Howdy!

I'm Jonathan Villarin

I’m a web developer, graphic designer, and UX Designer based in Montgomery, TX.

Jonathan with Raine the Husky posing on a rock

My Career so far

I am currently furthering and refining my skills and abilities as a web developer. I created my first website in 2017 on WordPress and fell in love. I think most Millennial's first interaction with HTML was with MySpace during the early 2000's. I can still remember some of the inline-style markups I used then. I took me another fifteen years to really figure out that building and designing websites would become a passion of mine.

Check out my Resume
Graphic Design
UX Design
Prototyping
Webflow
Project Management
Front-End
Back-End
Coding
WordPress
Photography

Design Thinking

Having worked in construction for over 10 years, I have seen some good designs and some bad designs. My electrical career started in 2006 at my family's small business. I learned how to read blue-prints and do what we called "field engineering" installing those designs. It was essential to learn how to creatively problem solve on the spot because blue-prints don't always reflect what is actually on-site.

Over the years I became proficient at problem solving. I became a jack of all trades, master of one(I am a master electrician.)

I love solving problems!

I can remember at a young age taking apart flashlights, radios, and other small electronics to see how they worked. I take that mentality with me everywhere and apply it to everything I do. I even gift-give the same way. I won't gift someone anything I know they won't use. I once gave my mom a fruit picker for Christmas so she can pick oranges from her trees(she loved it!)

Hobbies

Traveling and photography are my top two hobbies for sure. I love traveling to see the mountains and escape the Texas heat & humidity for a while. While away from home, my camera is always close by.

Jonathan standing on a rock next to Bear Lake, COGroup photo of Baylee, Jonathan, Thomas, and Isel

Hiking in the mountains has to be one of my favorite things to do. Thankfully, I have friends that live in Colorado which makes this much easier.

Since I grew up around construction, I also have a passion for building furniture and renovating homes. My first home was built in 1950 and needed a bunch of upgrades and maintenance. I updated the kitchen, master bedroom and bathroom, installed new flooring, and painted every room in that house. My current home, which my wife, five pets, and I live in, was built in 1985. It had a fairly small kitchen and had some questionable design features. One being that the home is an A-frame... in Texas... which I love!

The kitchen has seen a full remodel and next is building a new set of stairs. The previous kitchen was small and outdated. The counter-tops were at three different heights. The user experience of the kitchen definitely needed improvement. It was not only difficult to use but frustrating and awkward.

Front of A-frame house during the dayKitchen from the stairwellFlooring being repaired with exposed section showing outsideShiplap being installed on wallOpened wall with new insulation installedBaylee on a ladder removing the ceiling sheetrockFraming of stairs being builtFront of the A-frame house at night

Although there is plenty more work to do, the house is significantly easier to live with. I have an eye for design and I love quirky things. Making a triangular home usable is probably something that doesn't cross most people's minds but is something I think about daily. The quirkiness of my current home and the past 10+ years of working in construction have taught me a lot about the design of everyday things. What makes them good designs to begin with.

Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible
-Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

And that's what I love. I love being a creator. I love bringing designs to life whether they be physical or visual. I want to continue creating designs, features, and art that work so well, you'll be impressed in the beginning and then wonder "why aren't all things design this way?"

Want to get in touch?
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