I'm a college professor and graphic designer running Sneakerbox and two newsletters on the side, and these are the tools that survive my actual week: client design work, building apps, cutting video, sending newsletters, and taking payments. Nothing ...
Sections
4
Design
AI and Building
The Business
Growth
Design
Where the client work gets made
Where I mock up sites and graphics when a client needs to see it and comment live. The multiplayer editing still feels like magic.
Figma
My fast lane. Social graphics, decks, and client comps that need to exist today, not next week. I run the 4-seat Business plan for studio work.
Canva
The home base. Photoshop and Illustrator are where serious client design starts for me, and after years of teaching design I still reach for them first.
Adobe Creative Cloud
When a client piece needs a real photo and I can't shoot it, this is my stock library. Licensed properly, no headaches.
Getty Images
AI and Building
How I ship apps and video without a dev team
I build real working apps by describing what I want. My personal todo system and client websites were built here, no dev team required.
Replit
First draft of almost everything: video scripts, captions, outreach emails. Then I edit it like a teacher with a red pen.
ChatGPT
AI video generation for content experiments and motion pieces I couldn't shoot or animate by hand. The Max plan keeps me from rationing renders.
Runway
The Business
Newsletters, store, payments, email
Both of my newsletters live here: The Shoes Letter for sneaker business and Stay Sketchy for artists. Free to start, and it has grown with me.
beehiiv
How clients pay me. I send a payment link for logo work and the money just lands. No invoices-as-PDFs, no chasing checks.
Stripe
Business email for sneakerbox.com plus Docs and Drive. Looks professional to clients, and my whole archive lives in one place.
Google Workspace
My Hundo Basket store runs on the Basic plan. Boring in the best way: it stays up, takes cards, and emails me when something sells.
Shopify
Growth
SEO, domains, and this very platform
Yes, the platform you're reading this on. My recommendation lists here have become a real little income lane, and building them is weirdly fun.
Benable
Where I buy and renew domains for the studio and side projects. Cheap, no upsell maze, and the search is genuinely good.
Namecheap
My SEO early-warning system. The weekly site audit on sneakerbox.com catches broken pages and slipping keywords before they cost me traffic.
