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Launch Log

Launching My First Website - and Capping Graduate Studies at UNC

This site is the first corner of the internet that feels fully mine: a place to gather policy work, photography experiments, and the energy of a graduate journey that started in Chapel Hill and now tilts toward what's next.

Published September 13, 2025
Route Chapel Hill + Raleigh
Read Time 6 min
Focus Portfolio launch & UNC finale

Launch Highlights

The goal was simple: ship a personal site that feels like me. I wanted a home for projects, field notes, and photography — with just enough motion to keep things lively and not get in the way.

  • Designed and built in short sprints (about 48 hours end‑to‑end)
  • Layered gradients, pressed buttons, and subtle 3D cards for texture
  • Minimal JavaScript for reading progress, quick‑nav highlights, and lazy loading

UNC Reflections

This launch also marks the end of a graduate chapter rooted in UNC and North Carolina. The site’s palette and tone nod to home — coastal greens, UNC blues, and a storytelling cadence influenced by policy work.

Community shows up in the typography and the pacing — it’s purposeful, welcoming, and built to evolve.

Build Notes

  • Semantic HTML + Bootstrap scaffolding for a sane baseline
  • Hand‑tuned CSS for glow, depth, and responsive tiles across projects
  • Fonts: Syne for punchy headers, Inter for body, with Playfair Display accents for longer reads

Quick metrics:

  • 48 hrs — design + build sprint
  • 12 — components refined
  • 3 — cups of coffee powering it all

What’s Next

This isn’t an endpoint — it’s the start of a living archive. Expect more long‑form posts, expanded photography stories, and deeper dives into energy and climate project work.

Evening light at UNC Chapel Hill

If you want to collaborate on energy, climate, or design storytelling, I’d love to connect.