[ Jacob Ikola ]

Design. Development.
And the systems between.

[ About ]

I design, I develop, and somewhere along the way I started building the systems between. Most developers pick a lane. I just kept adding them.

I work best on small teams where the lanes blur. Designer, developer, the person on the call — same person. That's not a generalist's compromise; it's the only setup where the design decisions and the code decisions get made together. Small teams, big ownership.

The lanes always blurred. Not by accident — by preference.

The "systems between" part came from the same friction showing up everywhere — handoff drift between design and dev, foundation work eating product time, context lost between sessions. Lately, building tools to close those gaps has become the main work. I built an AI system, and everything in this portfolio runs through it — the case studies, the writing, this page. JAMIE is the first case study below.

// The tools change. The way I work doesn't.

  • React
  • TypeScript
  • Next.js
  • Node.js
  • Three.js
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Figma

[ Selected Work ]

JAMIE

A persistent AI development partner — part JARVIS, part operating system for how I work.

  • TypeScript
  • Agent SDKs
  • Context Engineering
  • Prompt Engineering
Read Case Study

Loom

I kept burning out building UI foundations, so I built a pipeline that generates them.

  • React
  • Tailwind CSS
  • TypeScript
  • Figma Plugin API
Read Case Study

Paperboy

A daily news dashboard I built so I'd stop opening six apps every morning.

  • Next.js
  • React
  • Tailwind CSS
  • TypeScript
Read Case Study

Party Wipe

A D&D roguelike that captures the scramble of a session going sideways, solo.

  • Next.js
  • React
  • Tailwind CSS
  • TypeScript
Read Case Study

[ Experience ]

Spectrum Net Designs

Full-Stack Developer, UI Designer · Feb 2022 – Jul 2025 · Grand Rapids, MI

Built the company's first design system from scratch — Figma components, code libraries, living docs. Ran client projects 1:1 from requirements through delivery. Contributed full-stack to Auctioneer Software across agile sprints: React/TypeScript UI, GraphQL resolvers, Postgres schemas for bidding, user management, and auction lifecycle.

Independent Contractor

Design & Development · Mar 2021 – Jan 2022 · Remote

Solo developer on marketing sites and internal SPAs. Owned the full loop — Figma wireframes, client feedback, production code. The job was catching problems in the design phase so they didn't become expensive in the build phase.

PropelUp

Full-Stack Developer · May 2019 – Jul 2020 · Indianapolis, IN

Sole developer on a Learning Management System. Took it from zero to a product that companies were beta-testing in production. React, Express, Node, Postgres, Heroku. Traveled with sales for user interviews and live demos. Only person on the team with full context across design, engineering, and sales.