About
Designer, developer, maker.
I'm Aydin Kalantar, a product designer based in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. I take products from first sketch to shipped interface, and I build the code behind them. Before any of that, I learned precision at a workbench, cutting natural wood veneer by hand.
Story
My work sits where digital systems meet physical craft.
Marquetry taught me to see a whole picture as hundreds of small parts, each cut to fit its neighbors. A portrait in veneer only works when every fragment respects the grain, the tone and the line next to it. There is no undo.
I bring the same discipline to software. A product is a system of small decisions, from a button's state to a pricing rule, and it only feels effortless when each one fits. I design those decisions, then build them, so nothing gets lost between the idea and what ships.
Along the way I worked in graphic design and in 3D modeling and rendering. That is where I learned composition, light and material, and it still shapes how I present every product.
Today that practice runs in parallel: three live products on one side, original veneer artwork on the other.
Introduction
A short hello.
Practice
Four disciplines, one standard.
Product design
Research, flows, interface and interaction design, and the design systems that keep a product consistent as it grows.
Engineering
Front-end development and product engineering, so designs ship as intended, with the states, edge cases and performance that real use demands.
Visual design
A background in graphic design, 3D modeling and rendering: identity, layout and image-making, and products shown as they will look before they exist.
Craft
Natural wood veneer marquetry: original wall art and commissions, cut and fitted entirely by hand.
art.aydinkalantar.com ↗Brand & growth
Brands that sell, end to end.
From 2017 to 2020, for businesses in Los Angeles, I built the whole outward-facing side of the company: the brand, the website and every channel that brings customers to it. One person owning all of it meant the logo, the landing page and the ad all told the same story.
- Branding
- Graphic design
- Web design
- Web development
- SEO
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Online marketing
- The Best Screen Printing Brand and graphic design, website, SEO, and paid campaigns on Google and Facebook
- Signs Market Brand and graphic design, website, SEO, and paid campaigns on Google and Facebook
Principles
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Respect the material.
Wood has grain; data has shape; people have habits. Good work follows them instead of fighting them.
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Measure twice.
Understand the problem before cutting anything. A clear plan is cheaper than a clever fix.
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Be honest in the interface.
Show the risk beside the reward, the price before the commitment and the state of every action.
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Finish the edges.
Empty states, errors and small screens are where craft shows. They get the same care as the hero.
Selected work
Contact