Ahoy-hoy! I’m Pixel Ponderer, a designer and illustrator who looks for the gaps people actually feel, then builds what’s missing.
Pixels are the digital workbench where the production happens, but the pondering is where the work gets made: the hours spent figuring out the logic, quirks and constraints that turn a complicated problem into something that works for the folk using it. The work I care about most is design that can “teach need”, and my capstone, Grammar Gizmos, is the clearest example.

Great design starts as a conversation, a genuine back-and-forth between the people making it and the people it’s for. The user isn’t just the end point, they’re a co-author. So I test early with real people: Optimal Deck was timed against a control deck, and a dyslexic tester changed its typeface. The problems can be messy, but the best solutions are often surprisingly simple, if you take the time to get there.

I wear a fair few hats and I don’t plan on stopping until my brain refuses to take on anything new. Brand systems, illustration, motion, print, physical prototypes and hand-coded sites all sit in the same workflow, and my favourite jobs are the tricky ones that won’t let you say “ah well, that’ll do.” Day to day I’m the sole in-house Lead Designer at a store in Christchurch NZ, quoting and scoping real work to real budgets. Most of my projects involve Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, and HTML, CSS, JS and GSAP in Visual Studio Code.

Design is about connecting with people, whether through visuals or words. Facts, figures and technicals are the foundation, but to really land you also have to make people feel something, and that only happens when you understand who you’re designing for.