Expand the realm of possibility
Typefirst is a web design and development shop run by Kyle Robertson. Websites, full-stack applications, and custom architectures that solve unique problems — these are our areas of expertise.
past work
Hi, I’m Kyle 👋
I’m a technical architect, designer, and developer. I help visionary leaders and mission-driven teams figure out what they need and how to build it using web technologies. I also offer coaching for co-founders.
People trust working with me because I get the big picture, I have the technical expertise to do it right the first time, and I’m able to communicate complex topics in an accessible way.
They continue working with me because I’m reliable, I build high quality solutions, and those solutions yield results that accelerate their mission ⚡️
Kyle is an outstanding developer with whom I have been working closely on several major projects over the years — for the PNE, the BC Provincial Health Services Authority, and others. His depth of knowledge, expertise, and reliability have won him praise from stakeholders on some of our largest and most high-profile projects.
What’s more — he is an absolute pleasure to work with, and I can say with certainty that Kyle’s integrity is among the very highest of anyone I’ve worked with.
Michela Toscano, Founder
IONICA
Services
I pride myself in doing work of exceptional quality. With a couple decades of full-stack engineering experience under my belt, I’ve seen the hype train come and go more times than I can count. I look through the smoke and mirrors of the latest fads to recognize what’s maintainable and enduring, protecting your development investment for years to come.
Here’s some of what we can do together:
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Digital Transformation
Identify technical solutions that actually work by gathering requirements from community, aligning stakeholders, and mapping business processes to new or existing digital products.
See also: AI Adoption Risk Management
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Technical Architecture
Design efficient architectures for custom applications that meet your bugetary, performance, and compliance needs — on premise or in the cloud.
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UX Design
Save development time and money with in-depth user research, mood boards, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups ready for implementation.
See also: UX Clinic
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Full-stack Development
Build secure, maintainable, and well-tested server applications and jank-free user interfaces that last years instead of months.
Get compliant and solve usability snags with accessibility retrofits.
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Content Management Systems
Organize your information architecture and tap into the wisdom of content strategy with content and taxonomy audits.
Develop custom themes, plugins, and third-party integrations for WordPress, Drupal, Craft, and static site generators.
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Troubleshooting and Rescue
Put out the fire by debugging faulty algorithms, documenting unmaintained services, upgrading legacy systems, and cleaning up bad code generated by LLMs or substandard providers.
See also: WordPress Site Rescue
Kyle does consistently outstanding work. He’s taken the time to understand our organization, its needs, and our values and developed creative solutions for every challenge we presented. He’s also gone above and beyond, suggesting and implementing ways to make our site more efficient, cost-effective, and accessible. It’s wonderful to work with a developer we trust, whether on minor fixes or substantial improvements.
Alex Blum, Fundraising & Communications Manager
New Media Ventures
Technologies
For 25 years, I’ve been building websites and applications using trusty HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. On top of that, I have years of experience with these tools:
values in action
Nela Dunato’s profound book, The Human Centered Brand, flipped the script for me on traditional marketing by reclaiming relationships and values as the foundation of business.
With the help of my support network, I hold myself accountable to these core values:
- quality — do excellent work that fulfills its purpose in a beautiful, maintainable way
- integrity — align intention, speech, and action for greater transparency and mutual understanding
- creativity — work within constraints to seize extraordinary opportunities
- curiosity — ask exploratory questions and hold space for others to engage complexity without overwhelm
- competence — take care to understand challenges in order to discern right use of expertise
- depth — get to the root of the problem rather than settle for superficial fixes that punt it down the road
I do not use generative AI tools in my work (e.g. for LLM-based vibe coding or meeting transcription) because I hold a vision of the future that is incompatible with these systems and their training.
Kyle is easy to work with and a clear communicator. He jumped in with us during a busy time, understood the kind of help we needed, and forged a path through. Kyle kept us informed throughout and all our projects together launched successfully! This clarity is reflected in his code, and his strong back-end skills showed his familiarity with approaching complex problems.
Tylor Sherman, Co-founder
Denim & Steel
Let’s work together
Whether you’ve got a project we can collaborate on or you’re just a like-minded person doing creative work in the world, I want to hear from you! 🤩
Email kyle@typefirst.ca or fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch shortly.
We enjoyed working with Kyle. I admire his knowledge and professionalism and will recommend him to anyone requiring a website developed.
Chris Fahlke, President
Gryphon Print & Packaging Innovation