It took me way too long to realize that just because something looks good, doesn't mean its well designed.

In 2006 I began my design/experience creation career by designing and illustrating posters for bands. These posters were all about the spectacle. An eye grabbing illustration or thought provoking graphic that's sole abstract purpose was to implant a vision in the mind of the viewer, a visage of the band and a taste of the experience. There were no rules, the spectacle was the rule .

After getting a basic graphic design position in 2008, which eventually became a full-fledged corporate design job a few years later, I began to learn a new set of rules. The rules of human nature in regards to visual perception. Even though how people view the world is heavily filtered by their experiences, there is an underlying architecture to all visual communication. It has a life of it's own and like life, it is self organizing. This realization fundamentally changed the way I approached design. I found that when the focus is placed on the functionality of a design, the form naturally took shape.

In order to fully understand functionality, I decided to develop an application from the ground up. I wanted to make something that evolved as it was used. After a series of experimental Android apps, I finally settled on creating a gamification / productivity app, which eventually became Qwestr . I learned a lot while developing Qwestr: backend programming using Java, database querying with SQLite and mobile UI design.

I enjoyed application design, creating a product that was dynamic and useful is a great feeling. I wanted to expand, so I learned javascript and experimented with React and Vue. The results of these experimentations eventually lead to the development of TrafficLight , which is a functional application to indicate and control print production workflow.

Having developed multiple full applications, I am currently looking for opportunities to dive deeper into development with a mind towards aesthetics.