Hi, I'm Alec.

The studio

Dot The i Studio is a two-person Webflow studio. Me in Melbourne, Jamie Simpson in Dunedin. We build premium websites and Webflow–Shopify integrations for design-led businesses, and we stick around after launch to help them evolve.

Two people is the shape on purpose. When we started, we had a choice to scale up or stay close to the work. Close won. Small studios in 2026 can do things that agencies can't: we're in the file, on the call, answering the Slack message. There's no handover gap because there's nobody to hand to. The quality of the work and the honesty of the relationship are the same thing, and both are protected by the size.

Most of my client work goes through DTI. If you're trying to launch or evolve a site, that's where the full studio offer lives.

The product

Groovv is an iOS app for vinyl collectors. It pairs with Discogs, lives on your phone, and handles the stuff collectors actually do day-to-day: logging what you own, grading condition, valuing a collection, remembering what's on the wantlist before you walk into a record store.

I started building it because the tools that existed weren't good enough, and because after years of building for clients I wanted to build something of my own. Groovv is where I learn the things client work can't teach: how a real product behaves with real users, how pricing feels from the inside, how to ship when there's no brief and no deadline but the thing still has to be good.

It's also where I've learned the most about building with AI. Not as a feature, not as a gimmick, but as a tool for thinking faster and shipping more honestly. Most of what I now believe about design in the AI era came from making Groovv.

What I care about

Small is the point

Scale is an easy story to tell and a hard one to keep honest. Two people on purpose beats ten people by accident, every time.

Websites are systems, not deliverables

The site I'm proudest of is the one still doing its job three years later. Ship something your client can grow into, and maintain the relationship after launch. That's where the value lives.

AI is a tool, not a feature

AI doesn't make work better by being visible. It makes work better by letting the people doing it move faster, think clearer, and make fewer compromises. The best AI-era websites won't mention AI at all.

Building something of your own changes everything

Client work teaches one set of skills. Shipping your own product teaches another. I wouldn't be the designer or developer I am now without Groovv, and I think anyone in this industry should try to make something they own at least once.

Where to find me

Based in Melbourne, Australia. Working with Jamie in Dunedin, New Zealand. Always up for a conversation, whether it's client work, advisory, product questions, or just the industry.