Hey

I'm Josh Singer, a designer engineer who works across craft, systems, and feel. I want the things I build to help people move faster and think more clearly, without getting in the way.

My mom was an art teacher when I was growing up, so visual thinking has always been core to the way I see the world. I found an old book called the Photoshop Bible that my mum had kept from her studies and I just dived into it. I found it so cool to create digital works of art. I've never been any good at painting or drawing, so this was my way of relating to what she was doing. At 13 I started producing music and so when I needed artwork or promotional assets for any singles, EPs or albums, it was easy for me to open up photoshop and jam some funky art. Jumping into visual design felt like the practical next step.

I picked up a course by Webflow called Webflow University, I love continuous learning. That helped me pick up a love for web design. The shift to writing code myself happened gradually. I kept running into limits with no-code tools and eventually realised I wanted the precision that only code gives. I still don't see design and development as separate tracks. They're different ways of working on the same problem.

The Path

I'm mostly self-taught. I did study fashion design and marketing at the University of Pretoria for a while, but I left in my third year. Mental health got in the way, and I needed to step back and work out what actually mattered to me.

That break changed how I approach work. I learned to be honest about what I'm capable of. That soul searching made me hyper-aware of brittle systems, and it paved the way for me to develop a deep love for design systems.

What I Do

I build full-stack interfaces with a bias toward power users. My starting point is usually the expert path: keyboard shortcuts, consistent patterns, fast ways through. Once that works, I work on the onboarding and clarity that brings everyone else along.

Design systems are where I focus most. The invisible structure that lets teams move without constant reinvention matters more than any single component. On the technical side I work across the stack, but the part I care about most is the feel of the thing: how transitions land, how micro-interactions respond, whether the rhythm of the interface feels natural or forced.

What Drives Me

I care about the last 10 percent. The polish, the timing, the way every state and edge case is handled. Craft on its own isn't enough, though. A beautiful but slow or inaccessible interface isn't finished.

Constraints help. A tight deadline or technical limit forces clearer thinking. I don't see them as things to work around. They shape what the solution can be.

Beyond the Work

Music is still part of my life. Producing taught me a lot about timing, texture, and negative space, and those ideas show up in how I think about layout and interaction. I also spend time philosophising with a neat whisky.

What's Next

Every project teaches me something I never expect. Right now I'm focused on getting better at the overlap between design vision and shippable systems. I want to work on things that need both taste and technical depth.

If any of this lines up with what you're looking for, I'd like to talk.