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Rare by Design is my independent digital studio, based in Palm Springs, California. It's the operating brand under which I design and build websites, brand identities, and digital systems for clients who need their presence to feel as deliberate as their work.
The studio site itself is a build — a moving identity rather than a static portfolio. Deep plum, gold, animated typography, custom motion. The work speaks before the copy does.
What I do under Rare by Design:
⦿ Full website design and build (front-end and back-end)
⦿ Brand identity and visual systems
⦿ App and Chrome extension development
⦿ Digital marketing infrastructure (analytics, pixels, SEO, dashboards)
⦿ AI product builds and integrations
The studio operates on a simple principle: most freelancers compete on aesthetics or price. I compete on the layer between idea and operational — the messy middle where systems either work or quietly fall apart. Every site I ship includes the surface clients see and the infrastructure they don't.
I built this site for myself at the same level I build for clients, because the studio site is the first conversation every new client has with me.
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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Proud to share my submission for the #configMakeathon 🦋
Design has one job — make people feel something before they think something.
For the #ConfigMakeathon, I built a complete digital campaign experience for Butterfly Conservation's "Britain's Favourite Butterfly" — taking a public vote and transforming it into something people actually want to be part of.
The challenge wasn't technical. It was human. How do you make someone genuinely care about a species they've never noticed? How do you turn conservation data into something personal? How do you design an experience that moves people from passive viewers to active participants?
The answer was architecture — three distinct experiences working as one:
🗳️ Results Explorer — A fully filterable species discovery system built around personality vibes, wing colours, and rarity. Not a leaderboard. A world worth exploring.
🧬 Personality Quiz — A matching experience that gives every user a butterfly identity rooted in real behavioural traits. Flashy. Feisty. Adventurous. Rare. When someone sees themselves in a species, the relationship changes entirely.
🌿 Conservation Narrative — A story-first approach to ecological data that earns its urgency rather than demanding it. The stakes land harder when you already have a favourite.
This is the kind of work I find most meaningful — where design isn't decoration, it's the strategy itself.
🔗 Prototype:Prototype
Built with Figma · Figma Make · MCP
#ConfigMakeathon #Figma #UXDesign #ProductDesign #DesignForGood #ButterflyConservation @Figma @Contra @Contra HQ
Pretty Good!
Intro post, since apparently that's the thing here 😄
I'm Michael — UI/UX designer from Ukraine 🇺🇦, 4+ years in web products and e-commerce.
My day-to-day: designing interfaces people actually use. Not portfolio pieces. Real B2C flows, checkout conversions, dashboards, mobile apps 📱
Toolset: Figma (Advanced), AI-assisted prototyping, Lovable, rapid hypothesis testing 🛠️
What I care about in projects:
→ Clarity over decoration ✦
→ UX decisions backed by logic ✦
→ Collaboration that doesn't waste time ✦
If you're building something and need a design partner — let's talk 🤝
420*3= welcome to Contra. Cool to see here so muh talented designer
Built Monster Wall for the Figma Makeathon.
You create a monster, give it a power and publish it to a shared live canvas. Once it lands, it searches for its kindred spirit and connects to the closest match with a permanent gold thread. The wall stays alive with ambient effects, power ripples and real time cards dropping in as people publish.
Built entirely with Figma Make, Supabase for real time data and CSS animations for all the interactions.
Try it at fig-monster.figma.site
Community Publish Link - https://www.figma.com/community/file/1647287443103902432/make-your-fig-monster
Love seeing different approaches to the Makeathon. This is a thoughtful and well-executed project.
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