This site is one output of a larger system.
The hardest brief I ever took was myself. I'm good at making things clear for other people and bad at making the case for my own work — so instead of writing a portfolio, I built a system that argues from evidence. One source of truth, and every surface generated from it: this site, my CV, my LinkedIn, the letters I send, the tools I apply with.
Strong work I could never pitch.
The real problem was never "I need a portfolio." It was that I'm an unreliable narrator of my own value — so the fix had to be a system that speaks from evidence, not from whatever mood I'm in.
A decade of invited work.
Reputation and word of mouth brought the work; I almost never had to apply for it. Comfortable — but it means I never built the muscle of making my own case.
The best of it is sealed.
My strongest work sits inside regulated digital health, under NDA. The things I'd most want to point at are exactly the things I can't show.
And I round myself down.
Left to me, the modest version always wins. I'd waved off production AI work as "just shifting toward AI," and left a nine-year aviation career out of my own bio entirely.
So I treated myself as a product.
Separate the data — who I am, captured once and backed by evidence — from the surfaces that present it: CV, portfolio, LinkedIn, letters. Build the data well, once, and generate the surfaces from it. And use AI as an investigator that digs and cross-checks — not a copywriter that inflates.
Rewrite yourself for every surface — from memory and mood. Contradictions creep in. The modest version wins.
Evidence once. Generate many. One voice and one set of facts — kept honest and consistent.
One source of truth. Every surface downstream.
It comes down to four parts.
The Library
A structured, evidence-tagged record of who I am — the single source every surface draws from.
The design system
"Terracotta": one set of tokens, type and components, so every surface looks like it came from the same hand.
The surfaces
CV, this portfolio, LinkedIn, cover letters, and the tools I target and apply with — each generated from the core, not written from scratch.
The method
Directed and understood: I direct and audit, the AI executes. The judgment calls stay mine.
A biographer that digs for evidence.
This is the part I'm most proud of, and the part that does the real work. It isn't a copywriter — it's an investigator. Acting as a biographer, an AI ran deep interviews, cross-checked what I claimed against my actual work, and pushed back whenever I undersold myself: the aviation years I'd dropped, the AI work I'd shrugged off.
Every entry is status-tagged — confirmed, still exploring, or my own read — and tied back to evidence. Fix the source, and every surface downstream gets more honest and more accurate at the same time.
Nine years in commercial aviation — reframed as operating experience not hidden.
The same hand on every surface.
This is the system the whole set is built on: Terracotta. One set of tokens, type and components — so the CV, the letters, and this page all read like they came from the same place.
A warm, editorial system — six earthen colours grounded by cold grey, set in Newsreader & Libre Franklin, with one italic terracotta word as the signature move.
I direct. The machine builds.
"Built with AI" is table stakes now. The interesting part is the division of labour.
- —The brief, and the story it has to tell
- —The information architecture
- —Every layout and usability call
- —The visual direction
- —The accuracy of the copy and the data
- —The run-and-verify pass — and the final say
- —The deep interviews, and drafting from the Library
- —Writing the actual code (Claude Code)
- —Rendering each surface
- —The heavy lifting, at speed
Claude Code is the build partner. Figma for a quick layout sketch when a decision is faster drawn than described; Lovable and Claude Design for exploring and dressing. The tools are the brushes — the decisions are mine. (This page was dressed in Claude Design.)
Part of why this exists is that I find it hard to talk about myself.
So I built something that does it from evidence instead of performance. It isn't false confidence — it's a system that keeps me honest, and keeps me from disappearing behind my own modesty.
And if you're wondering whether I can design and build a real system — you're looking at one. The brief was the hardest I know: me.
This page is the demonstration.
Everything you just read was designed and built the same way, from the same source. The medium is the argument.