Hardware, software, and opinions.

Hardware

Laptop

14" MacBook Pro M3, 24 GB. Closed-lid most of the time.

Display

32" 4K matte LG, calibrated at 6500K.

Keyboard

Keychron Q1 Pro · brown switches · steel plate.

Mouse

Logitech MX Master 3S.

Phone

Pixel 8 (perf testing — not a Pro).

Camera

Sony A7C II + 35mm. For project case-study photography.

Editor & terminal

Editor

VS Code · Solarized Dark · Cabinet Grotesk for the UI font.

Font (code)

JetBrains Mono 14px, ligatures on.

Terminal

Ghostty · zsh · starship prompt.

Git client

Just git. Sometimes lazygit.

Browser

Firefox for daily use, Chrome for DevTools / Lighthouse.

Build stack

Framework

Astro for marketing sites · 11ty for blog-shaped sites.

Styling

Vanilla CSS. CSS variables for tokens. No Tailwind on shipped client work.

JS

Vanilla. View Transitions API where supported. Almost zero on the critical path.

CMS

Sanity (when needed). Otherwise markdown files in the repo.

Hosting

Cloudflare Pages or Vercel — edge wherever possible.

Forms

Plain mailto: or a Cloudflare Worker. No 3rd-party form services.

Design

Design tool

Figma. Sparingly. Most layout happens in HTML/CSS.

Type

Cabinet Grotesk · General Sans · Fraunces · JetBrains Mono.

Color tool

Sip (macOS) for picking. Coolors for palettes.

Inspiration

Awwwards, Site Inspire, Brutalist Websites, weekly browse.

What I refuse to use

• WordPress for greenfield builds. Caching plugins are a moral failing.
• Webflow for client work — vendor lock-in. Source goes to your repo, not theirs.
• jQuery. It is 2026.
• Bootstrap or Tailwind UI kits — they make every site look the same.
• Carousels. Nobody clicks slide two.
• AI-generated illustration on client work. Hire an actual illustrator if the budget allows.
• Cookie banners for sites that don't set cookies. (Mine doesn't.)
• Chat widgets. Every kB matters.