I'm currently doing some web design stuff at Github. I'm used to working in fast-paced environments and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams. As a generalist, I'm focused on craft and driven by quality. My design approach is realistic and creative, supported by skills in frontend development — all that to say that I know how to translate my ideas into HTML and CSS. My specialty is web design but have been enjoying creating all sorts of visuals like icons and prototypes. I also dabble with illustrations when I get the opportunity. Follow my work on Dribbble and occasional case study on Behance.
I'm clearly interested in too many things so I'm trying to slow down and be more present. Literally slow down, learn to appreciate little things, and care for little human. That'll take me a while. Otherwise I occasionnally sketch random things, take notes and collect moments.
A few fellow designers have reached out resulting in some great conversations. A mix of ranting and sharing stories of our careers. That felt therapeutic for both side. So I decided to open an hour a week for these. If you want to connect, feel free to reach out:
→ hello@slrncl.comFeel free to check my Linkedin if you are into this kind of things or send me an email like a normal person.
Footnotes
Hello – again. This section is a sort of extended "About" section where I allow myslef to blab. I don't have big ideas for this. I believe in learning things the long (often harder) way. Like finding the energy to have a website (or whatever this is). I'm not 100% sure it is a wise use of my time but it feels right to speak my truth. I design websites because I got good enough to get paid for it (crazy that now I get to feed my family doing this). I probably sound like a basic yuppie. Perhaps. These few words and what I do everyday are the only trace of my existense. There is so much stuff out there, it's at best very distracting but realistically destructive (by fragementing our attention, then intellect and ultimately our society). I don't want this for myself, my people, and honestly, the world. I crave contemplation but rarelly get to it. Discipline and self examination keep me sane (and walks).
I was born and raised in France, then in late 2016, this lovely lady found me on dribbble and flew me to the Bay Area to join Opendoor's design team where I spent 5 years. In less than 6 years I went from living out of a few bags to have a family. That's wild. I never planned any of that. While I'm filled with gratefulness I want to put as much intention as I can to figure out where I want to live and what kind of life I want. That takes most of my free time. I like to think that I practice a sort of socratic examined life; a wholesome summum bonum. It has been complicated for me to find much satisfaction in my contribution as a web designer. A website is a website. Yet almost ten years later I'm still here, making websites.
* slrncl is a simple concatenation of my last name and my first name without the vowels. It's hard to remember, which is great since I'm not trying to play the SEO game here. I agonised over my "personal brand" for years and finally buried this vanity. I still spend a fair amount of ime of this page that I update/redesign, too regularly... so often that my own wife nags me about it.
I don't track anything (anymore), no cookies for you. In general I tend to keep things as simple as possible because I'm not a great engineer and quite frankly I prefer to stay 5 years behind to play it safe. I'd happily trade the internet for fresh air and clean water. But the world we live in requires us to keep building and fixing things. So I'm here making websites with good old jquery, html and css. I don't recommend inspecting my code, it's really not great but decently light. I believe building stuff is a great way to keep myself grounded in my process. I've built many silly things over the years, most of them are gone, thankfully.
A mix of a weird work ethic and ego led me to define myself through the stuff I make. I like to make stuff (almost always too fast). That qualifies for the tech bro archetype, who needs to "make" things (often obvious mistakes) to learn. Unfortunately I am one of those monkeys for whom most learning comes from experience. As I age, I get reminded that the stuff that vicerally gets acknowledged rarelly comes from passive consumption but rather from deeply engaged acts. Design has been technical enough to make me believe I understand things better over time. But also abstract to keep me humble and hungry. Images and words are imperfect. It looks like we are just realizing the problem with words while we've been aware of how images can distort our perception for a long time. I'll keep making images and code stuff, that's my way to chip away at life's monolith, or to push my rock up the montain like Sisiphus. I spend most of my time torn between ascetic ideals and pragmatic coping strategies, that's my version of the examined life.
After quitting social media I decided to put more intention in the way I use the internet in general. I used to think about things in terms of cost/benefit only and fell for the potential value rather than indexing more the attention cost. I'm now reclaiming my fragmented attention. The few connections, ideas, and laughs I got from it are not worth the space it took in my head. Of course I'm afraid of the social stigma and the potential effect it could have on my career... after all I didn't delete my Linkedin account. It says something about me. Everyone will perceive this and judge me differently – Be it. I know the design world is all up on twitter and instagram. Mostly for reach and interaction according to my understanding. Vanity, garbage, and burnout are too much for me to justify the effort of coping. I'll be active where I think it is relevant for me to be: Behance and Dribbble.
This page emits an estimated 3.196g of carbon dioxide equivalent per visitor (that's not great) – view report ↗. The internet is a heavy beast and we tend to deny the true cost of pixels. It is not what most people envision or describe with fluffy words like pixels and cloud. Having a kid and failling at growing anything edible really made me realize the reality of energy scarcity. It's sad and appalling, but that's what it took me to realize it. As a designer I can do little more than not increasing the weight of things too much, one bit at the time. Simple things like compressing images or being more subtle with animation can make a difference. Considering people's attention on the web, these details will probably not be noticeable anyway. That is the kind of honesty I preach and apply to my own work.
I don't think much about tech, data, accessibility or AI. A scary sentence to write but that is partially what motivated me to leave social media that seems obsessed with these matters. The web industry is increasinlgy fragmented and driven by highly specialized tools. This promotes a loss of autnomy by increasing dependencies and lack of (human) specialists. Too many inputs and tools have distracted me from the process: consider context, take decisions, do the work and iterate (work some more). Limiting inputs narrows the context, it's crucial for me to stay functional. I often choose to center around tangibility and what I judge is the wisest feasible action. That may sound pretentious but it allows me to find meaning in what I do.