Six years ago, I decided to spend some time designing an app called EventBoard with Zach Holmquist. As it turns out, that single decision has had a huge impact on my career. EventBoard is now a full-fledged enterprise SaaS company, boasting some of the best customers imaginable, and it’s maintaining a strong growth trajectory. Being a part of that growth has been a great opportunity for me. I’ve seen several rounds of the venture capital funding process, I’ve helped grow a customer base, and I’ve seen a company grow from a broom closet to dozens of people working together.

Now, years later, it’s time for another decision; I’ve decided to step out from EventBoard and move to a new challenge. [Audible gasp] I know, it’s probably a bit of a surprise to anyone who knows my history at EventBoard. It wasn’t an easy decision to leave a company that I’ve been a part of from day one. I’ve met and worked with some of the brightest and most talented people who I now consider my friends. But when you’re a creative, you find a point when you know it’s time to push yourself out of your comfort zone. I’ve faced some tough challenges at EventBoard that have lead to a lot of growth. Now it’s time to find new challenges, meet a new team, and start a new chapter.

So Where Am I Going?

I am happy to be starting with the team at SitePen. They are a talented group that specializes in web development and consultation, especially within the enterprise space. I’ll be diving into a lot of their UX work and also their overall brand design. Where are they located? Well, everywhere and nowhere. SitePen consists of a completely remote team, which means I get to experience the shortest commute of my life. Roll out of bed, start designing, pants optional.

I’m ready to get started. I know this will be another decision that serves as a catalyst for more growth and opportunity, and frankly, I can’t wait. I will always be thankful for my time at EventBoard, and I wish the team all the luck as they continue to grow. There are some great things in the works over there. For now, though, it’s time for me to watch from the outside while I make this move… down the hall to my home office.

For any of you reading this, it’s no secret that I’ve been pretty radio-silent for the last couple of years. The truth is, things have been busy. 2013 turned into a bit of a rollercoaster ride, and things have been racing ever since. This month, I finally got around to updating my site with new work and a complete rebuild. With that, I figured I’d give an explanation as to what I’ve been up to all this time, because I know it’s been keeping all of you up at night.

EventBoard

The majority of this rollercoaster ride is due to EventBoard. Back in 2013, Ender Labs existed as a iOS and web app development shop. We had a few great apps like Onyx and Track 8 (no longer available). We also did some great work in conjunction with other agencies around Salt Lake City. While all of this was going on, we had a product called EventBoard. What was then simply a conference room display on the iPad, it was a product built for B2B customers. While we worked on other consumer-facing apps, EventBoard continued to gain significant traction and attract a client list that would make anyone look twice. Around the middle of 2013, we took a hard look at the business, and under the leadership of Shaun Ritchie, decided to take the big leap and put all of our efforts into EventBoard.

This decision had big effects on how things were running. Rather than focusing on chasing consumer products to cover the bottom line, we started seeking venture capital to build the product up as fast as possible. That’s what really carried things away. Trips to San Francisco to meet with our business customers, pitches to investors, and focusing on building new features capitalized all of our time. We were a lean startup of five people supporting a product being used by hundreds of the best tech companies in the world. I even got to be the front-line of customer support with our first landline sitting on my desk. It has truly been a whirlwind of hard work, and I’m convinced that Zach, Donald, Adam, and myself had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

All of that work paid off. Today, EventBoard is one of the many thriving startups that is breathing new air into the SLC tech scene. It is backed by Google Ventures and several other fantastic VC firms, has thousands of happy customers, and employs over 60 talented people – I no longer need a phone on my desk. We’ve pushed the product to not only include room displays, but productivity tools and insights that help people to collaborate in their workplace. It’s been a wild ride, but we’re just getting started.

Freelance Work

Obviously, with EventBoard taking off, there hasn’t been too much room for freelance work in my spare time. I still do jobs from time to time, and I’m currently accepting new projects for anyone who is interested. Much of my freelance work over the past couple of years has been for Aisle and SmartGo, two clients that I’ve loved working with.

