I'm oak

…so I have a new job.

Feel free to skip the long-winded interlude and scroll down to the to the good stuff.

The Long-Winded Interlude

As you may know, I was until recently a, and eventually the (and then a again) Web Designer at what was once called Agency ND and is now Marketing Communications, an internal marketing agency at the University of Notre Dame.

I was lucky enough to work with some really awesome people and on some extremely awesome projects in my seven years. Most of my favorite designs are collected here.

Most recently I was a key member of the team that stripped down the University’s homepage to the chassis and built ‘er back up again as a lean, mean, flexible mobile friendly layout.

But about a year ago it started to become clear to me that I was reaching a plateau. That I was burning out on repetitive, quick turn site design work and that it was time to figure out what the next step would be. I’m not motivated by treading water. It bores me. I wanted to find something challenging and exciting and, to coin a hyphenated adjective, skies-the-limitish. At the same time, I love working for Notre Dame.

The Good Stuff

So, to make a short story entirely too long: I have accepted a position with the newly formed Fighting Irish Digital Media team, a part of Notre Dame Athletics. My role will be to roll up my metaphorical sleeves and push UND.com to be as great as it can be. Additionally, I will be heavily involved in the strategy behind ND Athletics’ various social media tactics.

Since I’ve been an ND employee, I have wanted to work at Athletics in some sort of design or creative role. Working on und.com, a site that has so much potential, is something of a miraculous dream job kind of opportunity for me. It’s the sort of thing that encourages inarticulate writers such as myself to reach for hyperbolic adjectives. (I’m painfully aware of the limits of my writing ability so I will refrain). 

“This is my dream job,” written in strong tags, sums it up perfectly.

I’ve spent the majority of the summer working on a redesign of the existing site which should go live in the next few weeks. The redesign will make some significant cosmetic changes and improve some of the content strategy and it represents a very first step in what will be a very long road. The goal is to have the greatest website in sports. I like lofty goals.

In Conclusion

I’d like to say a very heartfelt “thank you” to everyone at Agency ND née Marketing Communications, for being such a supportive, kickassical bunch. Especially Tim Legge who gave me my first ND job when i was still a 24-year old chatterbox with limited demonstrable skills. (Several words in that last sentence have changed: most notably my age and skills…the chattering continues unabated).

I’d also like to say “thanks” to Don Schindler for being so supportive of all of this. Everyone should be lucky enough to have a boss that’s genuinely eager and excited to go to bat for his employees when a career goal is within reach. It’s small wonder my first phone call after hearing of the opportunity was to him to say “will you help me?”

Ditto Mike Seamon, ND’s Assistant Vice-President for Events, and my client on My Biggest Win as a Web Designer So Far for his unwavering support. You’ve never missed an opportunity to say nice things about my work, Mike, and it means a great deal to me.

To everyone else at the Agency: Thank you for six great years of general kickassitude. I can’t wait to see the work y’all come up with over the coming months and years.