getting to know
ALEXANDERTAPISH

“Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.”
–M.C. Escher

“What’s more important than process is mindset. And when it comes to interaction design, that mindset is having empathy for and understanding your users, and creating something great for them.”
– Peter Merholz

EMPATHETICDESIGN

User experience design isn’t about gaming a user or pushing marketing and advertising. UX design is about connecting users to emerging technologies, the world around them, and each other. My designs revolve around empathizing with the user: understanding their patterns, identifying and solving the problems they face, and creating transparent designs that feel natural.

COMPASSIONATEINTERACTION

I use the lotus flower as my branding because it represents compassion. Through the metaphor of the lotus flower coming out of the mud, we’re reminded that no matter how pretty of a flower we are (or think we are), we all grew out of the mud. Empathy helps me identify “who” and “what” and compassion is the foundation of “how”. By practicing empathy and compassion throughout my life and my designs, I am able to create experiences that unite and elevate people.

WHOIAM

My eye for design is innate. As a child I organized my GI Joe’s by color. My OCD tendencies grew into pattern recognition. I take things apart and sometimes put them back together. My attention to detail and tinkering naturally led me to the world of design and development.

My career began in the humble bowels of a print shop in St. Louis, eventually catapulting me to help lead Fleishman’s digital team in New York City, where I’ve had opportunities to work with some of the most talented designers and developers in the world on global brands and projects. From basements to mountain tops, I’m now a global citizen and design is my life.

I live a life of absurdity and attempt the impossible. I juxtapose opposing patterns and people. I focus my positive disruptions on communication and education. Outside of the office, I utilize my design and leadership skills to produce events in NYC and run my own Burning Man camp.

Burning Man is an unparalleled coalescence of art, culture, and social responsibility. My camp, which fills a geodesic tea lounge with typewriters, focuses on participatory creative writing through exquisite corpse style workshops and exercises in an effort to expand and appreciate the art of communication.

ART is my life (and my initials).

Playa Octopus
cat coding

WHATIDO

I specialize in web standards, building virtual solutions for real problems, and making pretty things. The secret magic behind the buttons I push includes, but isn’t limited to, PHP, MySQL, HTML 5, CSS 3, jQuery, WordPress, the Adobe Creative Suite, and Sketch. From small startups to worldwide brands, I have worked at this craft for over 18 years and am certain that I’ll be doing it for a very, very long time.

WHATPEOPLESAY

I’ve had the pleasure of working with many talented people around the world. Here are some nice things they’ve said about working with me.

Alex is the one of the most creative web developers I have had the pleasure to work alongside.

Bill Woods

Alex is one of the most well-rounded designers I have ever met. He has hit the ground running and got up to speed on our proprietary web system platform very quickly. His strong technical background allows his creative designs to shine through, and his speed of work is unparalleled.

Made with by Alexander Tapish. (© 2018)