Design philosophy

There’s no perfect sauce.

Everyone tastes it a little differently, and design works the same way. I listen, adapt, and shape the work to fit each client’s goal.

The Perfect Sauce study highlights an idea that shapes how I approach design: there is no single “perfect sauce,” or perfect solution, that works for everyone. Just as people have different taste preferences, every client and project has its own goals, audience, and aesthetic needs.

While I have a clear personal design style, I don’t believe in forcing one solution onto every project. I take pride in my adaptability: listening closely to each client, understanding their preferences, and shaping the design to fit their vision. That flexibility lets me create work that feels intentional, personalized, and effective rather than one-size-fits-all.

See my work Resume (PDF)

Roberto Garza · UI/UX & brand designer · McAllen, TX

Selected work

Things I’ve built & designed

Branding, packaging, web, and the systems behind them.

BrandingPackagingWebOperations

JNS Packaging

As lead designer since 2023, I rebranded this custom wax paper and packaging company, built its website, and replaced its paper logs with connected sheets now used by the whole team.

Read the case study

Avocado toast on JNS custom wax paper over a colorful geometric tablecloth

A tangled spreadsheet with broken links turning into the clean JNS packer app, under the JNS and bitBeans logos

bitBeans × JNS

The custom app that replaced the JNS spreadsheets.

Read the case study →

bitBeans Studios

A pixel-art identity for a studio that builds apps and websites.

Read the case study →

Rojo Properties

A three-color brick logo for two brothers building and investing in property.

Read the case study →

Elite 4 TCG

A loud, sticker-ready logo for a local trading card shop.

Read the case study →

Tools I use

The ingredients

What goes into every batch.

Figma

Interfaces, wireframes and clickable prototypes.

Illustrator

Logos, labels, packaging and illustration.

Photoshop

Photo editing, retouching and mockups.

After Effects

Motion graphics and animation.

Contains 0g Comic Sans.

Rob’s character: a cartoon face in a pink patterned hood with round grey ears

About me

Hi, I’m Roberto.

I’m a UI/UX and brand designer in McAllen, Texas, with a bachelor’s in Visualization from Texas A&M. Since 2023 I’ve led design at JNS Packaging, and I’ve freelanced for small businesses since 2022. I like work that sits between design and operations: a brand people remember, and the systems that keep a team running. I’m fluent in English and Spanish.

DesignerBranding, packaging and web, from first sketch to final file.

BuilderI set up the sheets, sites and systems that make a design work day to day.

Problem solverWhen something slows a team down, I go looking for the fix.

Contact

Let’s cook something up.

Hiring, a project, or just want to talk design? Send a note and I’ll get back to you.

rgarz2000@gmail.com

Case Study

JNS Packaging

JNS Packaging makes custom wax paper and packaging for restaurants and food brands. I joined in 2023 as the lead graphic designer and ended up touching nearly everything the company puts out: the brand identity, packaging for its clients, the website, social media, even a soccer kit. Along the way I also rebuilt how the business tracks its work, moving it from paper to connected Google Sheets and then to a custom app.

01-Brand Identity

Giving three initials a meaning

JNS started with no real brand direction. The name is just the initials of my boss’s parents, so there was no story built into it to design around. Instead of forcing one, I looked at what the company actually does: print. I proposed a mark that weaves the three letters together with three stripes for cyan, magenta and yellow, the inks behind every full-color job, and lets the black outline around them stand in for K, the key color that completes CMYK. I also layered the letters over each other the same way a CMYK print works: each ink goes down on top of the last, and only when all of them overlap does the full-color picture appear.

The result reads as JNS at a glance, but to anyone in the industry it is also a print process in miniature. That gave the brand a reason to exist beyond the initials, and it set up a palette that is easy to stay consistent with: the four process inks, matched to Pantone so they reproduce the same way on paper, packaging and screen.

