I was born in 1987 in the South of Bronx, New York City at Lincoln Hospital — to two proud Salvadoran parents; Carlos and Sandra Montoya. Growing up poor in the 90s, in New York, to a Latino family imbued in me a deep cultural indoctrination and understanding of what it means to work and love hard.
I grew up on a healthy amount of street hockey, novelas, handball, small apartments, merengue, pupusas, salsa, bachata, family trips, cousins, Coney Island, chancletas, and all that is New York City.
At 19 I moved out west to San Diego and took a stab at going to school, but, financially it didn’t pan out for me.
My career started when I convinced a local residential house cleaning company to let me design their logo and website. The rest of my career took off — I’ve designed everything from drawing up logos to financially viable business plans to thinking up asinine advertising campaigns to software that's used by millions of people.
My wife and I got married in those early years and had to muddle through providing financially for a growing family and what it meant to “design”. After many attempts at "figuring it out", I'm now a father of three, a design director, and have learned how to maintain and sustain productivity — kind of.
Feels great to be here.
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Abstract:
Design and creative direction for a brand new mobile product.
Roles:
Creative Director
Product Designer
Web Developer
Prototyper
Abstract:
Design the atomic web pattern library to be used across Atlassian.com
Roles:
Senior Web Designer
Design Project
Lead Front-end Web Prototypes
Abstract:
Design, update, and develop the
Codefresh homepage
Roles:
Creative Director
Web Designer
Prototyper
Abstract:
Design and develop the brand identity for Superconductive. Develop new website.
Roles:
Creative Director
Web Designer
Web Developer
Abstract:
Design the visual design and user experience for our suite of mobile apps
Roles:
Product Designer
Prototyper
Abstract:
Produce, design, and host a podcast to teach the craft to new designers
Roles:
Designer
Producer
Host
A little bit about how I coded this site using Webflow — I learned Webflow "on-the-job" with a few client projects. I'm now at the point where I can comfortably say, "Yea, after I design your site, I'll code it too."
However, I never learned it the "right way" until Ran Segall's Webflow Masterclass. I've completed his class as of this writing and I've immediately leveled up my coding game by putting into practice what Ran has taught me.
I’m basically a superhero now.
I was good at designing websites, but I also wanted to be good at coding them. I took a chance with Webflow and it has paid off handsomely.
So, take the plunge, you don’t need to learn how to code. All you need to do is start using Webflow correctly, and you’ll find yourself publishing websites as easily as you design.
For sure, make sure it’s a Dropbox/Cloud link and I’ll do my best to check it out and offer up some feedback or comments. If you don’t hear back from me, don’t be bummed. Make sure you are learning something new about your work, tastes, dislikes, abilities, ineptitudes on the daily and you’ll be good.
Stop trying to be someone else. Radically accept yourself. Be careful what you get good at because that’s what you’ll end up doing for the rest of your life, so, make design your hobby and everything else will fall in place.
I’ll do jobs for the big bucks and I’ll also do jobs for a California Burrito. My rates depend on the people behind the product, their spirit and how much fun it’ll be. And, whether or not I can do the thing for them. No, there isn’t a sheet with how much an inch logo is versus a website. It all depends on the client, timing, budget, clout, spirit and how much y’all can cough up for a thoughtful and scalable solution.
Of course I do! I have so many...lol. I only have one. Get a 50% student discount when you sign up for Webflow with this gorgeous link.
