About Me

During my elementary school years, I struggled with Dyslexia and various other learning disabilities. Eventually, the English language began to make a little more sense and I started reading all the time. After studying Spanish and Japanese, I realized languages can be analyzed similarly to other tools we use to view, analyze, understand and comment on the world.

English is a difficult language to develop fluent reading and writing skills; about 17% of English speakers will experience minor traits of Dyslexia. Comparing this to a syllabic script such as Japanese, which has a dramatic drop in the rates of Dyslexia, closer to 3.8% of the population experiencing it (naturally, there are potentially many social variables contributing to the change).

I think my experience with Dyslexia has a lot in common with many of the design problems I've faced. To be diagnosed as a child it requires an incredible amount of luck across many people involved: awareness from my teachers, openness from my parents, and access to specialty education. It wasn’t until 3rd grade that I would have even admitted it was something I was comfortable with.

Had I been born at an earlier time or in different circumstances, my life would have been quite different. I still sometimes think back on my early tests in Japanese where I marveled at accomplishing something I never imagined being able to do (which was also a questionable GPA decision).

Perception is one of the most powerful ways people see the world, it affects how we learn, socialize, work, and our interests. I became interested in design because of those early experiences and because people can accomplish a lot when tools accommodate them.

Portfolio Design

This site was created on Jekyll awhile ago as a way to learn basic web development. However, I'd recommend starting with Eleventy as it's a simpler and more modern alternative.