A studio of one, making things worth having
Zen Magpie is an independent studio from Scotland. Apps, games, tools, art - whatever seems worth making. Some useful. Some beautiful. Some completely daft. The medium doesn’t matter. The idea does.
Right now that means Stoic Mind, a daily Stoic quotes app; Monk Mode, a habit tracker for building discipline; ArtTrails, a GPS art generator for runners and walkers; Pomomethod, a free Pomodoro timer for focused work; Doodle Days, a drawing journal for one good thing a day; and Cone the Duke, a daft wee game about Glasgow’s most famous statue.
No venture money, no growth team, no dark patterns. Every product is built and maintained by one person, shipped when it’s good and fixed when it’s not. The collection is the business. And the business exists for one thing: the freedom to keep making.
The products
Small tools for habits, headspace and creativity - plus the odd game. Each one does a single thing well, and is made and maintained by the same person who answers your email.
Stoic Mind
A daily Stoic quote and a calendar of every week you have left. Use as directed.
Monk Mode
A habit tracker without the dopamine slot machine. For people doing the work, not posting about it.
ArtTrails
Walks that draw something. Pick a route, your GPS makes the picture. Yes, sometimes it is a duck.
Pomomethod
A Pomodoro timer that gets out of your way. No accounts, no nagging, just you and the next 25 minutes.
Doodle Days
Draw one good thing a day on a small square of paper. No streaks, no feed, and a calendar that fills in behind you.
Cone the Duke
Glasgow’s most famous bit of public art is a traffic cone on a Duke’s head. Help keep it there.
Why this exists
Most things made today are built to win your attention. We build things made to deserve it. A studio of one.
Built by one person
No team, no investors, no committees. Every product passes through one set of hands. The person you email is the person who made it.
Made to earn their keep
Built to deserve a place in your life, not fight for one. No tricks, no nagging, no engineered FOMO. If something stops earning its keep, it gets fixed or it goes.
The idea, not the medium
An app, a game, a drawing, a daft experiment. We don’t ask what Zen Magpie should be. We ask what’s worth making, then make it.
Serious about the work, never about ourselves
Discipline isn’t reverence. One of the things we ship is a game about putting a cone on a statue. On purpose.
From the blog
Notes on what we make and the places it comes from.