Why I shoot before I design

Every site I've ever been asked to rescue had the same disease: beautiful layout, dead photography. Stock images are wallpaper. They fill space and say nothing, and visitors can smell it in half a second.

So I flipped my process. Before I open Figma, I visit the client. I shoot their hands, their room, their tools, their mess. Not portfolio shots — evidence. Proof that a real person does real work here.

Then the design becomes easy, because it has something true to hold. The grid bends around the photographs instead of the other way around. Type gets quieter. Colors come from the images themselves.

If you're building a site right now and it feels generic, the fix probably isn't another font pairing. It's a camera, an afternoon, and the courage to show the real thing.