About Me

Hello, I’m Ste Grainer. I’m a designer and developer hybrid from Richmond, VA, and I love to make things better through design.

I’ve worked with non-profits, universities, Fortune 500 companies, state agencies, consulting companies, startups, and more. I am as comfortable pushing pixels and tweaking vector paths as I am writing accessible HTML and crafting finely tuned layouts in CSS.

Sometimes I post on:

Want to work with me?

I currently have limited availability, but I love talking with people who are passionate about creating great experiences and solving interesting problems.

Get in touch View my resume

Side projects

  • UXcellence Logo
    UXcellence

    UXcellence is a blog on UX design, front-end development, building products, and making the world a better place for people.

    Read UXcellence

  • UX Compendium Logo
    UX Compendium

    The UX Compendium is a cohesive collection of Sketch templates and libraries to round out your design process beyond the user interface.

    Design better

  • The User Stories Logo
    The User Stories

    The User Stories is a web comic about design and making things for people.

    Read the comic

  • ColorBot Logo
    ColorBot

    ColorBot is a personal color assistant, a Swiss army knife for creating great color palettes, and a fun experiment built for A 10k Apart.

    Play with colors

  • UX Tool Belt Logo
    UX Tool Belt

    The UX Tool Belt is a handy tool for learning about UX techniques and mapping out your design process, originally built for A 10k Apart.

    Map your process

  • What’s Next? Logo
    What’s Next?

    I’ve got a few ideas percolating, but what will win out? Check back in a few months and maybe this spot will be filled …

Minutiae

About this site

This site is built in Craft CMS with templates handcrafted in Coda. The typography is Avenir Next (or your system font) with a hint of Argent CF. The slideshows in my portfolio and journal are powered by Flickity from Metafizzy. Tooltips in my media reviews are powered by Tippy.js, and the star ratings are a special concoction brewed by Jason Garber.

See a more detailed list of the tools I use.

Ste, huh?

It’s short for Stephen and pronounced “stē” (like steep without the p). Where did it come from? My friends in college wanted to shorten my name, and it felt weird to have them call me Steve. (That’s my dad.) So they settled on Ste and it stuck.

Made in RVA

I’ve lived in or around Richmond, Virginia for over 30 years. I love my hometown. If you ever swing through, let me know. I’d be happy to give tours or suggest the best places for your preferred choice of exploration.

What am I up to lately?

Life is busy, and I like to keep track of what I’m doing publicly so my friends and family can keep me accountable. You’re welcome to follow along as well.

See what I’m doing now