Studio Gordon Mei

The Berkeley Project

Completed: August 24, 2006
Official Release: August 25, 2006
Abstract: In April, James approached me about forming a web team for the newly forming community service project, The Berkeley Project, modeled after The Detroit Project at the University of Michigan. The goal? To gather 1000 student volunteers by November 11. The site would serve as the face and sign-up interface of the group, and I agreed to take on the project.

The Open Computing Facility, UC Berkeley

Completed: October 10, 2006
Official Release: February 4, 2007
Abstract: At the start of 2006, I joined the staff of the OCF to help facelift the site, but it wasn't until June that I found time to offer a sample alternative to the aging site. I rushed it, and it didn't meet my own style guidelines. Yet before I could develop another, other projects came along, and I postponed again and again until October, when I worked something I felt was worthy of the OCF.

The SF Young Playwrights Foundation

Completed: August 29, 2006
Official Release: October 15, 2006
Abstract: During a meeting in May, Lauren asked if I'd be willing to work a bit on the existing SFYPF website. I accepted. After first considering a dark red scheme, I ultimately used a blue brick backdrop similar to the bricks of a Gordon shop in New York, as a way to preserve Lauren and David's blue color of the original site and any established features of the foundation's visual identity.

Other Projects (Notizi, Teach It Well, Six Apart Themes)

In March 2007, Andrew approached me about ideas he had for a site aiming to help teachers collaborate on effective teaching techniques to inspire students learning their subjects. We were a small team who poured in our time until the second half of 2008, when we had no more time left to spare because of our full time jobs.

In September 2007, Casey asked me to help with visuals/UI of his news aggregator, Notizi. For the logo, I found inspiration from the look of a folded broadsheet. In 2008, Casey moved on to greater and better things beyond Notizi.

Printed Tees (Berkeley Project, OCF, Threadless)

Branding and Print

Branding is an essential part of shaping and solidifying the identity of any organization or project, across all relevant publishing media, from web to print. Tailoring artwork to target a different medium requires an understanding of the differences of what color systems, printing densities, and other factors are required, whether they be for screen, paper, or cloth.

Open Source Development for the Community

A good amount of my time is spent around the web contributing under chimerical and other more low-profile names in development forums and tech ticket systems - from open source communities like Mozilla's Bugzilla and forums, Chromium, Adium, and Colloquy; to less open areas like Skype, Trillian, and Apple's Bug Reporter and forums. When I'm not doing that, I'm writing extensions for Google Chrome, or themes and search plugins for Firefox, and publishing them to share with the community.

Tech Demos

More of these demos can be seen in the Lab section of this site, as well as on my GitHub account. A majority of these span January to May 2010, and deal with newer versions of web technologies that will become usual parts of our daily web lives months and years from now.