Corporate and academic stowaway; designer, educator, and wordsmith.
Aquent Gymnasium
thegymnasium.com — From visual and front-end design, brand exploration, and course development; to email design and development, content marketing, and copywriting.
UX Design: Prototyping as Process webinar — Promotional social artwork for Twitter and LinkedIn; designed in May, 2019.
Gymnasium — Homepage hero and course artwork for Prototyping for Digital Products and Websites; designed in March, 2019.
ASA(American Staffing Association) Elevate Awards — Aquent Gymnasium won (and continues to win) the American Staffing Association’s first-ever Elevate Award in (another in , and again in ), honoring the most outstanding work-based learning programs in the staffing and recruiting industry; original photo credit to Andrew Miller.
The Gymnasium Blog on Medium — Details of various blog hero artwork from 2017–2019; designed in 2017–2019.
The Gymnasium Blog on Medium — All blog artwork from 2017–2019, except Hacking Horace Mann’s Loftiest Dream (credit to Andrew Miller); designed in 2017–2019.
Gymnasium Logo Alternate — Square logo design, used on The Gymnasium Blog on Medium; designed in July, 2017.
Media Queries for Popular Devices — Promotional cheat sheet webpage; designed and developed in August, 2015.
Dizzy Moods Lettering
Bespoke lettering for exhibition window display and catalog, for Boston and NYC based photographer Leonard Greco; designed in 2015.
Award-winning promotional website for tween, teen, and young adult book author Erin Dionne; 15th Annual HOW Interactive Design Awards, Merit Winner, 2013; designed and developed in 2013.
Promotional website for Boston and NYC based visual artist Cassandra Louise Baker; designed and developed in 2010; updated in 2022 (for small screens). R.I.P.
Home page, desktop view.
Work details page, desktop view.
Hypnotic Discotheque Fascination
Clever use of color and music transform a simple concept into a fun game.
A 40 second demo of Hypnotic Discotheque Fascination. (Alternatively, listen to Martin Straka’s hypnotic soundtrack via Bandcamp or Spotify.)
Dot Display Font
HTML and CSS based display font (a decade prior to pure CSS lettering becoming a thing); designed in 2009 (in use 2009–2012).
Dot Display CSS font specimen (detail).
Dot Display heading featured on Velle’s Boutique webpage.
Dot Display heading (in blue) featured on Velle’s Couture Soundtracks webpage.
Create Magazine
Signing On — Editorial design for Create Magazine; designed in 2005.
Contributing designer for Create Magazine, Winter 2005, Boston edition. (Later used as a typography project, while teaching at Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts. See example student classwork by William Hekking.)
Velle Logotypes
Bespoke logotypes for web-based magazine and studio Velle, and imprint; designed in 2005 (in use 2005–2012).
Velle logotype; based on a letterform sketch by Jan Tschichold.
China Fon House logotype — Velle magazine imprint; inspired by the work of the Designers Republic (tDR).
Faculty Exhibition Poster
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) — Montserrat College of Art Faculty Exhibition Poster, 3-color screen print on plexiglass, 18 in. × 24 in. (~ A2), printed by Anthony Landry (at Proletariat Press); designed in 2004.
More often than not, I design in code, in the browser, and sometimes in Figma, Sketch, or any tool other than a hammer. And don’t forget about paper. (Low-fidelity paper prototyping for the win.)
Designing in the browser lets me test and refine designs in real-time. Within 24 hours, a production-ready prototype is available for team feedback. But it’s not a race. The details and discussions matter. It’s about a seamless flow from design to development for quicker iterations, leading to better user experiences for everyone. Fewer silos — thank you.
I’m a designer who believes writing is designing. And the virtues of lean content — it’s RAD (reliable, authentic, and direct). I care about language, whether code or content. Visual design and imagery, too, of course, though tend to come a little later. Forget getting hung up on pixel perfection (at least for now) and focus on the content first. Sure, make images talk and sing even, but keep the language easy to read and conversational.
While we’re at it, making content and experiences accessible and inclusive isn’t a task or requirement. It’s a fundamental part of who I am and how I approach my work. Accessibility first is not an add-on — it’s a way of seeing and doing.
Out of (home) office, I do — and teach — a leader and educator at heart, teaching design and writing courses. I’ve taught at colleges in and around Boston for two decades (and then some). Make it in Massachusetts institutions: Emmanuel College, Montserrat College of Art, and the former Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts. I currently work and teach in Prague. Na zdraví!
After hours, you can find me — out on my next foodie quest, salvaging old tech, or enjoying a cozy rainy evening at home.
Show and Tell
A few highlights from the 2024 end-of-year reception and exhibition, Bits & Bytes, presented in Spatial, featuring my Graphic & Media Design Studio’s Final exams at PSCC in VR (Klauzury na PSCC ve VR) via Instagram.
And a short three-part interview (2022) about teaching via Instagram:
