02 — Approach

Systematic Auditing & Strategic Coordination

I built a three-part methodology to ensure successful implementation:

Platform Audits — Systematically documented visual inconsistencies and gaps across the existing platform, creating a baseline against the new system standards.

Cross-Functional Alignment — Facilitated structured meetings with product and engineering teams to align on implementation, not debate. The goal was clarity: ensuring visual assets matched system output and that new UI variables were properly exposed in our back office system.

Knowledge Transfer — Designed workshops to coach teams on component consumption, establish clear handoff standards, and create specifications that eliminated ambiguity in development.

03 — Execution

Bridging Design Intent with Technical Reality

The implementation phase required constant coordination between design vision and engineering feasibility. My work centered on three key deliverables:

Variable Configuration System — Worked with engineering to expose thousands of new UI variables in the back office, enabling product teams to configure visual options independently rather than requesting design support for every change.

Documentation & Specifications — Created comprehensive asset handoff documents with clear specifications that eliminated ambiguity and reduced back-and-forth cycles between design and development.

Team Workshops — Conducted targeted sessions coaching teams on component consumption, establishing visual standards, and demonstrating how to achieve consistency using the new system.

04 — Impact

Organizational Scale & Embedded Practice

The outcomes extended far beyond the initial visual update. By creating infrastructure for self-service configuration and establishing clear system standards, we transformed how the organization builds and maintains visual consistency.

Sales & Leadership Enablement — Assets became foundational materials for prospect presentations, positioning our design maturity as a competitive differentiator.

Engineering Efficiency — By exposing variables for configuration, product teams gained independence. Development time decreased because design didn't become a bottleneck for visual variations.

Design System Maturity — New platform features began adopting visual standards with consistency we'd struggled to maintain before. The system wasn't just designed — it was embedded into how the organization builds.

05 — Takeaway

Strategy Requires Execution

This project taught me that my role was less about designing and more about creating the conditions for the vision to succeed — auditing, aligning, equipping, and removing friction. The result wasn't just a visual refresh. It was an organization that could sustain design consistency at scale.

02 — Why Build It

Problem + Opportunity + Learning

This wasn't just a personal convenience — it was a test. I'd noticed the same question asked repeatedly in automotive forums. People were guessing, doing math on paper, or avoiding fuel blending altogether because the uncertainty wasn't worth the risk.

I chose to build in Lovable.dev to explore the platform's rapid prototyping capabilities. Could I go from idea to functional tool in a single afternoon? That constraint forced clarity: build only what's necessary, make it intuitive, and get it working.

03 — The Solution

Simple Inputs, Precise Outputs

The calculator asks for three inputs and returns one critical output: exactly how many gallons of ethanol to add at the pump to hit your target blend. No guessing.

Tank capacity — Total gallons your vehicle holds.

Current fuel volume & octane — How much fuel is in the tank and its grade.

Target blend — The E-blend you want to achieve (E20, E30, E85, etc.).

04 — Building in One Afternoon

Constraints Enable Clarity

Building this in a single afternoon meant making ruthless decisions. No feature bloat. No unnecessary complexity. Just the core calculation, wrapped in a user experience that works at a gas station when you're focused on fuel.

Mobile-first design — You'll use this on your phone at the pump, not on a desktop.

Zero friction — No accounts, no sign-ups, no analytics tracking. Input → output → done.

Real-time feedback — See the result update as you type, not after submitting a form.

Lovable.dev's AI-assisted development was perfect for this timeline. I could describe what I needed, iterate quickly, and refine the UX without wrestling with boilerplate.

05 — Ongoing Evolution

From Build to Refinement

The initial build solved the core problem, but using it in real life revealed opportunities: which inputs I adjust most, edge cases I didn't anticipate (different fuel grades at pumps, unusual tank sizes, regional ethanol availability), and what the community might need next.

I'm planning to release this to automotive enthusiast communities. That feedback will determine what features matter most: historical tracking, fuel economy calculations, community-shared tuning profiles, or something else entirely.