Personal Projects

Then, at the very bottom of the list, are my personal projects. Obviously there hasn’t been much time for things like this, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on anything. There are two projects that I’m particularly fond of and that I’d love to finally wrap up.

The Hammer

After writing iPhone Blueprints, I thought I’d never want to write a book again. It’s a grueling process from start to finish. But about a year later, I started feeling an itch for something new. I’d been thinking about what creativity is made out of. I thought, if you could figure that out, you’d be able to actually control your creativity and to also stop creative blocks from happening. That might not seem very important, but to a creative person who usually doesn’t know when or where their next idea will come, it makes all the difference. Out of that thinking emerged “The Hammer.” It’s a book that breaks creativity into three parts: ideas, emotion, and technique. It’s nowhere near completion, but I’ve written a fair chunk already. It’s a project that I love, but just haven’t had the time or resources to full invest in yet.

Untitled Mac App

Another big project that I’ve been playing close to the chest is a new Mac app. I won’t say too much about it, but it focuses on writing and composition. For a while, I managed to sweet talk Donald Hays into building it with me, but the project didn’t ever reach a 1.0. He was nice enough to let me have all of the code so far. So if you’re a mac developer who has some free time and you’re interested in working on something with me, drop me a line and we can talk the details.

And that’s the end of the list. Pretty exciting, right? Well, now you’ll at least be able to finally get some sleep tonight.

Using Only CSS

When you are a designer that also does development, it seems that the two jobs have a constant ebb and flow. There are times when I spend a week or two without even writing a single div tag. On the other hand, there are days and weeks that I don’t even open Photoshop or Illustrator. Lately, between work at Ender Labs and freelance projects, I have been heavily focused on development rather than design.

While I do miss designing, this has pushed my development skills quite a bit. To demonstrate this, I decided to go through a little exercise — making the Onyx icon out of pure CSS. No images, just code. You can see the result of this exercise here.

The icon looks best in Webkit browsers (Chrome and Safari), but I also made sure that it at least looked acceptable in the latest versions of Firefox. If you look at the code, you will find one image, but that is only to force Webkit to clip the icon to a roundrect. This is a known bug with border-radius in the latest versions, something I only found out after plenty of banging my head on the wall.

For the last year, I have been juggling a project that involves something I have never done before — I wrote a book. Truth be told, the project started shortly after the experience I describe in the case study of chapter 5. I felt that I actually had experience to share that could benefit others. I went through several phases of putting down the project and picking it back up again. Eventually the book started to take shape, involving all aspects of user interface design. I chose to focus on higher level concepts rather than pixel precision and specific design trends. I’m incredibly happy with how the book has turned out. I can honestly say that this is a project that has stretched me as a designer and a creative.

I created the book using iBooks Author, which turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. It definitely merits its own post here so I can explain the process and offer advice to anyone else that is going to try it. That will come in the future. But for now, I am happy with what I was able to accomplish. iBooks offered a number of features that made the book more interactive and immersive. Yes, this means that the book is only available on iPad, and to a very limited selection of regions. To solve this, I am working on an ePub version that should be released in the next few weeks.

Download the iBook

iTunes Link
Website

Joining Ender Labs

I have been working at Neutron Interactive for over two years now. During this time, I have had the opportunity to work closely with Zach Holmquist, an extremely talented developer. As some of you might know, over a year ago we began creating iOS apps together. This started with EventBoard for iPad and quickly spread to other internal and freelance projects. Somewhere along the line, a quazi skunk works was started at Neutron to facility these projects — we called it Ender Labs.

It wasn’t much longer until this initiative started to build momentum. What had been 20% time was quickly becoming full-time. It became obvious that if we were serious about this, we would have to have be in with both feet. An official Ender Labs team was created, and Zach was allowed to develop apps full-time. He was also allowed to hire Donald Hays, an iOS development genius. I was forced to linger a little longer to wrap up my current projects for Neutron, but I soon joined the team full-time as well.

