Inside the Vantage Circle
web platform.
Working in the real Vantage Circle web platform repository — fixing and improving the live website with vibe coding. This is production code: real commits, the terminal, Git, and working right alongside engineers.
Role
Designer contributing to production code
Stack
Terminal · Git · [ framework ] · vibe coding
Year
[ Year — ongoing ]
Status
01 — Overview
From my own project to the real codebase.
After rebuilding the Vantage Fit site in code, I went further — into the actual Vantage Circle web platform repository. This isn't a personal sandbox; it's the live company website, with real code, real engineers, and real consequences. I work in it to fix issues and ship improvements, using AI-assisted vibe coding to find my footing in unfamiliar territory.
It's where my design background and my new coding skills meet production reality — and where I learned to be useful inside a team's existing system rather than building alone.
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02 — The challenge
Be useful in someone else's codebase.
Touching production code is a different kind of pressure. I had to understand a codebase I didn't write, make changes without breaking things, and work within the conventions a team already follows. The terminal and Git — once intimidating — had to become everyday tools.
- Navigate and understand an existing production codebase
- Make careful changes that don't break the live site
- Work in the terminal and Git instead of just Figma
- Follow the team's conventions and workflow
- Collaborate with engineers on real fixes and improvements
“I traded the Figma canvas for the terminal — and stayed a designer the whole way.”
03 — Process
Learning the workflow of shipping.
I leaned on vibe coding to read and understand the existing code, then made changes deliberately — testing locally, committing in small steps, and checking my work against how the team operates. The terminal stopped being scary and became where I get things done.
- Read — understood the structure before changing anything
- Branch — worked in Git the way the team does
- Build — made fixes & improvements with AI assisting
- Test — checked changes locally before shipping
- Collaborate — worked alongside engineers throughout
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04 — The work
Real fixes, on the live site.
The contributions are practical: fixing what's broken, refining what's rough, and improving the experience on a website real customers use. Because I understand both the design intent and the code, I can spot things others might miss — and fix them at the source instead of flagging them for someone else.
[ List specific fixes or improvements you shipped here — e.g. a section rework, a responsive fix, a content or layout update. ] The Figma-to- terminal shift is now part of how I work: I design and I ship, and I do both inside the same real platform.
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05 — Outcome
A designer who contributes to production.
I'm now someone who can open the real codebase, understand it, and ship improvements to a live platform — not just propose them in a design file. [ Add specific outcomes, the kinds of changes you've contributed, and how it's changed your collaboration with engineering here. ]
06 — What I learned
Shipping into the real thing.
Working in a production codebase taught me humility and confidence at once — humility for everything a real system holds, and confidence that I can learn my way into it. I became comfortable in the terminal and Git, learned how design decisions land in shipped code, and found that I'm most valuable exactly where design and engineering overlap. This is the version of myself I'm building toward.