Manuel Mayrhofer.
Designer and developer from St. Georgen am Walde, Austria. I do both: the look and the inner workings. That both come together in one person is the real difference.
It started with a question I could not let go of: why do most websites look the same? Not similar, but the same. The same site builders, the same spacing, the same language. And behind them, companies that are anything but interchangeable.
So I started doing it differently. First out of curiosity, then as a craft, today as metic. I design and develop as one person. That means no design that gets watered down in the build, and no programmer who misreads a design. What I draw, I also build, down to the last pixel.
The name comes from meticulous. That is not a marketing word but a way of working: I move an edge by two pixels if it sits two pixels wrong. I rewrite a function if it works but is not beautiful. That takes time. And it is the reason the results look different.
Manuel Mayrhofer, founder of metic.
One room, one beat.
- A room. Every studio starts with four walls and a vanishing point. Mine is in St. Georgen am Walde, Austria.
- A desk. A north-facing window, records on the wall, light from above. This is where everything happens.
- Two decks. Before I built websites, I played records: two turntables, a mixer, a feel for timing.
- Two speakers. A transition that comes an eighth too early kills the energy. Nobody can name it, everybody feels it.
- Music. That exact feeling is in every movement on this site: 200 milliseconds decide whether something feels expensive or cheap.
- A transition. The mixer becomes an interface, the beat becomes motion. Same hand, different instrument.
- A website. What I draw, I also build. And it runs in time.
Stories
What a DJ and a developer have in common
Both work with something you cannot see: timing. When you play a set, an eighth note decides whether a transition carries or the dance floor empties. The web is the same. An animation that runs 200 milliseconds too long feels sluggish. One that is 100 too short feels hectic. Nobody can name it, but everyone feels it. I learned the feel for it behind the decks, long before I needed it in code.
The two-pixel evening
It was just after midnight, the project signed off, the invoice written. And I noticed that a divider in the footer sat two pixels too low. Two pixels. Nobody would ever have seen it. I fixed it anyway, published again and only then went to bed. If you want to know what metic. means: that is it.
Why I turn down work
Not every project is a fit. If you need a website in three days for a few hundred euros, a site builder serves you better, and I say so honestly. I would rather take on a few projects and do them properly than many and none of them well. That is why my capacity is limited.
Wednesdays in the hall
Since 2025 I have spent every Wednesday in the table tennis hall as a youth coach. Teaching a child a clean serve means explaining the same thing ten times, a little differently each time, until it lands. Patience and precision: a good website needs nothing more, just both of them.
What I stick to
- 01
Honesty before the job
If a project makes no sense with me, I say so. Even if it costs me the job.
- 02
Finished means finished
No loose ends after launch, no “we’ll do that later”. What is handed over is complete.
- 03
Speed is respect
A slow website wastes your customers’ time. For me, load time is not a feature but good manners.
- 04
Accessible to everyone
Contrast, keyboard, screen readers. A website that locks some people out is not a finished website.
The stack.
What I work with, top to bottom: from what you see to what it all runs on.
- 01VisibilityTechnical SEO · Core Web Vitals · Photography · Conversion
- 02DesignUI/UX design · Design systems · Art direction · Motion design · Figma
- 03DevelopmentTypeScript · React · Next.js · Node.js · GSAP · WebGL · Tailwind CSS · Three.js · Angular · Java · C# · Swift
- 04Systems & operationsPayload CMS · PostgreSQL / SQLite · Docker · VPS & deployment · Domains, DNS & email · Stripe · SAP ERP
The road so far.
- 2020Education
HTL Perg, software development
HTL Perg
Five years of technical school: object-oriented programming, web and mobile, databases, networking, project management. Graduated in 2025 with the Matura.
- 2022Work
Internship, IT and development
CADS Additive
Research and a prototype of a data viewer on a Raspberry Pi. Wrote API code, tracked tasks in Jira.
- 2023Work
Internship, software development
Pflichtpraktikum
An inventory system from scratch, plus automation tools in VBA.
- 2024Education
SAP certificate
SAP
A year-long SAP course focused on core ERP modules and how business processes connect.
- 2025Milestone
First place, P@bs Award
P@bs Award, HTL Perg
The iOS app HABAU GROUP Map won best project, plus a special award for the highest commercial applicability.
- 2025Work
Civilian service
Therapiezentrum Waldhausen
Nine months working with children with disabilities, plus day-to-day organisation. July 2025 to March 2026.
- 2025Milestone
Youth table tennis coach
ASKÖ St. Georgen am Walde
Team captain at the club, and since 2025 the kids’ coach every Wednesday.
- 2026Milestone
Founded metic.
metic.
A design and software studio of one. First work: the club site with live data and the website for the Dimbach veterinary practice.
Let’s get to know each other.
A coffee in person or a call online. No obligation, but precise.