Awwwards-inspired craft portfoliobooting …
Section 01 · About
Code, photo, design: same craft, different surface.
The interesting stuff happens exactly in-between.
I'm Manuel, full-stack developer at zvoove Switzerland AG since November 2021. PHP and Vue at work, cameras and Photoshop after hours, and everything in between that lives where code meets image. I don't buy the split between 'technical' and 'creative'; the interesting stuff happens exactly in-between.
I want to understand how all of this works under the hood.
Programming came to me through gaming. I set up my own Minecraft modpack server and started writing Mining Turtles in Lua. That was the moment I realised: I want to understand how all of this works under the hood.
My apprenticeship was IT-systems engineer (Betriebsinformatiker EFZ) at Novartis. I actually wanted to be a developer, but Novartis only offered the systems-engineer track, and you don't pass on a Novartis apprenticeship. Four years of servers, networks, support: solid foundation, but by the end it was clear: I'm applying as a developer. With zvoove since 2021, working on the main product zvoove Core, various API/interface tools, and Cypress E2E tests.
AI-generated websites all look the same today because most people hand the creativity to the AI.
AI is like a brush: a tool that doesn't make the art on its own. It's only as good as the plan and the prompt you give it, and it needs someone with taste, creativity, and a clear picture of where this is going. AI-generated websites all look the same today because most people hand the creativity to the AI.
I run a deeply set-up AI workflow: custom agents, hooks, skills, multi-stage prompts, clear convention files. I've taken two complex web apps from zero to production-ready that way (one is the Jogge di Balla platform, the other is this very site). The combination of that workflow depth and the visual sense from photo and design is what ends up making the difference between yet another generic landing page and something you actually remember.
What drives me? Curiosity, honestly.
I get excited about almost everything, and I'm convinced: in the AI era especially you have to stay on it more than ever. Stop learning and you're twelve months away from being left behind. Picking up new skills just feels like fun to me. For me that's not pressure, it's the default mode.
Off the screen
Snapshot 2026
Camera
shooting · Sony α7 IV · wildlife
Audi S5
driving · B8.5 · tuning project
Jogge di Balla
co-running · club · vice-president
Snow
carving · ski/snowboard · winter season
Depth
diving · certified
Ping-pong
chasing · zvoove champion title
Section 02 · Skills
Size carries weight. No years, no labels.
Hero Skill
Custom agents, hooks, skills, multi-stage prompts. AI isn't the tool I use — it's the thing I use to create tools.
What I build with the AI workflow, not casually without.
I know it. I don't use it daily.
Section 03 · Work
No portfolio gallery, no stack buffet. Two serious web apps from zero to live.
All clubs fight the same mess: Excel sheets, static websites, file/info sharing, isolated tools. For Jogge di Balla I cleaned that up: a custom-built platform that covers everything from member management to a Twitch overlay. Vibecoded, self-hosted, over-engineered.
Idea during Covid: four friends, nothing was happening, so we threw oddball events for ourselves. That turned into an actual club with public event classics like Schlag den Kassier, Silvester 2.0, Harassenlauf, and the popular Lotto-Party.
My role: vice-president, web developer, club photographer, cameraman, social-media manager. Because I had the skill set and I'm enough of a perfectionist to give the club not just a face but a custom, self-hosted web app of its own.
Highlight 01 · Technical depth
Invisible to visitors, the heart of the site. Every thread comes together here.
Dynamic permission system
Granular rights (edit_events, manage_sponsors, edit_shotcounter, …) assignable per card per role, no code changes needed. Backend checks every tRPC call through a custom requirePermission() middleware.
Attendance tracking with statistics
Per-event attendance lists, data flows straight into a graphical view. Helps with overview and a bit of internal competition.
Sponsor lifecycle
Sponsors managed inside the system. Status (active / expired / new) computed automatically, with finance and address management for our Kassier.
Highlight 02 · Most visible feature
Custom Twitch overlay integrated directly into the platform. Instead of expensive external services: just built it myself.
Hidden URL as browser source
OBS embeds /overlay/sdk, a control panel at /overlay/sdk/control drives the score live.
Realtime without page reloads
tRPC polling syncs the overlay in the stream instantly. Golden shimmer effect for winners, automatic 'mathematically eliminated' calculation.
Reach: honestly small
~15–20 concurrent viewers, ~100 total. The tooling is solidly built anyway, and reusable.
Lessons Learned
Manual testing cost me a lot of time back then. Today I'd set the project up from day one with automated tests and AI tooling, kill bugs at the source, and put the focus entirely on shipping.
Section 05 · Photography
Section 05 · Photography
Wildlife and cars are my two worlds. The first I chase solo through the jungles of Costa Rica or Thailand, the second usually find me closer to home. What connects them: patience, light, and that one moment that justifies the whole day.
SONY α7 IV · 24–600mm · since 2023
Sometimes the most interesting frame isn't the one with the highest shutter speed. It's the one with the light that only sits there for five minutes.
Lake Arenal: an hour and a half waiting for the wind to drop and finally smooth the water. The reflection makes the picture, not the tree.
Section 06 · Playground
Section 06 · Playground
Two shader experiments, both anchored to the ink-and-print narrative. Pure craft demonstration, no product context.
Section 07 · Contact
Request, question, idea, or just a hello, the inbox is open.
A few words upfront
I usually reply within one or two days. For recruiters and club-world enquiries: please mention briefly where you're coming from, it saves the second email.
Direct channels
GitHub is only semi-active, not a 100-repo polished-facade account.
