Written by me and chatGPT. Inspiring, no?
How it started
I designed corporate identity systems, environmental signage, books, marketing campaigns, leadership presentations, annual reports (my favorite), and a thousand things in between. I was part of the team that shaped the Orlando Magic’s campaign, the Orlando Performing Arts Center fundraising efforts, the Kia Center inaugural campaign, and countless other brands.
Great Big Circle partnered with Chicago-based Fifty Thousand Feet, and the Orlando team grew. I continued working alongside Bryan, and the work continued to be fulfilling and meaningful. However, a microscopic nudge became something I couldn’t ignore. Sometimes you know when your time has come to an end — even at jobs you consider home.
I submitted my resignation and started a design firm with business partner and friend, Heather Hannon. Like the metaphoric hopping-in-the-car-to-drive-cross-country, this journey had a purpose and destination. Until that moment, I always had brilliant mentors I could lean on. It was time to do my own thing.
Clients were earned, good work was done, and the company slowly-but-surely grew. As I gained valuable lessons in running a company, I continued to design branding projects. I was blessed to work with Heather, whose creative direction and confidence I strived to mimic. Creatively, we fit together like “1+1.”
But something unexpected happened: I craved designing products. Going all the way back to my initial interests in computers and technology, by then an entire design field had grown. I decided it was time to entirely reset my career and double-down on a new path.
By chance, I had begun doing freelance product design for SightPlan, then an extremely young startup with huge ambitions. I took the work on to see if I enjoyed it, and if I had enough digital work under my belt to make the shift. I was offered a Principal Designer position. Jumping in blindly, I had absolutely no idea what a roller coaster it would be.
I ended up spending 10 years building SightPlan (a lifetime in product designer years), from web to mobile, voice to TV. I designed products for asset managers, maintenance teams, and residents. I designed solutions for asset management, geolocation awareness, rapid inspections, and AI-assisted global search. I soaked up knowledge from numerous Product and Engineering leaders. Dan Polfer, the longtime CTO, taught me the right way to bridge the gap between Product and Engineering, always listening to my wild ideas, legitimately figuring out how to build it, and pushing back when needed.
As the trend continues, I have been blessed to work with amazing leaders in their respective disciplines. As a suggestion to you: Find those leaders, listen to them, soak up their knowledge. Because, like everything in life, those moments don’t last forever.
SightPlan was acquired by SmartRent, and the wild ride was over in an instant. I was given the opportunity to manage a design team across 15 products. I had been so focused on “build, build, build,” I had never stopped to consider "lead lead lead". I dove into the opportunity. I created a “Champion” program, giving each designer an outlet to learn new skills. I also helped craft our design sprint approach.
Development & CMS
Framer
Utilized for development, responsive layouts, and custom coding. Having spent a lot of time doing front-end development, it’s the visual front-end tool I can act mature in.
Claude AI
Anything unique in Everomp's design that Framer's built-in tools can't handle, custom coding assist from AI comes in. Gone are the days of "hand-crafted web sites".
Writing
Apple Notes
My writing tool since the mid-2000's. Pretty boring, no? I've tried every note-taking out there, and I keep coming back.
Concept & Layout
Figma
Utilized for initial design and layout concepts. The long road of design software continues.
Sketch
The primary design tool during my SightPlan days, it may have been retired from current use but it's still used for creating and exporting SightPlan screens for case studies.
Spline
Used to design geometric shape concepts and headers. I’m a 2D guy in a 3D world, and this tool made the learning curve approachable.
Pen & paper
Listed here because it's becoming more and more rare. Nothing gets ideas from brain to reality faster.
Typography
Hasköy
The workhorse of legibility, Hasköy is a san serif family designed by Ertekin Erdin.
Noe
The font with a bite, Noe is a display serif designed by Schick Toikka.
Iconography
Feather Icons
Sans a couple tweaks and customizations, all icons served by Feather. Thank you Cole Bemis!
Photography
Nikon D3100
Serving me well since 2011. iPhones may do just about everything it can, but it just feels good to hold a DSLR.
I am not good at keeping my portfolio up-to-date. I’d rather be working on the next big project. Needless to say, there have been a lot of starts and stops over the years. Here is a quick recap:
