Michael L. Lawson

Design
Engineer

& Creative Developer

Thirty years of visual design, now building accessible front-ends in React and TypeScript. I take brand systems from first sketch to production code.

Explore the work Résumé PDF GitHub

LocationBased in Gilbert, AZ

StatusOpen to Design Engineer & Creative Developer roles

Core stackReact · TypeScript · Three.js

01 / 05

Selected Work

Product work, built end to end.

Forge City Circuit

Brand Identity / Product Design / Creative Engineering

A fictional civic sports league developed as a complete system—from a forged multi-sport identity to a data-driven fan experience spanning eight neighborhood franchises.

Role: Creative Direction + Design + Development
Year: 2026

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Waymark

Accessible Product Prototype / React

An accessible faith-based product prototype combining devotional progress, resource discovery and commerce interactions within a warm, reusable design system.

Role: Product Design + Front-End Development
Year: 2026

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CineVault

UX / UI / Product Experience

A film-discovery and watchlist experience built around curated collections, focused search and considered interaction design.

Role: Interface Design + Front-End Development
Year: 2026

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Creative Lab

Interactive experiments in 3D, motion and sound.

Smaller studies that push the browser: procedural Three.js geometry and live audio driving a Canvas animation.

Signature / Interactive 3D / Cinematic Motion

FORM / FUNCTION

A self-initiated kinetic sculpture exploring the relationship between form, construction and motion. An 18-second introduction gives way to hands-on spatial exploration.

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Interactive Artist Experience / Web Audio

The Kindred Fire

An interactive artist experience extending the Evergrace Music universe through audio-reactive visuals, editorial storytelling and cinematic atmosphere.

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More Work

A coded brand system and a civic information site.

Design tokens and reusable components for a fictional label, and a React visitor guide with live local weather.

Identity / Art Direction / Visual Systems

Evergrace Music

A self-initiated music brand system shaped around a clear identity, editorial storytelling and a cohesive digital presence.

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Visitors fishing beside a tree-lined lake at Knob Noster State Park

Civic Experience / React / Live Data

Visit Knob Noster

A responsive visitor experience bringing local destinations, live weather and community information into a clear six-page React site.

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02 / 05

Experience

Three decades of design. Now in the codebase.

2026 – Present
Frontend Development Intern
The Social NFT Marketplace · Remote
- Diagnose and resolve front-end bugs in a live React and Tailwind CSS marketplace deployed on Vercel.
- Replaced a static preview-image block with an interactive carousel component, giving the marketplace a clearer browsing experience.
1995 – Present
Founder / Freelance Creative Engineer
MLL Creative Engineering (formerly Lawson Grafix, LLC) · Gilbert, AZ
- Grew a design studio into a creative engineering practice offering front-end development, design systems and web builds.
- Manage engagements from requirements through delivery.
2021 – 2026
Production Specialist / Graphic Designer
FastSigns · Gilbert, AZ
- Prepared production-ready files to exact technical specifications and managed work from order intake to quality-checked delivery.
1998 – 2017
Creative Specialist
Xerox Corporation · Phoenix, AZ
- Produced digital media, online presentations, and internal website and training content.

Education

Frontend Coding CertificateFES Institute
Master Certificate in Web Development and Advanced Graphic DesignSessions College for Professional Design
Associate Degree in Visual CommunicationsAl Collins Graphic Design School
Multimedia CertificateAl Collins Graphic Design School

03 / 05

About

A designer who became an engineer.

I started as a graphic designer in 1995. Today I build the interfaces I design, in React, TypeScript and plain JavaScript.

Nearly two decades at Xerox producing digital media, presentations and training content, years of running my own studio, and production work at FastSigns taught me how brand systems hold together and how to deliver to exact specifications.

In 2026 I completed the Frontend Coding Certificate at FES Institute. I’m now interning on a live React and Tailwind marketplace while building the projects on this site.

How I work

Design and code in the same hands. I make the visual decisions and implement them, so the system holds up with real content on real screens.
Accessibility is part of the build. Keyboard paths, focus management, reduced motion and contrast are checked, not assumed.
I test what I ship. Automated tests where the logic warrants them, and browser checks across screen sizes.
I use AI tools openly. I work with AI coding agents and assistants for drafting, reviewing and exploring options. I make the decisions, review everything before it ships and am responsible for every line of code.

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