About

Russ Stoll.

I offer design-led front-end for agencies, associations, and lean teams. This includes fractional support, homepage refreshes, and focused builds in Next.js, React, and WordPress.

Your website probably isn't broken. It's just not doing its job.

I help teams figure out what their site actually needs to do — then do only that. Fractional design and front-end support, focused homepage refreshes, and small modern builds. My work centers on clarity, hierarchy, responsive behavior, accessibility, and the polish that makes a site feel current and trustworthy.

I care about the part before the build as much as the build itself: where attention goes, what the structure should be, what can be cut, what needs to be clearer. When the thinking is right, the implementation is the easy part — and I can do both. I work in Next.js, React, Tailwind, and WordPress, and I use motion selectively to support content and flow rather than decorate it.

Twenty-plus years of design and front-end work across agencies, nonprofits, and institutional clients including the Smithsonian and a run at Forum One. Columbia MBA, ongoing UX coursework through the Interaction Design Foundation. I think about a page the way a marketer thinks about a landing page: how attention moves, where people pause, and what helps people understand and act.

When I'm not designing or coding, I write young adult science fiction and fantasy. Visit my author site for more about my writing. I work remotely from Virginia.

Professional career

  1. Creative Director & Senior Front End Developer

    Russ in Motion · Self-employed

    Fractional senior front-end support and focused digital builds for agencies, makers, and institutional clients in React, Next.js, Tailwind, and WordPress.

    Jun 2019 - Present7 yrs 1 moAlexandria, VA · Remote
  2. Fiction Author

    River Farm Press · Self-employed

    Author of YA/NA science fiction and fantasy, including debut novel Quiznot and the forthcoming Azrien Cycle series.

    Jan 2014 - Present12 yrs 6 mosAlexandria, VA · Remote
  3. Front End Developer

    Forum One · Full-time

    Built responsive, accessible frontends for public and cultural sector clients, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Nation's Report Card.

    Jul 2014 - May 20194 yrs 11 mosArlington, VA
  4. Front-end Developer & Designer

    Russ in Motion · Self-employed

    Designed and built content-driven WordPress and Drupal sites for education, nonprofit, government, and cultural clients.

    Jan 2004 - Jun 201410 yrs 6 mosAlexandria, VA · Hybrid
  5. Creative Director, LEGO.com

    LEGO Group · Full-time

    Led creative direction and digital strategy for LEGO.com across Mindstorms, Bionicle, and early branded online communities.

    Mar 1997 - Dec 20036 yrs 10 mos

Education

Master of Business Administration, Marketing

1993 · Columbia Business School

New York, NY

Bachelor of Science, Biomechanics

1987 · School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University

New York, NY

Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Arts

1986 · Columbia College, Columbia University

New York, NY

Learning & credentials

  • Interaction Design Foundation — UX / UI courses
  • DeepLearning.ai / Stanford Online — machine learning coursework
  • RealPython.com — Python courses
  • benmarriott.com — motion graphics courses
  • U.S. Patent 7480597 — Method, system and storage medium for generating virtual brick models