I'm Felipe.

Front-End Developer

Traço Leal Communication

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Traço Leal Communication

My first time on an airplane. My first time traveling out of my home state. And I was going to Brasília to present a government website to federal officials.

No pressure.

The Project

Redesigned the website for Brazil’s Federal Accounting Council (CFC - Conselho Federal de Contabilidade). We’re talking a massive government site - over 200 pages, tons of different layouts, various page types serving different purposes.

It was a WordPress build with a completely custom theme. Every page template, every component, every interaction - all built from scratch.

The Scale

200+ pages might not sound like much in the age of auto-generated content, but these weren’t cookie-cutter pages. Different sections of the site served different audiences:

  • Public information pages
  • Member portals
  • News and announcements
  • Document libraries
  • Event listings
  • And a bunch of other government-specific stuff

Each section had its own design requirements and functionality needs.

The Wild Part

Here’s the thing: I was an intern. A poorly paid one at that.

And yet, the agency entrusted the entire front-end development of a major federal government contract to me. The whole thing. No senior developer reviewing my work, no safety net, just “here’s the Photoshop files, make it happen.”

Looking back, that’s either a testament to their confidence in me or a terrifying lack of risk assessment. Maybe both.

The Trip to Brasília

Presenting the project in the capital was surreal. Flying for the first time, visiting a city I’d only seen on TV during news broadcasts, walking into government buildings to show officials what I’d built.

After the presentation, I trained the agency staff on how to use and maintain the site. Teaching people twice my age how to manage content in a system I built as an intern - imposter syndrome was real, but I faked confidence pretty well.

What I Learned

Sometimes you grow by being thrown into the deep end. This project gave me more real-world experience than any classroom could. Deadlines, client expectations, scope creep, the pressure of a government contract - all of it, all at once.

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