I've had an interesting and off the beaten path journey that has led me to what I do today at Jet Cooper and with TEDxToronto. So, when Ashoka asked to me speak at their Changemakers series event, I knew I had to focus on the one thing that I believe unifies us entrepreneur types the most: risk.

Though my mom might cringe at this video, I think it’s important for those who don’t choose the traditional school to profession route to know there are others out there like you.

Watch and let me know what you think!

 

We've moved three times in the last four years. Some might call it crazy, but we've made the effort to keep our commitments lean and explore growth organically.

Over eight months ago (yes, it takes that long), we started to consider what it would mean to find a new home for our team. We had barely been in our current studio for a year, but it was becoming clearer by the day that it wouldn’t hold much longer.

Desks on desks on desks meant that we had to soon let go of the basics. Lunch tables became meeting tables. Storage space became work space. Weekly chores became a kitchen sink apocalypse.

Today, we’re proud to announce that we’re moving to 241 Spadina Avenue.

A sneak peek of our new studio at 241 Spadina Ave. before moving in.

Our new studio is only a couple of blocks up from where we are now and still within the community we’ve grown and thrived in. It triples our physical footprint in a beautiful local landmark on Spadina Avenue, which has great cultural heritage value in Toronto from the early 20th century (more on that later).

It will follow in the footsteps of our old studios on Brant Street, Maud Street, and Adelaide Street, as a true home for our team, partners, and community. We’ve been working hard on the interior design, furnishings, and creative plans for it over the last three months. It will take us another couple of months to finish, but we’ll be sharing more updates as we go.

We’re all around Toronto this morning with a slightly different focus than our usual Fridays. The daily hustle is taking a temporary backseat to U-Hauls, cardboard boxes, and those little things that you lose behind the bookshelf.

We still can’t believe our eyes, but we’re proud, grateful, and ridiculously excited for the years ahead. Thanks for helping us make this happen.

If you're not thinking about process, you're probably doing it wrong. That's what we say internally, anyway.

I know, process can be a dirty word, but it’s a function of how you approach it. The thing is, process isn’t for the sake of process. Process is for the sake of the people. And if you understand that people constantly change, adapt, and grow, then you must accept that process must also constantly change, adapt, and grow.

Process is an often overlooked but killer competitive advantage. We don’t dare to say that we’ve got everything 100% right, but we take pride in knowing that, when hell breaks loose, we’re better equipped to solve problems together.

Obsess over process. It’s the best advice I can give any team.

This past weekend I had the chance to speak at jQueryTO about creating a stronger developer culture within organizations and teams. Specifically, I wanted to share some of my own experiences and get people thinking about how they can create similar cultures of their own.

It’s a topic I’ve been interested since I started as a developer and one we feel really strongly about at Jet Cooper. This past year, as we continued to iterate on our process, we focussed a lot of energy on what we could do to strengthen both our development process and culture within the studio at large.  In my talk, I shared our insights from inside and outside of projects, which I’ll try to summarize here.

Recently, a few of us went to the Design Exchange winter exhibit: Stefan Sagmeister, The Happy Show. There has been a lot of buzz this past year over Sagmeister’s upcoming feature film The Happy Film. Couple this with the sneak peek we were given during Sagmeister’s talk at Design Thinkers last year, and we were pretty stoked to go check it out.

Happy is as Happy Does

Overall I was pretty impressed with the show, the typographic elements probably being of the most interest to me. Most of the walls of the entire third floor were covered with handwritten notes and exhibits (mistakes included). There were also some much larger type installations that were truly inspiring. As a designer there is something deeply satisfying about seeing beautiful typography displayed on such a grandiose scale.