# Justin Zagar: iamjust.in

> I design interfaces and build the software behind them. Thirty years. Seven systems from scratch. One of them has run a wheel business since 2012: 22,000+ orders, $3.5M+ in sales.

Justin Zagar South Florida · available now · full-time, remote or hybrid. Lead product designer and design engineer. I design the interface and build the system underneath it.

## Case studies

- [Thumbprint Strategic Media](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/thumbprint-strategic-media/): In 2009 I drew a mark for the firm I worked at: one thumbprint in each process ink. Over three websites the inks grew, then overlapped, and by 2023 they’d opened into a rainbow.
- [Operator](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/operator/): From August 21, 2026, the AllOEMRims phone line was answered by software I directed AI to build, and on sixteen of the first twenty one real calls the caller ID it was verifying against was ours, not the customer’s.
- [iTravel Rent A Car](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/itravel/): In July 2009 an Atlanta rental car company asked me for a second opinion on somebody else’s logos, and thirty two months later I’d designed the brand, built the website and shipped a booking engine inside a Facebook page.
- [Spiderz](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/spiderz/): A client pasted a competitor’s website into a chat window and asked how hard it would be. Four years, forty-two stacked image layers, and one character limit in somebody else’s checkout that turned into a phone call per order.
- [Stock Rim](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/stock-rim/): One nervous line on my resume said I licensed my listing software to a second wheel retailer. The archive says it was two products, three installs, a six section license agreement, and a folder on the server called clients.
- [smartSHOP](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/smartshop/): A kiosk that helps you find one item in a store the size of an airfield. The idea belonged to the man who owned the tire shop I worked at. I drew the nine screens and built the working prototype, in nine days in July 2015.
- [Richie Rich Services](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/richie-rich-services/): An air conditioning contractor needed a mark, a website and a van. I photographed the tool they carry, redrew it, and lost a valve handle that shipped to all three.
- [Ely’s Automotive](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/elys-automotive/): The dealership next door was called The Car Guys. I drew a logo for a name they had not asked for and emailed it with three words. Then I built everything the name touched.
- [MatchMakerMusic](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/matchmakermusic/): In 2009 a music licensing startup sent me pencil wireframes by email. I sent back finished screens, usually the same day. This page keeps the paper.
- [Muskego-Norway School District](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/muskego-norway-school-district/): I built my school district’s first real website while I was still a student in it, plus the publishing system eight schools used to run their own pages.
- [Imagine](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/imagine-cms/): I spent a decade building the same thing for different businesses: a way for the person who knows what needs to change to change it without writing code.
- [AllOEMRims.com](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/alloemrims/): AllOEMRims sells factory-original wheels. I’ve designed the systems that run it since 2012. I wrote the listing pipeline by hand in Classic ASP, and since 2026 I’ve directed AI to build the warehouse tools and the ledger.
- [Payless Car Rental](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/payless-car-rental/): I designed campaign creative across the Payless brand family, then kept building: the corporate site, the sub-brand sites, and the intranet the whole company ran on.
- [ClientWire](https://iamjust.in/case-studies/clientwire/): At Payless Car Rental I built the system that connected renters, franchisees, and the corporate office: one ticket per issue, one place to resolve it. It stayed in use for years after I left.

## Projects and apps

- [Splice: two cameras, 37 seconds apart](https://iamjust.in/projects/splice/): I had two clips of one Christmas, shot 37 seconds apart. Splice is the editor I directed AI to build so I could cut between them.
- [That’s Not News: A News Site That Rated The News](https://iamjust.in/apps/thats-not-news/): In 2005 I built a news site that scored the news. Readers argued over whether a story was really news, and the site turned the argument into a number.
- [Pocket Juke: a music player for rips with no tags](https://iamjust.in/projects/pocket-juke/): Pocket Juke is a small Android music player I directed AI to build for my own tag-less rips. Point it at your folders and it plays, with a library corrected against MusicBrainz and a Now Playing screen that takes its color from the cover.
- [Nico Paint: A Drawing App for Windows](https://iamjust.in/projects/nico-paint/): A lightweight drawing app named after my twin brother, who loves to draw. A custom pressure-sensitive brush engine keeps it fast and responsive.
- [Chord-O-Matic: Upload a Song, Learn Its Chords](https://iamjust.in/projects/chord-o-matic/): Chord-O-Matic turns an MP3 into a chord sheet, with every chord placed above the right lyric words. Practice Mode scores what you play on a MIDI keyboard.
- [Texter: A Better SMS App for Android](https://iamjust.in/projects/texter/): Texter is my take on Android texting: a fast, Material You themed SMS app with no telemetry and no ads. I designed it and directed AI to build it native, down to an encrypted database with full-text search.
- [Visual Rim Search for AllOEMRims](https://iamjust.in/apps/visual-rim-search-for-alloemrims/): Visual Rim Search turns AllOEMRims into a camera-first store: photograph a rim, and the site tries to identify it and says when it’s only guessing.