06 — Takeaway

Speed Reveals Opportunity

This project reinforced something I believe strongly as a designer: sometimes the best products come from solving your own problem first, then discovering it resonates with others. The speed of execution — one afternoon — wasn't a limitation. It was a feature that forced ruthless prioritization and built something real rather than theoretically perfect.

Play around with the current iteration of the web app here:
Flex Fuel Buddy

01 — Process

Strategy Before Aesthetics

Discovery & Strategy — Deep conversation with the founder to understand who they are, what they want the brand to represent, and what makes them distinct. Analysis of target audience, competitive landscape, and market positioning.

Visual Development — Multiple logo explorations and lockups for different applications (social, print, merchandise, web). Establishing color palettes, typography pairings, and visual tone.

Extensibility — Designing systems, not single assets. Multiple logo lockups for different contexts. Documenting typography scales, color usage, and tone to ensure consistency at scale.

02 — Selected Work

Brand Identities

The Chef in Pearls · Culinary / Brand Identity

Chef Sinclair’s brand was a fun endeavor. This was a fun challenge to create a character to represent the brand. In the end we had a lot of brand elements to work with for a variety of uses. Ms. Pearl is one of my favorite artifacts to date, and I look forward to animating her in the future!

Ritual Wellness ATX · Therapy & Psychology / Brand Identity

Ritual Wellness ATX is a therapy practice local to Austin Texas. Shown above are some of the explorations we went through for the initial discovery phase of the brand. lavender was a key element as it represents calm/peace and it grows all over Austin. The endless knot was a call to harmony, balance and wisdom from Buddhist practices. Last symbol in the top row is the 5 fold symbol which is a Celtic representation of balance in human nature. Ultimately we kept lavender as a key element in the background of the final and went with a circular mark that can be recognized easily outside of the full logo lockup.

Moonlit Water · Holistic Healing / Brand Identity

The founder of Moonlit Water wanted a more literal representation for their mark. For inspiration we explored linework, moon phases and a blue pallet. After a few iterations in direction we settled on the path you see above and refined from there. I’m looking forward to working more with Moonlit to roll out the rest of their brand guide and marketing materials.

01 — Process

Strategy, Planning & Execution

Strategy & Concept — Understanding the client's objective and target audience. Developing a concept that serves the story. Identifying where motion adds value: pacing, clarity, emotion, emphasis.

Planning & Execution — Detailed storyboarding before any asset creation. Shooting and directing source material when cinematic work is needed. Building animation in layers — establishing foundation, adding complexity, refining polish.

Production Quality — Full ownership of animation, editing, color grading, and final output. Collaboration on specialized assets (voice talent, script, music) while maintaining creative direction. Iteration based on client feedback and the demands of the story.

02 — Selected Work

Motion Projects

01 — Before & After

The Transformation

Three comparison formats are included below — use whichever best showcases your assets. Hide the others by adding style="display:none" to the section wrapper.

02 — Home Page

First impressions matter

The homepage needed to do three things immediately: communicate the shop's personality, surface the most-visited pages (menu and order), and feel warm enough that a first-time visitor would want to walk through the door.

A full-bleed hero with natural light photography and the shop's signature color palette anchors the experience. Navigation is reduced to what customers actually need.

03 — Integrated Menu

From browsing to ordering without leaving the page

The previous menu had no search, no filtering, and ordering meant jumping to a third-party platform. The redesigned menu is fully integrated: filterable by category, scannable at a glance, and connected directly to the order flow for easy pick-ups for the locals.

Every item links to a detail view with ingredients, customization options, and a direct add-to-order action — no redirect, no friction.

05 — Takeaway

Warm, inviting, and unmistakably theirs

The visual design was built around the shop's physical environment — warm tones, considered typography, and design decisions tested against one question: does this feel like Legends Coffee? This project was a reminder that constraints breed creativity. Working with an existing brand, a specific community, and a real physical space to reference made every design decision more grounded — and the result more authentic — than a blank-canvas brief ever could.