Meet Sourcebits Design Team!

Hey everyone!

This is Piotr, art director at Sourcebits. I’d like to take this opportunity and talk a little bit about our design team. Why would I do that? Well, to be honest — there’s quite a lot to brag about!

My goal when I was completing the team was to find the best people from different environments. I was aiming to gather an eclectic, diverse and multicultural group of individuals. I have a strong belief that this method allows to create a very specific mix: dynamic, unique, able to approach problems from many angles and unpredictable (in terms of ideas of course!) And this is what I’m looking for in design: raw energy, unique ideas, dynamic and quick adjustment to ever-changing conditions and last but not least — fun.

Today I’m proud to be able to tell this — we have managed to do it. I believe we found some of the best designers out there. They come from various places on the planet. They have completely different cultural backgrounds, habits and native languages. And believe me, they are talented!

So here they are, the All-Stars team of Sourcebits (in alphabetical order so no one blames me for preferences!)

Philipp Antoni (Austria)

Phil is in his early twenties, yet he stands behind what most of you look at everyday probably: he designed interface elements and icons in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Yes, this Microsoft. And not some obscure back-end stuff: widgets, toolbar and app icons. He is also an author of many fantastic themes, widgets, desktop pictures and themes. Not to mention his web design and coding skills. Oh and he’s a typography geek.

He’s beginning the last year of his design school in Austria in September, which is something we’re very happy about — his theoretical background will be a great asset to our design skills.

Benjamin George (India)

Our young icon artist and iPhone UI designer. He juggles pixels with ease and grace. Has no fear when dealing with piling requirements and is always positive. He’s the good little spirit of the team.

Natalie Nash (UK)

First girl on the team! Natalie is in her early twenties and she lives in the beautiful land of Wales. We obviously are excited, there’s no doubt. She brings a completely new point of view and a talent which you can’t ignore. Nat is the pink and cute specialist. She crafts unbelievably ornamental and pretty icons and has just dove into iPhone UI design. She’s also a very proactive member of the team — enjoys throwing ideas around and discussing solutions. She forces us into mutual brain effort (which hurts but you can’t say no to a lady, right?)

Axel Ortiz (USA)

Axel lives in Los Angeles and happens to be one of the most talented illustrators on this planet. He used to work with such huge clients as Cartoon Network or Disney. He’s extremely flexible, quick and reliable. His creative independence allows for immense freedom and smoothness of the workflow.

Rick Patrick (UK)

Rick is our secret weapon from the foggy islands of Great Britain. When he doesn’t complain about bad design and postage stamp prices, he crafts the most intricate, beautiful visuals for games, icons and iPhone apps. Sharpness of his eyesight is truly unique. There aren’t that many people with such great care for detail these days. He’s also got a very extensive gaming background — he’s one of these WoW geeks, whom we managed to rescue from disappearing from this world entirely.

Raghavendra Shet (India)

Raghav is one of these guys: he comes to the office in Bangalore, sits down quietly and without questions produces solid user interfaces and then dresses them up in wonderful visuals. Independent, open-minded and very eager to learn. It’s a kind of person you need in your team if you want to remain sane. Oh, and also was the Gold Medalist in the 4th National Level All India Painting Competition in 2000!

Alexander Stremiakov (Belarus)

Our another European secret weapon. Alex lives in Belarus and is a heavy-weight interaction designer. And by heavy-weight I mean really serious. His excellent analytic skills, ability to squeeze the last problem out of an interface and sharp eye for logical defects make our projects sensible, organized and highly usable. His skills also make the whole development process easy to understand for both developers and the client.

Na Wong (Hong Kong)

Na (also known as Chun Kin) is a superhero: a Machine-Gun-Man who juggles projects with almost inhuman ease and provides unique solutions, valuable feedback and lots of fun. He’s one of the most experienced members on the team. He brings in a personalized mature style, which goes extremely well with everyone else’s tastes and attitude, which makes him a key player in many situations. He is never late, he never fails. Giving him a task is like shooting a Patriot rocket: aim, shoot and forget.

Shemin Krishnan and Kiran Shastry (India)

This is our excellent 2-man-design-army. Shemin plays with 3D when he’s not busy fixing, slicing and adjusting visuals. Kiran is a true slicing Terminator, he makes his first steps in icon design and is extremely helpful in day-to-day interaction with developers. Both of them are silent, humble and undoubtedly – indispensable. Also, they usually complete their tasks ahead of deadlines. How cool is that!

I’m not sure if it’s entirely appropriate but I’ll say it for the sake of completeness of the impression: yours truly won an Apple Design Award in 2006 and happens to be completely obsessed with details, organization and unusual solutions. I was also gifted with quite good communication skills which allow me to steer this ship with efficiency, intensity, discipline and fun.

So there — I hope you enjoyed this insight in our All-Stars team. I am very excited to work with these fantastic people and am confident that we will achieve truly outstanding things.

Now we’ll go back and have more fun with pixels, if you don’t mind.