Read Me
This is a macOS desktop, rebuilt in a browser. The windows, the dock, and the icons were designed and coded by hand.
Why
Most portfolio sites are a page you scroll until it ends. I wanted one you look around in instead.
Everyone already knows how a desktop works. You see files, you open them. No instructions needed.
I build websites for clients. This one is mine, so every choice in it is my own.
Two systems
On a computer this is a macOS desktop. On a phone it becomes an iOS home screen, not the desktop shrunk down but the same idea rewritten for a thumb.
Built with
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No frameworks, no templates, no build step.
Designed and built by Alejandro Aparicio.
UI inspired by macOS. Incorporates official Apple system icons for visual context; macOS and all app icons are trademarks of Apple Inc. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple. The background artwork is not my own work.
CIEE Summer Abroad
A three-week Global Entrepreneurship program at the CIEE Berlin Center, awarded on full scholarship. The course ran on lean startup methodology: customer discovery, market analysis, pricing, budgeting, and a final investor pitch. I went because I was already running Apalex, my web design and digital marketing agency, and I wanted to learn how founders validate an idea instead of guessing at it.
What I did
My team built Lokal, a platform that helps international students through their first weeks in a new city. Our interviews kept surfacing small problems instead of big ones: what is open on Sunday, where to find water or a restroom, how transit actually works.
I led the brand and digital presence: branding strategy, logo, visual identity, landing page design, and the front-end build. I also ran customer interviews and worked on the final pitch.
What I took from it
Building the product is the smaller half. The rest is delivering the right message to the right audience through the right channel.
Before Berlin, Apalex's pitch was “AI for small businesses,” which meant nothing to anyone who heard it. I am rebuilding it around a specific kind of client with a specific problem, and applying the same thinking to how Apalex presents itself: what we say, who we say it to, and where we say it.
Apalex
Apalex is a digital agency I started in 2025. It began as a DECA project. I took it to districts, ran out of time to build the presentation it deserved, and did not place. The business was real though, so I kept going. I pitched it at Rotary and found my first clients.
I build websites and e-commerce stores for small businesses and independent professionals, then keep them working through SEO, social content, and ongoing support.
I started it because small business owners get quoted thousands of dollars and told to wait months. Working solo with AI-assisted development, I can build the same quality faster, at a price that makes sense for a business that isn't a corporation.
Four projects delivered so far across Florida and Colombia, generating over $2,000 in development fees plus recurring monthly hosting and service revenue.
Selected work
- Spectrum Signature Homes Website for a Florida construction business, plus a monthly engagement covering SEO and Google Business Profile.
- WJF Construction & Remodeling Website for a home builder and remodeler, on the same monthly SEO and Google Business Profile engagement.
- Walk By Faith Landing page and inquiry form for a startup clothing brand. Inbound interest went from almost none to dozens of customer inquiries driven from social media. Shopify storefront in progress.
- Ana Tamayo Portfolio site for a Colombian artist, built to show her artwork digitally.
Nonprofits
I pitched Apalex and its model for scaling into nonprofit work to the Rotary Club of Boca Raton. That work is underway now.
Those projects aren't live yet. I'll add them here when they are.