In this innovative, comprehensive book from Rockport Press, co-author Jason Nunes and I examine the user-centered design process from the perspective of a designer.

The book introduces the different UX players, outlines the user-centered design process from research to user testing, and explains how user-centered design has been successfully integrated into the design process of a variety of studios worldwide.

The book is also visually engaging. Co-designer Samanta Katz and I utilized rich imagery and clear and bold infographics to make it a pleasure to look at and read.

It's proven to be a bestseller for Rockport, and is available both at online retailers and in bookstores nationwide, including the New York MOMA bookshop. It's also been translated into four languages including Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese.

War Ink was borne of a desire to improve communication and compassion between returning American vets, their families, and the public at large. The soldiers' body art serves as a springboard to learning about their unique experiences in wartime. With powerful documentary style photography and video interviews produced by StoryCorps, the website aims not only to honor their service, but give them--and our country--a new means of understanding the effects of war on both our soldiers and society.

The War Ink project was featured by over 150 major publications including Mashable, PBS News Hour, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and the Chicago Tribune. The project was also nominated for a Webby Ward and was included in Print Magazine's Regional Design Annual.

Role:
UX Lead, Creative Director (Favorite Medium)

Key Team Members:
Jason Deitch, Christopher Brown, Rebecca Murga, Jonathan Wolf  

Client:
War Ink

Veer, the stock illustration, photography and font warehouse, came to me after seeing some of my city-themed greeting cards. They commissioned me to create a custom set of illustrations depicting city scenes around the world. As Veer is a stock warehouse, I designed the drawings to be partially customizable, either through editable signage or open spaces that allow for copy to be placed on top.

Andy Pratt Design is proud to announce a partnership with 3M to create two exclusive lines of Post-it notes. The products are part of their Signature Series collection, which features independent artists. Each collection includes three different styles of notes: a list pad, page markers, and a notepad. They add a bit of whimsy to your daily reminders and lists.
Find out more here.

Client:
3M

Outsourcing web development work can be a scary proposition for most agencies. It brings to mind anonymous faces and broken code. So for Jobsity, a web development company based in New York and Quito, Ecuador, striking the right tone with their brand redesign was really important. They wanted to appear professional and reassuring. But they also wanted to present themselves as real people, to help assuage some of the fears that are inherent to outsourcing work.

I designed a new logo for them, as well as business cards and a website. The site is a single scrolling page. Its behavior subtly highlights their excellent technical capabilities, and gives a hint of their cheeky sense of humor.

Client:
Jobsity

Unboundry, the Atlanta-based design company, contacted me after seeing some of my city illustrations. They responded to the fun and dense energy found in my work, and hired me to create two illustrations for an editorial piece. These were used in an internal magazine for FedEx.

Star Trek’s fan base is enviable: it’s totally committed and game. It’s also disparate. Some like TV’s Kirk, others Picard, and still others prefer the newest movies. Our goal with this site was to cohere these groups into a solid unit, and harness their energy to create something truly unique. We placed social networking at the forefront—they can upload convention photos, share memorabilia, and comment on the message boards—in addition to watching episodes online. It’s truly a one-stop-shop for all things Trek.

Role:
Creative Director (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
Sam Kang, Dan Willig, Kim Howe, Anthony Bovasso

Client:
CBS Consumer Products

New York City’s Black Top Street Hockey (BTSH) was founded in 2000. As a member from its inaugural season til I left New York City in 2013, I saw it grow from a ragtag few to an organized group of hundreds. It still has a bit of a rough-and-tumble flair to it though. I integrated this spirit into these two T-shirt designs, which were sold to raise funds for the league.

Dark Was the Night is an album created in conjunction with the Red Hot Organization, a group dedicated to increasing the awareness of AIDS/HIV. To date, they’ve released more than twenty albums and donated over twenty million dollars to the cause. Dark Was the Night, Red Hot’s fifteenth album, features a collection of exclusive recordings by notable indie artists, including The National, Bon Hiver, and Arcade Fire.

