Hi, I'm Dave Tanner

I'm a graphic designer and front-end developer based in the South-West of Western Australia. I currently work on UX/UI at Sydney-based software startup buzzy.buzz

About

I'm a designer and front-end developer with over 25 years of experience creating digital experiences, brands, and interfaces that are both thoughtful and practical.

My work spans branding, UX/UI design, development, content, and support, across everything from small brands to complex digital products and long-running client work.

I also enjoy the smaller, more personal projects too: t-shirt designs, illustrations, and work for friends, local groups, and community organisations.

Clients

I've worked with a range of agencies and partners, delivering projects for clients including:

  • Toyota
  • Optus
  • AMP
  • Samsung
  • Media Prima (Malaysia)
  • Symantec
  • Nickelodeon
  • BHP Billiton
  • The Sydney Opera House
  • Precisely
  • Eurapco
  • ... and more
Want to work together?

Bear

Illustration, 2025

Bear's a doggo! Printed on glass, and also tweaked as a t-shirt design.

Bear on glass
Bear on t-shirt
Bear as a puppy
Bear as a puppy ❤️ 🐶

Tellypod

Video Platform, 2014 | Agency: Boomlabs

Developed as a proof of concept for a new Malaysian on-demand video platform, Tellypod featured a simple, elegant, responsive experience with a unique horizontal-scrolling interface built for touch devices and early smart TV screens.

The platform was designed as an end-to-end solution with a custom CMS, user management, support, billing, subscriptions, streaming infrastructure, and a bespoke HTML5 video player.

Built to be easily themed and extended, it used best-practice web standards on top of a heavily modified Bootstrap CSS framework.

Tellypod home screen on TV-style layout
Tellypod series browsing interface
Tellypod episode detail screen
Tellypod user dashboard
Tellypod style and markup guide

Buzzy Workspace

App Platform, 2026 | Agency: Buzzy

Buzzy is an enterprise-grade, AI-powered app platform. Insanely rapid iteration is key with a tiny development team (I'm the only designer). The interface is built on React, using ShadCN and Tailwind for the frontend. It's responsive and can be used on mobile, and includes both an AI-powered interface as well as a WYSIWYG editor, and a full component library with a suite of default themes for the apps it develops and hosts.

Check out the live app here (requires signup).

Buzzy builds and manages applications through their entire lifecycle
A selection of Buzzy Templates app template screens
Edits can be done by hand, via AI in the workspace, or externally via MCP
A prebuilt toolkit and custom themes are included
System emails have their own backend admin, test and preview system
System emails need to be designed too!

Buzzy Figma Toolkit 2026

Figma Community File, 2024 | Agency: Buzzy

Designed specifically for use with the Buzzy Figma Plugin, the Buzzy Figma Toolkit is a prebuilt set of components, themes and templates that can be used to rapidly build apps on the Buzzy platform. It includes a full set of configurable UI components, prebuilt themes based on Figma variables, and templates for common UI patterns.

Check out the design file here (requires Figma account).

Buzzy Figma Toolkit 2026
Components like tables are specifically designed to work with the Buzzy Figma plugin - for instance, the data is organised by rows, not columns
Themes are controlled via Figma variables, and can be applied to any component or template
As with any design system, components are the building blocks of the Buzzy Figma Toolkit

Buzzy Tees

Tees, 2019 | Agency: Buzzy

A selection of t-shirt designs for the Buzzy team, created for assorted conferences and events.

Buzzy Tee featuring a toucan
Buzzy Tee featuring cut wires
Buzzy Tee featuring peacock design

Buzzy Templates

Web App, 2024 | Agency: Buzzy

The Buzzy Templates app acts as a template library for the Buzzy platform. Users can browse templates, preview them, and use them to create new apps - complete with the source Figma file.

The app was designed, built, and deployed directly from Figma via the Buzzy Figma plugin in a matter of days. I also designed and built the front-ends for the majority of the actual templates available in the library, ranging from simple dynamic content apps like a Recipe repository to more complex ones like an AI-powered chatbot or a location-based reporting tool.

Check out the live app here , or check out the Figma template files directly.

The Buzzy Templates app homepage
A selection of Buzzy Templates app template screens
Screenshot of the Buzzy Templates app in Figma
A look at the Buzzy Templates app in Figma. The app is built directly from the Figma file - including all UI, functionality and database components!

