What led you into design?
A bit of a scrappy path birthed from Microsoft Paint and Yahoo GeoCities to Dreamweaver and Flash, to Freelance and Photoshop, to Figma and side-projects. I wouldn't change a thing.
What does a typical day look like?
No day is the same but I can honestly say every day I wake motivated to dive straight into my work. I'm the only one in the way of what I want to archive in this online journey, so it's time to get going. After a coffee and rusk, it's usually 10 hours of screentime curating content, replying to emails, tweaking my sites, overthinking, wireframing ideas and chatting to side-project friends around the globe.
When there are waves though, it's all turned off. I've spent the last decade trying to design my work life where if I can drop everything to chase a swell for a few days. Freedom and flexibility are very important to me.
What's your workstation setup?
Where do you go to get inspired?
The ocean - surfing, the outdoors - birding and online - mostly on Twitter seeing wonderful ideas brought to life. I also get a LOT out of travelling but can't see that happening for a while being in South Africa. Airports in particular are places that top up my inspiration and I actually (used to pre-covid) make an effort to try to work at them remotely.
What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?
I recently moved over my network's Commerce to Lemon Squeezy and thought dang this is a fresh UI! Another that comes to mind is what Steve Schoger is doing with the Tailwind UI design. Him, Adam and their crew are so meticulous in all aspects of the Tailwind business (from their Tweets to their blog posts) and it's very inspiring for me.
What pieces of work are you most proud of?
Probably how I have been consistently curating One Page websites since 2008 on One Page Love and grew it into my full-time job. It was an emotional rollercoaster saying no to good freelance gigs to bank those hours for my low-earning projects. I had to say no to money, surfs, friends... while failing forward in order to get it right online. When reflecting on my journey, the 30-part Yo! series for YouTube also comes to mind. I learnt too much, levelled up my editing skills considerably and was seriously proud of what I achieve solo.
What design challenges do you face at your company?
1. Finding the line between testing something/shipping it fast and spending hours making it look good before revealing.
2. Consistency - right now I'm on the cusp of expanding my "Love Network" of sites to more niches and need to create a cohesive family design system. Do I want them to look the same? Should they each have their own identity? As of now, I honestly don't know.
What music do you listen to while designing?
Any advice for ambitious designers?
Double that padding friend! Also, try to replicate what your favourite designers are doing in private but also don't be afraid to work on your personal projects in public. There are loads of benefits to putting it all out there. People are much more constructive and kind online when you are vulnerable. Remember no one has mastered "design", we are all learning from each other.
Anything you want to promote or plug?
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