Role:
Creative Director (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
John Carlin, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Ryan Feerer, John Giordani

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is a particularly vibrant university, and needed a dynamic web presence to match. The entire site makes good use of the fantastic visual imagery the school is known for, and sets it off in a clean, modern package complete with beautiful typography. The site also highlights the accomplishments of various students, faculty, and alumni, helping to ensure a strong community presence. All of these factors work together to create a uniquely rich user experience, suitable for one of the world’s most renowned art universities.

Roles:
Creative Director, Designer (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
Kim Howe, John Carlin, William Ranwell, Dan Willig, John La, Jane Dowling

Client:
School of Visual Arts

Awards & Highlights:
Communication Arts Webpick of the Week
2012 Communication Arts Design Annual, Featured Article
2013 HOW Interactive Design Award

I started this sticker project during the tenure of George W. Bush. I was frustrated with many of his policies, and wanted the world to know that not all Americans supported this “Banana Republican.” I designed this sticker, and had hundreds of them printed, complete with the url bananarepublican.us. When people went to the website, they were able to request stickers. I’d send them out for free, asking only that the recipients email me photos of the where they’d placed them. I then posted these photos on the site.

I created these spot illustrations for use in my stationery business. My goal for them: to say a lot with just a little.

Us Magazine enjoys an enviable position in the print world of celebrity journalism. Online was a different matter, however. I was part of a team that was hired to retool the website. We harnessed the magazine's print look, taking its visual strengths but making it web savvy. We kept its iconic columns, and integrated image carousels to take advantage of its fantastic image stockpile. The result is a site that more than holds its own in the insatiable marketplace for celebrity news.

Roles:
Creative Director, Designer (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
Thea Rossi, Allison Valenti, Jesse Sanford, Jane Dowling

Client:
Wenner Media

Awards & Highlights:
Webby Honorable Mention
Gold W3 Award
Silver Communicator Award

The Ocean Portal is an online gateway to Earth’s most mysterious frontier. Working with the Smithsonian Institution (and over twenty collaborating organizations) meant that we had access to an astonishing amount of scientific knowledge. Our goal was to make this information accessible and exciting to everyone visiting the site: students, enthusiasts, and experts alike. We worked with a scientific team at the National Museum of Natural History to come up with content that both had a broad appeal and allowed for deeper exploration. We also made good use of some spectacular scientific drawings that were commissioned for the physical exhibit.

Roles:
Creative Director, Designer (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
Kim Howe, Jeff Jackson, William Ranwell, Anthony Bovasso, Jason Nunes, Kevin Sheldon

Client:
Smithsonian Institution

Awards & Highlights:
Webby People's Voice Awards
Gold Communicator Award (Charitable Organization)
Gold Communicator Award (Non-Profit & Cultural Institution)
Featured in Mashable.com article "Why Online Education Needs to Get Social"
How, Interactive Design Awards (Merit, Consumer Websites)

These apps were developed in conjunction with our website for the television network The N, now known as Teen Nick. Both the Screening Parties and Avatar-Based Video Commenting apps allow users to comment on video content in real time. The N Video Masher is an online video-editing tool. Users produce their own videos, mixing show clips with music, graphics, and animated transitions; these videos can then be sent to their friends. Lauded by Pali Research as "one of the most innovative digital media products that a major media company has launched on the Internet," it won an Emmy Award in 2006.

Roles:
Creative Director, Designer, Illustrator (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
William Ranwell, Fred Kahl, Sam Kang, Ryan Feerer

Client:
Nickelodeon

Awards & Highlights:
Emmy Award (The N Video Mash-Up)
Interactive Media Awards-Outstanding Achievement-Entertainment (The N Video Mash-Up)
Communicator Awards Award of Distinction for Best Community (Screening Parties)
Global Media Award Nomination Outstanding Platform – Interactive (Screening Parties)
20th Annual Mark Award Silver
BDA Gold (for Total Design Package)
Global Media Award Nomination Outstanding Website/Internet Entertainment

The indie band The Jayhawks commissioned me to create a number of T-shirt designs that captured the ethos of their music: sweet, serene and a little bit kooky. One of these designs was made into a shirt that was sold on tour.

Cartoon Network asked us to create an app that would extend their influence beyond television. And it had to bring something extra to the table: simply watching shows or playing games wouldn’t do. So I came up with a concept that combines both.

