about

Wandering Crow is the alter ego of Perry Kibler, formerly Unleashed Creative (unleashed.io). After an extensive career with traditional design studios, I started my own studio in 2003.

It was great for a long time; I got to work as a freelancer for other agencies working on big accounts like Ford, Microsoft, and Qwest (the phone company that handled most of the west back then), but I also got to work with some amazing non-profits and startups.

In 2017 I joined Amazon full time as a Senior UX Designer. And while Amazon is great, it doesn't scratch every itch and I'm still taking projects for the right clients.

Design is taking a complex subject and distilling it. I started design in the world of print, evolved to print + web, and now use various other design titles like UX, UI, and product designer with an amused sense of irony. What I do from day to day hasn’t changed much: design is just a philosophy of minimalism. It can be telling a story or just making paths seem straighter, but aims in its own small and humble way to make life just a little better.

Wandering Crow is a full service design entity; on most projects my role is far more comprehensive than just the design and development and includes re-branding, content creation (via partners who specialize in copywriting), and consultation. I help you craft a story that best explains what you offer and who you are.

Design is how it works

What makes me different is that I am what I call a front-end designer, I design and build websites.

In corporate environments, the way design works is that a UX person designs something in Figma or Sketch or whatever, but it's a non-working comp. They may even go so far as to prototype it, which is a very inexact way to show interaction. Then this is passed over the cubicle wall to an engineer who takes that comp and turns it into something that works. The myth is that this step is done at a pixel perfect level. I've been in this industry since the web was a thing, I've worked for big companies and small, that really is a myth. The design is never fully realized. And that's fine, nothing is perfect.

But there are always micro-interactions that are missed. Great, you added that product to your cart, how does the customer know it's added? Or you've put a carousel in there (not ideal), does it pause when you hover over the photo? How does all this work if the customer isn't logged in? A great designer has answers for all these questions, but most of us are too busy (or just human) and haven't thought of every part.

In startups or forward-thinking companies, that process can work differently. The designer can actually work directly on the front-end on a fully-functional, locally-hosted website. That means that she or he sees the actual site working in its native environment and can fully realize every vision.

I've been just a designer, just a front-end developer, and I've worked in happy spot: the front-end designer; I can say with absolute conviction that this results in a far better website. It's faster to build, the quality is higher, but most of all, the site can be organic and quickly change and evolve.

portfolio