# Ignacio Giri — Full Site Content > The complete text of ignaciogiri.com, serialized as markdown for language models. Images, video and interactive diagrams are omitted. --- # Work # TARA Time and Relativity Association **Client:** TARA — Brand Identity (Case Study) **Year:** 2018 ### Time travel rules I created these guiding principles from research on current time travel theory and the bounds of my own imagination. - Time only moves forward. Entropy and quantum physics forbid going back. - We can travel as fast as 99.99999999% the speed of light. A new formula has been discovered that allows us to harness an infinite energy similar to that of the Sun. - Rapid space-travel affects time dilation. Our perception of time on earth is different to the perception of the time traveler. - There is no evidence of wormholes. We can’t warp space on demand. - The closest Black Hole is thousands of light years away. It is impossible to get there without a wormhole. - We can’t travel time without traveling space. Space and time are interconnected based on the General Theory of Relativity, called space-time. - In theory, we could “see” the past in the radiation of a Black Hole, if we ever built a device that could read that. - We assume TARA exists because time travel has proven safe and possible. - There are many motivations behind time travel. The only one we are concerned about is curiosity. This avoids veering into questions of a highly ethical nature. Strategy ### The Past is History. The Future is Unknown. There are unlimited ways to imagine time travel. History is full of attempts to do exactly that. I began my process by creating a set of constraints, called “time travel rules”. These would act as a filter to guide my vision. After some initial research, it became clear that humanity is focused on reliving the past. Our Google searches reveal our desire to go back and course correct. My idea of time travel is based on the notion that nothing is wrong with now, and there is nowhere to go back to. Instead, I imagine a future where humans are propelled forward by pure curiosity. TARA offers time-travel in one direction. Tomorrow. We can try to predict the future, but we would be wrong. The core mission of TARA is to foster curiosity, and to embrace the great unknown with optimism. > Let's hope there's a Chronology Protection Law, to prevent people going back and killing their parents. > — Stephen Hawking ### Questions Designing from a constant state of inquiry helps me stay flexible as change happens. Here are some questions I asked during the research phase that helped me conceptualize the TARA brand. To generate them, I imagined what it would be like to take my first TARA journey. - How is time travel possible? - What is time dilation? - What is a space warp? - Could we travel to a black hole? - How fast do we need to travel to bend time? - When could time travel become possible? - Is time travel as easy as plane travel? - Are there any risks involved? - How could I use design to prevent casualties? - Who’s the intended audience? - What would I pack for the journey? - What languages exist in the future? - Could I meet my future self? - Why can’t I travel to the past? - How much will the journey cost? - What is the concept of time travel, outside of physics? - Without knowing the future, how will I promote time travel? - What is the motivation behind TARA? ## Credits - Client - Role [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/tara) # AdLeverage Are you ready to grow your home service business? **Year:** 2023 AdLeverage started with months of exploration and discovery. Hundreds of logo studies, three brand directions, and dozens of compositions before landing on an identity that moves at the pace of a growth agency. ## Credits - Role [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/adleverage) # Beats by Dre A better mobile experience. **Client:** Beats by Dre — Music & Audio, Los Angeles, CA **Year:** 2013 ## Credits - Company - Role - Projects - Head of e-Commerce - Project Manager [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/beats-by-dre) # Dunham's Footwear, on the run. **Client:** Dunham's — Fashion **Year:** 2016 ## Credits - Agency - Role - Creative Director [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/dunhams) # StyleSaint Dope fashion, less coin. **Client:** StyleSaint — Fashion, Venice, CA **Year:** 2013 ## Credits - Client - Role - Director & CEO [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/stylesaint) # CB2 Modern, urban, undecorated. **Client:** CB2 — Furniture & Home Decor **Year:** 2012 ## Credits - Client - Role [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/cb2) # BlastOff A typography-led identity system. **Client:** BlastOff — Brand identity **Year:** 2017 ## Credits - Client - Role [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/blastoff) # Oso Identity, explored. **Client:** Oso — Brand identity **Year:** 2017 ## Credits - Client - Role [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/oso) # Men's Wearhouse Tailored guidance, online. **Client:** Men's Wearhouse — Fashion / Retail **Year:** 2012 ## Credits - Agency - Role - Creative Director - Awards [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/mens-wearhouse) # Crate & Barrel Storytelling for home merchandising **Client:** Crate & Barrel — Home & Furniture **Year:** 2012 ## Credits - Agency - Role - Creative Director - Awards & Mentions [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/crate-and-barrel) # AHAlife A magazine in your browser. **Client:** AHAlife — Marketplace / Editorial, New York, NY **Year:** 2013 ## Credits - Agency - Client - Role - Account Manager [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/ahalife) # Elle Somewhere here **Client:** Elle **Year:** 2013 ## Credits - Role - Client - Project - Account Manager [View project](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/elle) --- # Blog # One hour of internet > Before we had a connection at home, the internet came in one-hour sessions at the Biblioteca Argentina. A story about a bus ride, my aunt Elsa, and a shared 28.8 modem. _Published 2026-06-10 · AI-assisted: 25%_ I must have been four or five when I realized a screen could obey a few lines copied out of a magazine. My brother had a Spectrum plugged into the tube TV. Some magazines came with entire pages of code. You had to copy it line by line, without getting a single thing wrong. After a long stretch of typing, those characters I didn't understand turned into a game. And the game was saved on a cassette, like a song. To me, that was magic. Later my brother got a 486, with DOS and games like a black and white Pac-Man. I was obsessed. I used it every chance I got, almost always in secret, careful not to touch anything that would give me away. Then came Windows 95. CDs arrived, and Word, and Excel (and Minesweeper), programs that felt far more powerful than anything before. I was about ten, and there was no turning back. New words started going around too: email, web page, dot com. The internet showed up on TV and in magazines as some unknown place that was changing the world. I wanted in, but we didn't have a connection at home yet. The Biblioteca Argentina did. It offered free one-hour sessions once a week, but you had to book them a week in advance. My aunt Elsa lived nearby, so she would go to the library herself. She stood in line, wrote my name down, and made sure that every Monday that hour was mine. I called her every week so she wouldn't forget. On Mondays, after school, I took the bus to the library. The ride was half an hour and I had a favorite seat, one where I could rest my head and sleep most of the way. Once or twice I missed my stop, or came close. But I almost always woke up in time and made it to my session. The room had about six computers, though they never all worked. Usually three or four were usable. They shared a single 28.8 modem between them, so everything took forever. A page could appear bit by bit, line by line, while you stared at the screen praying the connection wouldn't drop. I would log into Latinmail to check my email and browse with Netscape. I don't really remember what I was looking for. Probably computer news, games, software, anything to keep exploring. But I do remember the feeling: for one hour, the whole world was right there. Since that was all the time I had, I couldn't afford to waste it. I already typed fast, barely looking at the keyboard. People were surprised when they saw me. I think that's where the nerd label stuck. It never bothered me much. Around me, others were making their own discoveries. Some were trying to create an email account. Others looked things up, wrote documents, or waited for a page to load. We all shared the slowness, and the sense that the hour ended far too soon. For me, though, the hour didn't always end at the library. Next door there was a cybercafé. When I could, I crossed over and paid to stay connected a little longer. That's where I discovered mIRC and chat channels. Suddenly I could talk, in real time, with people from other countries. I didn't know who they were or what their lives looked like. I just watched their words appear on the screen. Many of those conversations were in English. I understood little, but I wanted in. I started recognizing words, asking what they meant, finding ways to answer. I think my interest in English began right there, among strange nicknames, chat rooms, and sentences arriving from places I could barely imagine. The internet stopped being a collection of pages. There were people on the other side. It didn't take long for connections to become more affordable. Maybe a year later, a computer shop opened near the library. I vividly remember sitting on one of the benches, holding a box with a 56K Motorola PCI modem inside. To me it wasn't just a computer part. It was the possibility of taking the internet home. I installed the modem in my brother's computer. I opened the case, slotted in the card and, after plenty of trial, error, and settings I barely understood, we were online. From there, the internet took me around the world. It let me learn, work, meet people, live in other cities, and build a life around technology. But before all of that came the Mondays after school. The bus seat where I slept for half an hour. My aunt Elsa standing in line to book my session. The few computers that worked. One hour of Netscape and Latinmail. And, sometimes, a little longer at the cybercafé, talking to strangers from other countries. Without my noticing, that weekly trip to the Biblioteca Argentina was changing the rest of my life. