Skulley Rad: The Last Designer of Humanity

Hi, I’m Skulley Rad, the last designer of humanity. AI took everyone’s job, and after I died the machines built me a memorial out of respect.

Jokes aside, my real name is Oscar Moctezuma Rodríguez, and as far as I can tell no machine has fully replaced me yet. But that’s the story my website tells, and this first memory is about why I’d rather have a cartoon skeleton present my work than do it myself.

The other option was pretty boring: “Hi, I’m Oscar, designer and web developer, here’s my work.” All of that is true, and you’ve read it on a thousand portfolios, but it says absolutely nothing about how I think, and how I think is the part clients actually pay for.

So I gave my work a representative

Instead of letting the projects speak for themselves, I wanted someone to walk you through them. Skulley is me, more or less, if I’d lost the race against the machines. You control him, and he takes you on a tour of my work and ideas inside his own tomb. It’s pure satire, and it only lands because so many people in my field have wondered, at least once, whether this is how it ends.

Two rules I gave myself

I’ve been building websites for more than ten years, so yes, I started with an advantage, or “from privilege,” as they’d say up here in the north. To make it fun I set two rules. The first was that the site had to prove intention changes how people perceive things, which is a fancy way of saying the same portfolio feels completely different when it has a reason to exist. The second was that I wouldn’t write a single line of code by hand. Everything was built with Claude Code, Three.js, React and TypeScript, with me directing and the machine handing me visual and functional garbage like its life depended on it.

There’s some irony in using AI to build a memorial for the designer AI killed, but that’s the point. I think AI is pure leverage, one of the best things that’s happened to those of us who make things, and I’d rather show that than argue with 50 people on Instagram about whether AI is terrible or beautiful. The site isn’t finished yet, so you’ll probably run into a rough edge, a bug, or a VERY intentional easter egg.

What actually worries me

What worries me about design right now has little to do with AI and a lot to do with designers losing the intention behind their work. Making a logo, an image or an interface has never been easier, and that’s great and I love it, but when anyone can produce, the valuable part becomes deciding what’s worth making, what to cut, and what each choice says. A tool can give you a hundred options in a minute, and someone still needs to know which one is right and why.

That’s the point I want to show here. Turning my own introduction into a design project was the most direct way I found to prove I treat identity, story and digital presence with the same care I’d give a client’s brand or products.

What you’ll find in Memories

Don’t expect trend roundups, and definitely not another take on the Pantone color of the year. I’ll write about process, about how I make decisions, about bringing design and code together, about what AI is actually changing in creative work, and about the experiments I keep running on this site and on my clients’ sites. If the site is the concept, Memories is where I explain the thinking behind it.

Now go take a look around and score some points in the game to earn discounts in the store. Skulley’s waiting, and he’s got nowhere else to be.

Thanks for making it this far!