My Story
I'm Christopher Carter. Most people call me Chris. "Howdy, Carter" is just what happens when a designer from small-town Pennsylvania ends up in Texas. It stuck.
I taught myself to design in a vo-tech program in Butler, PA, and have spent 17 years shipping product. Howdy, Carter is the shop: you add an issue, I ship it. Day job, for the record: Experience Design Vice President, Consumer & Community Banking, JPMorgan Chase.
In November 2025, at 35, I was diagnosed autistic. My camouflaging score was 152 out of 175, meaning I'd spent 17 years in corporate America performing a version of myself that wasn't real. The pattern recognition, the obsessive depth, the relentless drive. It wasn't a flaw. It was the whole point.
Now I'm 36, building in public, and done pretending. Writing honestly on Substack and proving that the things that made me different are exactly what make the work better.