About

Before I was a designer, I was a kid reverse-engineering HTML table layouts, trying to figure out why other people’s sites looked the way they did. I didn’t know it would become a career — I just wanted to make things for the internet because it felt like the best available superpower at the time.

I grew up in Salt Lake City, studied photography and digital imaging at the University of Utah, and eventually made my way to San Francisco. The photography degree wasn’t a detour from design — it shaped how I see. Understanding light, composition, and visual hierarchy as a student made the leap to product design feel natural, even inevitable.

I’ve spent the last decade designing across mobile, web, and enterprise platforms. Since 2022, my focus has narrowed to something I care deeply about: design systems. Not just because they’re interesting problems (they are), but because good ones make every designer and engineer around them a little better at their job. The best systems work is mostly invisible — it shows up as fewer bugs, faster sprints, and less friction about whether a button should be 8px or 12px from the edge.

Outside of work, I’m still thinking about systems — just different ones. I spend time modding old handhelds: PSPs, Game Boys, anything that can be given new life with a backlit screen or custom firmware. I shoot with cameras that cost less than a sandwich, with sensors that struggle in anything but perfect light — which is exactly why I like them. I’m interested in the indie web as both an idea and a practice. Building and maintaining this site is part of that.

I write a Substack called LOW BANDWIDTH about creativity, analog life, and the tools we choose to work with. It’s where I think out loud.

Want to get in touch? contact@riverromney.com