João Anjos

Design Engineer · Building at the intersection of design and code

Co-founder of Made by Sea (2021–present), where I've shipped 15+ web products end-to-end — from brand identity through architecture decisions to deployment. My work tends to live in the space where teams need a translator: building real systems with a designer's eye for detail, designing with an engineer's grasp of what it costs to build.
Over the past four years I've made and lived with significant stack bets — moving to Svelte, doubling down on custom Next.js, most recently embracing Webflow for the right kind of project. Long enough on each to learn what worked, what didn't, and when to switch. I work daily with AI-agentic tools (Cursor, Claude Code) and treat them as multipliers, not replacements for judgment.
Based in Matosinhos, Portugal. Available for remote and select on-site work.

Work Experience

Made by Sea

2021 - Present

Co-founder & Lead Engineer

  • Co-founded a digital studio and grew it to deliver 15+ web products for clients across Europe and the US.
  • Led full product cycles from discovery and visual design through architecture decisions to production deployment.
  • Made and lived with major stack bets — Svelte, custom Next.js, Webflow — each long enough to learn what worked and what didn't.
  • Architected and shipped custom Next.js + DatoCMS platforms with complex data models (largest: 20k+ records, 2M+ images).
  • Shipped multiple Shopify storefronts, including custom plugins and theme work tailored to client-specific commerce flows.
  • Built reusable design systems spanning Figma and DatoCMS that enable clients to manage and grow their sites independently.
  • Day-to-day stack: TypeScript, React, Next.js, Svelte, Astro, Shopify, GraphQL, Figma, Cursor + Claude Code.

Freelancer

2019 - 2021

Designer & Developer

  • Designed and built web platforms and brand identities for SMEs across Portugal.
  • Delivered end-to-end projects spanning visual identity, web design, and full implementation.
  • Built early experience shipping production sites and managing client relationships solo.

Trixir

2019 - 2019

Design Internship

  • Six-month internship in Sofia, Bulgaria, as part of Portugal's Inov Contacto program.
  • Redesigned brand identity and developed new visual guidelines.
  • Produced graphic, motion, and visual assets for campaigns.

Studies

University of Coimbra

Bachelor in Design and Multimedia (2015 — 2018)

Technical skills

Design Engineering

I work fluently across the design-to-code boundary. Figma for visual design and prototyping, production code for delivery — with attention to detail and craft at every layer.

  • Figma
  • React
  • TypeScript
  • CSS

Modern Web Stacks

Years of production experience with Next.js, plus shipping projects on Astro and Svelte. Comfortable choosing the right stack for the problem — and migrating when the right choice changes.

  • Next.js
  • Astro
  • Svelte
  • React
  • TypeScript

Headless CMS & Content Modeling

Deep experience with DatoCMS — including custom plugins, complex content models (20k+ records), and editorial flows designed for client self-service. Also Sanity (this site) and Webflow CMS.

  • DatoCMS
  • Sanity
  • Webflow
  • GraphQL

AI-Agentic Development

Daily user of Cursor and Claude Code. Wherebouts and WTFork were built largely with AI-agentic workflows. Strong instinct for when to trust the output, when to steer, and when to override.

  • Cursor
  • Claude Code
  • Anthropic API

Design Systems & Visual Design

Build design systems that scale from Figma to production — with the engineering follow-through to make sure they ship intact. Brand identity, web design, and reusable component libraries.

  • Figma
  • Design Systems
  • Brand Identity

E-commerce & Shopify

Years of Shopify work across client storefronts and custom theme builds, including building Shopify plugins for client-specific workflows. Comfortable across Liquid, theme architecture, and the wider Shopify ecosystem (POS, payments, apps). Integrate Stripe for non-Shopify commerce when the project calls for it.

  • Shopify
  • Stripe
  • Liquid
  • E-commerce