2018 was a good year.

My web design and technology studio Faculty did some good work this past year, and we’re on our way to more with a promising new client. I’m optimistic that we can start to have a bigger impact on the web.

My coworking studio Roost is thriving, with a wonderful community of creative people that inspire me daily.

Below are some additional highlights.

January

Sean and I have been working together for many years, and in January, he officially joined Faculty:

Faculty is not just new to me, but something altogether new. It’s also something that feels older than it is. The familiar, experienced kind of old. The good kind. The kind I like.

Nick also joined Faculty at the start of the year. Nick is an incredible software engineer, adept at everything from infrastructure to frontend development. I’m excited to be working with him again.

February

Tegan and I participated in Family Code Night at her school, which was a fun introduction to some basic programming concepts. She was a natural. It was also my first exposure to Scratch, a programming language from MIT that was created especially for kids.

March

Sara Distin joined Faculty. Sara is an excellent writer — the best I’ve ever worked with — and she also brings a plethora of tangential skills, from content strategy to marketing. I’m thrilled to have her on the team.

At the end of the month, we took another family trip to Breckenridge. We’re pretty fond of the place, both for its proximity to Boulder (long road trips are still rough) and its relaxed vibe. Christina took Tegan and Killian skiing while we were there.

April

We launched a new website for Tia. The work itself wasn’t especially notable, but we were struck by Tia’s mission and thrilled to help them on their journey.

At the end of the month, I took a short trip to Tennessee to attend my little sister’s wedding.

May

Sanette, Amanda, and Jesse started a skeeball league. It was a lot of fun, and it’s great to watch the Roost community continue to grow.

I had jury duty. I liked it a lot more than I expected to, partly because the judge was so great. He really instilled a sense of pride in all of us, and a deep respect for the whole process.

I participated in a debate at Boulder Startup Week on remote work. It reminded me of Keenan’s wonderful Designer’s Debate Club.

I went to my first concert at Red Rocks to see Haim (with Maggie Rogers and Lizzo) and was blown away by the venue. The crowd was great, too. I’ll never forget everyone singing along to Whitney Houston while we waited for the show to start. Magic.

June

We took a family trip to Ireland for two weeks, visiting places like Dingle, Galway, Inishmore, Donegal, and Carrick. While in Donegal, we were lucky enough to meet up with Christopher Murphy and his wife Cara.

July

We held our first Faculty retreat in Colorado. It was an opportunity to look back, learn from our successes and mistakes, and plan for the future. As a remote-friendly team, our retreats are critical to our success. The entire week was full of planning, discussions, work, movies, and adventures. We drove into Denver for dinner a couple of times. At one such dinner, we saw Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford.

We published Good Work. This was a very important milestone for us at Faculty. I'm sure we will reference this constantly for years to come. Our hope is that not only can we continue to hold ourselves to these standards, but that we can also encourage others to do the same.

August

Christina and I spoke at an AIGA event in Denver about Roost. It was fun to be able to share our story and see the enthusiasm for what we’re doing on people’s faces.

I led two more Backcountry Club trips, to Maroon Bells and Indian Peaks. It’s always great to take time away, and it’s especially fulfilling to do it with friends, many of whom have no backpacking experience.

We sent our first Faculty newsletter. Each month, we’ll share our favorite links on design, technology, and business. You can sign up here.

September

I took Tegan on her first backpacking trip, an overnight to Crater Lakes in the James Peak Wilderness. I love this photo of us, because her excitement and anticipation are so visible.

We started working with Simply Framed.

For many reasons, we decided to sponsor New Adventures, a conference I love organized by people I love.

October

I decided to start tweeting only links as a way to curb my habit of using Twitter as a substitute for blogging. So far, it hasn’t resulted in more blogging, but good habits take time. It does help me focus on using Twitter for what it’s good at (spreading content) instead of what it’s not (hosting content). I’m optimistic.

November

At Roost, we started a monthly gathering called Breakfast Club. One Friday each month, we eat breakfast burritos, drink mimosas and lattes, and discuss the topic of the month. Our first topic was communication, and we talked about the downsides of always-on, realtime comunication mediums like Slack, and how to establish healthy boundaries with clients.

December

We spent the first few days of the holiday season in a cabin in the Rockies. I went for a run in the mountains while we were there, which was a nice place to reflect on the year past and the year ahead.

I hope you have a wonderful 2019.