What has being part of the Okay Dev community meant to you?

First-hand insights into how things are really done. Our Slack group is a limitless pool of knowledge, outshining whatever ChatGPT, Claude, or any other AI-driven oracle has to say — simply because it’s real people, in the real world, sharing real experience.

Even if you’re more of a silent observer (like me), it’s a daily dose of dev trends, valuable insights, and a good bit of fun. I’ve been here for five years now, and I still love it.

What got you interested in the web industry?

I still remember the most beautiful sound of a dial-up modem and the thrill of jumping onto the internet — only to realize I had no idea what to do with it. I was 7 or 8 at the time, refreshing Outlook Express like crazy.

Fast forward about 15 years, I was finishing my master’s in audio and video communication, unsure of what path to take next. Then one day, a friend shared a link to Team Treehouse, where I stumbled upon CSS. It’s been a steady relationship ever since.

How did you learn your craft?

During university, while studying electrical engineering, I took more than a few programming courses — mostly focused on math, signal processing, and simulations. It was fun, but it didn’t really stick.

Then I started exploring on my own, learning by doing — and that’s when everything started to click. HTML and CSS were more than enough to pull me down the rabbit hole.

What was your first industry job like?

In 2014, I started working at a small-ish company in Belgrade, my hometown. I began as a WordPress themes support consultant, and it was so much fun — it was my first job in IT. A few of us developers shared an office, music playing, having an awesome time, answering tickets, and custom-coding the hell out of each response.

Fast forward five years, I became the Creative Front-End Lead at the same company, now surrounded by 100+ people. My role involved leading teams of developers, ensuring the highest quality of code and design, mentoring and guiding team members, and building and maintaining our flagship products.

When are you most productive?

When I work on something I’m truly passionate about — like great design — having an awesome team helps, too.

How do you find new projects/clients?

I don’t, to be honest. It’s been a while since I was actively looking for clients. BUT! I don’t mind the occasional freelance project.

That being said — hey, reader! If you need a fresh take on your website and maybe want to win some awards along the way, hit me up!

What’s on your desk?

Coffee, a cat, a pacifier, a mysteriously missing sock, and a laptop.

What inspires you?

Print design, typography done just right, a great concert, rewatching Terminator 2 with my wife while reciting every line in real-time, catching our newborn son’s 3 a.m. smile, mastering the art of the smashed burger at home, and adding reverb to everything. Stuff like that. :)

Which project(s) are you most proud of?

Let’s see—GOALS was a pretty fun one. At 14islands, we created two sites simultaneously for a client — a company website and a product (game) site. Both were based on the same brand, effectively. The style was bold, packed with intricate details, tons of animations, and custom interactions — and they turned out reaaaally well.

We used Nx to set up a monorepo codebase, shared components, and, of course, added the inevitable WebGL layer on top. Both releases launched simultaneously, and we won multiple awards for them. As the lead developer on the project, I was super lucky to collaborate with incredible colleagues — people with top-tier design and coding skills — who helped make these results possible.

More recently, I revamped my portfolio just for fun. It gave me the chance to go all in and channel my inner designer, which is always a plus in my book.

Come check it out at stefanvitasovic.dev!

Website Intro

What’s your perspective on AI, and have you integrated it into your workflow?

Copilot is my fancy auto-complete sidekick.

Any advice for aspiring creatives?

No-code is great, but learning to code first? That’s 1,000 times more fun.

Final thoughts, exciting projects, or upcoming trips?

Thanks, Eric, for inviting me, and a big shoutout to all the members of the Okay Devs community for keeping it going!

And thank YOU, unknown reader, for sticking around — I hope it’s been an Okay experience.

If you’re looking to add a twist to your designs and have fun building something together, don’t be a stranger!