The Present

Today, Ender Labs is its own entity. At the beginning of this year, we officially severed the tie between us and Neutron to become our own company. It is an exciting opportunity to work in a small team that is focused on innovation and app development. We have many exciting projects to keep us busy, and I am honored to be working alongside some incredibly talented individuals.

What I’ve Been Working On…

It has been quite some time since I made a post about a project that I’ve been working on. Lately, my efforts have been focussed on an iPad app named Onyx. It allows you to explore and create color swatches in a very exciting way. Seeing this app come to fruition has been one of the most satisfying experiences in my design career. There are few things that I am more proud of than seeing this app on the new retina iPad.

Want to Know More About the App?

www.onyxapp.com
iTunes Store

OMG! They Killed Kenny!

In honor of the second half of the South Park season starting this week, I thought I would do something special. This is a South Park ‘Who Killed Kenny’ wallpaper that I put together. I like it best on my iPad home screen. Enjoy!

Choose Your Format:

• iMac
• iPad
• iPhone

A few months ago, I finished up on a project here at my home work station. I posted a quick photo on twitter with the intention of releasing more information about it. Well, better late than never, right? Here is my Ikea typographic desk mod. It was plenty of work, but it has definitely proven to be both useful and enjoyable.

The Hardware

It starts with a basic Ikea Galant corner desk. I went ahead and bought the side extension as well. I chose black for the top color. I figured this would give the best contrast for the white letters, and would also match the other things in my office. Next, I needed the top cover. My intention was to use an opaque plexiglass. I visited Regional Supply in Salt Lake City to see what they had available. If you are looking for sign supplies, they are excellent. The 4’x8′ sheet of plexiglass was going to put me at about $90. I probed further, and they came up with a different kind of material with the same aesthetic qualities as the plexiglass only it was half the price. Lastly, I needed the letters. To make these, I made about a 20 page PDF with several different sizes of letters. I chose to only use Helvetica Neue and Minion, and I stroked the letters in light gray. After that, I printed up about 3-4 copies of the PDF on 60# paper at alphagraphics and went to town with my exacto knife.

The Results

A few hundred dollars later, it was finished. I used a router to cut the top plastic to match the exact contours of the desk. It serves as both a clean desk top as well as a dry erase board for jotting down a few quick notes or ideas. The letter forms under the desktop look excellent. They almost appear to be luminous between the desk and the plastic.

Some Advice

A few notes if you are planning to do this yourself. The plastic top that I used, while it was half the price, scratches much easier than plexiglass. This was especially evident when using the router around the edges. Either try to protect the surface from the router, or be willing to shell out the extra $40 for better material. Also, since it’s not glass, plan on needing a dry erase cleaner to wipe the writing off thoroughly. This is something I chose intentionally; I didn’t want things to easily rub off as I worked at the desk. And lastly, I didn’t use anything to secure the plastic to the desk. You could use bolts or some industrial double-sided tape. I found that the weight of the material as well as the things on top of the desk worked well enough to hold it in place.

This is one of the latest projects I’ve been working on with Zach Holmquist. It is a Disneyland trivia app for iPhone. If you are a closet Disneyland freak, this is definitely an app for you. It really will test your knowledge of all things Disney. The graphics were a blast to work on, and I’m looking forward to using the framework to build other trivia apps, so keep your eyes open for more.

www.knowthemouse.com
iTunes Store

Apparently, I’m not cool enough for Dribbble. That’s ok, I’ll survive. But if I was cool enough, this would have been one of my recent shots. It’s another app for the iPad that I have been working on with Zach Holmquist. This is a shot of one of the settings menus that offers a color picker for advanced options. The app is going to be total eye candy, as well as incredibly useful. Let’s just say, it let’s you use your iPad when you’re not using your iPad. More to come!