Darkroom NotesSeason 1STIL.Part 7 of 7
From one app to a family — closing Season 1
STIL. began as an app that pulls one frame from a video, and it's slowly becoming a family. A sibling that turns faces into illustrations; a sibling that organises business cards. What's growing isn't features — it's the same single promise. The close of Season 1 of the series.
Six frames in, this is what I've pulled out of STIL. so far: why I made it, the decision not to hold your data, the colour of film, how it picks a frame, the review that turned it down three times, and what it means to build alone. To close Season 1, a little about what's ahead.
What's growing is a promise, not features
STIL. began as an app that pulls one frame from a video. But as I built it, I noticed the same way of thinking works in other places too.
STIL.TOON, for instance, turns the faces in a photo into illustrations. STIL.BIZ reads and organises business cards. What they do looks scattered, but at the root they're all the same. Everything, inside this iPhone. Your material never leaves. No account to create.
So what's growing isn't the number of features — it's the same single promise, carried into a new setting. A sibling for photos, a sibling for business cards. From here on, whenever I come across another small everyday "I wish this could be done without leaving the device," the family might grow by one.
Plain things, done with care
None of the STIL. family are flashy apps. One frame from a video, a face into an illustration, a single business card. They're plain. But doing plain things — without exaggeration, with care, finished entirely inside the device — is where I've put all of what I care about.
A cream background, with a single navy. Down to a single character of copy, the spaces around alphanumerics, the shape of an ellipsis. Details no one may notice, aligned anyway. I believe that accumulation becomes the feel of a brand.
What's ahead
This series, "Darkroom Notes," continues from here. In Season 2 I plan to step a little further into how features are used, and into the stories of each family member. In time, the detailed how-tos for the products themselves will also live over on stil.photo, as longer reads.
Thank you for reading to the end. If From the Shelf is a series about looking back at the music I owned, this one is about putting the things I make with my own hands into words, one at a time. Both are separate drawers of the same person.
If you like, try pulling a frame out of one of your own videos. The instant you thought you'd missed might still be right there.
You'll find STIL. at stil.photo, and the app on the App Store.
