How thehonestape.com is built

A walkthrough of the stack behind thehonestape.com: Astro 5 with MDX, Payload CMS v3 for visitor messages, Cloudflare Pages and D1 for runtime, an on-page Llama 3.3 70B agent over the Hugging Face Router, and Claude Code as the daily editor.

The Open Local Stack

Working with ComfyUI, Stable Diffusion WebUI, DiffusionBee, and Hugging Face as a designer's daily generative toolkit.

Vibe Coding is Design

Development is Design/Design is Development - exploring the changing relationship between design and development

Artificial Intelligence, Automatons, and Brazen Heads

Brazen Head by Abraham Garcia, Self-portrait. Imagine standing in a medieval laboratory, face-to-face, with a gleaming brass head. Its eyes flicker with otherworldly intelligence as it speaks, revealing secrets of the universe and glimpses of the future.

Bootlegs: Turning Photoshop Fails into Fashion

Hater’s gonna say it’s Photoshop. Every new digital tool shapes our design process with unique limitations and unexpected quirks.

My First Experiment with Stable Diffusion

Changing the ethnicity of a stock photo's subject using text prompts - tinkering as research in 2022

Four Books that Inspired Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis'

David Graeber and Herman Hesse influenced the director's new film - exploring civilization, patriarchy, and egalitarian societies

Meaning Layer: Design intelligence and insights—designed, and delivered directly to your inbox.

Loving Yourself Avoiding Burnout

A personal wellness illustration about self-care and avoiding burnout

Artcrank

Poster design for Artcrank Washington, DC. One-color screenprint.

Progressland

Renegotiating our relationship with technology and design

Boodywear

Brand identity and design work for Boodywear

Bloompop and Freshcut

E-commerce platform design for 'The Etsy for Florists' - connecting florists directly with customers. Established design system from zero and worked with technical founder to design custom e-commerce platform using rapid iteration workflow.

Chopsteak Inflatables: Christmas Mixtape 2022

Album art for DJ Chopsteak's Christmas mixtape, generated with Stable Diffusion and composited in Photoshop. Inflatable Santas, neon lights, and maximalist holiday kitsch.

Branding and the Truth

Examining how brands can embody truth and authenticity in their design and messaging.

Better Luck Next Year

A textured lettering illustration for the end of 2020

The Future is Now

Thoughts on technology, capitalism, and design as the world transforms during the 2020 pandemic.

Working Remotely

Tools and systems for successful remote design collaboration, written during the 2020 pandemic shift. Covers Slack, Zoom, Krisp.ai, Dropbox, Paper, and Figma workflows.

Skincare Collage

A social media collage exploring skincare themes

Pointer

A logo design featuring a dog pointer concept

Selections Covers

Seasonal design collages for various projects

Pale Blue Dot

An illustration inspired by Carl Sagan's famous perspective on Earth

Enat

Brand identity for Enat, an artisanal leather goods atelier rooted in Ethiopian craftsmanship and heritage.

Abstract Experiments

Priori Natural Launch Campaign

Brand launch campaign design for Priori Natural, a luxury skincare and wellness brand.

Clones

Icon Set WIP

Hot Dog

Chillin

Horse

Little Vampire

Casual Sophistication Icons

Snoop

Dont Like

Tea For Two

Push The Button

Calloway

Modular typeface design completed in Letter Workshop with Ben Kiel from House Industries.

Bioplastics Modular Mark

A modular mark system for bioplastics created for the Cereplast-Make Your Mark Contest, designed at MICA.

La Clínica del Pueblo Annual Reports

Design work for La Clínica del Pueblo, a non-profit clinic in Washington DC providing health services to the community. Includes annual gala collateral, website design, newsletters, and annual reports inspired by Central American folk art.

Medium

A publication project completed in Advanced Publications Design in graduate school. Originally a music blog started in the early 2000's in Austin, expanded to cover DC music and culture.

Nocturnal Animals

A publication project exploring nocturnal animals, completed in Advanced Publications Design in graduate school.

Infographic

A graphic infographic completed with assets created during an infographic workshop.

State Your Purpose!

Reflections on graduate school application statements and sharing growth as designers. A collection of MICA GDMFA alumni statements.