HIST
ORY

2006 — 2007

A generic web agency

This is my first job out of college. I'm 23. I have an art degree. I am amazed someone is going to pay me $32,000 USD a year to make pictures in Photoshop. Photoshop is to then as Sketch is to now. Some websites are made in Flash, which Adobe just acquired. There's no Creative Cloud. The 'cloud' doesn't exist yet. For now, clouds are just clouds.

2007 — 2008

An old school branding & marketing agency 

We make a lot of marketing websites using Flash. Flash animation looks cool, so our clients like it. This is the same year Apple introduces the iPhone, which will all but bury the .swf format completely, within 18 months. (I'm pretty bad at ActionScript so this is actually great for me). My Nokia 6290 suddenly feels insufferably old. My first smartphone has a touchscreen and full QWERTY keypad that slides out. The future is now.

2008 — 2013

A small web design & development agency

I learn a lot and I familiarize myself with many concepts that are now industry standards.

‘User experience design’ is new. ‘Content strategy’ is new. Responsive web design is new. CSS grid frameworks are new. @font-face is new. iOS apps are new. In five years I will go from designing goofy things in HTML tables to designing touch based UI for an iPad (which is also new).

2013 — 2014

A medium-sized architecture, design and branding agency