The one client whose brief I knew completely

My old portfolio was a Squarespace template styled to match my résumé. It was competent, and it was invisible. One more designer portfolio in a field of designer portfolios, saying nothing a hundred others weren’t.

Which is the exact problem I get hired to solve, pointed at myself.

Why a mascot and not just a wordmark

A wordmark alone would have been the safe answer, and it would have made the same mistake all over again - clean, competent, indistinguishable.

So the identity carries two things. The wordmark does the professional work: it sits on an invoice, a proposal, a sign-off. The mascot does something a wordmark structurally cannot. It demonstrates that I can draw. For a designer whose clients hire illustration as often as layout, that is not decoration. It is the portfolio, compressed into one mark.

Same principle as the crosses hidden in the Little Steps wordmark: put the meaning inside the mark rather than bolting it on beside.

Everything, end to end

This is the only project where I owned every stage. That is what makes it worth showing.

Identity

A wordmark and a mascot, drawn to work together and to stand apart — full color, single color, and every lockup a real business needs.

Brand guidelines

The same document I build for clients. Color, type, mascot usage, and the rules that keep my own output consistent when I am making something at 11pm.

Design

The full site designed in Figma — every page, every state, responsive breakpoints, and a component library behind it.

Build

Developed in Webflow. Not handed to a developer. Built.

THE PART MOST DESIGNERS SKIP

Most designers hand over a file and disappear at the handoff

The gap between an approved design and a working website is where projects quietly go wrong. Spacing drifts, type substitutes, interactions get dropped, and nobody is quite responsible. I built this site myself, which means when I design yours I already know what Webflow will and will not do with it.

You are looking at the deliverable right now.

What I would tell a client in the same position

The old site was not badly made. It was a competent template that did not say anything, which is a harder problem than an ugly site — nothing looks broken, so there is never an obvious moment to fix it. If your website is quietly invisible rather than actively bad, that is the version worth taking seriously.

Want the same thing for your business?

Identity, guidelines, and a site that actually gets built by the person who designed it. Small businesses across Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Kitsap County and the South Sound.

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