[About Me]

Hi I'm Chris. Welcome to Designward - a site that I'm maintaining as a portfolio and repository for whatever I feel like writing about.

I'm currently employed as a Design Technologist at Square. However, I started my career as an architectural designer at RINKA+ where I was really able to grow as a designer and a professional.

While I really enjoyed architecture and urban design, I found that I was also quite good at software engineering. A switch into a role as a Design Technologist at EvolveLAB - I know, its same title as I have now though it was quite a different role - soon followed. While there, I was given the opportunity to grow my software engineering skills on a variety of projects both for clients and on EvolveLAB's own products.

It was while at EvolveLAB where I discovered how well frontend development blended by design background and engineering skills. It becomes an area of focus and enjoyment. It wasn't so much that I didn't enjoy working in other areas of the stack - I had a lot of fun and learned a lot while working on more backend focused projects such as plugins and desktop apps - but more that I felt at home designing and building the UI features that users interacted with directly. With frontend work, I am able to flex my design muscles, craft experiences that feel meaningful, and bring them to life through code in a way that I could never with backend work.

And thus I'm here. I'm a designer. I'm an engineer. (I'm a design engineer??? ) I get to straddle both disciplines and enjoy working through the complex problems that come with them. While I don't use my architectural education directly, I find the ability to think spatially as a huge boon for solving the sorts of user journey and responsive design questions that UI/UX design and development poses. I'd certainly be worse off without that background.

Then, when I'm tired of staring at a screen, I'm also a runner, biker, tennis player, and general enjoyer of midwest adventures with my beautiful partner. Catch me out and about in the Chicago area enjoying the outdoors (when its nice) and the restaurants (all year).

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