Data

Pertaining to a quantitative, measurable approach that speaks to agile processes in action.

Computer, do my design work. September 27, 2017 - Imagine you step into your car for your morning commute, then the car starts driving itself. You realize you need to make a stop at the cell phone store, so you tell your car. You walk into the store where you’re greeted by a shiny humanoid who offers you the latest model of its product. … Continue reading Computer, do my design work.

Craft

Pertaining to the act of making something, prioritizing quality + consistency.

Guitar Effects and Themes August 2, 2017 - A long time ago in a theme shop far far away, well, not so far away….a few kilometers in fact from where I work out of now (home), I used to work on themes that had a lot of features and custom code in them. A sort of, multipurpose theme so to speak. Themes that … Continue reading Guitar Effects and Themes
My Favorite Illustrator Tips for a Faster Workflow August 1, 2017 - Just recently, I had the opportunity to work on our team’s shirt design. Illustrator has always been my tool of choice when it comes to doing print work, but before we dive into some tips, let me share with you the completed design. Why a cereal box? This is actually spin off of a previous … Continue reading My Favorite Illustrator Tips for a Faster Workflow
Projecting trajectories August 1, 2017 - Updating a brand can be a difficult process. On the one hand, coming up with a new brand is difficult enough because of the blank canvas syndrome, but updating one; well that’s a wholly different albeit not incredibly dissimilar process. Ultimately they both really begin by defining tenants, or pillars of a sort, that can … Continue reading Projecting trajectories
Filling in the Cracks: The Road to Better Brand Perception July 30, 2017 - I was born and raised within a rural town in New England. A place where public transit is virtually nonexistent and the primary mode of transportation is via automobiles. Traveling to the nearest grocery market, one finds themselves on a short pilgrimage— driving down long windy country roads whose sides are lined with trees and tall … Continue reading Filling in the Cracks: The Road to Better Brand Perception
Doing illustrations when you are not an illustrator July 27, 2017 - As a designer, you may find yourself in a position where you are creating visual guidelines for others to follow or maybe need to be following existing ones. At Automattic, a project led by the marketing designer Joan Rho consisted into generating new illustrations for helping us evolve the brands WordPress.com and Jetpack. Joan and … Continue reading Doing illustrations when you are not an illustrator
Learn Something Difficult July 25, 2017 - Back in the day, I designed Flash websites. I was pretty good at it too, and it netted me a job as a Flash animator and designer at a small Copenhagen based studio. We made really cool things, some of them are probably still around. As time went on, though, the shortcomings of Flash became … Continue reading Learn Something Difficult

Inclusion

Pertaining to customer-thinking, qualitative information gathering, “them”-over-us-as-evidenced-by-interactions, mobile-thinking, email-thinking.

Bot encounters of the human kind September 29, 2017 - There’s been a lot of talk about how bots will take over. Dystopian theories aside, there’s a fair argument to be made that many of the tasks we currently do on a day to day basis will eventually be done much more efficiently by bots. Some day, maybe even more effectively as well. That’s an easy … Continue reading Bot encounters of the human kind
Building 10 non-profit sites in 8 hours on WordPress.com September 28, 2017 - This past weekend, a few of my colleagues and I participated in Out in Tech‘s Digital Corps hackathon in NYC. Along with about fifty other volunteers, we worked to create websites on WordPress.com for ten international organizations fighting to protect LGBTQ+ rights. Because participants were constrained to building sites on WordPress.com, it was a great … Continue reading Building 10 non-profit sites in 8 hours on WordPress.com
Insignias y team building July 31, 2017 - Would you like to read this post in English? Google Translate does a pretty good job translating it! Una de las cosas que más me gustan de nuestro equipo de Happiness es la increíble complicidad y solidaridad que hay entre sus miembros. No solo trabajan para dar soporte a los usuarios de nuestros productos: también hacen … Continue reading Insignias y team building
To be a design-led company July 31, 2017 - What brought Automattic success in the past won't be what brings the company future success. Learn about Automattic's commitment and journey to becoming a design-led company, scaling design to have broader reach and impact in newly collaborative ways.
Mobile design or the lack thereof July 31, 2017 - Before the era of WordPress there was a time when Macromedia Flash was the industry-leading web design solution. Today, that sounds like madness but back then, the world of Flash offered design possibilities that were simply not possible with just HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I studied web design in college under one of the founding … Continue reading Mobile design or the lack thereof
Designspiration from the field of play July 31, 2017 - As a marketing designer at WooCommerce, most of the work that I create lives exclusively on screens. You might logically assume, then, that a large amount of my design inspiration would come from other digital designers in the same (or similar) industry. That’s only partly true. Since I can remember, I’ve always been slightly obsessed … Continue reading Designspiration from the field of play
Brix Wine & Charcuterie site design – Detroit Hackathon reflection July 27, 2017 - This February, I visited Detroit along with a team of fellow Automatticians to participate in the Detroit Hackathon, an initiative of Rebrand Detroit. We did a quick tour of Detroit (we only had a weekend, afterall), and learned about the realities and challenges that small businesses often face. Later, we visited each business to meet … Continue reading Brix Wine & Charcuterie site design – Detroit Hackathon reflection
What’s Your Freedom? July 27, 2017 - “We don’t make software for free, we make it for freedom.” The idea of freedom rings true to Automattic’s roots. Our CEO, Matt Mullenweg, blogged about the four software freedoms back in 2014. In fact, this concept of freedom is so important you’ve probably spotted it on our homepage. We’ve been exploring how the concept of … Continue reading What’s Your Freedom?
Inclusive marketing July 5, 2017 - During my hiring trial for WooThemes in 2014 I wrote a fictitious backstory about Woo’s original mascot – a little ninja designed by Jon Hicks. The story was written from my understanding of Japanese culture and unequivocally well intended. Two years later (with Woo part of Automattic) I came back from a week’s holiday to a storm … Continue reading Inclusive marketing
Democratizing Identity July 4, 2017 - One of the core ideas we stand for here at Automattic is Democratizing Publishing—the idea that anyone with a story should be free to tell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or where they live in the world. We support this idea by providing hosted website services through WordPress.com for our global customer base … Continue reading Democratizing Identity