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/one-hour-of-internet) # Cüte > Cüte is a circular fashion marketplace I am building. A short note on what it is, what it stands for, and where it sits today. _Published 2026-05-25 · AI-assisted: 85%_ Cüte is the thing I am working on outside of client work. A circular fashion marketplace, built from Munich. This is a short description in plain language, before any marketing copy arrives. What Cüte is Cüte is a circular fashion marketplace. The short version: a place where clothes get a second, third, and fourth life instead of a slow walk to a landfill. The longer version is still being written, because the product is still being built, and I would rather say a small true thing now than a big polished thing later. The name has an umlaut on purpose. The logo has eyes on purpose. Most of the other decisions are still in flight. Where it stands today The docs site exists but lives behind a login. There is a preview environment. There is a visual identity. There is a small group of people who have seen early sketches and given the kind of honest feedback that only friends give. What is not there yet: the public marketplace, the seller flow, the listing experience, the trust mechanics that any resale platform lives or dies on. Those are the next months of work. What is next The immediate priorities are the listing flow and the search experience. Both sound simple and both are not. Fashion resale has a long history of platforms that nailed one and missed the other. There is a public launch ahead. Until then, if you want a closer look, find me on the about page. ## Links - [Documentation](https://docs.xn--cte-hoa.com/) [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/cute) # My new website is here > Notes on the latest rebuild of this site. The stack, the small decisions, and why I keep coming back to redesigning my own corner of the internet every few years. _Published 2026-05-25 · AI-assisted: 90%_ This is the nth rebuild of this site. I lost count somewhere around 2018. Every couple of years the tools change, my taste shifts, and the old version starts feeling like a costume I outgrew. So I open a new repo and start over. This time the stack settled on Next.js 16 with the App Router, Sanity for content, Tailwind v4 for styling, and Lenis for smooth scrolling. The animation work splits between Motion and GSAP depending on what feels right for the piece. Video runs through Mux. Everything deploys on Vercel. Why rebuild again The honest answer is that designing my own site is how I think. It is the one project where I am the client, the designer, the engineer, and the audience. The constraints disappear, which is both the appeal and the trap. Without a deadline or a stakeholder, the site becomes a sandbox for ideas I want to keep nearby: animated frames, a writing space, a place to point clients to. The practical answer is that the old version was a Webflow project that had grown past what the tool wanted to do. Animations were fragile. Adding a new section meant duplicating CMS items. The day I caught myself writing custom code inside an embed block was the day I knew it was time. Sanity over everything else I tried a few headless CMS options before landing on Sanity. The thing that won me over is the Studio. Being able to customize the editing experience, write GROQ queries that read like English, and version content as drafts makes day-to-day publishing feel like a tool a designer would use rather than a database with a form on top. The schemas for this site are small but specific. Posts, pins, projects, clients, albums. Each has its own structure rather than a generic page builder. I kept it that way on purpose. Generic builders are how sites become slow and inconsistent. Specific schemas are how they stay coherent. Small details that took longer than they should The animated frames in the home page are a system, not one-offs. Each frame is a registered component that gets composed into the page. It started as a way to avoid hardcoding decorative elements and grew into something I now reach for whenever I want a moment of motion. Lenis scroll plus a scroll-to-top trigger took an afternoon. Getting the Sanity image schema to preserve EXIF data took longer than it should have. The image options now keep every byte of metadata the camera wrote, because losing the GPS and lens data on a photography page felt wrong. The prose stylesheet went through three rewrites before I stopped fighting it. Long-form reading wants different defaults than marketing copy. The current version leans on generous line-height and conservative widths. What is next More writing here. Less perfection, more frequency. The point of having a place to write is to actually write, not to keep polishing the frame around an empty page. ## Links - [Next.js](https://nextjs.org) - [Sanity](https://www.sanity.io) - [Tailwind CSS](https://tailwindcss.com) - [Lenis](https://github.com/darkroomengineering/lenis) - [Motion](https://motion.dev) - [GSAP](https://gsap.com) - [Mux](https://www.mux.com) - [Vercel](https://vercel.com) [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/rebuilding-ignaciogiri-com) # On my relationship with AI > I'm a designer and an engineer. For years those felt like two separate jobs. AI is the first tool that treats them as one. _Published 2026-05-25 · AI-assisted: 95%_ I used to switch contexts constantly. Open Figma, draw a screen, switch to the editor, build it, switch back, fix the gaps between the two. The gap was always real. The thing in my head, the thing on the canvas, and the thing in the code never quite agreed. AI shortened that distance. Not by replacing either side, but by sitting between them. I describe a UI in words, and something rough appears in code. I sketch a layout, and the markup writes itself. The first pass is rarely right, but it’s a draft I can argue with, and arguing with a draft is faster than starting from a blank file. That changed how I scope work. I take on more ambitious shapes now because the cost of trying one is lower. With AInstein, I shipped a working product in a few weeks that would have taken me a quarter on my own. Cüte exists because I could prototype the entire interaction model in an afternoon and know whether the idea had any signal. The parts I’m still careful about are taste, and the small decisions that make a product feel coherent. AI is good at generating options. It is not good at choosing between them. That part still lives in my head, and I think it always will. The leverage is not in the output. It is in how much further I can push an idea before I run out of patience. I work from Munich. I keep odd hours. AI is the only collaborator that does not mind. ## Links - [Figma](https://www.figma.com) [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/on-my-relationship-with-ai) # Keeping a diary supports personal development > Just finished watched the Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness TED talk. He ended up the presentation by a short film featuring pretty nice typography in Bali that reads “Keeping a… _Published 2014-10-16 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Just finished watched the Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness TED talk. He ended up the presentation by a short film featuring pretty nice typography in Bali that reads “Keeping a diary supports personal development”. That really inspired me to write this right now. I have no idea how to do this. Should I write everything? Should I write just for myself? Should I write knowing that I could have readers? I don’t know. Honestly. I always wanted to write, I love writing. But it’s too much pressure. I have this fear of that every person reading this would be judging me within every word. But you know what? Who cares. I’m just going to do it for myself. I’ll try. … Today Detroit felt a bit sad. Nobody on the streets. The sky showed a muted blue. I thought about going for a walk, but ended up taking The People Mover like everyday. I’ve been writing some code in these past few days. I’m actually developing a prototype to get a better understanding about the possibilities on interactions, animations, scrolling and feeling for this new website. I’m not going to lie, but I’m aiming for some awards after this project is done. Takes a lot of work though. The other half of my day went to work on my Visa. Involves a lot of paper work. I’ll try to talk about that later on. I should stop eating at midnight. I can’t even move. And now waiting for this girl to come. I’ll hit the bed in the next couple of minutes. Anyway, this practice is really good. Now I realize how boring my life is. I’ll try my best to keep doing this. There she is. Good bye! [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/keeping-a-diary-supports-personal-development) # Web Tableaus > Back in 2013 when Squarespace and Mailchimp redesigned their websites with an interesting visual approach. Frank Chimero named this trend as Web Tableaus. He defined it as store-fronts displays for… _Published 2014-03-26 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Back in 2013 when Squarespace and Mailchimp redesigned their websites with an interesting visual approach. Frank Chimero named this trend as Web Tableaus. He defined it as store-fronts displays for digital products with the particularity of the photography direction: tableaus with props around laptops, tablets, and phones. Humanizing your digital product with props that shows your experiences around it. Inspired by Apple and its devices, this technique creates a turn about how you present your product. Store-fronts displays for digital products. Using a iPhones and iPads around certain elements to create a mood to identify your brand. A table/desk, coffee mugs, art paintings, books, lamps, pens, or anything that you have at hand, but it must be a beautiful composition. Things Organized Neatly shows great examples about how to achieve this technique perfectly. Now it’s just time to see who is the most creative. Thanks! [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/web-tableaus) # The faces of Futura > Futura, it’s a lovely font, designed by Paul Renner in 1927. Became to be one of the best geometric typefaces ever created. Today there are so many versions and it’s hard to decide which one to use.… _Published 2013-02-22 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Futura, it’s a lovely font, designed by Paul Renner in 1927. Became to be one of the best geometric typefaces ever created. Today there are so many versions and it’s hard to decide which one to use. Talking with my friend and type designer Pablo Impallari – which I own him my entire knowledge about typography – we did a little research on some of the best-selling versions of Futura. These are only the Light, Book, Medium and Extrabold sizes, each foundry has many and different thickness. This test is using 30px as the size. You can buy any of these versions at MyFonts. Prices are for the entire family. Let your taste and wallet decide which one would be the lucky one: Futura Std by Adobe - $435 Futura EF by Elsner+Flake - $672 Futura T by URW+ - $606.48 Futura BT by Bitstream - $356.40 Futura LT by Linotype - $669 Futura SH by Scangraphic - $416 Futura BT by Berthold - $785 Futura ND by Neufville Digital - $814.50 Futura TS by TypeShop Collection - $347.20 While Futura BT is the best-selling version at MyFonts. We still can’t say which one is the best, although the BT version looks very nice on the display and it’s the cheapest one. The URW+ version probably has the finnest render and kerning for body text. Also the Futura SH Extrabold is the best one in that size for heading because of it’s spacing. There are even more versions like Futura ND from Neufville Digital and Futura ST from Type Shop. Neufville Digital claims to have the best version of Futura since they own the original sources. If you want to own all of the versions above it will cost you $5101.58, but that’s just a curious fact. But there is more. I personally think the best version of Futura is the custom one from USAToday by Bold Monday, see below: Unfortunately is not available, although if you like it as much as me, you probably will like Century Gothic better. If you want to learn more, follow @nacho and @pabloimpallari on Twitter, we are going to extend this post with other versions of Futura and if you want us to review other fonts just let us know. Stay tuned. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/the-faces-of-futura) # Burn your business plan, by Steve Blank > The same products, services or technologies can fail or succeed depending on the business model you choose. Exploring the possibilities is critical to finding a successful business model. Settling on… _Published 2012-12-17 · AI-assisted: 0%_ The same products, services or technologies can fail or succeed depending on the business model you choose. Exploring the possibilities is critical to finding a successful business model. Settling on first ideas risks the possibility of missing potential that can only be discovered by prototyping and testing different alternatives. Constantly talking to real potential customers from the very inception of your ideas all the way to their execution is a prerequisite for any serious founder. Great entrepreneurs are often great listeners and they can spot patterns and pick up on small details in customer stories. Once you have an idea of those customer jobs, pains, and gains you don’t want to rest until you’ve tested if what you’ve learned from talking to customers is actually real. Actions speak louder than words. There is a big difference between what people say and what they do. People might tell you they are excited about your new product, but when they are in a buying situation their behavior might be totally different. Get potential customers to perform real actions. This could be, for example, something as small as getting them to sign up with their email for the launch date of your upcoming product. Or, market a so-called minimum viable product (MVP) – a product or service prototype with a minimal feature set – to early adopters. What you will learn will be invaluable. Do it the right way! The Business Model Canvas is an excellent tool to help you design better and more profitable business models. Yet, without combining it with business model testing it’s just as static as a business plan. The market might reject even the smartest business model design if it’s not stress tested. Alexander Osterwalder is an entrepreneur, speaker and business model innovator. Together with Professor Yves Pigneur he co-authored “Business Model Generation,” a global bestseller on the topic of business model innovation. His Business Model Canvas, a tool to visualize, challenge and (re-) invent business models is used by leading organizations around the world, like GE, P&G, and more. This is a personal extract from this original post by Steve Blank. All the credits of the words above goes to him. Follow him on @sgblank. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/burn-your-business-plan-by-steve-blank) # Internet en Argentina > Nueve de los diez sitios de Internet más visitados de la Argentina son de producción Estadounidense. El único creado en Argentina dentro del Top 10 aparece unicamente en la lista porque sus usuarios… _Published 2012-11-06 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Nueve de los diez sitios de Internet más visitados de la Argentina son de producción Estadounidense. El único creado en Argentina dentro del Top 10 aparece unicamente en la lista porque sus usuarios lo utilizan para obtener contenidos también de producción Estadounidense y de manera ilegal. Siguiendo la lista, en la posición 12 se encuentra Clarín. Y salteando posiciones sigue La Nación, Infobae y Olé. Todos medios no muy contentos con el gobierno actual.  Analizando el Top 100 el 83% de los sitios más visitados en Argentina son también de producción Estadounidense.  El 17% restante se reparte con amplia mayoría para el Grupo Clarín, y otros medios locales. Aproximadamente el 10% del Top 100 es pornografía, también con producción y/o capitales Estadounidenses. Queda la esperanza que algún día Marcelo Tinelli se decida y nos ofrezca material local por lo menos. Muy recientemente un estudio del INDEC indica que hay aproximadamente 10 millones de casas en Argentina con acceso a Internet, cifra que aumenta 60% anualmente. El gobierno utiliza aproximadamente $300 millones de dólares por año en Fútbol Para Todos. Y sólo podríamos comprar menos del 1% de Facebook con eso si quisieramos. No sería mal negocio, y sacaríamos rédito a largo plazo. Además hay más usuarios de Facebook que Fútbol Para Todos.  Pero usar dinero patrio para inversiones en empresas Estaunidenses? Eso es inaudito! Entonces por qué lo consumimos? Es simple. No existe alternativa.  Que pasaría si en vez de utilizar fondos del Fútbol se usaría para la creación de contenidos y servicios para consumo local e incluso de exportación? Se imaginan el próximo Twitter o Facebook creado íntegramente en Argentina para Argentinos y para el mundo? No. Nadie lo imagina.  Las políticas en la actualidad hacen casi imposible la creación de contenidos en la República Argentina. Miremos al vecino país Chile, hace 2 años lanzó un programa para promover ideas innovadoras y ofrece $40,000 dólares para realizarla. El programa se llama Startup Chile, incluso aceptan personas de todas partes del mundo con la condición de trabajar en el país y generando trabajo local. De hecho, dos Argentinos ingresaron y hoy su proyecto está valuado en casi 1 millón y medio de dólares. De producción local para usuarios en su mayoría Estados Unidos y el mundo. La tortilla se dió vuelta. Es posible. El programa Chileno generó 700 nuevos puestos de trabajo y mucho más. Una cantidad realmente significante, dado que la presidenta Cristina Fernández se jacta cuando agregan 200 nuevos empleados en General Motors con capital extranjero. Ironicamente recursos humanos capacitados locales existen pero muchas veces tienen que emigrar, conmigo incluído, para poder lograr nuestras metas en el ambiente tecnológico y tener acceso a oportunidades que no existen en nuestro país. Subestimar el poder de Internet en la actualidad sería una desinteligencia. Así que por lo pronto, si quiero quiero ser parte, y poder aportar mis conocimientos desde adentro, deberá ser en otro lugar. Casualmente es la primera vez que escribo en español, dado que siempre he apuntado a los lectores de habla inglesa. Claro! Industria Argentina. Orgullo Nacional? [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/internet-en-argentina) # New Theme > Just made this theme a few months ago, now it’s updated and I’m trying to sell it to who ever wants it. Theme SOLD. _Published 2011-11-10 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Just made this theme a few months ago, now it’s updated and I’m trying to sell it to who ever wants it. Theme SOLD. