Bio

I'm a Phoenix-raised designer who believes great products should bring incalculable joy. Growing up obsessed with aesthetics (whether it's fashion, architecture, or how my coffee mug feels in my hand), I've always been fascinated by the intersection of beauty and functionality, and how design can blur the boundaries between digital and physical experiences.

My Journey to UX

My path to product design wasn't traditional. After serving 10 years in the US Army as a Military Police Officer and Supply & Logistics Sergeant, I decided to make a strategic pivot. In 2018, while serving on a deployment to Afghanistan, I was researching design careers that balanced meaningful work with genuine purpose. Product design checked every box: the perfect blend of art, psychology, computer science, and systems thinking. After returning home to Seattle in 2019, I started my journey to become a product designer. In 2023, I graduated from the University of Washington with my Bachelor of Science in Human Centered Design & Engineering. Now I'm consulting under A Happy Cactus while attending the University of California, Irvine's Master of Human-Computer Interaction & Design program, continuing to build technical depth within my craft.

How I Approach Design

10 years of military logistics taught me how to manage complexity, think in systems, and understand how each component occupies its unique role within a larger ecosystem. That experience now shapes my approach to product design: I design experiences that immerse users across all touchpoints, seamlessly integrate digital and physical interactions, and feel discovered rather than imposed. Like organisms finding their ecological niche, great products identify and fill their unique spaces within our users' lives, adapting seamlessly to context, engaging all the senses, and creating moments of incalculable joy that you feel rather than just use.

My Design Principles

My work is guided by four core beliefs:

Immerse, don't just interface. Great design engages all the senses and creates moments you feel, not just use. I'm not purely designing for screens, I'm designing for humans moving through space and time.

Blur the boundary between atoms and bits. The best experiences don't distinguish between touching a product and tapping a screen. They're one continuous conversation across every surface and modality.

Feel discovered, not designed. When something feels inevitable, like users can't imagine it working any other way, that's when you know you've nailed it. Not forced. Not over-designed. Just right.

Occupy your niche with purpose. Like organisms in nature, great products find and fill their unique space in the socio-technical landscape. They adapt to users' contexts, solve problems people didn't know they had, and couldn't exist anywhere else.

Beyond the Pixels

When I'm not designing, you'll usually find me deep in an artist's discography, hunting for streetwear grails, curating art for my home, getting lost in anime, or planning my next international adventure. In 2023 I collaborated with Avenged Sevenfold (my favorite metal band) on official merch for their fan club, and we've been working together ever since. I keep pinching myself because it still feels like a dream.

At my core, I'm just a kid from the desert who wants to make things that bring unexpected magic to the world.