I grew up taking apart whatever my parents would let me, and eventually learned that putting things back together was the more interesting half. That instinct turned into a career somewhere between design and engineering: I sketch in code, and I write code the way I would lay out a page.

For the last several years I have worked on design systems and internal tools, first at a small agency and then on a product team that grew from twelve people to about two hundred while I was there. Most of that job was translation: turning a designer’s intent into components that other engineers could use without reading a manual.

These days I work independently. I take on a handful of client projects each year, and spend the rest of my time on my own tools, most recently an animation sketchbook called Circular Motion Studio.

I like problems that are small enough to hold in my head and specific enough that the answer matters to someone. I prototype early, show unfinished work, and would rather ship something plain that works than something clever that almost does. I write things down as I go, partly for other people and mostly so that I remember why I made a decision six months later.

If you are working on something in that spirit, I would like to hear about it. Email is the best way to reach me, and I try to reply within a few days.