Beyond the Brief
Off the clock,
Same curiosity that goes into a layout also goes into a piano piece, a roll of 35mm, a vocal take, or a save file I've been running for years. Different tools, same habit — find something with a system to it, and slowly get better at it.
01 — On the Keys
Piano
Piano is where the screen disappears — working a piece back up to speed one hand at a time, with the same patience a stubborn layout demands. Less about performing, more about the process: slow enough to actually hear what's wrong, deliberate enough to fix it.
02 — Through the Viewfinder
Film Photography
Shooting 35mm keeps me honest in a way digital never did — metering by feel, composing without a preview, and living with a shot instead of deleting and trying again. There’s a mechanical satisfaction to winding a roll that isn’t far off from a well-built design system: nothing works until every small part does.
03 — Off Mic, Mostly
Singing
Alternative and metal — Sleep Token on repeat — are the soundtrack to most of my week, and singing along has turned into something closer to a discipline: working out how to adapt heavy vocal tracks with clean substitutions, chasing the line between power-belting and breathy grit without wrecking my voice.
04 — Systems, For Fun
Gaming
I'm an avid life-sim player — deep in the Early Access build of Paralives alongside long-running saves of The Sims 2 and 3. I'm not modding anything myself, but I'm particular about how a game is configured: GShade presets, Steam Workshop content, and the occasional afternoon lost to chasing down a performance bug just because it's satisfying to solve.
Back to the Day Job