Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you?

My name is Mick, I'm a UI/UX Designer & Design Technologist living in Austin, TX. My hope is to design and build things that make life joyful for others... or at least better.

Bio

I was born in Long Island, NY, and raised all over the US (Air Force family..). I’ve been in Austin TX since 2005 hailing from Chicago where my wife and I attended School of The Art Institute of Chicago. I enjoy traveling and exploring the natural world whenever I get the chance, and hope to relocate to Italy someday where I can do both - si Diu voli, e cù buona fortuna!

I'm married to an amazingly talented interior designer, and together we are in the midst of raising 3 children, a dog, cat, and a Milk snake. I play several instruments including the Fiddle and the Jaw harp, and also love to spend time in the studio making art, carving tobacco-pipes, constructing Jaw-harps, and welding things.

I'm always fascinated by how art and engineering come together. For this reason, I've spent many years tinkering with code as another means for prototyping. I have a passion to build good digital experiences and brand strategies. I love to fix things. I've worked on many projects in a variety of industries and gained some useful insights into what ways I can serve. My mission is to create useful, intuitive, and beautifully simple products that eliminate 'digital static' and do no harm. My end goal as a designer is for the users and the producers to thrive.

Expertise

Skills

UI Design UX Design Visual Design Design Technology Prototyping Mobile Design Design Systems Pattern Library Brand Strategy Design for Print Illustration Motion Graphics Wireframing Design Thinking Agile Design Data Visualization Accessibility Design Interaction Design Art Direction Creative Direction Video Editing

Tools

Sketch Adobe XD Figma Invision Marvel Balsamiq Photoshop Illustrator HTML CSS CSS Grid / Flex Font-end Frameworks Github Sublime Text Javascript XML PHP Angular JS React Node Ruby Geo Location D3 WebGL SVG InDesign Adobe After Effects Adobe Animate Adobe Premiere Wordpress Drupal CMS Google Sketchup

Colors?

Fluent Proficient Competent Novice

Project types

Startup Enterprise Agency IoT SaaS ECommerce B2B B2C AI ML NLP FT PT Contract Remote

Companies

intel logo litlingo logo rivet logo hanger logo carnegie tech logo nxtboard logo longview logo satbridge logo rackspace logo vthreat-logo dell-logo spiceworks-logo noesis logo saltmines logo dufflite logo ayla logo nexturn logo polygrok logo cognitive scale logo enspire logo y&R logo guidehop logo somnio logo

Say hi

[email protected]
(512) 983-2698

I am currently looking for new opportunities.

Resumé

Nice things said about me

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Thomas Brady

Senior Design Technologist at H-E-B
August 1, 2019

"We hired Mick to take the lead on a complex software platform meant to automate and aid governance boards in their duties. Few people I've ever worked with could make a project like that fun to work on, fewer could make the software beautiful and useful at the same time, and only one person I've ever worked with could do all of this AND tell you a true story about how the scary bad guy from Breaking Bad NEARLY bought (but didn't in the end buy) their accordion. Mick is that person.

I could go on for many more paragraphs about the fascinating things you'll hear from Mick when he's nonchalantly remind of things like his time studying the Russian method of clowning from an expert back in Chicago, but A) I won't be able to do any of these stories justice, and B) that's probably not what you want to hire Mick for.

The software he ended up designing for the governance board was so beautiful and so much easier to use, the whole team got excited. Very excited. About their board governance platform.

Shortly thereafter we recruited Mick to work on an IoT platform, one which matched the first version of the board governance software in oppressive blandness. We asked Mick to envision what the software could look like, while he was ramping up on the platform and the state of the current software build. In a couple weeks, most of which he spent reading dozens of pages of Confluence notes to catch up with the project, he also, in his "spare time," created an interactive HTML prototype of what the app could look like if we started over. It was responsive (meaning it adapted to being loaded on a mobile device versus a desktop), it actually looked good (a very visually underwhelming platform came to life in CSI-style, dark-themed "high tech" glow), and best of all it was intuitive (something that was never said about the platform before). That little prototype he whipped up in such a short time is still being used as a North Star on that project.

Mick is limitlessly creative, intensely focused on the idea that design is about how a thing works just as much as how beautiful it is (he would probably say you can't really have one without the other), a pleasure to work with, and quite honestly the most interesting man in the world." See original post

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Daniel Fu

Senior designer at USAA
August 2, 2019

"Mick is one of the most unique individuals I've worked with, with the capability to handle front end code, visual interface design, and User Experience. He is a true artist, as well, creating some spectacular abstract paintings by night, while by day working within corporate and brand guidelines and utilizing them to their limits. We share the same understanding that a great product starts with understanding the problem and ends with reducing friction for the user as much as possible in solving that problem. Working with him might entail his introducing you to some interesting things to smell, but they're usually largely pleasant, if unique. It's how you know he likes you!" See original post

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William Reynolds

Software Engineer at FloSports
July 31, 2019

"I didn't get to spend as much time working directly with Mick as I would have liked, but I was fortunate to get frequent opportunities to speak with him and witness some of his work. Mick has a great deal of passion for design, and he brings positivity and joy to those he interacts with. I remember working with him on a sort of stop light interaction design, and he was so adept at simply communicating his idea, that I found it quite easy to envision his intended design.

Mick's creativity is bolstered by his thoughtful, analytical approach. While I worked with him, he continuously sought improvements to our design philosophy. By identifying the pain points developers were experiencing, he was able to quickly hone in on solutions that could ameliorate them. He shows a real commitment to teaching, learning, and making work for others easier in whatever way he can." See original post

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Marilisa Swain

Prof.Musicians - Trio Del Rio
November 14, 2011

"Mick has the ability to create a design that is suited for your personal project. His skills and capabilities come not only from experience in his craft but also with his talent and creativity. He is especially able to help you come up with something even if your just a little Wishy washy and not sure exactly what you want. I highly recommend his services." See original post