ABOUT
Designer turned
engineer.
INTRO — FUN FACTS
Quick Facts
Started as a graphic designer, now I write code.
Coffee-powered debugging sessions.
I think in systems and components.
THE JOURNEY
How I got here.
THE START
Five years of design, before a single line of code.
Professional graphic designer and marketing lead — daily calls on hierarchy, clarity, and trust.
Those questions don't disappear in a code editor. They get sharper.
5 yrs design before engineering
THE TRANSITION
I kept building what I used to hand off.
Started shipping the work I'd previously delegated to developers, then kept going.
Design became the lens for technical decisions, not just visual ones.
CURRENT WORK
Leading a live platform migration. Zero dropped exams.
JSP/jQuery to React + TypeScript — live, in parallel, exams running daily.
I own the UX redesign and built out the Spring Boot backend.
“The best interfaces don't call attention to themselves.”
0 exams dropped · $30–40K/mo targeted
OUTSIDE THE DAY JOB
Freelance, when the problem's interesting.
An admin mapping tool for ICOC. A GCS-backed content platform for a TCG sandbox tool.
Full-cycle, solo — requirements through handoff.
2 solo freelance builds, shipped
BY THE NUMBERS
40+
Features shipped across 4+ release cycles
$30–40K
Monthly licensing costs targeted for elimination
0
Exams dropped during the live platform migration
5 yrs
Professional design before engineering
CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR
Product Engineer, Frontend Platform Engineer, or Full-Stack SWE roles. Particularly interested in teams where design quality and engineering rigour are both taken seriously.
SKILLS
What I work with.
Frontend
- React
- TypeScript
- Next.js
- Tailwind CSS
- Vite
Design
- Design systems
- Component architecture
- UX design
- Figma
Backend / Infra
- Spring Boot
- REST APIs
- Google Cloud Storage
- Vercel
Tooling
- Webpack
- CI/CD
- Git
- Vitest
- Leaflet
PRINCIPLES
What I optimize for.
Systems, not one-offs
Design tokens and shared components over one-off styling — the Knock design system was built from scratch for exactly this reason.
Accessible by default
This site ships with a working reduce-motion, contrast, and dyslexic-font toggle — accessibility as a real feature, not a checklist at the end.
Ship without breaking
Zero dropped exams during a live platform migration. Production stakes change how carefully you ship.
Design is engineering input
Hierarchy, clarity, and trust don't stop mattering when you move from Figma to a code editor — they get sharper.
Fast, on purpose
98.5% and 99.7% bundle reduction wasn’t luck. Performance is a budget enforced in CI, not a hope.
PROOF, IF YOU NEEDED IT
Proud, Certified Nerd
ALSO TRUE ABOUT ME
Building a space where cosplay newcomers feel welcome.
Key organizer in the DMV Love and Deepspace community — a fandom led by women.
Fan art freebies, meetups, and festival merch tables, all volunteer-run.
“Community design isn't just a UX problem — it matters just as much in person.”
AND ALSO THIS
Grew Maryland's Grand Archive scene from four players to a full table.
Playing since 2024 — the same indie TCG I later built freelance tooling for.
Trading cards, handing out freebies, and demoing the game to total beginners.
4 → 8+ weekly · 22-player championship
ONE MORE THING
Same instinct as the day job: find the gap, fill it.
Volunteer at large Grand Archive events — merch, new-player demos, side events.
Whatever needs a hand that day, that's where I show up.