On September 30 I gave myself a test: how far can an idea travel when I direct and an AI builds? Fifteen days later my studio site runs on its own code, its own grid and its own sound, and three free tools live on it for anyone to play with. This is how it happened, with the numbers.
days, from the first page to a full site running on its own code.
Sep 30 to Oct 14, 2026
How I worked
My role stayed the one I play with every client: listen, set a direction, review every detail and approve what goes live. Claude, the AI model from Anthropic, wrote the code and tested it on the live WordPress site, first through the Elementor MCP and later directly in the site’s own files.
Most of my direction happened on my phone. I took a screenshot, drew on it in cyan and sent it back with a few words. Cross this out. Pick this one. Make this calmer. Over fifteen days I sent 200 files: screenshots, notes, photos and references.
screenshots, notes and references sent from my phone and desk.
42 of them on Oct 13 alone
It started with one page
The first piece was a 404 page that moves like water. It went live on October 1, and it became the first story in this journal. Then came the About page, which took more rounds than anything else: 64 saved versions before it felt like me. Its first draft opened with a line about good design. Today it opens with my own photos and videos, and the words come later, in my voice.
A drum machine that became a playground
I play drums, so I asked for a drum pad on the About page. It grew into a full drum machine with its own page. Then a liquid background I wanted to share. Then a deck of slides people build themselves. They all live in PlayGrnd, a space that opened on October 4 for free interactive pieces anyone can use or embed on their own site.
Play with the liquid background right here. This one uses the charcoal palette from my About page.
One grid, one header, one voice
Halfway through, I opened Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems and asked for the whole site to sit on one structure: 12 columns on desktop, 6 on tablet, 4 on phones. On the last day we lined up every page so the first stroke of my logo and every block of copy start on the same line.
The site started on Elementor. By October 14 every page ran on its own code, with one header, one menu and one footer shared by all of them, and both Elementor plugins switched off. The type came down to two families, TT Firs Neue and Galano Grotesque. The motion got calmer: softer reactions, a lighter scramble on the titles, slower and more fluid.
The numbers
I asked for a count of everything we can prove from the records. Before the move off Elementor, WordPress saved 311 versions of the pages. After it, the work lived in code.
| Section | Saved versions |
|---|---|
| About | 64 |
| PS-16 GrvBox | 51 |
| PlayGrnd | 42 |
| Sound & Color Journal | 32 |
| Home | 29 |
| Project pages | 22 |
| 404 page | 21 |
| Header, menu and footer | 16 |
| PS-LQ Liquid | 13 |
| Every other page | 21 |
- 58 tracked tasks: 51 finished, 7 waiting for the next stage
- 31 custom modules and 118 front-end files, about 20,000 lines of code
- 3 PlayGrnd products live, a fourth in draft
- 2 page builder plugins switched off, 1 grid for every page
What I keep from this
The code arrived fast. The decisions took the fifteen days: what to cut, what to keep, when a motion felt right and when it needed to breathe. That part is the work, and it is the part a client hires me for. The tools expand the possibilities; meaning and care guide the work.
Press kit
The press release, with images, is ready to download: pierosalardi.com x Claude, press release (PDF).
Try the tools on PlayGrnd. If you have an idea you want to take this far, let’s talk.
Liner notes
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