In 1999, my Grandma made an unthinkable purchase for our working-class immigrant household—an iMac Special Edition. At a time when most families were lucky to own a basic PC, she chose Apple. Maybe she saw something in me before I even knew it myself.

That iMac became the gateway to a whole new world. Soon after, I discovered Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I was 12 years old with more ideas than I could sketch by hand, and those tools removed every creative limit I’d ever known.

By 13, I was deep into what I now call my “YouTube University” days—endless late nights teaching myself design through tutorials, trial and error, and pure obsession. I wanted to turn creativity into currency, so I started selling sneakers on eBay. But with little capital, the hustle had its limits. That’s when I pivoted to something less tangible but far more scalable: selling ideas.

I listed my first logo design service on eBay for a few hundred dollars. My first client? A small architectural firm in Houston called Truitt Architects. They had no idea a 13-year-old kid was on the other end of the emails. I took their brief and created a logo built around a T-Square—a clever nod to their industry and the “T” in Truitt. They loved it. And just like that, my design career was born.

Since then, I’ve been obsessed with the power of logos—how a single mark can carry the weight of a brand’s story, purpose, and emotion. Every project is a new puzzle, and when all the pieces lock into place, it’s nothing short of magic.

Today, I still carry that same hunger, curiosity, and deep respect for design that started with a gifted iMac and a spark of possibility.