Hello, I’m Ste Grainer.
I’m a designer and developer from Richmond, VA. I design, code, and write with a focus on clarity, usefulness, and delight.
Work
Here are a few of my favorite projects
Writing
About design, development, and other whims
On UXcellence …
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Jul 27, 2019
Make Time to Play: How Breaks, Hobbies, and Boredom Can Improve Creativity
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Jun 27, 2019
Automation for Designers: Starting with Email, Photoshop, and Sketch
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Jun 12, 2019
How to Build a Handy Portfolio Filter
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May 29, 2019
Automation for Designers: An Introduction
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May 22, 2019
Nice Touch: Sharing Podcast Clips in Overcast
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Mar 11, 2019
Organizing Design Work for Your Team (and Your Future Self)
& on my journal
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My 2020 Theme: Explore.
The name of the game for this year is exploration!.
Jan 3, 2020
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2019 in Review.
Revisiting what worked and what didn't in the Year of Rebuild..
Jan 2, 2020
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I Started a Web Comic.
About design and making things for people.
Sep 20, 2019
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My Favorite Podcasts.
Or what I enjoy listening to regularly.
Jun 18, 2019
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One Magical Moment.
In which I remember a visit to Notre Dame.
Apr 15, 2019
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My 2019 Theme: Rebuild.
This year, I’m getting back to building the things I’m passionate about..
Jan 22, 2019
Sweet Links
Helpful tools, techniques, & things made by others
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Fontshare.
High-quality free fonts from the Indian Type Foundry
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Easy Gradient Generator Tool.
Add more brilliant interpolation between gradient endpoints
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Frontend Practice.
Improve front end skills by recreating real websites with a project-based approach
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CSS Shadow Gradients.
Handy tool for generating visually distinct shadow gradients
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Color.js.
A powerful Javascript library for manipulating colors
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The Component Gallery.
An up-to-date repository of interface components based on examples from the world of design systems
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Defensive CSS.
Practical CSS and design tips that helps in building future-proof user interfaces
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Standard Ebooks.
Free and liberated ebooks, carefully produced for the true book lover.
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Can I DevTools?.
A handy list of what browsers have what dev tools, AND how to use them
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Ten modern layouts in one line of CSS.
A series of really handy basic grid recipes for common layouts
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Emmet Cheat Sheet.
A quick guide to basic Emmet syntax
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Awesome Figma Tips.
Small but awesome tips to work faster in Figma
Recent diversions
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5 stars. Absolutely loving how well they've adapted the animated series from the podcast and kept lots of subtle moments.
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5 stars. A slightly different story from the original podcast, but executed beautifully with tons of nods to fans.
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4 stars. A solid ending to a fun series.
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5 stars. Just wow. I love pretty much everything about this movie, from the zany style to the deeper message.
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3 stars. A fun, silly romp of a movie based on one of my favorite Disney rides.
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3 stars. The ending was a bit predictable (especially given the title), but the story and characters were still great.
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4 stars. Once I got used to the stream of consciousness of the first person narrator, I enjoyed the world building a lot.
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4 stars. This was a good Indiana Jones movie. Entertaining, funny, great characters, and a compelling story.
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5 stars. I adored Into the Spider-Verse and this movie is better in every way. Visually stunning, with a banger of a story.
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5 stars. How do you make a sequel to one of the best games ever? This. This is how. They made it better in every way.
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5 stars. Started off a little slow, but wow what a ride! Easily the best Star Wars show I've seen yet.
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4 stars. I felt like the name for this season should have been the Mandalorians (plural). Not quite as great, but still good.