Buzzy Website

Website, 2026 | Agency: Buzzy

The current Buzzy website was created in a matter of days - it's built on the Astro framework, with a custom Tailwind CSS based frontend. Using Codex to handle the bulk import and reformatting of content from the previous version of the website allowed me to focus on handcrafting the core home page markup, messaging, design and imagery.

Check out the live site here

A selection of Buzzy Templates app template screens
A selection of Buzzy Templates app template screens
A selection of Buzzy Templates app template screens
A selection of Buzzy Templates app template screens
A selection of Buzzy Templates app template screens
Of course it's responsive.

CMB

Branding, 2016 TO PRESENT

I've been helping out the Cape Mountain Bikers for a while now with assorted design stuff. Plus the odd bit of volunteering for trail cleanups and such 👍.

Assorted stickers
Logo sheets
Tees

CMB + Rocky Ridge Beers

Label Design, 2018 and 2025

Cape Mountain Bikers worked with Rocky Ridge Brewing and Dunsborough Cellars to release some limited edition beers as part of a sponsorship drive. I like beer and MTB, so it was a no-brainer to get involved. The original run in 2018 used stickers as labels; the 2025 versions were printed on the cans and had the designs tweaked by @artstinkink prior to print.

The Rockdrop Pale label design
The final 2025 can - delicious
The original run of cans used stickers
Launch posters and stickers

Crow Tee

Tee design, 2024

Custom tee design. I like crows. Crows are cool. Crows are smart. Crows are awesome.

Tee design

Dunsborough Needs a Pool Tee

Logo / Tee design, 2019

Custom logo tee for a local swim team.

Tee design

Fill your heart with what's important

Words to live by

La Dispute The Last Lost Continent

Fill your heart with what's important, and be done with all the rest

Healthe

Website, 2004 | Agency: Hothouse Interactive

Healthe was a health insurance and medical records management startup based in Sydney. As the design lead at Hothouse Interactive, I designed and built the website (with semantic and accessible markup - for the time!) and created interactive marketing campaigns, from storyboards to execution. Anyone remember Flash?! 😂 Underrated as an animation platform, and great for interactive content at a time when it was the only game in town!

The Healthe website homepage
Storyboards for an interactive marketing campaign

Lionel Tee

Tee design, 2018

Custom tee for a friend to wear to the Lionel Richie concert.

Tee design

Luca's Surfboard Art

Surfboard art, 2019

Little Poska art project with my son Luca (aged 10 at the time) to customise his boards.

Luca's first board completed
The quiver
Luca at work

McKenzie Logo

Branding, 2006

Logo design for a mate's custom surfboards - I learnt a bit about Scottish history from this one. That board in the photos has been around Australia one-and-a-half times, and is now retired in our garage.

McKenzie shield
McKenzie shield
McKenzie shield
Shield logo on a surfboard
Logotype on a surfboard

Ski Mouse

Illustration, 2024

Just because. Mice are cute.

Ski Mouse

Skullywags

Illustration, 2024

Skulls are always fun to draw ☠️

Skullywags group
King skull
Jester skull

Stingers Logo

Logo / Illustration, 2003

Fun little logo I did for a corporate event.

Closeup of the logo
Closeup of the logo

Yallingup Swim Squad Tee

Logo / Tee design, 2020

Custom logo tee for a local swim team.

Tee design

About this site

This site is a hand-coded showcase of my work and a space for a few ideas, experiments, and details worth sharing. It's a static site built with HTML, CSS, and a little JavaScript for the dialogs and theme switcher.

Features

  • Accessible
  • Responsive
  • Performant

Technologies

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

The CSS is hand-built and intentionally lightweight, with a small amount of reset styling and a custom system layered on top; it's largely my own interpretation of a lightweight CSS framework, with a focus on accessibility, performance, and maintainability.

The gallery items display using a native HTML dialog with CSS transitions, not a JavaScript framework modal dialog. Thanks to Cynthia Costa for the gallery grid with hover.

The theme styling is controlled by CSS variables that are easy to modify and override.

Feel free to 'inspect elements' and see how it's all put together - the CSS is commented and includes refs and credits where applicable.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, especially on accessibility, please