About
A journal for people who care how the thing was made.
Kerning started in 2021 as a private mailing list between four people who kept having the same argument: why does so much software feel careless, when the people building it plainly are not?
We publish long, specific pieces about interface design, front-end engineering and the working habits underneath both. The kind of writing that is useful on a Tuesday afternoon when a real decision is due, rather than the kind that performs well on a Monday morning.
There is no advertising here, no tracking beyond simple visitor counts, and no schedule that forces us to publish something thin. When there is nothing worth saying, we say nothing.
What we cover
- Design
Interface decisions, design systems, and the reasoning behind the screens people actually use.
- Engineering
Front-end architecture, performance, and the quiet technical choices that shape a product.
- Craft
Typography, detail work, and the habits that separate finished from shipped.
- Interviews
Long conversations with the people making considered work at a sustainable pace.
How we work
- 01
One idea per piece
If an essay needs a summary at the top to make sense, it is two essays wearing one headline. We split it and publish both.
- 02
Show the reasoning
Conclusions are cheap. We publish the trade-off that was actually made, including the part that went badly.
- 03
No sponsored opinions
Nothing on this site is paid for by a vendor. If we recommend a tool, we have used it on real work for long enough to have complaints.
- 04
Edited, then edited again
Every piece goes through a second reader before it is published. It is slower. It is the whole point.
The masthead
Elena Marsh
Editor in chief
Elena has spent fifteen years leading design teams inside product companies, most of them arguing gently in favour of doing less. She started Kerning to collect the conversations that usually happen after the meeting ends.
Marcus Vale
Engineering editor
Marcus builds front-end infrastructure for teams that outgrew their first architecture. He writes about the unglamorous decisions that decide whether a site still feels fast two years after launch.
Priya Raman
Contributing editor
Priya is a type designer turned interface designer. She is happiest when a paragraph of body copy has been argued over for longer than the logo.