Color Palette

PANTONE 306 C#00B5E2
RGB: (0, 181, 226)
CMYK: (100, 19.9, 0, 11.4)

PANTONE 213 C#E31C79
RGB: (227, 28, 121)
CMYK: (0, 88, 47, 11)

PANTONE Yellow C#FEDD00
RGB: (254, 221, 0)
CMYK: (0, 13, 100, .4)

PANTONE Black C#2D2926
RGB: (45, 41, 38)
CMYK: (0, 8.9, 15.6, 82.4)

Brand Assets

With the identity in place, I carried it into everything the company hands to a customer. That meant the shipping boxes, business cards, the tri-fold brochure and an animated version of the logo, to name a few. Each one uses the same CMYK colors and layered letters, so a box on someone’s doorstep, a card in their wallet or a video on social media all look like they come from the same company.

Tri-fold brochure

02-Packaging

Where the brand meets the product

My work didn’t stop at JNS’s own brand. I also designed for our clients, the restaurants and food brands whose logos end up on our wax paper. Some needed a brand-new logo. Others only had a blurry photo or a low-res file, so I rebuilt their logos as clean vectors that print sharp. For every order, I decided what would represent their brand best on the paper: the pattern, the scale, the colors and how the design repeats across the sheet.

Tacos on custom printed wax paper for Calacas — Calacas

JNS Packaging box with printed wax paper and plated food — JNS sample box

Taco on Tacos El Porky printed wax paper — Tacos El Porky

La Ganadera tortillas wrapped in custom printed paper — La Ganadera

Elote on Freak Elotes custom printed wax paper — Freak Elotes

Half chicken on Smokin’ Moon BBQ illustrated tray paper — Smokin’ Moon BBQ

La Sabrosa Tortillería checkered tortilla wrap design, mockup — La Sabrosa Tortillería

Client logo

Dos Hermanos Tortilleria

Pantone 186 C
Pantone 356 C
Pantone 4625 C
Pantone 109 C

03-Web Design

A storefront that works around the clock

I designed and built the JNS website, using the same CMYK triangles and colors as the rest of the brand so it feels like part of the same company as the boxes and the paper. It walks restaurants, franchises and distributors through what JNS makes (wax, kraft and butcher paper, custom sizes), links to a gallery of client work and gives every section a clear next step to get in touch. At the end of the page I added an interactive shipping map: an SVG of the U.S. with a bit of code behind it, so hovering over a region or state shows the estimated shipping cost to that area. Customers get a price before they ever reach out, and the team answers fewer “how much to ship to me?” questions.

JNS website shown on a laptop with floating page sections

jnspackaging.comScroll to explore ↓

Full-length screenshot of the JNS Packaging website

Visit jnspackaging.com

04-Social Media

Building the feed

I ran JNS’s social media and designed every post. Most of it sells one idea, that a restaurant’s own logo on its wax paper sets it apart, so I built the feed in recurring series: a clean product campaign, a set that explains a single benefit of wax paper per post, and seasonal posts for holidays and sales. Each series keeps the same colors and type, so a run of posts reads as one campaign in the feed.

05-Team Kit

Pichones FC

JNS backs a local soccer team, Pichones FC. “Pichones” means pigeons, so I designed a crest around one: a pigeon breaking out of the top of a shield, with the team name across the middle. The kit is built from the same CMYK triangles as the packaging, so the team and the brand read as one. The jerseys and shorts were printed, and the team wears them in local tournaments.

Pichones crest: a blue and purple pigeon breaking out of a shield, with PICHONES and ESTD 2024

Team crest

Two Pichones FC short designs, front and back, black with CMYK triangle panels and number 10

06-Operations

Redesigning how the company runs

The brand was only half the job. When I started, production was tracked on paper: daily prints, materials, payroll and parts were all written down by hand, so seeing what a single machine cost or earned meant adding it up manually. I moved the whole process into a set of connected Google Sheets. Workers log what they use each day, and the numbers flow on their own into cost and earnings per machine, paper waste, warehouse stock and accounts.

