How did you get into design?

As a pragmatic creative, I’d say I fell forward into it. After stints in teaching and journalism, I started writing copy at a digital shop. I soon saw everyone leaned on the Information Architects for insight. Their challenges seemed more fun, so I found my way onto the team.

So there you have it; I can proudly say I’ve been doing UX before it was commonly referred to as such. From here, my journey has lead to many great projects where I’ve refined my skills over the years.

What do you love about design?

Mainly, eliminating clutter and confusion! That could be by clearing a crowded navigation or helping a content team streamline their publishing calendar.

Incremental progress. Good interviews or brainstorms where we learn or arrive at a small epiphany is very motivating. Why wait till launch for that feeling?

Finally (and with uncool sincerity), I love helping clients. While this is corporate work, we’re all just humans trying to succeed in our jobs. If I can help someone nail their project, it’s a nice human moment in a digital world.

Ok, what don’t you love about design?

Building trust with clients isn’t always easy. This challenge is just an inevitable part of the job, and can result in confusion on which deliverables to prioritize and how to execute them. In these moments, I do my best to just listen and understand their challenges.

Design tools, in the name of “time-saving”, eventually feature creep their way into bloated messes. Call me old fashioned (or at least a Lean UXer), but I still think a good sketch and a conversation will always have a fundamental edge over a Figma variable.

When teams are too big and roles aren’t clear, positive energy and collaboration suffers.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Depending on who you ask, I’m the helpful (or annoying) guy asking “but why are we doing this?” I help strategists by asking, “is that insight going to help me make a more informed design decision?” Later, I help designers refine ideas by asking “does this adhere to the design principles?” My OCD makes me sound like Larry David at times, but it helps make the output function smoother.

On the assembly line, I thrive most in the “research to wireframe” phase. I’d say I’ve grown more into a strategist than a designer, but I prefer to keep the figma chops fresh and keep up with the GA grads.

Can I do UI? Sure. Am I the best and fastest? Probably not. I like to be clear on that, and think teams work better when fresh eyes come in to get lost in the details of things like leading and blend modes.

What do you do outside work? Can you hang?

You bet. My main civilian past time is music. I have a little indie band that plays around Brooklyn and I’m usually listening to something ambient when designing.

I enjoy the occasional serial drama (helps by the water cooler), and spend a lot of time in Argentina fumbling my way through poorly executed Spanish and Tango.

I don’t have favorites, but I recently finished Brothers Karamozov, have a soft spot for Eckhart Tolle and listen to “Kind of Blue” every day.

On the other hand I also enjoy dad jokes, and I’m reliable for good memes in the group chat. So let’s hang and design something cool.