The End of An Era

Saying goodbye to Filament

Twelve years ago, I was little-known designer who had built a bunch of cool flash websites, who just came off of a tour with his band and who was eager to design for bigger clients other than his musician friends and local mom and pop shops.

After a serendipitous phone call from an old university buddy, an impromptu dinner and eighty-eight pieces of sushi I decided to join Stephen Megitt on the then team of one at Filament. I sat in a little cubicle with a little laptop outside of a little office, and slowly we grew. That little cubicle turned into a little office beside Steve’s little office (where we’d IM each other on MSN Messenger about lunch plans.) and we eventually moved into our first “big boy office” as we liked to call it.

We continued to grow and invent new bachelor-worthy office delicacies like the infamous “saucarito” (no groceries in the office = sauce + wraps) and as the years went on I grew too. I went from being somewhat awkward, uncomfortable and nervous about speaking in meetings to leading teams and designing experiences for some of the world’s largest, most exciting companies. I made mistakes — lots of ’em — like that legendary calendar fuck up in 2009 on thousands of day planners we all laugh about now (I know guys. I know.) I’m better for all of them and wouldn’t trade the lessons I learned for the world.

Through good old fashioned hard work, my team’s experience, and through Steve’s guidance, mentorship and most importantly, friendship, I became a more thoughtful designer, entrepreneur, teacher and leader as we put our heads and hearts into making Filament what it is today.

I’ve had the pleasure of growing and learning alongside some of the most talented, wonderful human beings you could ever be fortunate enough to work with. I’ve grown an immense amount in these past twelve years, but at the end of July, its time for me to get uncomfortable once more as I leave Filament to continue my own growth as a designer and a leader.

I’m extremely proud of the world-class work Filament has done and continues to do, and I’m proud of the internal initiatives we put out into the world like Filanthropy, Merch, and UX Design Masterclass. I can’t wait to see what the Filament team does next. It will undoubtedly be wonderful.

I don’t yet have a new home (if you’re looking for design leadership, I’d love to chat) but I’m excited to dig in, grow and apply more than a decade of experience to new design challenges in the product space.

Here’s to getting uncomfortable.