I Eat Pixels For Breakfast

I have been a web developer since 2012. That’s over a decade of coding, debugging, and of course, dealing with the ultimate question every time I tell people what I do:

"Oh, I.T. ka? Naghahack ka ng Facebook?"

Yes, of course. I spend my days building websites and my nights fulfilling everyone’s secret mission to sneak in to their ex's accounts. Totally. 

But despite all those years in web development (and my alleged career as a hacker), design has always been my first love. There’s always something that pulls me back to creating visuals and being slightly offended at being asked if my job is laying out "tarps" na pang birthday, binyag, piyesta, o pang congratulate.

So, I decided to level up my design skills. Because like any responsible adult motivated by money, I decided to learn motion design. Let’s be real. My current job pays well, but have you seen milk prices lately?

I’ve completed three pet projects so far (check out my samples here). And guess what? I’m loving it! And here are the things I've learned along the way:

✅ Learning the technical side is one thing, but having an eye for design is what makes a difference. 

✅ To truly stand out, you need to create your own assets. So extra skills in Photoshop, Illustrator or similar (for 2D) or Blender, Rhino or similar (for 3D) definitely come in handy.

✅ People will probably assume I now make animated logos na pang intro ng vlogs like this:

✅ But then, motion design isn’t just about making things move, it’s about making them engaging. That’s what makes it so challenging. No wonder motion designers get paid well—the very reason why i decided to give it a go. Kasi nga diba alipin tayo ng salapi? Bwahahaha.

I'm still learning. If I had to rate myself, I’d say I’m at 1/100. I might even take on a pro bono project or two when I have the time so I can practice. 

And since we’re here, allow me shamelessly plug my design portfolio: https://pixelsar.com

It took me a while to put this together since I've been slacking off to launch this because I couldn't make my illustrated avatar look like me I couldn't include all the work I did while employed. Because even though I did those projects, they still belong to the company and I'm not about to break any NDAs. So I had to dig through old hard drives, sift through my unorganized folders, and even search in Messenger to track down my past projects.

But it's finally here! 

I shared this on Facebook, knowing I have plenty of freelancer friends there who might refer me to their clients in need of a multimedia designer. But I'm not posting here because I want you to do the same. The last thing I need are potential clients making their way back to this blog and cringing at what they might read. 

Although on a second thought, it really doesn't matter. A quick Google search of my name will show that my life is pretty public, and I'm not even a public figure. Yes, at this point, there’s nothing left for anyone to blackmail me with. I’ve already spilled all the dirt myself here. But that is beside the point.

So, if you have a moment, I’d love for you to check out my portfolio. Feel free to critique, find inspiration (or flaws), or just skim through it. I’d truly appreciate it a lot!