About Me
I’m a product design generalist based in Richmond, VA. I love learning from people, crafting lovely designs, and building useful tools.
I love the web. I’ve been making websites for nearly three decades at this point. Over the years, I’ve been a web developer, webmaster, interaction designer, UX designer, UI designer, product designer, and a thousand permutations in between. I love exploring the intersections between design, development, writing, and more. I have worked with organizations large and small, from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. I have worked on small teams where I was the sole designer and front end developer to large teams where I was one of dozens of designers and developers.
I haven’t worked for a FAANG company or other Silicon Valley tech titan, but I have worked for several startups in Richmond, VA. I haven’t spoken at conferences or written books, but I did write an article for A List Apart, and I’ve written tons of articles about design and development at UXcellence. I don’t have a YouTube channel or a Soundcloud. I haven’t been on a podcast, though I listen to plenty of them. I designed an icon for a friend’s app that appeared very briefly in an Apple keynote, so that was neat.
“Ste is one of my favorite designers to work with. He is a jack of all trades and master of many. Ste also knows what’s worth really fighting for.”
Casey Liss, SingleStone
A few random bits about me
- I didn’t get a driver’s license until I was 28, when my significant other convinced me I had to.
- I can juggle. I’m okay at it. Balls, clubs, rings, sometimes random objects. I can even do a handful of tricks juggling three balls.
- I’ve travelled to four continents (North America, South America, Europe, and Africa). I want to hit all seven.
- At any given moment, there is a song or soundtrack playing in my head.
- I’ve had various personal websites continuously since 1995, but I have been terrible at keeping archives of them.
- I lucked into a three-character username by signing up on Instagram very early. I get requests for the name constantly, but I'm not giving it away. SO STOP ASKING. (I still use Instagram rarely.)
- My wife and I met playing World of Warcraft.
“Passionate, great, honest and a smart team player who was always ready to apply all his energy and stamina to get the job done. Achievement oriented and creative developer with excellent design skills. His technical wisdom, customer focused approach, and experience allows Ste to view solutions instead of problems. He strives to understand the user and build the best possible product.”
Archie Miller, Snagajob
“I have worked with Ste Grainer for several years in two different environments. He is unique in that he has both design and coding skills. He is passionate about the world of web and often provides interesting tidbits from recent blogs or podcasts. His design is simple, clean, and engaging. Ste has a larger perspective when solving problems which produces careful and thorough results. And he is a swell guy.”
Tiffany France, VCU & Snagajob
Colophon
This site is built in Craft CMS with templates handcrafted in Nova. The typography is your system font with a touch of Zodiak. Most of the base styles are part of my personal design system, Journey. Icons are primarily from Font Awesome. I created the logo myself.
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? 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 live in a small town just outside the small city of Richmond, capital of Virginia. I love this artsy, foodie, music-friendly city despite some unfortunate history. If you ever come to Richmond, let me know! I’d be happy to show you around or at least give you some pointers to check out.