The Challenge

As a co-owner and creative director for Bat City Bites, my challenge was to build an entire brand identity from the ground up. The startup needed a professional logo, a cohesive visual style, print-ready product labels to secure distribution in physical retail locations. We also needed a professional website to serve as the brand's digital "home base."

The Solution

I directed and executed the brand's complete creative strategy. The goal was a clean, friendly, and energetic identity that felt both professional and local.

• Brand Identity: Developed the complete visual foundation by directing the brand's evolution from conceptual sketches to a final, high-energy identity and typography system designed to command attention on competitive retail shelves.
• Packaging Design: Created all print and digital assets, including the final, FDA-compliant product labels designed to stand out on a competitive retail shelf..
• Web Development: Built a fast, mobile-first website to serve as the central hub for product information and sales.

The Result

The cohesive brand and packaging strategy was a success, securing product placement in 4 retail stores across Austin. Although the company is no longer in operation this project stands as a complete case study in building a physical product brand from concept to launch.

The Challenge: No Engines Allowed

Modern tools like Unity or Godot abstract away the difficult math of game development. To truly understand the mechanics of movement, I chose to build a 2D physics engine from scratch using Vanilla JavaScript.

The goal was to replicate the "tight" feel of GBA-era platformers (specifically the 3:2 aspect ratio and pixel-perfect movement) without relying on any external physics libraries.

The Solution: Custom State Management

I engineered a Finite State Machine (FSM) to handle Solry's complex animation logic—transitions between Idle, Run, Jump, Fall, and Attack had to be frame-perfect.

• AABB Collision: Wrote custom axis-aligned bounding box logic for precise platforming.
• "Consume" Mechanic: Implemented a dynamic system where the player can eat enemies to regain health, adding a risk/reward layer to combat.
• Optimization: Used an asset manager to preload sprites, ensuring 60fps performance even on mobile devices.

The Challenge: A 48-Hour Pivot

We spent weeks designing a custom Linux curriculum, but just 48 hours before launch, we hit a critical wall: the kit's power supplies couldn't handle the voltage load of a full distro, causing screens to black out intermittently.

Facing a potential cancellation, I rallied my core team for an emergency "sprint." We scrapped the original OS plan, hunted down a stable beta of Kano OS, and spent the next 24 hours re-flashing every SD card. We didn't just fix the bugs; we completely restructured the syllabus overnight to focus on creative gaming (Scratch) rather than terminal commands, ensuring the class would still be a hit.

The Solution: Dynamic & Inclusive

I managed a dynamic team of 3-8 instructors, using a "tag-team" teaching style where different members led specific modules to keep the energy high. To ensure no student was left behind, we gamified our Q&A sessions, rewarding entire tables for correct answers so shy students could win without the pressure of the spotlight.

We also took a user-centered approach to classroom management. Instead of imposing rules, we co-created community guidelines with the students. We even integrated physical "movement breaks" with guided stretches to combat computer fatigue, acknowledging the physical toll of coding work.

The Result

The pilot was a resounding success. Students who started as passive consumers of technology left as creators, proudly taking home the computers they built themselves.

Beyond the classroom, this program served a critical strategic purpose. The documented success of our youth outreach satisfied a key requirement for HACA, directly assisting them in securing essential funding to sustain their digital equity mission.

The Initiative: Operational Design

During my 5-year tenure at Peoples Rx, I leveraged my role as Deli Manager to overhaul the company's struggling marketing efforts. The brand's visual presence was inconsistent, relying on low-quality snapshots and outdated layouts.

Recognizing the gap between our premium products and our "amateur" presentation, I stepped in to lead a visual transformation. I utilized my deep product knowledge to restage and photograph our inventory, redesigned the printed menus for three unique locations, and established a professional standard for social media content—all while managing daily deli operations.

The Technical Challenge: 40 SKUs

After the company adopted a new high-level identity from an external firm, they faced a bottleneck: they had a "design philosophy" but lacked the technical capacity to apply it to their 40+ unique products.

I was brought back as a specialist contractor to bridge this gap. Using Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, I translated abstract brand guidelines into print-ready reality. This required balancing strict FDA labeling requirements and physical container constraints against the ownership's ambitious aesthetic vision.

The Result

I successfully rolled out the new packaging across the entire product line, modernizing the shelf presence of Austin’s favorite pharmacy.

Beyond the deliverables, I focused on sustainability for the team. Before transitioning out, I trained the incoming marketing coordinator on the Adobe Creative Suite, ensuring the company maintained the technical capability to manage their new brand identity moving forward.

The Challenge: Depth vs. Accessibility

My goal was to create a physical tabletop experience that bridged a difficult gap: it needed to be accessible enough for a 6-year-old, yet possess enough tactical depth to engage hobbyist gamers—all within a snappy 30–60 minute session.

I needed to merge two conflicting genres—peaceful resource management (farming) and aggressive territorial control (combat)—into a cohesive loop where every harvest fueled the next battle.

The Solution: Bi-Modal Strategy

I engineered a three-phase turn structure (Farm, Build, Combat) that rewards forward planning. To solve the depth issue, I implemented a bi-modal win condition: players can win by being a "Builder" (constructing all structures) or a "Survivor" (destroying the opponent).

This creates a dynamic "cat and mouse" gameplay loop where players can pivot their entire strategy mid-game based on the board state, keeping replayability high.

The Digital Ecosystem

Treating this as a full product launch, I built a custom WordPress hub to serve as the game's digital storefront.

Performance was a priority. I engineered the site for speed, utilizing aggressive caching layers and advanced image optimization to ensure near-instant load times. I also leveraged Adobe Firefly to generate a consistent, fantasy-themed visual identity that unifies the physical board and the digital web presence.