Colin Calnan

Twenty years building software

Canada

Say hello on LinkedIn

What to make.
How to make it.
How it should look.

I design and build AI tools that turn real, messy material into finished work: song reels from my gigs, a checked guide to my town’s election, and the rules for how my work looks, written down for my AI.

Two reels the tool cut from one gig video: Colin singing under a gazebo at a winery, captioned without a spark, and a close-up captioned Oh, stand, stand by me. 323 reels my tool cut from 16 gigs

Automated video · Applied AI

Gig Splitter

What
I film every gig. Two hours of footage just sat there.
How
Finds each song by the room’s noise. AI names it. Lyrics need two checks.
Look
A vertical reel per song, opening just before the chorus.
Measured
One 83-minute gig: 20 of 20 songs found, 19 named right.
See the build →
The Lake Country Votes home page: WHAT THEY SAID in tall cream and ochre letters on a dark band, above the line every candidate in their own words, in alphabetical order, no rankings, no opinions. 339 quotes, one Sunday

Applied AI · Civic tech

Lake Country Votes

What
Friends couldn’t tell what our town’s candidates stood for.
How
AI picks quotes, can’t rewrite them. A no-AI check, then me.
Look
All 18 candidates, same card, alphabetical, no rankings.
Measured
339 of 339 quotes match the candidate’s own words exactly.
See the build →
The four Bold Talks rules, each drawn as a slide in Colin's own type: one idea per slide, the text is the design, too big is usually right, and text that bleeds off the edge on purpose. ONEIDEA. one idea per slide THE TEXT IS THE DESIGN no decoration BIG. BLEED 289 lines, one rulebook

Design system · Applied AI

Bold Talks

What
I studied 41 frames from keynotes I admire and wrote down why they work.
How
I turned that into a 289-line rulebook written for my AI.
Look
Heavy all-caps type, a colour-block stripe, one yellow. This page uses it.
Measured
One fix made my small grey text far easier to read: 12 to 1 contrast, where the web’s minimum is 4.5.
See the build →

How I work with AI

What AI does, what I do

On my recent builds, AI writes nearly all the code. Now I write the rules down before AI builds: what it must never do, and how we’ll know it worked.

I decide what to build, how it looks and what counts as done. Where a mistake would matter, a simple check with no AI stands in the way, and I sign off.

Before this I spent twelve years on studio, agency and product teams, leading developers and the tech behind websites and marketing campaigns. My planning method is free for anyone to use.

The written plan for my shoe drum, trimmed
specs/
  mission.md        what it is, who for
  tech-stack.md     rules AI can't break
  roadmap.md
  method.md
  2026-09-26-gig-feedback/
    requirements.md
    plan.md
    validation.md   how we prove it works
The real plan behind my shoe drum. Each dated folder is one step: what’s wanted, the plan, and how we prove it works.

More I’ve made

Hardware, community, products

The sensor board's screen up close, twice: FOOT TRIG PAIRING in yellow, then ARMED in green, above its blue button.
Creative technology · Hardware

Foot Stomper

A kick drum I wear on my shoe, so I’m not stuck on one leg at a floor pedal. Replayed on my laptop, it caught every tap and stomp in my test recording. Not played at a gig yet.

See the build →
Me on stage at the Lake Country internet safety night, pointing at the big screen behind me, which shows a step from one of my guides: Apple Screen Time, step 3, choose All Apps and Categories, with the phone screenshot beside it.
For my community

Safe Family Internet

Internet safety nights for Lake Country parents. I made the brand, the talk, the site, and a tool that turns phone screenshots into step-by-step guides. 260 sign-ups claimed every seat.

See the site →
A real LinkedIn post the system made for a financial advisor, on a phone: a short note about the tax filing deadline with a link to a checklist, hashtags, and a branded image of a calculator reading TAX-2022 with the line A checklist to help you maximize your tax refund. The advisor's face, name and firm name are blurred.
Generative media · 2022 and 2023

Advisor Assist

Social media for financial advisors. Two years of my business partner’s own posts set the voice, then a whole year of posts was written ahead around tax season and the new year, and posted each month on branded templates. It ran live.

A real post it made, on LinkedIn. The advisor’s name and face are blurred.
A real post on the Wines of the Okanagan Instagram account, on a phone: the 2018 Foundation Sauvignon Blanc from Church and State Wines, with tasting meters for body, tannins, sweetness, acidity and alcohol, each bar drawn to its value, beside the bottle.
Generative media · 2023

Wines of the Okanagan

An Instagram account built from a public winery database. Each wine’s tasting numbers draw its own meter bars, so no post was laid out by hand.

A real post, on the account. See the account →
Tidy Recipes on a phone: the home screen, Recipes, not distractions, with a recipe link pasted in above the Tidy the Recipe button.
Product · Cooking

Tidy Recipes

Paste a recipe link and get just the ingredients and steps on one screen, scaled to however many you’re feeding.

See the app →
The Loops lesson list: The Loop, prompter to designer, 0 of 15 read, then Start here and the first numbered lessons.
Writing · Working with AI

Loops

Fifteen free lessons on getting an AI to finish a job instead of stopping halfway, and where to keep a person in charge.

Read the lessons →

Each build page has the whole story, including what still breaks.

Start with Gig Splitter →