About me

When I moved to the United States in 2001, I had no idea that I would be pursuing a career on the web. I was a fresh college grad with a bachelor’s in biology, from one of the best universities in the Philippines. I thought I’d be working in a lab. What is it that they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?

I started learning how to design for the web with my first computer purchase in late 2001. It was the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. CSS and the idea of semantic, meaningful HTML were ascendant, and the confusing markup and table layouts of the late 90s were slowly and surely going away.

I also started publishing on the web. I’ve been writing all my life, and the potential for a large audience with instant feedback and discussion was alluring to me. I started using Blogspot, before it was even bought by Google. At some point, I moved to a self-hosted site and, on the recommendation of a friend, used a little program called b2. I loved it, and when Matt Mullenweg took the reigns and forked it into what we now call WordPress, I was among those who tested version 0.71. I was a fierce evangelist for WordPress during the early, contentious years. In many ways, I still am.

In the beginning I designed for friends, for free. Almost all of us did, even though nowadays it’s such poor form. Times were different, then. I was politically active, and I saw an opportunity in catering to my Conservative fellows who found it difficult to find designers willing to work with them due to political differences.

Today, I design custom websites for clients. I go to WordCamps and occasionally speak at them. I write about design and WordPress. I work with developers who need designers, sometimes as a project partner and other times as an anonymous subcontractor. I’m easily approachable, and there’s plenty of ways to reach me.

WordCamp activity

  • Mid-Atlantic, 2009
  • Raleigh, 2010
  • Mid-Atlantic, 2010
  • Philly, 2010
  • Miami, 2011
  • Raleigh, 2011
  • Philly, 2011
  • Miami, 2012
  • NYC, 2012
  • Boston, 2012
  • Baltimore, 2012