Going, going, back, back to Cali, Cali

It’s with some sadness and a whole lot of excitement that I’m announcing I’ll be leaving Blue Flavor and going to work at Facebook as a Product Designer. I’m sad to be leaving a great group of friends and co-workers, but excited for the opportunity to work for such an smart, talented group of people working on such a well known and widely distributed product.

Everyone I met both during the interview process had a palpable passion for the product that was both humbling and inspiring. One thing is clear, people love working at Facebook and they truly believe in the product.

I’m also excited to be moving away from client work for a while. Over the past two and a half years, I’ve enjoyed the diversity and challenges that come from working on a constant stream of different client projects, but I’m ready to change it up and really dive into a single product for a while. I’m looking forward to the being part of a team where the focus is the same, making Facebook better.

It’s going to be tough to leave Seattle, but since I’m planning on moving to San Francisco and doing the Caltrain commute I’ve got plenty of friends down there to help make the move easier. I’m not leaving for a few weeks though, so for everyone in Seattle, let’s hang out, grab a few drinks or just have some caramels.

For those of you who know me well, I realize there’s a bit of irony in all this since for years I’ve long resisted even joining the service. In the end though, I’d rather spend my time trying to help improve a site that impacts a mind-boggling 200 million plus users than to spend my time complaining from the sidelines. There are few, if any sites, that have the challenges they do, and I can’t wait to help solve them.

It’s always tough to say goodbye to a job you’ve loved and a group of people you respect and admire, but it was time to move on. I just feel lucky that it’s with this opportunity to help improve both the product and brand of Facebook through something I love to do so much — design.

Leaflets

It’s been a busy past few weeks but I’m excited to announce that Blue Flavor has launched Leaflets. To quote from our site:

“Leaflets are small, mobile web-based applications you access from Safari on your iPhone. And since Leaflets are designed to run fast over AT&T’s EDGE network, you can use them anywhere: no wi-fi required.”

It’s been a huge team effort, but I got to work specifically on the design for Flickr as well as helping out a lot with both the del.icio.us and Newsvine Leaflets. If you’ve got an iPhone head on over and check them out. Of course I’m biased, but I have a feeling you just might love ‘em.

What Flavor Is It?

It’s Blue and yeah, it’s another big life change.

It’s a long story, involving a whole slew of random events, but (and I still can’t believe I’m typing this) I’ve got a new job. This past Tuesday I started working for a small “experience design” company called Blue Flavor just a few blocks from my place in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. I’ve known for a while but haven’t been able to write up anything here since the guys asked if I could hold off until the big formal announcement over on their blog.

In short, it’s huge. I loved my time at Children’s but when Keith started talking to me about the opportunities with them I couldn’t help but be intrigued. The group of guys are incredible and already I’m doing work that’s engaging and challenging. I’ll steer clear of the geeky details, but for those of you who know me well I’m now on Macs full time so I’m definitely a happy camper there. We’ve got some big things planned and excited to be a part of it.

For those of you curious about what this means for Left Bracket, not to worry, I’ll still be spending some time there just on a much more limited basis. The companies have a great relationship and nobody seems to see any potential conflicts.

All in all it’s been a whirlwind this past month and judging from my calendar it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime here soon. I’ll be posting regularly over there on the nerdier web stuff, but I’ve still got plans to keep up the semi-frequent posts here as well.

I’m stoked and exhausted all rolled into one. Huzzah!