## Brands

- [Spiderz Sports](https://iamjust.in/brands/spiderz-sports/): The Spiderz Sports brand, 2010 to 2016: the logos I drew for production, the business card, the glove packaging, the wholesale sell sheet and the trade-show banners.
- [Evolve Engineering](https://iamjust.in/brands/evolve-engineering/): Evolve Engineering is my consultancy. I made the lockup in Illustrator, and on the website the word itself evolves, heavier letter by letter.
- [Richie Rich Services](https://iamjust.in/brands/richie-rich/): A mark, two websites and a van for an air conditioning contractor working Miami-Dade and Broward. The technician on the mark stands next to a real tool I photographed and redrew.
- [Payless Car Rental](https://iamjust.in/brands/payless/): Payless was a family of brands, and each one had to read as Payless. I designed the campaign creative, the tagline masthead and the annual print program, and built the sites.
- [AllOEMRims.com](https://iamjust.in/brands/alloemrims-com/): In 2019 Ely’s Tires Online became AllOEMRims.com. I’ve been designing it ever since, and these are the pieces that carry the name.
- [Ely’s Auto](https://iamjust.in/brands/elys-auto/): A complete rebrand for a South Florida auto dealership: new name, new logo, signage, banners, flyers, and a new website. I went bold, bright, and tropical.
- [Vic’s Mix](https://iamjust.in/brands/vics-mix/): Complete branding for Vic’s Mix, a fruit and nut snack company: logo, packaging, labels, business cards, and an eCommerce website.
- [Micron Powder Coating](https://iamjust.in/brands/micron-powder-coating/): In 2018 my Dad, my uncle, and I started Micron Powder Coating in Tennessee. I built the brand materials: signage, business cards, letterheads, and documentation.
- [Mayas: Made in Honduras](https://iamjust.in/brands/mayas-made-in-honduras/): Branding for Mayas, a South Florida fashion company selling handmade jewelry from Honduras. A bold logo, plus product photography that keeps each piece in focus.
- [Dammous Law](https://iamjust.in/brands/dammous-law/): Brand design for a new South Florida law firm: a classic style with modern hints. Logo, business cards, posters, billboards, and flyers.
- [Ely’s Tires](https://iamjust.in/brands/elys-tires/): The brand and website for Ely’s Tires, a family-owned tire shop. In 2026 the site got a top-to-bottom rebuild on a modern foundation.
- [Zagar Innovations](https://iamjust.in/brands/zagar-innovations/): My father had an idea, and Zagar Innovations was born. I designed the brand around his product: logo, packaging, marketing materials, and the website.

## Logos and photography

- [Living in Tennessee](https://iamjust.in/photography/living-in-tennessee/): Eight months in Tennessee, helping my Dad set up the business we would run together. On the weekends we drove the backroads. These photos came from those drives.
- [DC Movers](https://iamjust.in/logos/dc-movers/): A fun set of logos for a moving company based out of DC. We worked through several variations as new ideas came up.
- [The best of…](https://iamjust.in/photography/the-best-of/): Thirty years of carrying a camera, boiled down to the frames I still stop on. I look for geometry first. The rest is whatever the light was doing that day.
- [From around the shop](https://iamjust.in/photography/from-around-the-shop/): Photos from the months my dad and I spent building Micron Powder Coating. A shop being born is photogenic if you look close.
- [AZ Coffee](https://iamjust.in/logos/az-coffee/): A logo for a made-up coffee company, from a design assignment I liked enough to keep for myself. Social media mockups included.
- [Key West: Paradise only a few miles away](https://iamjust.in/photography/key-west-paradise-only-a-few-miles-away/): My husband and I spent our fifth anniversary in Key West, with our little doggo Shirley along for the trip. These photos are from those few days in paradise.
- [Winter Solstice: Peace, solitude and stillness](https://iamjust.in/photography/winter-solstice-peace-solitude-and-stillness/): This photo was taken in Northern Michigan, on a snowmobile trip with my Dad. Peace, solitude, and stillness.

## Resume

- [Resume, the web version](https://iamjust.in/resume/): the same document as the PDF, each line expandable to the work behind it
- [Resume (PDF)](https://iamjust.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/justin-zagar-resume.pdf): two pages

## Every project, the orbits data

- [Portfolio orbits](https://iamjust.in/portfolio/): every project placed on a ring by the year it was done, 1982 to today (a canvas; the data is the JSON below)
- [projects.json](https://iamjust.in/wp-content/themes/iamjustin/assets/data/projects.json): every project as JSON (name, kind, start, end, age, org, what, significance, strand)

## The running archive

- [history.iamjust.in](https://history.iamjust.in/): working replicas of sites built 1999 to 2012, running again from their original source on invented data
- [Historical project archive](https://iamjust.in/still-running/): the same exhibits grouped by year, with what to look at in each

## About, contact, privacy

- [About me](https://iamjust.in/about-me/): how I work, the skills, the tools, and a note about this site
- [Contact](https://iamjust.in/contact/): hello@iamjust.in, or the form
- [Privacy and data](https://iamjust.in/privacy/): what the site records, and that every screenshot was taken on invented data

## Optional

- [llms-full.txt](https://iamjust.in/llms-full.txt): this index followed by the full text of every published post and page
- [RSS feed](https://iamjust.in/feed/): the posts, newest first
- [REST API](https://iamjust.in/wp-json/wp/v2/posts): the same posts as JSON, full content included