WARNING:
Do not proceed if you suffer from vertigo or find experimental interfaces offensive. More accessible version.
Do not proceed if you suffer from vertigo or find experimental interfaces offensive. More accessible version.
Design Prototype Code
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This experimental portfolio is a glimpse at the way I design and prototype in code. Take something familiar, make it do something unexpected, see how people respond. The sites and apps on display here are things I designed and/or coded. I’m currently freelancing from NC. Available for the right project.
This is the sort of work I like to do.
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While the White Walkers were breaching The Wall, I was working with Elastic (creators of the opening title sequence) to design and prototype a web app for the show. HBO wanted to create a hub for fans to collect, showcase and upvote the best GoT content on the web. The fan curated “Compendium” was then pruned, printed and bound in very limited quantity, wax-sealed and sent to a few lucky fans. I didn’t get one…
Game of Thrones
In Jan. 2017, I reached out to four people I admire about finding an excuse to do a project together. Dann quickly replied, “Check your email.” Turned out he’d been designing a site for his upcoming documentary “Freelanced” and was ready to take on a partner to turn his vision into a website (he was producing, writing, shooting, editing...doing everything). Normally I’m the designer (unless I’m working w/ @lat who’s also a better designer than me) but I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to work w/ one of the best (designers/humans) I know.
My first A.I. project. You get hired to do the sort of work you’ve done and early on, I was doing film sites and personal sites for actors. When Ignition was working on the campaign for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, they hired me to design a site for Michael Fassbender’s synthetic character, David. It wasn’t REAL A.I. but I’m convinced that it’s this project that led to work with VIV (Siri founders’ next thing) and The Grid. It definitely led to a pre-occupation with applying A.I. to design problems.
Prometheus Weyland Corp
All the stadiums and libraries are named after brands, rich people, dead people or rich dead people. Nothing in homeless shelters is named after anybody. We set out to change that. Naming rights to the toilet ($200), all the beds ($250/ea), the spoons ($10/ea), the playground slide ($750)... were put up for sale on the site. As of this writing, people who’ve probably never so much as driven by the shelter here in Durham, NC, have spent $86k to put their name on everyday items that you and I take for granted every day.
Visit Names for Change
These are painfully cool people. Not in a superficial Instagrammy way. More like, “I’m too busy building a motorcycle/brand/brewery to bother w/ Instagram.” The revolving door of ad agencies means at orientation, new recruits get awkward headshots in the closet/photo studio. These fresh faces replace those who found better gigs or lost usefulness. The vibe I got from Baldwin& was so different, I decided to focus on it for their new site. Remedy followed each B&mate around the neighborhood and I sifted frame-by-frame through the footage for one image capturing the character of each. The goal is a site all 30ish of them are proud of.
Launching Soon
Baldwin&
In my lifetime, I’ll design fewer than a thousand websites. Each layout will take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. In the not too distant future, an A.I., taught to make the decisions I might have made when designing a website, will generate more layouts in one second than I could in a thousand lifetimes. In the beginning they won’t be very good, but neither was I. That A.I. is what I worked on for two years w/ The Grid.
The Grid
“We’re making a game about homelessness” is not what I expected to hear when I started working at an ad agency. “We need you to get more kids to smoke our brand” or “I know the product sucks, make them want it!” maybe, but not a game about homelessness. The game we made at McKinney is now part of the curriculum at hundreds of schools in the US, has been played 6 million+ times and won a Webby. You should play it. It’ll make you feel terrible. There’s very little chance I’ll ever love a project more than this one. But I’m open to being wrong.
Spent
My name is Nick Jones. I help people translate ideas from words and visuals into websites and apps using code. I love doing that. Family is my priority so I work from home on things I can be proud to share with them. I design, prototype and code interfaces from Hillsborough, NC for clients mostly elsewhere. For larger projects, I collaborate with a tight knit team of elite operatives.
Seeking
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selectively.
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