I started back when Flash was a legitimate tool for building beautiful things on the web. We did it for the excitement of it — to craft what the future of design could feel like. That was Web 1.0. Since then I’ve worked across agencies, in-house teams, and on my own — on everything from fashion e-commerce and SaaS product UI to brand identity, print, and motion. The work has changed. The instinct to look for what’s actually being asked hasn’t.

My core practice sits at the intersection of web design, UI design, and visual identity. I build in Figma and WordPress (Elementor, ACF, DCE), design for digital and print, and I can take a project from concept to deployed without the wheels falling off between disciplines.

On the web side, I build on WordPress using Elementor, Advanced Custom Fields, and Dynamic Content for Elementor — a combination that lets me create genuinely flexible CMS-driven sites without writing custom PHP for every page. The Jody Kahlon site and my own portfolio are the clearest examples of this in practice: template-driven, dynamically populated, and maintainable without opening the page builder for every update.

I also work in Figma for UI prototyping and design systems, Illustrator for identity and print work, and Photoshop for photography and image production.

My photography spans documentary, street, fine art, concerts, and everyday life. I work across both digital and film, choosing each format for what it brings to the moment. Film is my preference. It has a mature, tactile quality that slows everything down in the best way, and I like the honesty it brings to an image.

If you want to browse the full collection, you’re welcome to visit photography.diegodenicola.com.

In 2025 I released my first self-published photography book, featuring more than 150 black-and-white images captured over the past twenty years. It marks the beginning of a three-volume series, with volumes two and three to follow.

You can explore the full collection in my photography portfolio.

Outside the studio, music is what keeps me moving. I don’t use Spotify; I run my own curated media server that follows me everywhere.

When I’m out shooting on the street, my cameras usually get paired with Madlib, early Tribe Called Quest, or deeper late-eighties and early-nineties New York cuts from artists like Masta Ace, Lord Finesse, or Showbiz and A.G. Some days it leans into chillhop from Jinsang, Psalm Trees, or Saib. Other days it shifts toward jazz-funk with Donald Byrd or The Blackbyrds, the cool edge of Art Pepper, or the experimental world of Ninja Tune.

And yes, sometimes even the cornier side of yacht rock. It all feeds back into how I see, frame, and respond to the world around me.

I’m also a father to a creative, soulful, and bright ten-year-old who approaches ideas in a way that mirrors my own, just with her own fresh and wonderfully conceptual twist. She keeps me grounded and inspired in ways I rarely see coming.

Melbourne keeps me busy too. Between its cold winters and dry summers, the city has a rhythm that feeds my work. Its mix of art, culture, and everyday grit gives me the creative energy I depend on.

I’m at my best on projects that require someone who can hold the full picture — who can take a brand brief, design a system, build the site, shoot the photos, and make sure it all coheres. I’m less useful as a pure executor of someone else’s fully locked spec. I need room to ask whether the question being asked is the right one.

I’m available for freelance and contract work. If you have something that might fit, get in touch.