A brief history of Jeff: Designer

For me, the role of "Designer" has taken on a lot of different meanings throughout my career. I went to school for something called graphic design – a long defunct branch of the visual arts. (Actually, it’s amazing to see really good graphic design make such a comeback in recent years. People suddenly seem to care about things like typography and color theory again.)

After graduating from college I had a couple of low-level jobs working at a magazine, and later a catalog. I got my first real break when I was hired as a Production Assistant for EMG, an advertising agency in NYC that specialized in artwork for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. I was responsible for taking that artwork and turning it into every single kind of marketing asset imaginable – billboards, flyers, brochures, magazine ads, digital ads (lots of Flash back then), etc. I worked closely with one of the most prominent Art Directors in the theater world who saw my potential and began asking me to help design poster art concepts for some of our clients. Eventually I worked my way up to Art Director and began to get my own original artwork selected. Few things in my career have been more thrilling than seeing my poster art hanging at a theater on opening night.

From EMG I went to another agency called AKA where I had a similar position but was much more heavily involved – and became much more drawn to – web design. I decided to leave AKA to focus on freelance and contract work, which took me in all different directions – web design, branding, print and packaging design, and eventually product design. At the time I had only the slightest familiarity with terms like UI and UX, but it quickly became my main area of interest. I still loved things like typography, color, and illustration, but really started enjoying thinking about more complex digital experiences and how to to solve real-world problems. The user journey fascinated me, and I knew that’s where I wanted to take my career.

In 2013 I joined Backstage as the first member of the in-house product team. The new ownership wanted to take it from what was primarily a trade publication for actors to a full-fledged digital casting platform. 11 years later and I have designed and shipped an entire spectrum of products for all different types of users, helping Backstage become the go-to platform in the industry.

As far as my non-professional self: I recently moved to the Hudson Valley after 16 years in New York City. I spend my spare time camping, kayaking, and building cabins.

I’m definitely not the most unique person you’ll ever meet, but I wanted to include some “interesting” tidbits about myself. This is what I came up with:

• I once skateboarded a marathon. I took me 2 hours and 9 minutes (I finished 86 out of 129 racers).
• I hiked 28 miles of the Inka trail to Machu Picchu. At 14,000 feet I got altitude sickness--that’s the only part that was not pretty.
• One of my life goals is to publish a children’s book. Progress is slow.
• I currently live in a tiny home that I (mostly) built myself.