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An essay, of sorts

On making things
that feel right.

Koya, in low yellow light
Fig. 01 Self-portrait. Tampa, FL — Roll 04, Frame 12. Spring ‘26
I. The essay

I'm a designer and developer who builds digital products for small teams — the kind that care how their work is felt, not just shipped. I've been doing this for about five years. Long enough to have opinions; not long enough to be smug about them.

I started at fourteen, hacking Tumblr themes I didn't understand. What stuck wasn't the code — it was the feeling of changing one line and watching something invisible become visible. I've been chasing that ever since: through graphic design, through front-end, through full-stack, not because I needed to learn it all, but because the projects kept asking for the next layer.

Today I work as a one-person studio. Brand to interface, code to deploy. Most clients come for the design and stay for the part where I keep refining things they didn't realize were wrong — the focus ring, the empty state, the line height on a label nobody reads. The unsexy work is where I spend the most time. It's the difference between something that looks finished and something that is.

I don't believe in big reveals. You'll get a staging URL on day one and watch it grow. I'd rather you see the messy middle and be unsurprised by the ending than wait six weeks for a presentation that has to land. Software is too easy to change for ceremony around it.

I also don't believe in the word just. Just a website. Just a logo. The work most people remember — the brands they trust, the products they actually open — is full of choices someone took seriously. Type carries the room. Motion needs a reason. Care is a feature, not a finish.

If you've worked with me before, you already know I send too many small refinements at 11 PM. If you haven't — consider this fair warning.

II. The facts

In brief.

Based
Tampa, FL — happy to work anywhere your timezone respects sleep.
Trained
Self — through bad first drafts, kind clients, and a lot of YouTube at 1.75×.
Tools
Figma, React, TypeScript, Node, Mongo, Stripe, Discord.js. Boring on purpose.
Clients
Indie founders, small teams, the occasional brave agency.
Currently
Booking May — August 2026. Two slots left for the summer.
III. The week

Right now.

IV. The invitation

If any of this sounded like you — or like the person you wish you'd hired last time — the letter form is short, the reply is fast, and the worst that happens is we figure out we're not a fit.

Write me a letter

Talk soon, — k.