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/new-theme) # Thanks Steve > It’s almost 8 years since I got my first Mac. Which I bought without even see it till I got mine in my hands. I was between Sony Vaio and iBook G4. The Mac was cheaper, so I got the Mac. One of the… _Published 2011-10-06 · AI-assisted: 0%_ It’s almost 8 years since I got my first Mac. Which I bought without even see it till I got mine in my hands. I was between Sony Vaio and iBook G4. The Mac was cheaper, so I got the Mac. One of the best decisions I ever made. It was a beautiful experience, I had no knowledge about how beautiful it was since I turn it on for the very first time. I have never went back to PC anymore. Ever. 3 months after getting the iBook I saw the iPod Nano keynote from Steve, and again, bought the device without knowing it for real (just photos). It was amazing, even more when I also got the iPod Shuffle the same week from my boss on those days making Spam to Hotmail. But I been creating websites since I remember. I wasn’t doing any kind of design while on the PC. That changed completely when I grab the Mac. That User Interface was so inspiring and making my own stuff looking like crap – I have to learn how to make this beautiful things, and I’m still learning. Thanks to that, I got $4000 dollars and I bought myself and iPhone 1G and iMac late 2006 (which I’m using right now). Been working as a designer thanks to Steve and his work. When I wake up everyday and I see my Apple products, I can’t never get bored of them, I can appreciate how pretty they are each day of my life. But it’s never enough, then I got the iPad 2. I love it! And I’m sure that I will continue getting more Apple products in the future, I share the same thoughts about excellence and perfection. I feel that. Steve was and it’s going to be always a huge inspiration to me. He was and it is a big part of my life.  Thank you. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/thanks-steve) # Theme for DJs > This design got inspired by several sources, think Daft Punk, iPad, Mac, Dribbble, Magazines, and personal taste. Includes the following pages, you can click on each image for full-size preview. Home… _Published 2011-07-26 · AI-assisted: 0%_ This design got inspired by several sources, think Daft Punk, iPad, Mac, Dribbble, Magazines, and personal taste. Includes the following pages, you can click on each image for full-size preview. Home Post Page Media Page Tour Page Gallery Page Full-Width Page This is going to be available soon as Wordpress theme via MintThemes. MintThemes is a small company based in Toronto, Canada working to design and develop the most useful and good-smelling WordPress themes. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/theme-for-djs) # New home for Sortfolio > Today I read a tweet from @37signals saying: Sortfolio deserves a better home. Make us an offer. http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2899-sortfolio-deserves-a-better-home-make-us-an-offer And I thought to… _Published 2011-05-04 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Today I read a tweet from @37signals saying: Sortfolio deserves a better home. Make us an offer. http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2899-sortfolio-deserves-a-better-home-make-us-an-offer And I thought to do something about it. I don’t have any money to buy Sortfolio. But I can get them a new home! Why not?  So, here is: And you can see this new feature that can work great. Let’s see how the story ends for this great website for us the web designers. If you want to know more about this, just send me an email or twitter. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/new-home-for-sortfolio) # Execution is everything: Connect.me case > UPDATE April 6th 2011 - I started to build this project no matter what. Front-end is almost done :) Today I’ve done lot of video conferences with some very interesting people. Day after day I notice… _Published 2011-03-09 · AI-assisted: 0%_ UPDATE April 6th 2011 - I started to build this project no matter what. Front-end is almost done :) Today I’ve done lot of video conferences with some very interesting people. Day after day I notice how many opportunities I’ve missed out on because I didn’t execute them. While chatting with Davy Kestens, my friend from Belgium, I explained to him that even though I’m only 25, I have this feeling that I’m terribly old. I feel old because of all the opportunities I didn’t take and all the bad decisions I’ve made in the past. I’m a huge fan of TV Shows. I remember watching an episode of Fringe that talks about the fact that all decisions you make determine who you are. That’s common knowledge. However, nobody tells you how to change course when you realize you made a bad decision somewhere along the way. Today, I suddenly became extremely frustrated when I saw a huge amount of “connect.me” buzz on twitter. Why? 2 months ago, I had exactly the same idea. I designed the User Interface and I even thought of exactly the same domain! (Sadly, I didn’t pursue the project and didn’t register the domain name) Check out the design I made, pretty awesome huh? Friends tell me that I should good about this because it shows that I have great potential. But to me, it’s an incredibly frustrating to realize that I wasn’t able to execute this project because I don’t have the team, the money, nor the available time to pursue my ideas. Time after time, I see people starting up websites I came up with years ago and who are now making millions with it. I had the idea of Groupon 2 years ago! Though I know, that’s not important. I realized that I need to “do” stuff, instead of blaming around. Over the past few years, I worked in order “to survive”. And I know that is not getting me anywhere. I’m going to change my mindset based on a great quote I heard in the movie “The Social Network”: If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you’d have invented Facebook… That’s pretty much why I’m writing this blog post, just doing things and stop blaming around. I want to focus on building web applications that truly help people. To be honest, I don’t get enough satisfaction from designing general websites for clients. I want to work on really great projects on my own. Sadly, the client work is currently the only way I am able to “survive”. I’m well aware that great connections and networking with the right people will help me access the resources I need in order to execute the projects I wish to do in my life. There is a small chance that I’m able to do this on my own, but execution is everything and what I need to most right now is an amazing partner that can help me out. Either if you are an investor, a coder, designer, marketeer or just someone who wants to build great things with me… simply… CONNECT.ME [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/execution-is-everything) # The gap between designers on Dribbble > This is was the original subject I wanted to publish when I thought to write about Dribbble. But it was better to tell my success story before to not misunderstood anything. Like I said in my… _Published 2011-01-18 · AI-assisted: 0%_ This is was the original subject I wanted to publish when I thought to write about Dribbble. But it was better to tell my success story before to not misunderstood anything. Like I said in my previous post, I’m a huge addicted to Dribbble, I’m trying several ways to succeed on that community getting new followers everyday. It’s really really hard, believe me. But I’m not doing it in the correct way because is not working. The gap between me and successful designers (players) is HUGE. I might not be a good designer after all. I have my problems like troubles with deadlines and that kind of stuff, but I always tried to maintain the highest quality on my work and improving everyday being more professional. When I see the awesomeness work from designers like Trent Walton, Cameron Moll, Matthew Smith, Meagan Fisher, Tim Van Damme, and others called the “Stars”, I can’t avoid to think that I suck. No matter how hard I try, I suck. They have 67% more followers than me, they post a shoot and automatically they get 30 likes and 10 comments in 5 minutes. And I’m always following they work as well. What’s popular on Dribbble today? Certainly not me.  To be popular on today you will have to design Icons, Illustrations, iPad/Phone UI, or what I found most unfair… to have already >2k followers. So it’s always the same, the hidden popularity contest is always between the same people. It’s really hard to grow in this community. You will have to play smart. Wait, I’m not saying that they don’t deserve that, not at all. In fact, they are my idols and I get a lot of inspiration from them. I’m just concern with what I have to do to reach that level of being that influent on the web and this particular community. Ok, let’s ask them personally. I went to Dan Rubin, one of the “Stars” and asked him this simple question: What I need to achieve to succeed in this business?. He was very kind and he sent me back a great email with tips of how be like him. One of the tips was about to blog about my struggles, this is one, so here I am. He also said that the gap only exists in my head: “I’ve seen from you on Dribbble, I’d easily put your work on the same level as the Rogie Kings and Andrew Wilkinson of the world. Your shots appear next to people like Jason Santa Maria and Jesse-Bennett Chamberlain, with no inherent difference.” I was VERY flattered to hear that from him. But there still a lot of work to do. This is a game, and I’m playing. Maybe I’m not too smart, maybe my work is not good enough, but I’m playing and I won’t stop until shortening the gap. