to do that the way I had in mind. So I'm writing it, one question at a time to a chat-bot.
Using Cursor and my base spec Mac Mini, I'm working on productivity software with AI at its core: something that helps people get more done, feel less overwhelmed by their screens, and actually enjoy using their computer again. I think the idea that you need a massive cloud setup or constant internet for that is mostly marketing. A different kind of experience is possible.
What I'm building is in progress now, with more coming in 2026 and beyond. You can download Workspace Manager—a desktop AI command center with local (Ollama) or cloud models and customizable widget workspaces—from GitHub (releases and source).
I want software that brings a little sanity to the chaos—fewer "copy and paste into Google" loops, less hunting through folders, less of that end-of-day screen that looks like a maze of tabs and windows. My goal is to give people tools that make their time at the computer feel manageable and useful, not like lost time.
I also think AI is better understood as better computing than as magic. It's a more powerful way to work with your machine and the internet, not a replacement for the person at the keyboard. And I'm skeptical of the current rush toward subscription-everything and "AI" as a premium add-on. I'd rather build something straightforward that people can use without being nickel-and-dimed.
That's the spirit behind what's coming: tools that help you work and create, built by someone who still believes in the kind of computing that got people excited decades ago.
I've built 30 hand-crafted visual styles into the ABD theme. Each one is a complete aesthetic experience:
- Cable News – Breaking news urgency with ticker-tape energy
- California Mission – Adobe warmth and Spanish colonial elegance
- Cubism – Fragmented geometry meets Picasso-inspired layouts
- Disco – Glitter, groove, and Studio 54 maximalism
- Impressionist – Monet-soft colors and painterly textures
- Millennial MySpace – Y2K nostalgia with customizable chaos
- Retro Internet – GeoCities boxes, under-construction GIFs, and web 1.0 charm
- Las Vegas – Neon grids, outrun aesthetics, and 80s futurism
- Zine – Cut-and-paste punk energy with DIY collage vibes
Instead of generic "light" and "dark" modes, I wanted cultural moments as design systems. The idea is that a store can switch its entire personality in seconds—from Renaissance oil painting to highway street photography.
Most Shopify themes are built for conversion optimization. I built ABD for creative expression.
What makes it different
No "best practices" constraints
Layouts break grids, text overlaps images, colors clash intentionally
- Anti-corporate aesthetic –
I rejected the sterile minimalism of modern e-commerce for bold, opinionated design
- Cultural references over trends –
Drawing from art history, subcultures, and forgotten eras instead of following what's popular
- Personality over polish –
Embracing imperfection, texture, and character
I didn't ask "will this convert?"
I asked "will this be remembered?"
The block architecture lets me compose pages like collages:
Feature Blocks
Icon + text combinations with theme-specific styling
Image & Text Blocks
Asymmetric layouts that break the 50/50 grid
Badge Blocks
Stickers, stamps, and labels with retro positioning
Custom HTML Blocks
Full creative freedom for experimental layouts
Accordion Blocks
Expandable content with theme-aware animations
Each block inherits the active ABD style, so a "Disco" button looks completely different from a "California Mission" button—same content, 30 different artistic interpretations.
I wanted pages that feel hand-designed, not template-generated.
ABD doesn't just style a store it transports it to another era or movement.
Examples of what I built:
- Renaissance – Ornate borders, classical typography, museum-quality presentation
- Newspaper – Columns, mastheads, and print journalism layouts
- National Parks Poster – WPA-era screen printing and vintage travel aesthetics
- Free Love – Psychedelic swirls, peace signs, and 60s counterculture
- Military Theme – Stenciled fonts, olive drab, and utilitarian design
-Valentines – Romantic pinks, hearts, and love letter elegance
Each style isn't just a color palette—it's a complete design language with custom fonts, layout rules, and decorative elements that make a store feel like it belongs in a specific time and place.
This is the only Shopify theme where a store can look like a 1950s diner menu, a 1990s GeoCities page, or a French Impressionist painting—
all from the same codebase.
.abd-theme-american-wave
.abd-theme-ca-assembly-daily-file
.abd-theme-cable-news
.abd-theme-california-dreaming
.abd-theme-california-mission
.abd-theme-cubism
.abd-theme-disco
.abd-theme-france
.abd-theme-free-love
.abd-theme-highway-street-photo
.abd-theme-impressionist
.abd-theme-italy
.abd-theme-las-vegas
.abd-theme-military-theme
.abd-theme-millennial-myspace
.abd-theme-national-parks-poster
.abd-theme-newspaper
.abd-theme-nineties-graphic-design
.abd-theme-pink-yellow
.abd-theme-renaissance
.abd-theme-retro-diner
.abd-theme-retro-internet
.abd-theme-retro-tech-polaroid
.abd-theme-stars-and-stripes
.abd-theme-stpatricks
.abd-theme-travel-nyc-liberty
.abd-theme-wayfinding-receipt
.abd-theme-zine
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