By far my favorite talk of the whole beyond tellerrand conference 2025 in Düsseldorf deserves its own mention. “Painting With the Web” by Matthias Ott felt like one of those rare moments where everything lands perfectly: content, delivery, message.
Matthias opened the talk by referencing how Gerhard Richter approaches creating art: yes, there’s control, but also space for uncertainty and randomness. It’s not about forcing a result, but about setting something in motion and seeing where it leads. It tied in beautifully with how Matthias talked about working with the web as a material.
The web is a flexible, living medium. But we often approach it with static tools and fixed mindsets. Still designing like it’s Photoshop, even though we’re building for browsers that are powerful, unpredictable, and full of creative potential. The disconnect between what’s technically possible in the browser and what most designers actually know about, it’s a shame really. In the sense that the creative potential of digital solutions often gets shut down right from the start because the thinking already begins with static tools. Matthias suggests we shift that mindset and start working with code and prototypes in the browser much earlier in the process. Let the browser be part of the creative conversation from the beginning.
We have to accept the dance with uncertainty.
He showed how much potential we’re sitting on: fluid typography with clamp(), better color handling with oklch(), layout freedom with CSS Grid. It wasn’t just theoretical, he made it feel accessible, exciting, like something I want to try right now.
This talk felt like a force of nature to me. It went deeper than just code or design. It was about how we work, how we approach our craft, and how much we’re missing when we don’t really understand our material. Every person involved in digital product development should watch this.
Thank you Matthias for the inspiration and the reminder to truly own the web.
