Designer Stories: Xor

From game engines and video effects to web browsers, video games, and even the Vegas Sphere, Xor has built a career around bringing graphics to life through code. As a graphics programmer, his work blends mathematics, programming, art, and design into striking visual experiences, proving that creativity can be just as technical as it is artistic.

That same passion for experimentation is what led to Plasma, the watch face that earned Best Innovative Watch Face in the WearOS category in the 2025 Facer Awards. Inspired by science fiction and born from an unexpected accident during development, Plasma is a perfect example of Xor's belief that some of the best ideas come from curiosity and exploration. In this month's Designer Stories, Xor shares more about his creative process, the inspiration behind his award-winning work, and his mission to make every screen a little more visually captivating.

Tell us about yourself! 

Hello! I am a graphics programmer from Michigan. Growing up, I was fascinated with electronics, technology and video games. My friends showed me a game engine called GameMaker and I got hooked on it. 

I spent several years learning how to program and make some art and probably made hundreds of bad games. In the process, I found that I really enjoyed creating video effects more than anything. It blended programming, math, art and design together, without being too hands-on for me. 

From then on, I've been putting algorithmic effects on everything from video games (Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, Order of the Sinking Star, etc), websites (x.ai), web browsers (Opera One, Opera GX) and even the Vegas Sphere. 

Bit by bit, I am on a mission to make the world more graphically-pleasing with programming!

How did it feel to win Best Innovative Watch Face in the WearOS category of the 2025 Facer Awards? 

I was pleasantly surprised to receive the award. It was my first time getting a physical award in the mail and it looks awesome on my desk. I am grateful for the opportunity and help from the Facer team!

What was the inspiration behind Plasma, and how did the concept evolve during development?

Plasma is one of my favorites and it came about through a typo. 

I was inspired by sci-fi planets scenes. I was trying to create a fluid sphere, but accidently made it extend outside of the sphere. It immediately gave me a sense of flares shooting off the surface and I knew I had to share it with others. Many great ideas come from playing around with numbers and seeing what patterns pop out!

What sparked your interest in watch face design, and how did you discover Facer?

For me, I am always looking for new ways to showcase new visual effects on anything that has a screen. I believe it was Ariel who saw my work and suggested that I give it a shot. 

I am blown away by what can be achieved with the tiny graphics processing on smart watches and I always love a new technical challenge.

Which of your watch face designs (or collections) are you most proud of and why?

The Event Horizon collection was sweet, but my ultimate favorite has to be Spacetime. 

It's simple, but feels like there's a lot of depth in it and I enjoy watching it for a while to see what colors come next. My favorite designs are the ones with emergent complexity that even surprises me.

What inspires your watch face designs? Any recurring themes or influences?

I am definitely inspired by space and sci-fi themes, but also math and art I find online. Sometimes I am watching a movie like Interstellar or Star Wars and it gives me an idea for VFX (Visual Effects) to try. 

Other times it comes from seeing caustic rays from water, cool fog in the morning, or clouds at sunset. I also love trying to reverse engineer video games and guess how the render pipeline/post-processing works. These can lead to many new ideas.

I usually like to keep my art abstract, but inspired by a real phenomenon so that it has some meaning.

What’s your design process like? Any specific tools or habits?

Typically, I build off of my previous works. I've created thousands of these now with all sorts of different approaches so, when I have an idea, I take the most related works and combine them first. This allows me to quickly get to a starting point. From there I iterate as many times as possible. 

With every feature and every function, I ask myself, “Is this necessary? What other ideas can I try?” It's much easier to explore ideas by fine-tuning each part individually, but changing one thing often leads me back to tweaking everything else again. 

So the key for me is to make this feedback cycle as quick as possible and not get too attached to specific ideas. Then, once I am happy with a concept, I go over it one more time to simplify the code and make minor adjustments. After repeating this process thousands of times I've found some pretty cool techniques and have a lot of fun along the way. The graphics programs I write are called shaders and I use online tools like ShaderToy, twigl and my own FragCoord which is in early development.

How do you stay inspired when you hit a creative block?

The aforementioned shaders are actually my release when I hit creative roadblocks. My main work is in private contracts with game developers and tech companies, and these jobs use a lot of creative energy and focus. When I get stumped, I like to pull back to simpler, tiny shader programs with much less code to optimize. That is where I find my release!

What’s next for you as a designer? Any exciting future projects?

My mission to bring shader effects to as many different screens as possible continues. I want to do live, reactive visuals for concerts and work with cool artists. 

I've been able to make some art for the Vegas Sphere, but I would love to do some effects on the inside. In the meantime, I am excited to be building graphics tools like FragCoord!

Anything else you would like to add?

Stay curious, work on things that excite you. When you share your work (even if it sucks at the start), you can build momentum and achieve your goals!

A sincere thank you to Xor for sharing his story, creative philosophy, and the journey behind his award-winning work. His passion for experimentation and willingness to embrace the unexpected are a reminder that innovation often begins with curiosity.

To everyone who joined us for this month's Designer Stories, thank you for reading and supporting the incredible creators who make the Facer community so inspiring. We look forward to bringing you another conversation with a talented designer next month.