He tired his hand at making newspapers for his elementary school classmates, even though subscriptions were always very low. Art classes followed while his design sidelines transitioned into intricately obsessive doodles of band logos and X-wing fighters, then to posters and banners for his high school and then t-shirt designs for various groups and clubs at his college. All the while he didn't think more of design other than a hobby as he pursued what would eventually become a Business degree—chosen as a more practical pursuit beyond his English Lit and Art classes. Stints as a financial analyst followed in the fields of real estate, health care and even a year at Microsoft. Unsatisfied, he decided to reassess his career path. He began working at the Seattle International Film Festival where he was charged with producing a quarterly magazine/newsletter and promotional collateral along with programming some pretty cool music and film programs. He suddenly found he was back designing and this time it really stuck.
It was about here where Matt began to work with a branding agency that was contracted for a rebrand of the Film Festival. Participating in that process first-hand was enough to get him hooked on the idea that branding was the engine that really drove the purpose of a business— how a company presented itself, interacted with its customer. It was an easy fit as he knew all of the principles from his business background. This is where Matt decided to strike out on his own. It was definitely foolhardy to think one brief exposure to branding was all it took to do it himself but sometimes ignorance is truly bliss. He had the idea that there were types of businesses out there that needed branding services but didn't have the budgets or the know-how to do it. Many of his clients also needed websites and once again, he blindly decided to give it a try. After several years of freelancing, Matt wanted to really advance as a designer; he wanted to work on a team, with a host of resources. He found a good fit at Penguin Random House, a place where he could take his knowledge and grow his skills to the next level.
There he learned a lot about mobile experiences and how design and development teams work on all kinds of different projects. He has had the good fortune to learn a lot of really good UX stuff from the people and classes at Adaptive Path, Lean UX and General Assembly which helped him better understand how people approach problems through design. With that, all the pieces really fell together into one complete view. At the end of the day, what Matt really likes to do is collaborate with smart, engaged people to solve problems and create enjoyable, helpful experiences. He believes the key to good design is to achieve a better understanding of how systems can serve people and how people interact with those systems to accomplish a goal. It's there that you can create beautiful, elemental designs that have an impact on how people see the world.