The app harnesses the power of the iPad, allowing viewers to simultaneously watch shows while playing games. On the iPad, if you hold the tablet upright, the screen splits, with the show on the top and games on the bottom. Turn it sideways to play the game exclusively. Turn it the other way to view the show. The split screen isn’t a feature on the iPhone, given its smaller size, but users still have the power of choice to watch shows or play games simply by turning the device.

Calling it “fantastic,” Apple named it an Editors’ Choice upon its release. We’re proud of the reception it’s received in the press, which calls it “first-of-its-kind,” “revolutionary,” and "sure to delight." And Cartoon Network's Director of Digital Chris Waldron says it's resulted in "millions and millions of downloads . . . It [is] much bigger than we anticipated."

Roles:
Creative Director, Designer (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
Fred Kahl, Sam Kang, Kristin Ellington, Junko Bridston, Jason Nunes, Makiko Higashi, Dreamsocket, All Things Media

Client:
Cartoon Network

Awards & Highlights:
Apple Editors' Choice
Featured in USA Today x 2
Featured in Animation Magazine
Featured in GIzmodo
W3 Gold Award & Silver
2013 HOW Interactive Design Award
iKids Screen Award for Best Streaming Video Platform
Sparks Award Nomination
Promax BDA Gold Award

In most social settings, mobile phones isolate people. At Funny Garbage we wondered: could they foster collaboration instead? Using a sister agency’s party as a testing ground, we created The World's Largest Digital Gobslopper to test our hypothesis.

Given that it had to hold its own at a raucous party, we made this interactive art installation both a fun conversation starter and a bit silly. We also made it something that people could pick up and drop off at any point during the night, and easily do with a drink in one hand. Its aesthetic was inspired by our love of wacky packages and old Ren & Stimpy cartoons.

All in all, the experiment was a success. Not only was it a great way to pay homage to some of the ephemera we love, it proved that interactive design could encourage actual human to human interaction.

Roles:
Creative Director, Designer (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
JP Atiaga, John La, Jairo Narvaez, Danny Balgley, Junko Bridston

Andy Pratt Design is proud to announce a partnership with 3M to create two exclusive lines of Post-it notes. The products are part of their Signature Series collection, which features independent artists. Each collection includes three different styles of notes: a list pad, page markers, and a notepad. They all add a bit of whimsy to your daily reminders and lists.
Find out more here.

Client: 
3M

Inkpop is an innovative online writing community. Created by HarperCollins Publishers, it creates a unique connection between the publisher and its readers. Users upload their work, including novels, short stories and poetry. The community then reads and comments on the projects, and the ones deemed to be the best are evaluated by HarperCollins editorial staff. Our goal was not only to create an appealing visual interface, but also to come up with a system that demarcates and rewards the top contributors.

Roles:
Creative Director, Designer (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
Thea Rossi, Anthony Bovasso, John La, Allison Valenti

Client:
HarperCollins Publishers

Awards & Highlights:
Communication Arts Web Pick

Pricetag is a custom quoting tool for interactive businesses. I'm one of the founders of the company, and I act as both creative director and UX designer for it. We went from concept to launch in less than four months, working in the off hours from our day jobs.

Pricetag guides users through an easy, four step process of quote creation. It suggests roles for team members and common additional costs. It provides sample text for project assumptions, terms and conditions, and other necessary, but often forgotten, addenda. It also offers the flexibility of customization, thus ensuring that the quotes cover everything needed for each unique project.

Roles:
Co-Founder, Creative Director, UX Designer, Designer

Key Team Members:
Andres Garzon, Camilo Bravo, Juan Pablo Atiaga

Crayola hired Funny Garbage to flesh out the characters they created for a line of arts and crafts kits. To that end, we wrote scripts, created backstories, and cast voice talent, in addition to designing and programming the site. The end result speaks directly to the creative tween.

Roles:
Creative Director, Designer (Funny Garbage)

Key Team Members:
Allison Valenti, William Ranwell, Dan Willig, Fred Kahl

Client:
Crayola

For over 8 years I created and ran and a small greeting card and paper goods company. My stationery line contained over 80 products based on my illustrations and designs. My products were sold in over 100 stores across the country, including SFMOMA, the New York Public Library and the Seattle Museum of Art. Here are a few of my favorites.