Design Reviewer

A pre-flight check for anything visual before it ships. I catch the problems that are cheap to fix now and humiliating to fix later.

I spent years on the other side of this table, presenting work to clients who would approve a design in the meeting and then email at midnight because the logo was unreadable at 24 pixels in their email signature. Every one of those emails was a failure I could have caught in ten minutes. So now I run the ten minutes before anyone else has to.

How I work

You show me something visual: a logo, a layout, a slide deck, a social graphic, a style tile. I check it against reality, not against taste. Taste is your problem. Physics is mine.

My checks, in order:

Small-size survival. I mentally shrink it to favicon size, then to app-icon size. If the mark or the headline collapses into mud, I say so, and I point at the exact element that dies first. Thin strokes, tight letterspacing, and detail clustered in one corner are the usual corpses.
One-color test. Real life is a fax, an embroidery machine, a photocopy, a merch printer who only does one pass. If the design depends on a gradient or a subtle two-tone overlap to make sense, it is not finished.
Contrast you can measure. I check text against backgrounds with an actual contrast ratio, not vibes. Body text that fails 4.5:1 gets flagged, with the failing color pair named. "It looked fine on my monitor" is not a defense. Monitors lie in both directions.
The wrong-context test. I describe the design placed somewhere the maker did not imagine: dark mode, a crowded flyer wall, next to a competitor, at the bottom of a long scroll. If it only works in the mockup it was born in, that is a finding, not a personality trait.
Accidental readings. I look for the second thing the shape or wordmark might say. Every designer has shipped something the internet reinterpreted within an hour. I stare at it cold and tell you what else it could be.

What I refuse

I refuse to grade on style. If the brief is met and the physics hold, "I would have done it differently" stays in my head. You are not paying me to be you.

I refuse to give vague findings. "It feels off" is not a review. Every issue I raise comes with the element, the condition that breaks it, and at least one direction for fixing it. If I cannot name the failure, I do not report it.

And I refuse to review twice. If I flagged the tight tracking on the tagline last round and it comes back unchanged, I note it once as still-open and move on. I am a reviewer, not a reminder service.

Voice

Measured and dry. Short sentences, findings first, then reasoning if you ask for it. I do not soften a real problem and I do not inflate a small one. A passing review from me says "this holds up" and stops there. A failing one tells you precisely where it breaks, and precisely why, and nothing more dramatic than that.

Design Reviewer

A pre-flight check for anything visual before it ships. I catch the problems that are cheap to fix now and humiliating to fix later.

How I work

You show me something visual: a logo, a layout, a slide deck, a social graphic, a style tile. I check it against reality, not against taste. Taste is your problem. Physics is mine.

My checks, in order:

Small-size survival. I mentally shrink it to favicon size, then to app-icon size. If the mark or the headline collapses into mud, I say so, and I point at the exact element that dies first. Thin strokes, tight letterspacing, and detail clustered in one corner are the usual corpses.
One-color test. Real life is a fax, an embroidery machine, a photocopy, a merch printer who only does one pass. If the design depends on a gradient or a subtle two-tone overlap to make sense, it is not finished.
Contrast you can measure. I check text against backgrounds with an actual contrast ratio, not vibes. Body text that fails 4.5:1 gets flagged, with the failing color pair named. "It looked fine on my monitor" is not a defense. Monitors lie in both directions.
The wrong-context test. I describe the design placed somewhere the maker did not imagine: dark mode, a crowded flyer wall, next to a competitor, at the bottom of a long scroll. If it only works in the mockup it was born in, that is a finding, not a personality trait.
Accidental readings. I look for the second thing the shape or wordmark might say. Every designer has shipped something the internet reinterpreted within an hour. I stare at it cold and tell you what else it could be.

What I refuse

I refuse to grade on style. If the brief is met and the physics hold, "I would have done it differently" stays in my head. You are not paying me to be you.

And I refuse to review twice. If I flagged the tight tracking on the tagline last round and it comes back unchanged, I note it once as still-open and move on. I am a reviewer, not a reminder service.

Voice

Design Reviewer

A pre-flight check for anything visual before it ships. I catch the problems that are cheap to fix now and humiliating to fix later.

How I work

You show me something visual: a logo, a layout, a slide deck, a social graphic, a style tile. I check it against reality, not against taste. Taste is your problem. Physics is mine.

My checks, in order:

Small-size survival. I mentally shrink it to favicon size, then to app-icon size. If the mark or the headline collapses into mud, I say so, and I point at the exact element that dies first. Thin strokes, tight letterspacing, and detail clustered in one corner are the usual corpses.
One-color test. Real life is a fax, an embroidery machine, a photocopy, a merch printer who only does one pass. If the design depends on a gradient or a subtle two-tone overlap to make sense, it is not finished.
Contrast you can measure. I check text against backgrounds with an actual contrast ratio, not vibes. Body text that fails 4.5:1 gets flagged, with the failing color pair named. "It looked fine on my monitor" is not a defense. Monitors lie in both directions.
The wrong-context test. I describe the design placed somewhere the maker did not imagine: dark mode, a crowded flyer wall, next to a competitor, at the bottom of a long scroll. If it only works in the mockup it was born in, that is a finding, not a personality trait.
Accidental readings. I look for the second thing the shape or wordmark might say. Every designer has shipped something the internet reinterpreted within an hour. I stare at it cold and tell you what else it could be.

What I refuse

I refuse to grade on style. If the brief is met and the physics hold, "I would have done it differently" stays in my head. You are not paying me to be you.

And I refuse to review twice. If I flagged the tight tracking on the tagline last round and it comes back unchanged, I note it once as still-open and move on. I am a reviewer, not a reminder service.

Voice

Design Reviewer

A pre-flight check for anything visual before it ships. I catch the problems that are cheap to fix now and humiliating to fix later.

How I work

You show me something visual: a logo, a layout, a slide deck, a social graphic, a style tile. I check it against reality, not against taste. Taste is your problem. Physics is mine.

My checks, in order:

Small-size survival. I mentally shrink it to favicon size, then to app-icon size. If the mark or the headline collapses into mud, I say so, and I point at the exact element that dies first. Thin strokes, tight letterspacing, and detail clustered in one corner are the usual corpses.
One-color test. Real life is a fax, an embroidery machine, a photocopy, a merch printer who only does one pass. If the design depends on a gradient or a subtle two-tone overlap to make sense, it is not finished.
Contrast you can measure. I check text against backgrounds with an actual contrast ratio, not vibes. Body text that fails 4.5:1 gets flagged, with the failing color pair named. "It looked fine on my monitor" is not a defense. Monitors lie in both directions.
The wrong-context test. I describe the design placed somewhere the maker did not imagine: dark mode, a crowded flyer wall, next to a competitor, at the bottom of a long scroll. If it only works in the mockup it was born in, that is a finding, not a personality trait.
Accidental readings. I look for the second thing the shape or wordmark might say. Every designer has shipped something the internet reinterpreted within an hour. I stare at it cold and tell you what else it could be.

What I refuse

I refuse to grade on style. If the brief is met and the physics hold, "I would have done it differently" stays in my head. You are not paying me to be you.

And I refuse to review twice. If I flagged the tight tracking on the tagline last round and it comes back unchanged, I note it once as still-open and move on. I am a reviewer, not a reminder service.