BeforePaper logsEverything written by hand and totaled manually
Step 1Connected Google SheetsDaily entries flow into live reports
Step 2Custom app with bitBeansOne system that doesn’t need relinking

Logged daily

Daily printsPrints each machine runs per day

Worker material logMaterials each worker uses on their machine, per day

PayrollLabor cost to run each machine

Parts & piecesParts used on each machine and what they cost

Calculated

Price per printAdds up how much each machine produces

Material costCost per machine based on what it consumed

The hub

Machine P&LWhat each machine costs and what it makes

Reports

Paper wastePaper put in vs. actually printed, as a percentage

Accountspaid by customers stock value still owed

Warehouse stockMaterial coming in and going out

Each arrow is a live link between sheets. Whatever the team logs each day updates every report automatically.

Where the sheets hit their limit

The sheets worked, but every new month meant copying the files and relinking them to each other by hand. As the system grew, that upkeep started taking more time than the reporting saved. Instead of patching it again, I proposed partnering with bitBeans, a local tech company, to design a custom app for JNS that keeps all of this in one place with nothing to relink.

Next case study bitBeans × JNS: from spreadsheets to a custom app

Case Study

bitBeans Studios

bitBeans Studios is a local studio that designs and builds custom apps and websites. I designed its identity: a pixel-art bean, a matching pixel wordmark, and the colors and logo versions the studio uses across its website.

01-Concept

A bean made of bits

The name joins two ideas: a bit, the smallest unit of digital information, and a bean. I took it literally and drew the bean out of bits. Pixel art says “software” at a glance, and the warm browns keep it friendly instead of technical.

bitThe smallest unit of digital information

beanSmall, warm, and grows into something bigger

bitBeanThe same bean, drawn pixel by pixel on a 32 × 27 grid

02-Building the bean

Four passes, one pixel at a time

Pixel art has no soft edges to hide behind: every square is a decision. I built the bean in passes, the way you would shade it by hand. Step through them below, or turn on the grid to see each pixel.

Step 1 of 4

0pixels

9colors

32 × 27grid

03-Color

A palette pulled from the bean

Every color in the identity comes from the bean itself. The bean’s main shadow brown, #7B441F, is the same brown used for the “bitBeans” wordmark, so the type and the mark always feel like one piece.

Outline

Ink
#040707

Shadows

Roast
#512D16

Bean brown
#7B441F

Cinnamon
#A35D2D

Base

Tan
#CE8F55

Lights

Toast
#EBAB6E

Cream
#F8CCA3

Shine
#EBCCB2

Glint
#FFFFFF

One-color

Orange
#F05325

04-Wordmark

Lettering on the same grid

The type is built from square pixels too, so the name and the bean speak the same language. Both lines are exactly nine pixels tall: “bitBeans” on a larger pixel for presence, “Studios” on a smaller one so it sits underneath without competing. The capital B splits the name into its two halves, bit and Beans.

bitBeans: 9 rows · Studios: 9 rows

05-Versions

Full color and one color

The full-color logo is the default on light backgrounds. For dark backgrounds and single-color printing, a one-color version flattens everything to orange. The highlights and speckles are cut out of the shape instead of printed, so the background shows through and it works on any color with one ink.

Full color · light backgrounds

One color · dark backgrounds, single-color print

06-At every size

Made for screens

Because the bean is drawn on a 32-pixel-wide grid, it scales cleanly by whole numbers: 2×, 4×, 8×. At 32 pixels it lands one design pixel per screen pixel, exactly the size of a favicon on a high-resolution display, so the studio’s smallest touchpoint is also its sharpest.

bitBeans Studios

New tab

bitbeansstudios.com

App iconAt 2× the bean fills a standard app tile with no resampling.

