John Voss

@jovo.design

2148 Followers 412 Following

Head of Product Design at Descript, cofounder of @queerdesign.club. Queering design, ethical tech, and dogs. Husband of @seldo.com. I write and speak, no matter how much people beg me to stop 🌎 jovo.design 📍SF / Sea Ranch

Me in a navy suit— cropped jacket and wide pants—with cyan ombré and butterfly appliqués.

A brindle Formosan mountain dog basking in the sun on a pebble beach with a giant piece of driftwood in her mouth.

Wily, a brindle mountain dog running down a sandy beach with a tennis ball in her mouth.

Cover of Meg Stalter’s single “Gay”

Simple line work comic.

Panel 1: Has the title “The Millenial Trolley Problem” and two people talking. Person 1 says “Okay, so imagine there’s a trolley barreling down its tracks…”

Panel 2: Depicts the trolly on its tracks. The tracks branch off in two directions. There’s a lever at the fork. On one side after the fork, there’s a row of people tied to the tracks that extends past what is visible. A text box shows the continuation of person 1’s sentence “If you do nothing, you have to watch the trolley continue to run over people for the rest of your life…”

Panel Three: Shows a close up of the big lever at the fork in the tracks. “There’s a lever you can pull to divert the trolley and save those people, but you’ll get hit by the trolley instead…”

Panel Four: Person 1 is now standing behind Person 2, holding them back by the waist, as they desperately try to grab the lever from Panel Three with both hands, which is just slightly out of reach.

A young Fiona Apple on stage at the VMA's saying "Everybody that's watching, this world… this world is bullshit."

A photo collage of a neon sign reading “Corgie cafe,” a plate of pink berry pancakes, and a cute corgie

My husband Seldo look handsome but bemused by having his photo taken in front of one of the modernist towers on top of Casa Mìla / the Gaudy house

An iron mineral formation springing out of the wall of the salt mine. It is long, curved, and extremely phallic.

The monastery at Montserrat

News article “Cory Booker calls for new leaders, says Democrats have failed this moment”

A Picasso painting of a small dog giving the viewer side eye with the caption “I know what you are” super imposed on top of it.

A slinky white cat steps across a cobblestone archway surrounded by vibrant spring flowers and bushes.

A long row of pillars in a neo gothic cathedral lit up in a dramatic rainbow gradient by stained glass windows out of the shot.

Dozens of sea lions sun bathing at Fisherman’s Wharf

A vercel billboard that just reads “that’s so agentic”

A closeup low depth of field photo of my dog, staring up at the camera with big amber eyes.

A splash page that says “rotate” because it can’t be viewed in portrait on mobile.i

Cold inbound email that reads:

using Descript for the first time felt a bit like ordering from a Thai restaurant online where nothing on the menu has pictures and every dish is in Siamese. You know the Pad Kra Pao is probably great, but you're one confusing name away from going with Gusto's Pizza again.
Your dashboard gives similar vibes tbh. Lots of great stuff, but nothing really telling me "start here"
We helped Kaasai, a Microsoft-backed startup, with the same problem. Churn dropped 18%, support tickets down 30%, without removing a single feature. Just made it easier to understand what Pad Kra Pao is.
Want me to show you what I'd change on one screen? Free, takes me a quick Loom.

A werewolf in a geometric rubber cut style that blends Keith Haring and medieval woodcuts, stomping while flipping the bird with both hands, shouting “Get fucked peasants!”

A close crop still from a TikTok video of a pug ferociously lunging toward his dad’s sandwich.

A slide from my talk “Framing the Future”

It reads:

The automation of physical and mental labor follow the same pattern:
• Extract knowledge from highly skilled workers
• Break work into its component parts
• Standardize and govern how parts connect
• Develop technology to automate the process
• Concentrate knowledge and power at the top

The cover slide for my talk “Framing the future: Luddites, futurists, and the systems of tomorrow” it is a graphic dark black with white text and bright purple-blue graphics reminiscent of printers’ marks, a grid and a 3D infinity sign

A shop in Bristol, UK named “Boston Tea Party”

A series of street shop signs including one that says “Hey Jojo”

A poorly photoshopped photo of a raccoon grabbing a Peak Design backpack

A zine styled after Chick tracts called “Don’t build the torment nexus!” By Mike Monteiro

A Nielsen LinkedIn post that reads:

No more UI: Once #superintelligence arrives in 2030, there will be no UI design, since users will be using their agents, instead of interacting directly with websites or traditional software.
It's even possible that the advance in #AI #agents will be faster and not require superintelligence to have higher #usability than interacting with websites, which often have atrocious design.

My full article 👉 https://lnkd.in/gqQea6yx
Song 👉 https://lnkd.in/gqcitk35

Emma Frost in a cunty outfit leaning back and serving face with an empty telepathic “speech” bubble above her head.

Wily, my brindle Formosan mountain dog, turned upside down in bed for belly rubs. She’s got a silly look on her face and her top teeth are sticking out out over her bottom lip

My pup a brindle Formosan mountain dog is curled up in bed

John Voss seated in his home office, talking to the camera.

A gray fox curled up in the grass with its head raised but eyes closed

Wily, looking up at the camera very happily, looking sweet and not disgusting.

GIF of David Tennat looking sad in the rain, appearing to stare at a Phil Lewis post impose on top that says Trump was spotted playing golf this morning.

Wily, a Formosan mountain dog, galloping happily in the surf

Connie from Big Mouth lamenting ‘I want to be hot and dumb’

A photo of Wily with her duck stuffy on the floor of our apartment.

Apple’s CEO gives Trump a gift of glass and 24-karat gold

Tim Cook presented the gift at a White House event, where President Trump announced that Apple will invest an additional $100 billion in U.S. jobs and suppliers.

Yay I think the dog actually ran away
Now you don't get to buy yourself immunity through fantasies of your responsibility and love
You callous, reckless, endlessly self interested and hateful cretins
Hope the dog is run over

Rolling green hills and rustic buildings on the Tuscan countryside with a rainbow shooting across a blue sky.

The overly cheerful, anthropomorphic "New Position" balloon cartoon from LinkedIn.

A funky black, white, and neon red graphic with brutalist vibes and web iconography promoting Converge Design Systems Conference brought to you by zeroheight, October 30, 2025 in Bristol Uk. It features me, John Voss designer at Descript.

An acrylic painting of the sea ranch lodge, a mid century style hotel on the coast of California.

A very small round brown brush rabbit in grass

A gif of a rotating bottle of poppers surrounded by confetti

An adolescent male mule deer standing in a golden grassy field as early morning sun lights up his fuzzy antlers.

Acrylic marker drawing of a violet and green swallow flying over yellow grass.

Me, my husband, and my dog as cartoony painted rocks.

A weather app screen cap of the temperature at home: 69 degrees

A text exchange with my husband.

Him: How did you forget your meds?
Me: They were pushed off to the side of the counter during cleaning day
And I only have object permanence when l've taken my meds.

A slide with a grainy pink and black duotone photo of two hands shaking. One hand is labeled "Indirect influence" the other is labeled "direct action."

My outfit: DARE tshirt, plaid, light ripped jeans, hi tops and spiked hair

A shoulders-up shot of Jovo, early 40s white guy with short, textured hair wearing a striped denim jacket, pink tee, and chunky purple glasses smirking and staring at the camera mischievously.