For three years I’ve been at apogee. Now I’m nearing perigee.1
The far slow arc of the orbit is where I recharged, re-tooled, and taught myself to build. The fall is where it converts to speed – UX strategy and creative direction, now with my hands on the code instead of handing off the spec. The strategist who can also ship.
23
Years’ experience
5
Financial tools shipped to self-directed investors
3
Agencies – strategy, creative direction, design, marketing
0 → 1
3 products designed and shipped from nothing
How I got here
I’ve led UX strategy on financial products used by self-directed investors, helped raise real money for startups with sharp brand work, and spent the last few years getting my hands back into the machinery – building actual products with actual code, learning the AI tooling that’s remaking this profession in real time. ThriftPrice and ThriftAnalytics both started on a processing floor, where the problem was real long before it was a brief.
The long version
Over two decades of making – brand, marketing, product, and the occasional band logo – arranged so you can see where it was heading before I did.
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Now – Building in the open.
ThriftPrice and ThriftAnalytics: two products taken from a processing-floor problem to shipped, AI-directed builds. React Native, Python, FastAPI – directed, reviewed, and debugged, not hand-waved.
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2023–2026 – Recharging and re-tooling.
Stepped out of the field on purpose – hands-on retail and operations management, and the space to teach myself to build. This is where the pivot actually happened.
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2019–2023 – UX Strategist, Vanguard.
The self-directed investor dashboard. Five tools shipped: Portfolio Watch, Portfolio Tester, Target Asset Mix, Personal Performance, and a net-new Sidebar Help pattern I fought to get in. Research, roadmaps, and a persistent left-rail navigation model I proposed and prototyped.
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2022 – Penn Data Science.
Nights and weekends. Where “build it myself” stopped being theoretical.
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2013–2017 – Creative Director, Inovāt.
Zippy Shell ($25M raised), inherQuests (217% over its crowdfunding goal), The Mailbox, and CrewTools – an Awwwards-winning landscaping app, built 0 → 1.
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2017–2018 – O3 World.
Product design on Gettacar and Linode’s platform.
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2015 – Lucidworks.
UX lead on Fusion, an enterprise search platform.
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2010–2013 – andculture.
Creative lead – branding, web, and UX/UI across a lot of clients.
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2003–2010 – The foundation.
Clipper Magazine, Clark Associates, InsuranceNewsNet. Where the craft got built, one production deadline at a time.
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2001–2003 – Bradley Academy.
Graphic design. The start of it.
Off the clock
I think about space more than is strictly reasonable – the engineering, the physics, the sheer audacity of it. It’s why everything here orbits a little.
I play music, and I’ve designed the identities for the bands I’ve played in (Two Piece Parlor, PUV). The audience was small; the logos were not phoned in. Turns out I can’t not design something.
And I’m happiest in motion – ebikes and a Onewheel, usually further from home than I planned.
The mark
Among my ancestors is a Mennonite inventor named Joseph Shirk.
By all accounts he was a modest, easy-going, and peaceful man. Save for that, I identify with him completely.
His spirit runs through more of my family than most – a fascination with astronomy and the sciences, and a knack for technical trades, agriculture, and making things.
The surveyor’s transit in my mark is a tribute to his legacy, and to the family tradition.
It’s been up in the wordmark the whole time.
Ready for take off?
Currently accepting new projects for Q4 2026.
Get in touch