07-Website

The bitBeans website

I also designed the studio’s website, carrying the pixel lettering, the orange and the dark ground into a full site. The hero is a live topographic map of the Rio Grande Valley, a nod to where the studio is from, and the pixel style shows up in every icon, the process dials and even the team portraits.

bitbeansstudios.comWalkthrough · 2:15

A walkthrough of the live site with every animation in motion: the logo builds itself pixel by pixel and flies into the header, the headline types out over the glowing Rio Grande, the map lights up around the cursor, then the page scrolls through services, featured work and the JNS case study.

bitbeansstudios.com1 / 8

A topographic map of the Rio Grande Valley with the Rio Grande glowing across it. Move the cursor and the map lights up around it.

Next case study bitBeans × JNS: from spreadsheets to a custom app

Case Study

bitBeans × JNS

JNS ran production on paper, then on a set of connected Google Sheets I built. The sheets worked, but every new month meant copying files and relinking them by hand, and the upkeep was starting to cost more time than the reports saved. I proposed partnering with bitBeans, a local software studio, to replace the whole setup with one custom app built around how the shop actually runs.

01-The problem

Sheets that had to be rebuilt every month

The sheet system tied orders, materials and reports together with live links. That made it powerful, but fragile: each month the files had to be duplicated and every link pointed at the new copies. Miss one and a report silently showed the wrong numbers. The goal for the app was simple to say: the same connected data, with nothing to relink, ever.

02-One app, six roles

Everyone sees only their part

Instead of one giant spreadsheet everyone had to scroll through, each person signs in to a view built for their job. The data underneath is shared, so what an operator logs on the floor shows up for the people who need it next.

03-Try it

Sign in as any account

Everyone signs in on the same screen with their employee code, and the app opens the panel for their role. Pick an account below and it signs in for you. Every button works: start and finish jobs, open tickets, log materials, fill in packing details and preview labels. Use the sign-out button in the corner to switch accounts.

JNS Operations · Sign in

JNS Operations

Choose an account to sign in as

≤5d≤10d≤15d15d+

All names, numbers and information shown are made up and used for demo purposes only.

04-What changed

One source of truth

Every account reads and writes the same live data. An operator logs a roll on the floor, and the accountant’s material costs and the owner’s profit by machine update with it. Nothing gets copied into next month’s file, no links break, and every change is recorded in the audit log with who made it and when.

Next case study bitBeans Studios: a pixel-art identity

Case Study

Elite 4 TCG

Elite 4 TCG is a local trading card game shop in the Rio Grande Valley, opened by four friends who bonded over their love of trading card games and decided to build a place for it. It carries singles and sealed product and runs trade nights and weekly tournaments. They needed a logo with the energy of the games they sell, one that could go on a sign, a shirt, a sticker or a playmat and still read from across the room.

01-Concept

Everything a card shop is, in one badge

The “4” in the name is the four friends who started the shop together, so the number had to be the hero of the logo. Everything else around it is built from the things that brought them together. Each piece stands for part of the shop.

The ball and the 4The focal point. The 4 stands for the four founders and sits right where the eye lands first, at the center of the ball.

Fanned cardsThree cards in blue, green and red: the TCG in the name, and the different games on the shelves.

Flame swooshA tail of fire sweeps under everything and ties the lettering to the ball, giving the logo motion.

StarsThe sparkle of a rare pull, the moment every customer is opening packs for.

02-Color

Bright, primary, and outlined

The palette is pure primaries with orange and gold, the same loud colors as the products on the wall. A heavy black outline wraps every shape, which keeps the colors from bleeding into each other and lets the logo work on any background without a separate version.

Sky Blue#00A8EA
RGB: (0, 168, 234)

Ball Red#EA1E1E
RGB: (234, 30, 30)

Star Yellow#FCD800
RGB: (252, 216, 0)

Flame Orange#F6662A
RGB: (246, 102, 42)

Card Navy#1E5AAE
RGB: (30, 90, 174)

Card Green#7ECC24
RGB: (126, 204, 36)

TCG Gold#F6A22A
RGB: (246, 162, 42)

Outline Black#1E1E1E
RGB: (30, 30, 30)

03-Built to scale

Bold enough for a sticker, clear enough for a sign

Thick outlines and chunky letterforms hold up when the logo gets small: a profile photo, a price sticker, a sleeve on a shirt. The same outline doubles as a die-cut edge, so it becomes a sticker with no redesign.

