Since 2006 I’ve made a living as a Designer and Software Engineer, creating world-class digital experiences for humans. In that time, I’ve been fortunate to work with excellent people at a few companies, as a freelancer, and for a short time as a founder.
I’m trying to use my skills and experience to put good into the world.
On design
There are plenty of words and acronyms you can put in front of “Designer”. Product, Web, Graphic, UX, UI, IA, etc. The lines between each are blurry, and the titles go in and out of fashion. Depending on the project and team I’m working alongside, I practice them all to varying degrees. I prefer to call myself; “A Designer.”
On engineering
Code is a means to an end. I have ideas and use code to bring them to life. That doesn’t mean I approach programming as a craft with any less enthusiasm or care as Design. I push myself to learn new languages, understand new patterns, and keep growing as an engineer. No language is off limits and I don’t avoid trying to learn difficult concepts.
Being a better designer makes me a better engineer and being a better engineer makes me a better designer. I get asked a lot which I want to do more; design or write code? I answer, “yes.”
About me
Designing and writing code get me money so I can have food so they get a lot of my attention. This is a non-exhaustive list of other things I love;
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Skateboarding. I got my first board in 1997 for my 12th birthday. In 24 years the longest I've ever gone without it was 7 months. That was due to knee surgery after a torn ACL and meniscus. Your first assumption about how I did that will be correct. Skateboarding altered my trajectory in life. I would be a completely different person without it.
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Vinyl records. I adore music of all types. Having them in a physical form is good for my soul. My collection (this isn’t all of it) grows at a comical pace. Spending an hour digging through bins in a record store is one of my favorite ways to clear my head. And then spend too much money.
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New York City. This is my Home. I’m a part of it and it’s a part of me. I moved here in 2008. I’ve lived in 8 different apartments in Manhattan and Brooklyn. I’ve been here through multiple hurricanes, an earthquake, blizzards, breakups, tickets, an arrest, court dates, jury duty (twice), bar fights, terrorist attacks, and most recently, the deafening quiet, eerie stillness, reefer trucks full of bodies on 2nd AVE, and the brain altering trauma of a global pandemic. I love this city and it allows me to exist here. That’s the most anyone can ask of it.
About this site
I deployed the first Flash version of this site Summer of 2006. I built v1 during the last months of college to help land my first web design job. Fun tidbit, there’s a CD-ROM version of that first site. An interface built with Macromedia Director on CD-ROM was the required final project deliverable at that time.
Since then, I’ve made iterations on the site every few years to accomplish different goals. I’ve changed the design, I’ve changed the work, and most important of all I’ve changed. This site is a lot of things. A portfolio of design work. A blog. A place to experiement. Above all else, this site is a reflection of me.
For this current iteration I’m using;
- Eleventy
- Netlify
- CSS: The kind that comes in the browser
- JavaScript: The regular kind that comes in the browser and very little of it
- Set in Proto Grotesk
Version history
The source for all versions is available on GitHub.
