--- title: Past url: https://gardiner.today/past tense: past edition: "2026.11.02" updated: "2026-11-02" --- # Past The work so far, newest first: six case studies, who I am and a timeline. ## Case studies ### [Perhaps the greatest design agency in Brisbane](https://gardiner.today/past/bigfish) Bigfish. Senior software engineer, May to October 2026. Senior Software Engineer at Bigfish from May to October 2026, owning client jobs end to end, from schema to deploy. Most of them were a new brand or a faster site on top of years of content that editors built. ### [People don’t tolerate bugs when money is involved](https://gardiner.today/past/nagaris) Nagaris. Lead frontend engineer, November 2025 to March 2026. Sole frontend engineer on a practice management and billing platform for accounting firms. Built the invoicing, payments and proposal surfaces from nothing. ### [The biggest piece of tech debt](https://gardiner.today/past/canva) Canva. Software engineer, Brand Templates team, March 2023 to July 2025. I helped remove the biggest piece of tech debt at Canva, according to their most senior engineer. I was the sole frontend engineer on Brand Style Match, and rebuilt a fragile core surface used by millions every day. ### [Hey you, let’s brew](https://gardiner.today/past/hai-coffee) Hai! Coffee. Designer and iOS developer, November 2022 to now. A SwiftUI pour-over timer for the Hario V60 that learns from each brew and nudges the next one closer to the cup you want. ### [My standing desk, in Home Assistant](https://gardiner.today/past/ha-desky) ha-desky. Developer, July 2025 to now. A Home Assistant integration that controls Desky standing desks over the Bluetooth already in them. It was my first Python, vibe-coded with Claude Code in three days, and fourteen months later I reworked it to reach Silver on Home Assistant’s quality scale. ### [The product is me](https://gardiner.today/past/this-site) gardiner.today. Design, engineering and AI, October 2026 to now. A portfolio reissued every day at noon, with two or three of its design values changed on a versioned token layer, and Ardo, my agent, answers questions about my work. ## Lately - deckhand, a Stream Deck that learns which shortcuts and Home Assistant actions I reach for and keeps them under my thumb. A Claude loop is building it. - paseo-plan-auto, a small Paseo plugin: approve an agent’s plan and it flips the agent into Auto mode. [github](https://github.com/j0rdsta/paseo-plan-auto) ## Who I am **Jordan Gardiner**, creative technologist, Magandjin (Brisbane), Australia. I’m a senior creative technologist, and I’m looking for my next team. I design and build the parts of a product people touch, from rough prototypes to polished interfaces. The work I like best sits between design and code: prototyping fast, then shipping the polished thing, with a designer’s eye kept in the codebase. I’m after a senior role across frontend, design engineering, design systems or full-stack where I can do that. Most of my frontend work is React and TypeScript. I shipped it for years before AI tools existed, and now I build with them every day; they make me faster, not possible. I hold a firm line on accessibility, and I work well remotely and async from an APAC time zone. I plan before I build, in numbered steps with a check at the end of each phase, and I’d rather you ask than guess. I do my best work in high-trust teams where autonomy and transparency are the default. Things I’ve made, now that AI does the typing: - a one-click brand styling feature at Canva - a payments frontend that can’t afford bugs - iOS and Mac apps in Swift - a hand in the Queensland Globe frontend - dozens of WordPress sites - onboarding for a money app - a Home Assistant integration for my standing desk - a coffee app that coaches your pour-over - a Stream Deck that learns my shortcuts - a Paseo plugin - our engagement party’s website - a 3D-printed adapter that puts a Fitbit on a Casio - a Japanese train melody that tells me it’s time to stand - a website that redesigns itself every day Beyond work, it’s slow mornings over pour-over coffee, discovering hidden cafes and restaurants with Kate, my partner, retro games on the Nintendo 64, and more film cameras than I need, with friends still giving me more. At home there are three cats, a cockatiel and a fish tank, and I try to keep the place calm, cosy and lived-in. Elsewhere: [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordsta/), [github](https://github.com/j0rdsta), [threads](https://www.threads.net/@jordstajordsta). ## Timeline Everything before Canva was typed by hand. - May to October 2026: Bigfish, Senior software engineer. Changed live client sites, on Bigfish’s own CMS and on long-lived PHP platforms, without breaking the content already in them, and built a livestock marketplace’s seller and checkout flows. [case study](https://gardiner.today/past/bigfish) - November 2025 to March 2026: Nagaris, Lead frontend engineer. Built the billing and proposal surfaces of a practice management platform for accounting firms. [case study](https://gardiner.today/past/nagaris) - March 2023 to July 2025: Canva, Software engineer, Brand Templates. Sole frontend engineer on Brand Style Match, featured at Canva Create. [case study](https://gardiner.today/past/canva) - March 2022 to January 2023: foundU, UX designer and software engineer. Extended a workforce platform’s design system for about 30 developers, starting by folding more than 20 button variants into one. - March 2020 to January 2022: Outfit.io, Frontend designer and developer, Delivery team. Turned print designs into flexible web templates for enterprise clients. - July to November 2019: GetFU, UI/UX designer. Designed and prototyped fintech interfaces for managing money. - January 2018 to June 2019: Popgun Labs, Product designer. Designed AI music apps for iOS and Mac, and built them in Swift. - March 2016 to January 2018, then December 2019 to March 2020: JSAcreative, Frontend developer. Built custom WordPress themes and JavaScript for agency clients, across two stints, including frontend work on Queensland Globe for the Queensland Government, as part of the team alongside Esri Australia. - May to June 2015: Griffith University, Replacement lecturer, web design. Taught PHP and web development to design students. - May 2008 to March 2016: iOnline, Web developer. Started as a trainee while still at school, then eight years building sites for Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses. I live and work in Magandjin, the Jagera name for Brisbane, Australia, on the Country of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples. I pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.