For the BentoBox design team
The Cookbook
A recipe library for code, so the snippets and components we kept rewriting live in one searchable place.
Astro, Supabase, CodeMirror
I’m Chris. I design websites, build them, and explain them to anyone in the room.
Ten years, well over a hundred websites. I design and develop on any platform, or hand-code from a blank file. I also scope what clients need, walk them through the platform and answer the technical questions on the call.
So what do you actually do?
Most teams need three people for this.
One to design the site, one to build it, and one to sit with the client and explain what’s going on. I’ve spent ten years turning into all three.
I design it
I trained as a graphic designer, so the look comes first: type, color, photography, and a layout shaped around what the business needs a visitor to do. Every site should look like it could only belong to that one client.
I build it
Then I build it myself, usually straight from idea to code, so nothing gets lost in a handoff. That can be on Webflow, WordPress or whatever platform your team already uses. Given the choice, I’ll write it by hand in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
I explain it
And I’m the one on the call. I scope what an owner really needs and turn a developer’s “it depends” into a decision a person can make. At BentoBox I went from designing all day to running client calls, and found I love getting people excited about a platform.
Can I see some?
Sure. Here are a few I’m proud of.
Out of the hundred-plus sites I’ve designed and built, these are the ones I’d show you first. Restaurants from BentoBox, local businesses from Beyond Belief.
How’d you get here?
Pixels first, then people.
A design degree, a decade-plus of web design experience, and my own studio on the side.
- Jul 2019 to Dec 2020
Graphic Designer
Internet Creations- Designed and built Salesforce Community Cloud pages for an enterprise SaaS marketing team
- Built Marketo landing pages and email templates for campaigns
- Made launch, event and social assets, plus short videos
- Aug 2020 to now
Owner and developer
Beyond Belief Web Design- Find and pitch local businesses, usually with a homepage concept already built
- Hand-code every site in Astro, deployed with Git and Netlify
- Handle local SEO, Google Business Profile, analytics and Search Console
- Walk owners through DNS, hosting and email, and stay on for updates
- Dec 2020 to now
Senior Web Designer
BentoBox (acquired by Clover)- Design and build custom sites for restaurants and hospitality groups, dozens in flight at once
- Lead design calls directly with owners and marketing teams
- Set the front-end standards and custom CSS and JavaScript the design team builds with
- Own the VIP and at-risk accounts, and get on the call when a client is ready to walk
- Mentor a team of designers, run design reviews, and wrote the team’s training docs
A perfect day
- 7:00 amCheck on everything
A lap around every site I look after: analytics, uptime, forms, and anything that needs a fix before the owner notices.
- 9:00 amDiscovery call
I listen to how the business actually runs and find where the website is letting them down, then turn it into a plan to bring in more business.
- 10:30 amDesign and build
Heads down. I nail the copy with AI’s help, rough out how the site flows, then build it straight in code with their brand guide. No brand guide? I’ll make one.
- 4:30 pmLaunch walkthrough
A site that’s ready goes live. I show the owner what changed, why it works, and how to keep it up to date.
Do you actually write the code?
Any platform you run on. Or no platform at all.
Whatever your team uses
I’m not precious about tools. If your team lives in Webflow or WordPress, I’ll build there and build it well. I’ve launched real sites on both, along with Squarespace, Wix and BentoBox’s own platform, where I spend most days pushing past what the templates allow with custom CSS and JavaScript. A platform limitation rarely means no. There’s almost always a way.
Or a blank file
My favorite way to build, though, is from a blank file: HTML, CSS and JavaScript, organized in Astro and deployed through Git and Netlify. With no visual editor between me and the code, I can read exactly why something broke. And when a design calls for something a page builder can’t do, I just write it.
The unglamorous parts
Restaurants get sued over the smallest accessibility issues, so at BentoBox accessibility and performance came first on every site. Mine work on a phone from the first line, meet accessibility standards, load fast, and are set up so search engines see what they should.
What I build with
- Astro
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- Git
- Netlify
- Supabase
- Webflow
- WordPress
- Squarespace
- Wix
- BentoBox
- Figma
- Adobe CC
- GA4
- Tag Manager
- Search Console
- Lighthouse
Do you use AI?AI makes me faster.
AI makes me faster.
It doesn’t make the decisions.
The heavy lifting happens up front. Before an agent builds anything, I’ve set up the design system and the components it can use, and written down how I work: how I name things, how I structure a page, what I never want to see.
Once that’s in place, I let it run. I check in along the way to steer, and I make the calls on anything that matters. Sites launch sooner, and they still look and read like a person made them. If you can tell AI was involved, I did it wrong.
I also reach for it when something at work or at home needs a tool that doesn’t exist yet.
Working prototype
CartIQ
Our grocery bill kept surprising us, so I built a receipt scanner. Snap a photo and Claude reads every line item into a budget tracker.
React, Supabase, Anthropic API
Working prototype
HomePlate
A weekly meal planner for our family: a pool of meals we like, a plan for the week, and a tap to stretch one dinner across two nights.
Built with Claude Code
What are you like to work with?
Patient. I’ll explain it as many times as it takes, without making anyone feel dumb.
A lot of my week is spent on calls, and it’s the part of the job I didn’t expect to love.
A story from my studio
The client whose last designer held their website hostage.
Quantum Home Cares came to me as a referral after their previous web designer burned them, right down to holding their domain and website hostage. Earning their trust took a lot of time.
Now other companies in their industry compliment them on the site, and the sign-ups keep coming. They even asked for a yes or no button on every lead that sends the good ones straight into their CRM. It took some digging through API keys, but it works perfectly.
On client calls
I explain things the way Oscar explained a surplus to Michael Scott: like you’re five, with an everyday analogy that sticks. When an account is frustrated, I’m usually the one who picks up the phone.
Inside the team
When a designer’s video wouldn’t load right, I didn’t just paste the fix. I walked them through why it broke and why the new code works. I’d rather teach it once than fix it twice.
At my own studio
The whole cycle, from the first cold message to the pitch to teaching an owner to update their own site.
So whether the room needs a designer, a developer, or someone to demo the product and answer the hard questions, I’ve sat in that chair.
And when you’re not working?
The stuff that isn’t on my resume.
Drag them around. Click one and I’ll tell you more.
How do I reach you?
I’m looking for my next role. That could be designing and building websites, leading the team that does, or working as a sales or solutions engineer for a product in the web space. If you’re hiring for any of those, or you’re not sure which one I am, I’d like to talk.
Open to full-time roles in web design and development, web team leadership, and solutions engineering.
Remote first, open to hybrid with a reasonable commute, and happy to travel. I can start right away.
Or find me on LinkedIn