of a girl name shirley t (that’s me)
Former Engineer turned designer, Lover of beautiful photography, drinker of ginger tea, User Interface design nerd, and obsessed with websites.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that at 33-years-old I was still earning less than $50K (you read that right…less than a college intern) and getting nowhere closer to making more until I got pregnant with my second child. That was the wake-up call I needed to finally go from being an underpaid employee to profitably self-employed.
I taught myself graphic design, branding, website, and UI design in less than a year.
While trying to build a website for a side hustle idea, I became a little (well a lot) obsessed with website design. So much so, that I decided to transition from engineering to design, and create a whole business around designing websites for people who were equally obsessed with having a fancy, yet functional website.
I specialize in modernizing dated WordPress websites using no-code tools for small businesses and organizations that operate lean while massively scaling their brand presence online. My clients may come from a variety of different backgrounds, but they all walk away with a brag-worthy website that they feel empowered to tweak, edit and manage on their own.
Ski
LLS
Elementor
Webflow
Branding
Notion
Adobe XD
Figma
UI Design
HTML
css
My humble beginnings started when I dropped out of grad school…
2011/2012
- I dropped out of grad school and moved back home to Boston
- Got my dream job working for the Walt Disney Company
- My contract position with Disney ended a year later and I moved back to Boston
2013/2014
- Worked as an Assistant Project Manager for a large commercial real estate company
- Struggled with finding fulfillment with my job
- Made a career change from Engineering to Design
2015/2016
- Started my career as a Learning Experience/ Visual Designer for a sales training company
- Got engaged to my wonderful partner in crime Mark, and hitched the next year
- Had my beautiful baby boy Harper in March 2016
2017/2018
- Enrolled in my first online course on how to start a business
- Struggled to build my own website, and decided to start a web design business instead
- Booked my first website project for a whopping $675 (woo hoo!)
- I went through an emotionally difficult miscarriage
2019/2020
- Certified in Human-Computer Interaction, and Design Thinking
- Pregnant with No. 2!
- Left my 9 to 5 at three months pregnant to freelance full-time as a designer
- Had baby Ethan November 2019
- Earned $23,452 in my first year as a full-time freelancer (that's progress!)
2021/2022
- Completed 27 website projects
- Discovered the power of Adobe XD
- Interviewed by my fav WordPress website builder company - Elementor
- Tripled my income to $94,163 by the end of 2021
