Here's a free meta-design tool I like:
GeoPattern http://btmills.github.io/geopattern/geopattern.html
I'd love to hear about more. Does anyone know of a list of these tools? I'd be happy to compile a list if people provide suggestions.
I started writing code as a classically trained designer after my first layoff from an agency many years ago... Something you learn once you cross over, is that this isn't new. A little research and I can start listing design firms that have been around since the late 1980's that promote this multi-disciplinary approach, designers who code, programmers who paint, etc.
Years later;once I picked up heavier languages, from a designers point of view, programming is broken. Point and click is not ideal but slugging through pages of non-human language is worse. Faster at times... but not a solution. Flame away, that's just my opinion from an outsiders point of view.
Would using code that converts data into standard visualizations (e.g. heat maps, sparklines) be considered meta-design? If so, it's not so uncommon (e.g. ggplot2, Tableau, matplotlib, Excel charts…).
Another example of a parametric meta-logo is the one Wolfram created for the National Museum of Mathematics (MOMATH), see http://blog.wolfram.com/2013/02/28/behind-the-scenes-at-the-...
Some examples of algorithmic design for page layouts: http://engineering.flipboard.com/2014/03/web-layouts/ and https://thegrid.io/
(disclaimer: I work on the latter)
See also: Procedural generation
Could you call an AI meta-meta-designer creative?
It would work out what things can be designed, then define the rules to design them.
This is a compelling little essay. I think the author left out a couple of important points, though.
1. Design systems may be "algorithmic," but they're primarily mathematical, and equations remain stubbornly hard to use. Metafont failed to attract designers because no one wanted to cook up high-order polynomials to express their visual ideas. (In contrast, Adobe came up with a good-enough interface for Bezier curves, and now the world uses non-algorithmic fonts.) The new class of designers will need solid grounding in at least high school algebra to get their curves and easing functions right.
2. Any argument about "XXX should learn to code", where XXX is anything other than "aspiring professional software developers," means that there is a significant market opportunity for creating usable software that does not require coding. If people are willing to spend thousands of dollars on bootcamps to learn to code -- when they'd really rather be focusing on their domain problem -- then they're theoretically willing to pay thousands of dollars to not have to learn how to code.
I don't know the state of design software, but if it's anything like other professional desktop tools, it's horrible, creaky software stuck in the early 1990s with very little competition in sight. When I read this essay I can't help but think there's an opening for usable algorithmic design software -- whatever that may look like.