There's a pattern I've noticed about myself. I run into a small, specific problem. I look for a tool that solves it. The tools that exist either want a monthly subscription, or they're buried inside a €50-a-month Adobe plan I don't have, or they just don't quite do the thing I need.
So I build it. Using Claude Design and Claude Code, a working app now takes me about a day. This is where those apps live.
The idea isn't the apps — it's the process
I'm a senior designer with a fine arts background who spent years working on enterprise products. I've always been curious about building, but building used to require a developer. Now it doesn't. These small apps are how I'm learning what that shift actually means in practice — not by reading about it, but by shipping things.
Each one starts with a real problem I had. Each one gets built in roughly a day. Each one goes live.
Apps
Poster Tile Printer
You have a large-format graphic. You don't have a large-format printer. This app tiles it into A4 or A3 sheets with overlap so you can tape them together and print on any normal printer. Adobe Illustrator has this. I don't have Adobe Illustrator.
Reels Generator
Friends built a marketplace for second hand items. Making short video ads for each listing was tedious. This app takes photos and generates MP4 reels formatted for Instagram and TikTok. Every app that does this costs €12/month minimum.
Run locally →
git clone https://github.com/katarinapetrov19/Reelsnpm installnode server.mjs- Open reel-editor-ashen.vercel.app/