Design
Design is a subjective term. I like Creative Reaction Lab's definition: "Design is the intention (and unintentional impact) behind an outcome." There's also the more conventional definition from Oxford Languages: "an arrangement of lines or shapes created to form a pattern or decoration." I do both.
Visual & graphic
Selected collection of design as layouts, editorial photography, print, logos, branding, apparel, and accessories.
Bootleg series™
Misprinted Looney Toons® t-shirts and off-color Dora the Explorer® piñatas were ubiquitous throughout my childhood on San Antonio's Westside. The Bootleg Series™ is an homage to the imitations at la pulga, el mercado, or in the gas station parking lot. Cartoon characters have been updated with subversive slogans commenting on immigration, gender, and patriarchy. Made-to-order and sold on tour.
Veladora series
This series is dedicated to the botanicas of my youth. Prayer candles that could help you to do just about anything—from stopping gossip to winning the lotto. Veladora uses classic vela designs with refreshed images and modernized blessings. Made-to-order and sold at local maker events.
Design & research
Selected collection of websites, mobile applications, interaction design, research, workshops, design systems, component libraries, and digital brand guidelines.
My roles and responsibilities are project-dependent ranging from: user interface (UI) design, user experience (UX) design, product design, service design, front-end design, and/or user research. Longer, narrative case studies detailing process and outcome coming soon.
Case studies (coming soon)
Longer, narrative case studies detailing process and outcome.
NSF.gov (coming soon)
Research and design to make the National Science Foundation more accessible to youth and people outside of the scientific community. Project overview here.
ADA.gov (coming soon)
Research and design to make the Americans with Disabilities Act website easier to navigate—especially for people with disabilities.
FindTreatment.gov (coming soon)
Research and design for a new resource for people seeking treatment for mental health and substance use disorders in the U.S. and its territories.
ClinicalTrials.gov (coming soon)
FAC.gov (coming soon)
Clients & partners
I started my career working in tech startups and have worked through a variety of titles and industries in the US and Europe. I've done design and research for some of the world's biggest brands like: AT&T, Best Buy, Burt's Bees, Deutsche Post, Marks and Spencer, Olay, Roots Canada, Sephora, Tide, and Tesco.
Now I work with U.S. federal agencies, states, and sovereign Tribal Nations with partners like: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (DOJ CRT), National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Experimental coding
I started my career in front-end development, but now I'm primarily more on the research side of things. Occasionally I dabble in creative coding experiments on codepen.io.
Writing bios has always been super difficult for me. It's tough to strike a balance between approachable and pretentious. While reading through bios, everything started to sound so formulaic, so I wrote some code to create a very cheeky artist bio generator.
*Any similarity to any artist, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
I spend too much time trying to understand the wall text at modern art museums. On a recent trip to MASS MoCA I discovered the formula and was inspired to create a wall text generator.
Approach
There's a lot of jargon to describe the overlap of my practices: human-centered, community-centered, accessibility-first, trauma-informed, etc., and I combine all these methodologies.
A big part of my practice is teaching design to non-designers. It helps demystify design and redistribute power within a team. I encourage group participation in the design process, include people impacted by the problem, and design for a wide-range of human experiences. Since design is a group effort, managing interpersonal dynamics is crucial. I became certified in workplace mediation and DEIA consulting to help with facilitation, addressing power dynamics, and responding to conflict.