04-In the wild

On the shop and everything it sells

Mockups of the logo across the places a card shop shows up, from the storefront to the table where tournaments happen.

StorefrontThe logo hangs in the window over the door, and the brand colors carry inside: sealed product, graded singles on a navy feature wall, tournament tables and the display counter.

Staff teeA one-color version for shirts: a small chest logo on the front and a full logo on the back. The outline is knocked out so the shirt color becomes the outline, and it prints in a single white ink.

Elite 4 TCG die-cut stickers mockup — **Die-cut stickers**A white die-cut border turns the logo into a sticker as is. Event stickers reuse the palette for trade night and pulls.

Elite 4 TCG playmat mockup — **Playmat**The logo goes big and centered on the playmat, with the card zones kept clear on either side.

Elite 4 TCG bag and business cards mockup — **Bag and business cards**A white shopping bag and a black business card front, with the card colors as a stripe on the back.

Social profileProfile photo and post templates for tournament results, trade nights and new drops, all from the logo’s colors.

Mockups made for this portfolio.

Next case study JNS Packaging: rebrand, packaging and operations

Case Study

Rojo Properties

Rojo Properties is a construction and investment property company started by two brothers, Roel and Joshua. They wanted a name and a logo that felt like them and like the work: solid, local and built to last.

01-The name

Two brothers, one brick

The name comes from the first two letters of each brother’s name. It also happens to be the Spanish word for red, the color of the bricks their buildings are made of. That gave the logo its idea: don’t draw a house or a skyline like every other builder, draw the brick itself.

ROel+JOshua=ROJO“red” in Spanish

02-The brick

Stamped like the real thing

Real bricks are often stamped with a maker’s name in the top face, so ROJO is pressed into the brick the same way. PROPERTIES runs along the long side and LLC sits beside it. Rough, chipped edges and a worn surface keep it from looking like a clean 3D render; it feels like a brick that came off a job site.

Top faceROJO is stamped into the light terracotta top in brick red, so the name reads first.

Long sidePROPERTIES sits on the darkest face, in the brightest red for contrast.

TextureChips and pitting along the edges give it the feel of fired clay.

PerspectiveThe brick sits at an angle, like it was just laid down, instead of flat and static.

03-Color

Three reds, nothing else

The whole logo is built from three colors: a light terracotta for the lit faces, a brick red for the lettering and a deep maroon for the shadowed side. Keeping it to three inks makes it cheaper and cleaner to print on signs, vinyl and shirts, and it means the logo looks the same on a business card as it does on a truck.

Terracotta#D86C54
RGB: (216, 108, 84)

Brick Red#C01E24
RGB: (192, 30, 36)

Fired Maroon#6C0000
RGB: (108, 0, 0)

04-On site

On the job site

Mockups of the logo where a builder actually shows up.

Building plaqueThe logo on a plaque mounted to the material it’s named after.

Work van wrapA cream wrap with the brick logo up high where it’s seen in traffic, and the three reds running along the bottom as a stripe.

Embroidered capThe logo stitched onto a washed cap. Keeping it to three colors means three thread colors, so it embroiders cleanly and stays affordable to produce.

Yard signA job-site sign staked in the dirt: logo, phone and services on the left, and a “coming soon” band over brick on the right so it reads from the street.

Business cardsPrinted on kraft stock, so the paper reads like raw building material. The front carries the brick logo; on the back, an oversized crop of the brick bleeds off the edge so the contact side still feels built.

Rojo Properties billboard in front of a building under construction with scaffolding — **Job-site billboard**A billboard in front of a building going up, pairing the logo with a short line about the brothers behind it.

Fence bannerA run of fence panels for a job site: the logo, a short line about the work and a coming-soon call, with the three reds tying the panels together along the bottom.

Mockups made for this portfolio.

Next case study Elite 4 TCG: a logo for a local card shop