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/the-gap-between-designers-on-dribbble) # My story with Dribbble > Hello guys, I’m here again. This is my story with Dribbble and my conclusion. I been an addicted to Dribbble since it went out. I did everything to get my invitation around 10 months ago. I designed… _Published 2011-01-18 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Hello guys, I’m here again. This is my story with Dribbble and my conclusion. I been an addicted to Dribbble since it went out. I did everything to get my invitation around 10 months ago. I designed a microsite inspired by Davy Kestens which he did this gorgeous website, and here is my own shoot that I made in 30 minutes. After 2 days I got my invitation thanks to Andy Clarke from Stuff and Non Sense - What a great guy, awesome designer - Thanks to that I got tons of traffic into my website. It was a totally success. I’m part of the very exclusive community of designers, now what? I tried to do a smart move and post my first shoot to get tons of traffic over Dribbble. What best than a lovely girl, no one can beat a hot girl. Everybody knows that. It went all wrong. Two of the more influential designers from Dribbble criticized my shoot pretty bad: Rogie: “Ignacio, I’d definitely reconsider posting shots like this as the risk of offending people in a community of designers that LOVE dribbble is high. I don’t think it’s a wise shot to post. Artforms, to me are one thing, but to offend with a shot that is clearly using sex as a sales mechanism is totally another. Bad play. I still mega-respect your design ability however, and want to see more awesome design work and congrats on getting into dribbble.” Gedy Rivera: “I totally agree with Rogie. You’re a great designer, Ignacio but this is definitely crossing the line, especially to us ladies.” Ok, I get it. It was offensive. It was my mistake, I wasn’t meant to offend anybody, it was a bad marketing strategy. Really sorry for that. Let me start fresh again.  So I did that. I started posting part of my work in progress, the best from me and I was slowly getting followers. I must say that this is really cool, recognition and exposure is better than getting paid. It’s an addiction.  It’s a healthy addiction because is forcing me to improve in my designs and trying to take out the very best from me. This way I can be a better designer, getting recognition, learning directly from my idols, getting more followers on Twitter - follow me - and grow in my little business. The whole process was fun, seeing my shoots getting a lot of views, a lot of comments, everybody was impressed by my work. That makes me happy no more than anything in the world. I got a lot of work proposals, found my actual partner in my side projects like DesignsVault and the best… the recognition from >200 people. Today I’m a good player and I consider all this as a huge success, but I’m feeling that the couch is not watching me anymore, so I guess I should keep practicing. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/my-story-with-dribbble) # My marketplace story > So here is the story. I saw about 3 years ago myself as a designer in progress. I was doing a lot of designs for Sitepoint (now 99designs). I won my first contest, my first try. Wow, I said, I have… _Published 2011-01-10 · AI-assisted: 0%_ So here is the story. I saw about 3 years ago myself as a designer in progress. I was doing a lot of designs for Sitepoint (now 99designs). I won my first contest, my first try. Wow, I said, I have something in here, I should participate in more. Which I did and I won more contests as well. It was a nice way to make money, but I was doing it for the feeling of winning between other 50 people. After I found that some people (contest holders) were paying huge amount of money to shitty things. That was very frustrating so I left out from there. I also was doing a few client work as well thanks for my reputation on there. I was happy, but I found myself charging pennies for my work, so I needed a new way to make money. I got a few offer to designs templates, and I said, what is that? what am I earning from that? It was like a scam to me. Several designs pretty cheap and the right to resell them? That sucks, not for me. Since I was (and I’m still) learning new techniques to create stunning websites I went into PSD Tuts, it was great, all the things I wanted to learn from great designers was in there, I was following that blog several times everyday. And one day, the same group of that blog launched ThemeForest. It was great! What a great idea, just what I needed to create my passive income and do all the designs I wanted without having annoying clients making me pointless modifications and making me to waste time. So I did a CMS theme in less than 40 minutes. I was thinking in that CMS layout for years, it was great. So, let’s create a hit and sell this into this great website. And it was, it was a hit, got several sales in short time. Like 10 per day. In total until today I made 512 sales in two years with just 2 items to offer. That’s awesome, the gratification if priceless…… Well, that’s not true in real world, there always a price. I made $7877 US Dollars worth with those sales. That’s a pretty nice amount of money don’t you think? Don’t want to ruin the party, but in my pocket only went $2939.24. How is that even possible? It was very frustrating. They are earning a lot of money (more than me) with my work, my creation! I can’t allow that. I was handling that with no problem until I see this. It was my CMS theme improved. I just went crazy, mad, sad, all the emotions together. Anybody can take my creation, make it better and sell it (I admit it, it was much much better), right on the same place. That same day I started doing the UI for my own marketplace of designs. I was going to increase the earnings of designers and change the policy of the website across designers. I spent all of the time doing the design, CSS, Javascript, PHP, everything by hand. Having no incomes at all, no investment at all, I found my self borrowing money to my brother. I was trying to get some client work to have money to live but I couldn’t do it, I was all day coding my marketplace, it was very stupid. I wasn’t even good enough coder to making it myself. I needed someone else. I putted the project on hold until I found the right person to partner with. I went into a few guys to finish to code I had in Code Igniter. It wasn’t well at all, those coders were worse than me. I need someone better. After long time, I saw a guy that liked my UI design of the marketplace posted on Dribbble, great site, I’m still a addicted to it. He was a Ruby Coder, a pretty well known one. I want him. I had no idea about Ruby at that time but I offered to partner with me and he said ok. Let’s do it. So here we are, I launched DesignsVault with the help of Josh. And working everyday on it to make it a good place to designers and to offer great quality stuff to the buyers. I’m happy, but there is still a lot of work to do, and we can’t do it ourselves. Join us. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/my-marketplace-story) # Catchwords > Catchwords are preset typographic alternates like “the”, “and”, etc. Here are some good examples with good fonts with this kind of alternates: Brothers by Emigre… _Published 2011-01-05 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Catchwords are preset typographic alternates like “the”, “and”, etc. Here are some good examples with good fonts with this kind of alternates: Brothers by Emigre http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/emigre/brothers/ Council by Emigre http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/emigre/council/ Bello by Underware http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/underware/bello/ Hiatus by Umbrella Type http://marketplace.veer.com/fonts/UMT0001084# Phaeton by Umbrella Type http://marketplace.veer.com/fonts/umt0000447 Cowboyslang by HVD Fonts http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/hvdfonts/cowboyslang/ornaments/ Metroscript by Alphabet Soup http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/alphabetsoup/metroscript/ Verna by Fenotype http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/fenotype/verna/ XXII Mescaline by Doubletwo Studios  http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/doubletwo/xxii-mescaline/  Rita by Sudtipos http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/sudtipos/rita/ Lady Rene by Sudtipos http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/sudtipos/lady-rene/ Royal Oak Decor http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/typonauten/royal-oak-decor/  Catch Words by Jeff Levine http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/jnlevine/catch-words/ FF Catch Words by FontFont http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/fontfont/catch-words/ [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/catchwords) # Apple's Mac App Store & OS X Lion: The end of browsers? > I can imagine me to start using the websites I go everyday using their apps right into my desktop without having to use a browser anymore. It’s funny that Apple started backyards with the Apps. They… _Published 2010-12-28 · AI-assisted: 0%_ I can imagine me to start using the websites I go everyday using their apps right into my desktop without having to use a browser anymore. It’s funny that Apple started backyards with the Apps. They have more applications for their mobile devices than their desktop/laptop computers. Now with the release of Mac OS X Lion, we can notice that it will be like an iPhone/iPad. The experience on the desktop will be amazing. That will transform the way you do stuff everyday. And that also includes the way you surf the web. My guess is from here and in a few years you won’t use browsers anymore, you will use the applications. Me, as a web designer, I will start thinking in design more applications and less websites. What you think? [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/apples-mac-app-store-os-x-lion-the-end-of) # The browser is your blank canvas > After a nice and short chat with Jacob Thomas (@jakeup) I was motivated to write my first post related to web design. My passion. How do we start creating