Joel Borofsky

When the author of Escape from Eden wanted to design a new blog, he had a very specific image in mind—something unique yet minimalistic. The goal was to reflect his personal journey of change and growth. Previously, he used WordPress for blogging, but he wanted to ditch the heavy admin board in favor of a streamlined approach. All he really needed was a simple way to publish posts and receive messages—no comments to moderate, but with features like subscriptions, share buttons, and a similar posts component. Most importantly, the design had to embody the concept of rebuilding.

With this vision, I set out to design the blog. My first thought was: neubrutalism—my usual go-to style with heavy fonts, bold box shadows, and multiple colors—wouldn’t work here. Instead, I embraced minimalism. While minimalism can sometimes make a site look generic, in this case it perfectly conveyed the message of starting fresh and rebuilding. When you visit the site, you’re greeted with a hero title and a succinct explanation of what the site is about. From there, you can subscribe and view the most recent posts. It’s all about getting straight to the point—exactly what the client wanted.

Since I was aiming for a minimalist design, I skipped the detailed Figma mockups and jumped right into Tailwind CSS. I crafted a few key components to capture the look and feel, keeping things standardized. The design centers around a “recent posts” section and an “all posts” section; with the blog content hosted on the splash page, there’s no need for a separate “blog” page.

The real planning began on the backend. This was my first build using PostgreSQL and Prisma. Although I’m experienced with Firebase, I’ve been transitioning my backend stack toward SQL and Prisma, especially for projects that need to scale. Here’s why:

• Relational Data Management: One of the main reasons for choosing SQL was the need for a relational database. While Firebase (a NoSQL solution) is excellent for many projects—especially those that need real-time data—using it to model relational data (like posts, tags, and categories) can become cumbersome as relationships grow more complex. With SQL, you can explicitly define relationships between tables, making it much easier to manage interconnected data as your project scales.
• Efficiency and Scalability: SQL databases offer robust indexing and efficient querying. This is particularly important for building search functionality. With explicit relationships and indexed columns, users can filter posts by date, tag, or title without the lag that sometimes accompanies more ad hoc queries in a NoSQL system.
• Prisma’s Benefits: Using Prisma as an ORM simplifies working with SQL databases. It provides a clear schema, type safety, and makes database migrations more manageable—a big plus when you’re transitioning from a Firebase-based approach.

It’s important to note that while SQL is ideal for managing a blog’s structured content, Firebase still has its strengths—particularly when it comes to real-time features. For instance, if you ever decide to add a live chat or real-time comments, Firebase’s Firestore (or Realtime Database) is well-suited for that task. One viable approach is to use SQL (with PostgreSQL and Prisma) as the primary data store for your blog posts and structured content, while integrating Firebase specifically for features that benefit from real-time updates.

Designing this blog was not just about creating a visually appealing site—it was a journey of learning and adapting to the right tools for the task. By moving from Firebase to a SQL stack with PostgreSQL and Prisma, I’ve embraced a solution that scales better with relational data, ensures efficient search and query performance, and sets the stage for future growth. Yet, the flexibility remains: Firebase can still play a role for any real-time features down the line. This project is a testament to the idea of rebuilding—not just in design, but also in evolving your technical stack to meet new challenges.