greetings.

I'm Austin👋🏻. I’m a Digital Experience Designer, a UX/UI Designer, a Web Designer and a Frontend Developer. I currently reside in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I specialize in UI/UX, Web Design, and Frontend Development, but practice everything from logo and brand design, to experimental graphic and motion design. I currently work for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation as their Web, UX/UI Designer & Frontend Developer.

If you're interested in working together, have feedback for this site or any of my works, or just want to say "hey," please feel free to get in touch!

my philosophy.

simple.

Keeping things simple and as minimal as possible in order to keep interfaces clear and easy to use.

delightful.

Striving to create moments of delight within the interface through hover effects, animations, whimsy and humor. These moments of delight can spark a sense of joy, and who wouldn't want their users to be happy?

beautiful.

Visually stunning interface design can make all the difference, showcasing an organization's passion for quality through pixel perfection and aesthetically pleasing design.

my story.

It all started in middle school when my dad handed me a copy of photoshop. I fell in love with the program and it’s ability to alter imagery. Arranging digital shapes and typography to make my own unique compositions became my favorite pastime. I soon found myself designing myspace avatars, facebook cover photos and album artwork for my all of my friend's and their many bands. I was in love with the craft of digital design.

I went to Michigan State University and studied Interactive Web Design with a specialization in Design. I redesigned and developed the website for two different film clubs, worked with my college’s design street team, helped out non-profits with rebranding their digital identities, joined forces with three different startups that were developing iOS apps, and lead the design for the Michigan State Hackathon, Spartahack.

As a student I also worked for Matrix, a digital humanities web design studio as a designer and developer. After graduation, they hired me as a full time employee, where I then worked as their Lead UX/UI Designer and Developer. At Matrix I translated complex user flows into simplistic, delightful, and intuitive visual user interfaces; developed high fidelity prototypes in order to collaborate design vision between project managers, clients developers and designers; worked closely with development teams to ensure that the visual design and experience is properly implemented from concept to reality; and developed the frontend for many of Matrix’s public facing sites.

After 7 years at Matrix, I was ready for a new challenge, and shortly found myself working for the State of Michigan, for the department that runs the Pure Michigan Campaign, also known as the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), as their Web, UX/UI Designer & Frontend Developer. Here my role is designing visually engaging web experiences to attract Michigan businesses and tourism prospects. I analyze web analytics, craft wireframes and high-fidelity visual prototypes, develop an organizational design library/system, and write frontend code. All while collaborating closely with project stakeholders and developers to ensure a cohesive design vision.

my interests.

Outside of work, I enjoy working on several of my own side projects that keep me experimenting, tinkering and growing my design and frontend development skillset.

When i'm not designing or developing, I enjoy spending my time hiking, bouldering, bicycling, canoeing, backpacking, reading, or playing a video game.