John is a freelance designer, specializing in UI & visual identities.
He lives in Brooklyn, after a rough 12-year stint in cushy Los Angeles, Venice Beach (read: sarcasm). He graduated in 2009 with a BA in Fine Arts-Studio Arts, with a focus on Communication Design from the golden years of University of Southern California ✌️. Before that in 2004, his first job and upward career move from summer intern to production designer, was at an interactive agency in downtown San Diego called Inter@ctivate. Most of his design chops stem from in-the-trenches working experience starting in high school, through college and present day. He’s worked in small digital agencies, fashion, a startup serving large multinationals, and now for himself working his large companies and fellow independents.
John fancies designing digital experiences that can make meaningful, long-term impact. He discovered this while designing interfaces that help reveal insights into people’s health—all while the App Store boomed with one too many selfie apps. If an app or idea helps just one person achieve a goal, scale it and make it accessible for many others.
Being a more well-rounded individual, as a designer he has a penchant for finding solutions to problems through the perspectives and executions of other industries.
Other peculiarities and opinions
Being an elder millennial, maintaining his personal Instagram is sometimes a chore but a necessary component of the millennial and designer lifestyle
He borrows a page from Steve Jobs’s lifestyle and generally wears only three brands: G-Star, H&M and Nike—less time shopping, less decision fatigue and more curated uniformity with just enough differential
He’s a flexitarian, cooking vegetarian at home, and anything eating out though if the meats aren’t mysterious—cheaper, healthier outcomes, less guilt for when meat-that-was-once-sentient-life goes bad in the fridge
Sips tequila—life changing
Coffee is good, and matcha is great(er) 🍵
Music is his therapy and keeps him afloat
And Star Trek is a future he probably came from 🖖
He reached 2nd degree black belt and Bushido warrior ranks in Karate 🥋
His sister is a pool shark, and he might be a pool baby shark by training 🎱
Also calls himself a #gymshark 🦈🏋️♂️
He prefers to stand while working; otherwise, sciatica and every degenerative disease that comes bundled with sitting for 40h/wk
Lyft > uber. Though he appreciates uber’s commitment to good design, except where it falls short on social impact.
smart > any other car, even Tesla. But if they collaborated… 😍
Despite the above two points, he’s a fan of the NYC subway system, understands why New Yorkers complain, but doesn’t join the chorus—it’s an amazing system, all things considered
Deeply appreciates the long-game, iterative design vision of Apple
The iPod Shuffle, his first Apple product, marked the beginning of this brand loyalty
The original iPad Pro & Pencil combination was one of Apple’s few modern design fails that he couldn’t find a rhyme or reason as to, just why…
His tools, services and networks of choice:
iPad Pro
Sketch + InVision prototyping
Adobe Illustrator/ Capture on iPhone/ Photoshop on iPad
Apple Keynote & Pages
Clear
Notability
Toggl & Teamweek
Squarespace
LinkedIn & Instagram
Dribbble (for only 5 minutes at a time because, imposter syndrome)
NYC Freelancers Hub & Union
Spacious — ⚰️ RIP, death by WeWork
David Barton Gym & TMPL — also, ⚰️ RIP
jorohaco (pronounced joe • roh • hah • ko) is his pen name, derived from the first two letters of each of his names.