About Tree of Cico

Tree of Cico is where I collect the things I build, design and learn. The name has a long story for such a short word.

Cico

Cico was my dolphin — a soft toy from Italy that I got when I was little. Since it came from Italy, I felt it should have an Italian name.

So I thought about what it actually was to me. I slept with it every night and rested my head close against it. It was my pillow. With a dictionary in hand, I looked for a word that fit, and somewhere between the entries and a six-year-old's logic, it became Cico. To me, the name has always meant pillow.

The tree

A tree doesn't grow by becoming something else. It grows by adding a new layer to what it already is. Every year it forms a new ring beneath the bark, and the bark is pushed outwards to make room. The innermost ring is still there, at the centre of the trunk, even when the tree is old.

That's how I think about experience. Cico stands for childhood — the safe place where you rest your head. That's the core. Everything I've learned since sits in layers around it: every project, every attempt, every year.

None of it replaces what came before. It builds on it.

That's why it's called Tree of Cico. The tree is what has grown out of Cico.

The branches

Everything I work on is a branch. Some grow large and carry leaves. Others are still small shoots, and some wither before they become anything. That's part of it. A tree with only the branches that succeeded doesn't exist.

On the front page, you can watch the tree grow as new branches are added.

What you'll find here

I show and explain what I develop, design and learn along the way. Not just the finished result, but the thinking behind it: the choices I made, and the things that didn't work the first time. That's often where the real experience is.

Who I am

I'm Thomas. I make things to learn, and I share them to think more clearly. I try to question my own assumptions and keep the person on the other end in mind. Both show up in everything that grows here.