Maria Elena Monraz Preciado
Maria Elena Monraz Preciado
Guadalajara / Mexico
Founder & Creative Director
Services
Shopify Design and Dev, Squarespace Design and Dev, Website Tweaks
Course Taken
Standout Squarespace, Standout Shopify
01
Hi! My name is Maria Elena Monraz Preciado and I’m a Founder & Creative Director based in Guadalajara, Mexico
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Outside work you will often find me playing with my dog Bimba (although I do that during work hours too :)) Doing sports, specially kite-surf. I love traveling and working as a digital nomad. I am *based* in Mexico so I love summer, the beach and any activity that requires being in water. I love running early in the morning, coffee (espresso) and architecture / interior design.(VIEW)
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But on a typical workday, I am usually drinking coffee and designing the website architecture. I love development and my focus is bringing designers vision and website projects to life through smart code. As an architect turned web developer I an a natural puzzle solver, coming up with simple yet impactful coding solutions for fellow cool designers, this is why my studio is called From Cool to Coded.
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My day usually starts with meditation, coffee and a morning run in the nearest park
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Most of the time I am working on web development for other designers inside Squarespace and Shopify
06
What are your first memories of the Internet?
I am a 90's kid so I remember the sound of dial up internet. I am a hybrid: knew both analog and digital eras. I would download coloring books and images that I could then print out and make an art project out of them... I loved it since the very beginning.
07
What is the best part about the process of building websites for you?
Coding is where I shine. I like design and really enjoy it too... but writing lines of code and coming up with smart, efficient and simple solutions to website mockups is my passion. I love puzzles (big sudoku fan) and web development is like solving one big puzzle in many small steps.
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What is your favorite stretch or pastime in between coding?
Playing with my dog
09
How would you describe your Standout Style in 2-3 words? Editorial. Monochrome. Playful. Bold.
10
Share your unique style, your design philosophy and/or aesthetics that appeal to you.
I consider myself a design chameleon. I love studying vintage magazines and books to gather inspo as much as I love seeing what's new on Pinterest. I try my best to combine the best of new and old while providing a safety net depending on the niche my clients are in.
11
Which Standout workshops do you find yourself incorporating most often on your website projects?
All of them! But if I have to choose: vertical lines, mega menus (or any menu workshop), testimonial slider, sticky - scrolling, focus list carrousels, anything with hover effects and animations.... Lol I could keep going, they are all amazing.
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What makes your work standout?
I love an editorial, bold, monochromatic design but contrasted with fun, playful user integrations. I love it when users are surprised when visiting a website with *hidden* cool animations and interactions. I love to incorporate these fun little code snippets that give web designs and extra layer of fun.
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What are some of your proudest works you've worked on?
Maria Web StudioWebsite →It was the first website I made for myself when I launched my Web Design Studio and was still a student inside Standout Squarespace. Since it was a project for myself I felt really confident to explore and take risks. It represented my design style to the fullest: editorial, vertical lines, black and white and image and typography based. I built it when the classic editor was the only editor. I used the lessons learned inside Module 4: Box model, typography, display, float and layout position properties. During this project I learned that anything is possible when you learn smart coding techniques. That CSS alone goes a long long way. I also learned more about my personal style and POV.
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What are the biggest takeaways from the Standout programs?
My biggest takeaway is that if you build strong skills you can achieve anything. That you can create your dream job, and creativity is inside all of us, it just has different outlets. I will forever be grateful for Rache and of her Standout Programs, they opened a lot of doors I never thought possible for me.
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What is your dream website project?
I love coding websites, so my dream website project is to collaborate with nice, cool designers around the world and bring their website projects from cool to coded.