a great web design? Every designer has his… _Published 2010-05-25 · AI-assisted: 0%_ After a nice and short chat with Jacob Thomas (@jakeup) I was motivated to write my first post related to web design. My passion. How do we start creating a great web design? Every designer has his own routine. This includes collecting all the assets, reviewing the information from the client and doing a research about the branding/product/app of the website, we are going to make. After having all these information in our hands we prepare to work on the layout and wireframes of the website. It’s always a good recommendation to start using a real piece of paper and do a sketch with your bare hands like this. What now? We have to go back to our computer and to our design software. In my case, I use my dear and beloved Photoshop. Offtopic: I’m not going to talk in this post about how we deal with the art direction of a website. Ok, in Photoshop, we create a new blank canvas. But what we don’t realize is that it is actually not our real blank canvas. Our canvas is the browser. And don’t forget that we have the monitor display showing the browser with your website in it. Like an art painting, you can see that every paint goes with a nice frame. There are some exceptions, but that is not what I want to put down here. Because, in web, we have rules. Rules that we cannot deny. Without such rules, GUI design simply won’t exist. We must understand that the people who will see your creation, will see it from a browser and more importantly, from a bright monitor display or any other device. The device is our frame. The safe area. In final and shorts words, I recommend you to use a white canvas with a browser as a frame. You can download this Photoshop Browser Template and start creating from there and you will see my point. And finally, don’t forget to check the Paper Browser. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/the-browser-is-your-blank-canvas) # First post > Hello world. I wanted to create a blog 5 years ago. Today I finally decided to do it. _Published 2010-05-20 · AI-assisted: 0%_ Hello world. I wanted to create a blog 5 years ago. Today I finally decided to do it. [Read on the site](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/first-post) --- # Pins ## AI # Shots _AI_ Shots is a one-shot website workbench. The name comes from the goal: make a website in one shot, with enough taste, structure, and constraint that it does not feel like generic AI output. A shot can start from a prompt, a Claude design, a Google Stitch concept, a Figma reference, or a loose visual direction. From there, custom skills turn the idea into a real web direction: Brand brief Tone of voice Style guide Implementation notes Design tokens Working variation Each shot carries its own system. At the project level, brand.json defines the brand’s tagline, values, aesthetic, voice, and business context. At the variation level, DESIGN.md explains the creative rules, layout decisions, typography, assets, and do’s and don’ts. design.json holds the live tokens: color, type, theme, spacing, structure, radius, icon set, and visual DNA. The app makes that system visible and editable. You can browse variations, open a live preview, adjust fonts and colors inline, inspect the grid, read the brief, copy the design notes, and evolve the direction without losing the underlying design logic. Shots is a fast way to go from AI-assisted first pass to a website direction with brand logic, design discipline, and enough specificity to stop looking AI-made. ## Services - AI design tooling - AI image generation - Creative direction - Visual experiments - Rapid prototyping ## Links - [AI Shots](https://shots.builtwell.design/) - [Builtwell](https://www.builtwell.design) - [Behind the Scenes](https://www.builtwell.design/bts) - [Builtwell Blocks](https://www.builtwell.design/blocks) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/shots) # AI apps _AI_ I've been skipping Figma. The first version arrives as code, the second as a working URL, the third with a database underneath. Oras started that way. A throwaway idea in Claude Design that ended as a full site with a schema and a backend. Most generators produce generic output because they don't know the brand they're generating for. The pattern engines I build do. OM Shapes turns an identity into parameters: shape, grid, density, palette, rhythm. Every output sits inside the brand. Oras applies the same logic to a different problem. Both sit between design system and toy. Small enough to play with, structured enough to ship. The interesting work right now is helping brands build the internal tools their teams have always wanted. The kind that turns a static design document into a working part of the system. Less reference, more instrument. AI didn't replace Figma. It made the in-between step optional. Sometimes the fastest way to express an idea is to skip the mockup and build the thing. In a category that mostly produces forgettable output, the satisfying part is a tool that knows where it belongs. ## Services - AI product strategy - AI app design and development - LLM integration - Conversational interfaces - Rapid prototyping ## Links - [OM Shapes](https://om-shapes.vercel.app/) - [Oras](https://oras.builtwell.design/) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/ai-apps) # Natural language as CMS _AI_ I update this site by talking to Claude. Rename a pin. Rewrite a paragraph. Fix a slug. Resize an image. Publish. Claude handles it while I keep working. MCPs are the trick. Claude reaches into Sanity, Supabase, Neon and the rest, reads the schema, patches what I asked for, and tells me what changed. No tabs open. No fields to scroll. No save button to forget. Forms were always a workaround for not being able to ask. Identities stopped being PDFs years ago and became tools. CMSs took longer. The interface is language now. The system listens. That is the whole shift. WordPress, Framer, Webflow are beautiful dinosaurs. Still extinct. ## Services - Conversational content editing - CMS architecture - Sanity integration - LLM integration - Editorial tooling [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/natural-language-as-cms) # AI Agents, AEO and GEO _AI_ AEO and GEO are the same search shift seen from two sides: AI no longer just lists pages, it generates the answer. Brands now need clear, structured signals that answer engines, LLMs and AI agents can understand, cite and recommend. I built AInstein because most companies are not set up for that world. They need more than blog posts or SEO checklists; they need a system that can research the market, define positioning, build the experience, create the content and keep optimizing from real data. AInstein works like an AI marketing agency: agents handle market research, positioning, websites, branding, AEO/GEO content strategy, SEO, lead generation, cross-channel campaigns, analytics, reporting and continuous optimization. The point is simple: make the brand easier for AI to trust, explain and turn into demand. ## Services - AI strategy and consulting - Answer engine optimization (AEO) - Generative engine optimization (GEO) - AI agent design and development - Conversational interfaces - LLM integration - Market research - Brand positioning - Content strategy - SEO - Lead generation - Cross-channel campaigns - Analytics and reporting ## Links - [AInstein Agentic Content System](https://ainstein.live/?ref=ignaciogiri) - [AInstein AI Marketing Agency](https://goainstein.com/?ref=ignaciogiri) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/ai-agents-and-aeo) # Agentic design systems _AI_ A design system isn't a component library. It's the machine that keeps designing after I leave. Most systems are built for humans to read. Yours needs to work for agents too. Components they invoke. Rules they follow. A shared language between your designers, your engineers, and your AI tools. Where I come in AI generates variations, audits for inconsistency, documents edge cases no team would cover by hand. I focus on the decisions that need taste. How components compose. When to extend vs. create new. How the system evolves as agents become part of the product. The outcome A system your team and their tools can both use. Not a wiki nobody reads. Skills they invoke. Code that matches. Tokens that work with Claude, Cursor, and whatever comes next. New features ship inside the design language. Without a phone call. ## Services - Components with matching code - Tokens mapped to variables - Agent-invokable skills and rules - Edge case coverage at depth - A system built to extend, not just reference [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/agentic-design-systems) ## Design # Website design _Design_ Your website has one job. Visitors become customers. I build it in code from day one. No handoff. No translation. Ships in weeks. My approach Layouts, messaging, and conversion patterns tested in the browser. AI simulates how visitors navigate. Tests which messages land. Kills layouts that look good in comps but confuse real people. Decisions are validated before launch, not after. The outcome First launch performs like most teams' third try. Built in code, so what you see is what ships. Your marketing team gets a system they can run. Not a static page that needs a developer for every copy change. ## Services - Built in code, ships fast - Page speed and Core Web Vitals handled - SEO built in - CMS your team can run - Skills for ongoing content ## Related ### Projects - [TARA](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/tara) ## Links - [OneMagnify](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/onemagnify) - [Aldana](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/aldana) - [HalfRez](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/halfrez) - [Tlynt](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/tlynt) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/website-design) # Branding _Design_ Brands aren’t moods. They’re infrastructure. A real identity system is the thing every future designer working on the brand can lean on without asking. Most of what I make is that scaffolding. The rest is showing off. Good branding has the same property as good API design: you can name the constraint without naming the answer. I learned this the slow way, by building too many systems that looked beautiful in a Figma file and fell apart the first time a real team had to use them. The systems that survive are the ones that say no clearly. ## Services - Brand strategy - Brand identity - Logo design - Visual systems - Brand guidelines ## Related ### Projects - [TARA](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/tara) ## Links - [OneMagnify](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/onemagnify) - [Embrujo](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/embrujo) - [La Niña](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/la-nina) - [Time Out Taco](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/time-out-taco) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/branding) # Social Media _Design_ I design social media content as a system, not one post at a time. Templates, layouts and animated formats that keep a brand consistent across a full feed and a daily posting schedule. The work covers static and animated posts, carousels, story sets, reels and motion graphics, plus the reusable templates that let a team keep posting without the design drifting. ## Services - Social media design - Content templates - Art direction - Campaign design ## Links - [OneMagnify](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/onemagnify) - [La Niña](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/la-nina) - [Time Out Taco](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/time-out-taco) - [HalfRez](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/halfrez) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/social-media) # Art Direction _Design_ Art direction is the layer most people don’t notice until it’s missing: the choice of palette, the lens, the crop, the rhythm of what comes next. It’s the difference between assets and an aesthetic. I treat art direction as a quiet contract: every photo, every frame, every spec sheet should belong to the same world. ## Services - Art direction - Visual identity - Creative direction - Campaign concepts ## Related ### Projects - [StyleSaint](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/stylesaint) - [BlastOff](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/blastoff) - [Beats by Dre](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/beats-by-dre) - [TARA](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/work/tara) ## Links - [Time Out Taco](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/time-out-taco) - [La Niña](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/la-nina) - [Embrujo](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/embrujo) - [OneMagnify](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/onemagnify) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/art-direction) # Posters _Design_ Posters are the cleanest design problem there is: one rectangle, one idea, one chance to land it. No framework, no scroll, no edge cases. Either the thing speaks or it doesn’t. I treat them like a daily practice, a place to test ideas about composition, type and hierarchy without owing anyone a deliverable. The good ones become studies for client work later. The bad ones become reminders to read more. If you want to know what a designer actually loves, look at the posters they make for nothing. ## Services - Poster design - Typography - Art direction - Print design ## Links - [HalfRez](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/halfrez) - [Time Out Taco](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/time-out-taco) - [La Niña](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/la-nina) - [Embrujo](https://www.builtwell.design/projects/embrujo) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/posters) ## Code # Techstack _Code_ What I build with. Same stack across client work and side projects, because the stack is the only thing that gets faster every year. I started as a programmer. PHP and MySQL, decades ago. Then I shifted to web design, climbed from art director to design director, and spent years handing files to engineers. Years of freelancing and working solo brought me back to code. The design-to-dev handoff is dead, there's no one to hand off to. I build the whole thing now. AI multiplies the output, but only because the programming foundation is already there. I know what to ask for, what's expensive, what's about to break, what to throw away. Next.js is the part I'm still learning in public. App Router, server components, server actions, cache rules that move every release. I learn it by shipping this site, breaking it on a Friday, and understanding why by Saturday. The links below are who I learn from. I read their code more than any docs, until a pattern stops feeling like magic and starts feeling obvious. Most of what I know about this stack, I borrowed from them. I don't chase frameworks. I keep a small stack and go deep, because the speed comes from knowing it cold, not from the next shiny thing. ## Services - Technical architecture - Stack selection - Frontend engineering - Tooling and CI/CD ## Links - [Sam Selikoff – Next Recipes](https://github.com/samselikoff/next-recipes) - [Aurora Scharff](https://aurorascharff.no/) - [next-forge](https://www.next-forge.com/) - [Hayden Bleasel](https://haydenbleasel.com/) - [shadcn](https://shadcn.com/) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/techstack) # Statecharts & FSM _Code_ Statecharts are what I am spending my free evenings on at the moment. I did not go looking for them. I went looking for a way to stop order fulfilment for Cüte from collapsing under its own edge cases, where payments, shipping, cancellations, refunds, disputes and webhooks all have to cooperate while failing in completely different ways. I expected a tidy programming pattern. What I found was a whole way of thinking about software, and a surprisingly generous community drawing diagrams and reasoning through hard systems out loud. That part, more than the technique, is what pulled me in. What actually clicked The thing I keep turning over is that the diagram does not have to come after the code. It can be the thing that defines how the software is allowed to behave. When I model an order that way, impossible states stay impossible, because every event is judged against the current state instead of a pile of booleans I left lying around the codebase. The shape I trust so far If I had to write down what I believe today, it is this. The statechart decides, the workflow executes, the database remembers. For Cüte that means XState for the rules, durable workflows for the calls out to payment and shipping, and Postgres as the source of truth. I reserve the right to be wrong about all of it. Still drawing My diagrams change almost every week, and a few of my machines are more complicated than they have any right to be. I do not really mind. I am writing this less to explain statecharts and more to mark where I am with them right now. The people in this corner seem genuinely interested in making hard software easier to understand, and for the moment that is reason enough to keep going. ## Services - State machine design - Interaction architecture - Frontend engineering ## Links - [Commerce package docs](https://docs.xn--cte-hoa.com/system-architecture/commerce-package) - [State machines, visualised](https://docs.xn--cte-hoa.com/posts/state-machines-mermaid) - [Stately](https://stately.ai/docs) - [Statecharts.dev](https://statecharts.dev/) - [Durable workflows in Postgres](https://supabase.com/blog/durable-workflows-in-postgres-dbos) - [XState docs](https://xstate.js.org/docs/) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/fsm) # Tailwind and design tokens _Code_ My design tokens don't live in CSS. They live in one file, frontend.config.json: breakpoints, columns, gutters, spacing scales, and every typeset. Everything downstream reads from it. ```json { "structure": { "spacing": { "stack": { "xs": "2rem", "md": "2.5rem", "lg": "3rem" } } }, "typography": { "typesets": { "body-small": { "xs": { "font-size": "14px", "line-height": "1.4" } } } } } ``` Tailwind doesn't own the system, it consumes it. The AREA17 a17-tailwind-plugins take that config and turn it into the utilities I actually use: grid and container from the column counts, gap-stack from the spacing groups, f-body-small and the rest from the typesets. I change a number in the config, not a hundred class names. Alongside it sits design.md, the readable version of the same system. It's what I hand to Claude so generated code respects the tokens instead of guessing. Config for the build, design.md for the conversation. If your tokens and your Tailwind setup have drifted apart, I'll pull them back into one source and wire the plugins so the system stays honest. ## Services - Tailwind CSS architecture - Design tokens - Custom plugin development - Design systems - Frontend engineering [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/tailwind-plugins) # Diagrams _Code_ The bottleneck in software was never typing the code. It was holding the whole system in your head: seeing it at once, how one small change ripples downstream, where its blast radius ends, and what shares its fate with what. > Agents do the code. The human in the loop thinks in systems. Thinking before code A diagram is where I do that thinking. It lets me ask "what if" before the code exists, instead of "why" after it breaks. Most of the value is spent before a single line is written. Tools I reach for I sketch every system in Mermaid.js, where a few lines