Jason Reed: Design Unicorn

Hello World

How do you do, fellow nerd? Thanks for stopping by. I'll assume you've happened upon my humble fortress of solitude after hearing tales from your peers of the mythical design & development unicorn. We are a surprisingly uncommon breed that have more practical applications than our rarity would suggest. A fitting addition to any party's forthcoming adventure.

Given you've come this far, the only practical next step is to combine efforts and make the internet even cooler than it already claims to be. So carry on my intrepid companion, this is gonna be great.

Jason as an adorable toddler holding a basketball in front of a red radio flyer wagon amidst a obviously fake wooded backdrop. — The closest I ever came to a career as a professional athlete. Fortunately, I build websites far better than I sling buckets.

My Elevator Pitch

History would suggest that product designers usually aren't capable of supporting development efforts through code once merge requests start to take flight. Meanwhile, engineers don't often find themselves with extra time to obsess over things like type scales and font weights.

That's where I fit into the equation. I've built my career around being the exception to both ideals. I find great solace between the two specialties, with the knowledge and ability to bridge that illustrious gap. Here's what you can expect on day one.

Design Debonair

The world deserves beautiful and well thought out experiences. From niche SaaS apps to major financial media outlets that reach millions; my 16 year tenure designing across the web has been privy to it all.
Markup Magician

The ability to write beautifully semantic, production ready HTML & CSS is something I enjoy and take pride in. Best yet, this frees up your full-stack engineers to do the work they actually want to do.
Figma Fanboy

You're only as good as tools you use and I know design's newest kid on the block like the back of my hand. This means less time finagling with brushes and more time throwing paint at the canvas.
Systems Savant

Our work thrives off finding patterns and making them reusable. With a history building design systems, my contributions have sped-up development time while enhancing user experiences as a result.
A11y Advocate

Accessible code is good code. In the past, I've lead efforts to update existing products to meet ADA compliance; all while provoking new policies that align with the latest WCAG guidelines.
Responsive Rockstar

With recent advancements in CSS, you shouldn't have to write your markup more than once. Abiding by this mindset, I've helped reduce technical overhead by removing the need for mobile specificity.

The TL:DR Version

You're busy, I get it. Let's make this short.

Languages

HTML
CSS/SCSS
JavaScript (working knowledge)

Professional Abilities

UX/UI Design
Front-End Development
Design Systems
Rapid Prototyping
Information Architecture
Wireframing
Accessibility Standards
Responsive Design
Project Management
Copywriting
Public Speaking
Usability Research

Software

Figma
Adobe Creative Suite
Atlassian Product Suite
VS Code
Sketch
GitHub/GitLab

Pretty Pictures

You're only as good as the things you create so allow me to put my money where my mouth is. Here's a small collection of past work that I happen to be particularly fond of.

The top portion of a website displaying a young couple between a large metal ampersand sign artistically cropped to only show their wardrobe.

A mobile phone rendering of the top portion of a website that shows a girl helping her fiance tighten his tie.

Chalkboard Wedding

What do you get when you combine two obsessive designers with all the chaos that goes into planning a wedding?

A desktop rendering of a task application inside of a customer relationship management tool.

A mobile phone with a task panel exposed from the right hand side displaying a list of relevant tasks for a particular contact.

The mobile version of a dashboard for a customer relationship management platform with a collection of items on an agenda including appointments and tasks below a yellow notification bar.

Total Expert

The outcome of designing two different experiences that allow loan officers to close deals whilst waiting in line at Starbucks.

A large stylized financial chart showing the percent change for Apple and Twitter compared against each other.

MarketWatch

Sections, articles, and quote pages…oh my! Seriously though, grab a snack; you're gonna be here for awhile.

There are hard drives of files to sort through yet, so check back again soon for added musings of past work.

Cool Company Bucket List

In a career that's now old enough to drive, you get to work with a lot of cool companies on even cooler projects. Here's a small excerpt of where that manifest resides today.

Todo

Completed

¹As an employee of SportsEngine (2008-2013) ²As an employee of Dow Jones (2013-2022)

Pro Bono Extracurriculars

There's nothing quite like voluntarily staying up late consuming copious amounts of caffeine and Doritos, all for a great cause. Winning was just icing on the cake.

2011 Overall Winner
TST Media (Team Captain)
Nonprofit: Bloomington United for Youth
2012 Overall Winner
Two Unicorns, One Moon (Team Captain)
Nonprofit: West African Medical Missions
2013 People's Choice Winner
One Dollar, Bob. (Team Captain)
Nonprofit: NorthMPLS.org

The Reviews Are In

Don't take my word for it, here's what others have to say about me.

You are a perfectionist's perfectionist; but you also know where to draw the line between perfectionism and practicality.

A former manager I'm about 68% sure it was intended as a compliment.

I appreciate how late you keep the rest of us up whenever we launch products; just to fix design bugs that nobody except you cares about.

The guy who sat next to me before the world ended His 2019 resolution was to be less passive aggressive…it didn't take.

I really don't see the need to include a quote from me in your portfolio.

My incredibly supportive wife It should be mentioned that she is waaaay more talented than me.

You're the kind of guy who will happily jump into something way over your head, realize you can't swim, and still find a way to make it back to shore anyways.

Another former manager At two separate companies no less. He consciously decided to work with me again.

My dad can beat you up because his muscles are bigger than yours.

Some random kid in my daughter's kindergarten class Completely true and entirely unsolicited.

Let's Chat

Assume that I can help you do something awesome on the internet. What did you have in mind?

Your Name

Subject

Message

hello@jmreedy.com if forms aren't really your thing.

Off-Topic Ice Breakers

Introductions can be hard, so let's soften the blow. Feel free to lead into your first correspondence with responses or color to any of the following.

What is the oldest piece of clothing you own and still wear?: Back in high school, I purchased a pair of shorts that came with a free belt to allure budget conscious shoppers like myself. Ironically, the shorts were absolute garbage; but the belt has remained my daily driver now for over twenty years.
How would you spend $50,000?: My desk currently exists inside a nook best classified as a bonafide closet. I have plans to build out a backyard oasis that includes a dedicated entertaining/office space for our family so I'd use the money to purchase materials for that.
What is a useless bit of trivia that you love to bring up in conversation?: Every time you shuffle a standard deck of playing cards, the exact order of those cards has almost certainly never existed in the history of time and likely never will again. The variants amount to 8×10⁶⁷…which is 8 with 67 zeros after it.
What thing do you know more about than anyone else you know?: I'm a hobbyist woodworker and in my spare time build virtual pinball machines for friends and family. The amount of seemingly useless knowledge I have gained about creating such devices could easily be used to fillabuster an entire special session of Congress.