of text become a clean diagram that lives in the repo and ages with the code. When the diagram is the interface itself, a node editor, a workflow builder, anything graph-shaped, I build it in React Flow. The same shape, everywhere One picture keeps earning its place across problems that look nothing alike in code. A durable execution that has to survive a crash and pick up where it left off. A state machine deciding what an order is allowed to do next. An AI workflow branching on whatever a model just returned. As diagrams they collapse into the same handful of nodes and edges, and once I can see them I can reason about them. The diagram is the mental model I develop against, not something I make afterwards to look organised. ## Services - Technical diagrams - System architecture - Data visualization - Documentation ## Links - [Mermaid.ai](https://mermaid.ai/) - [React Flow](https://reactflow.dev) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/diagrams) # Everything is a block _Code_ Over the past few years, I’ve shifted my entire development philosophy toward block-based architecture. Instead of designing and building unique, monolithic page templates for every new layout, I now treat everything as a composable block. This modular mindset decouples visual layouts from database constraints and hardcoded templates. Pages become clean stacks of reusable block components, like heroes, features grids, galleries, and text blocks, that can be dynamically ordered, customized, and styled. Whether building high-performance marketing pages, design systems, or brand guidelines, this approach has transformed my workflow. It makes collaboration with designers seamless, speeds up development, and provides a structured foundation that AI can easily reason about and compose. ## Services - Component architecture - Block-based content - Design systems - Sanity integration - Frontend engineering ## Links - [Builtwell Blocks](https://www.builtwell.design/blocks) - [AInstein Blocks](https://shots.ainstein.live/blocks) - [Cüte Blocks](https://brand.xn--cte-hoa.com/blocks) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/everything-is-a-block) ## Learn # AInstein _Learn_ Wanted something with the warmth of a school crest and the precision of a textbook diagram. Ended up with a wordmark that hides a small visual gag. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Most users never notice. That’s exactly right. I like marks that survive being used badly. This one prints well on cheap paper, looks fine in a tiny favicon, and doesn’t collapse on a chalkboard. The bar for an education brand is exactly that low and exactly that high. [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/ainstein) # Learn by living _Learn_ I have lost count of the countries. Not because there were so many, but because each one rearranged me a little, and after a while you stop counting the rooms in a house you already live in. Different languages, different cultures, different ways of saying the same small thing. You learn there is no single right way to greet someone, to eat, to apologise, to build. You learn to watch first. Mostly you learn that the person you were in the last place never quite fits in the next one, and that this is fine. What stayed was never the facts. It was the angle. A way of looking at a problem sideways, because I had seen it solved differently somewhere else. That perspective is the one thing I packed for every move, and the only thing that never got lost on the way. Rosario is the root I carry into every room, the Argentinian part of me that never stays behind. Los Angeles gave me nights with no end in the Hollywood Hills. Detroit showed me where electronic music really comes from. Puebla handed me the talavera of its old city and the Popocatépetl watching over it. Paris turned into a quiet mission to taste every single croissant I could find. São Paulo left me mesmerized by the beaches of Brazil. I am still at it. Still living somewhere that will, one day, become a place I used to live. For now that place is Munich, and I am looking forward to everything it has not shown me yet. La joie de vivre. [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/learn-by-living) # Builtwell _Learn_ Stripped down, mostly type, very little decoration. The shapes that survived the first two rounds plus a few iPad sketches that wouldn’t leave me alone. Builtwell as it stands today owes most of its DNA to this round. ## Links - [Builtwell](https://builtwell.design) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/builtwell) # Cüte _Learn_ Cüte is the one I am still building. A marketplace for second-hand that is safe, joyful, and effortless, the way it should have worked from the beginning. It started in Brazil, watching neighbours trade in WhatsApp groups. Chaotic, unstructured, but real. The trust was there. The tools weren't. So Katrin and I set out to build the tools. Cüte is where everything I have learned gets tested at once. Design and finance, payments and trust, a photo that becomes a listing in seconds. It is the hardest thing I have made, because a marketplace only works when both sides believe it will. Buy. Sell. Repeat. Ain't that cüte? ## Links - [Docs](https://docs.cüte.com) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/cute) # Writing _Learn_ I write to think. The blog posts that survive are the ones I rewrote enough times to forget what I originally wanted to say. The ones that don’t survive are useful too. They’re the receipts for the thinking. Most of what I publish is short. Most of what I write is shorter. The longer essays only show up when something has been bothering me for months. Those are usually the ones worth keeping. If you’re reading this and wondering whether to publish a draft, the answer is probably yes. ## Related ### Posts - [Catchwords](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/blog/catchwords) ## Links - [5 Condensed typefaces](https://www.builtwell.design/articles/5-condensed-typefaces) - [The Town: When music meets marketing](https://www.builtwell.design/articles/the-town-festival-jacob-collier-marketing) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/writing) ## Collect # Books _Collect_ My shelf is mostly books I haven't finished. The ones I have finished, I've usually finished twice. Design monographs, technical references, novels I read to remember that prose is a craft too. The stack on my desk is shorter than the one beside the bed, and that's the one that actually gets read. [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/books) # Music _Collect_ Headphones on by 8am. Off at midnight. The playlist usually decides what kind of day it's going to be. Mostly I collect it. On vinyl, curated slowly, each one a record I keep coming back to. The covers below are the collection. I have my yearly favorites too, ones that stay on repeat for a year. Radiohead, John Mayer, Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones, Eruca Sativa, Winery Dogs, to name a few. [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/music) # Inspiration _Collect_ There's an Inspiration pin elsewhere with the long list. This one is shorter, the designers I keep coming back to without ever quite knowing why. Some for nerve, some for restraint, some for the way they handle a deadline. The roster shifts, but the bar they set doesn't. ## Links - [Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/ignaciogiri) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/inspiration) # Guitars _Collect_ Golden Black It started as a simple want. A black Strat. Not a project, not a custom, just a black Strat that felt right. I'd owned plenty over the years and none of them were quite the thing. Then the spec started filling in. I wanted a roasted flame maple neck, the kind with the tiger striping that catches light at the wrong angle. Off-the-shelf guitars with that neck wood are rare and rarely affordable. The math stopped working. The build started making sense. The reference that locked the aesthetic was Mateus Asato's custom Suhr. The proportions, the restraint, the way nothing on the guitar was trying. Black body, maple and rosewood neck, gold hardware, no chrome, no logo I didn't choose. Once I saw it, the rest of the spec sheet wrote itself. For the wood we went to StewMac. The roasted flame maple blank shipped from the US to Buenos Aires, where Martín García Facal would do the rest. Fifteen-plus years out of Argentina, Martín runs GF Pickups, which started as a small pickup workshop and grew into one of the most respected custom shops on the continent. His Línea Custom works the way good design work works. A long brief, a longer conversation, and a finished thing that belongs to no one else. I sent him my spec sheet expecting pushback. I got plenty, all of it useful. The result is Golden Black. Classic S body in Alder, Black Gloss nitro, chunky C maple neck on that StewMac blank, dark rosewood board. A Duncan SH-4 in the bridge and two GF single coils handwound by Martín. Gold hardware against the black, because at some point you commit to a vibe. The PDF below is the design guide we built it from. The same document that went back and forth between us as the spec settled. I just like to play guitar. Mostly classic rock and blues. Some of it ends up below. ## Links - [Pinterest (Guitars board)](https://pinterest.com/ignaciogiri/guitars/) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/guitars) # Watches _Collect_ One watch, worn every day. A few more in a drawer for the days I want to remember something specific. I'm not a collector in the spec-sheet sense. I like watches the way I like guitars: as objects with a job, made well enough that the job becomes a pleasure. The mechanical ones especially. The ones with a date window I'll never read. ## Links - [Pinterest (Watches board)](https://pinterest.com/ignaciogiri/watches/) [View pin](https://www.ignaciogiri.com/pins/watches)