^{Hello, I’m Justin Hamacher, Portland based creative director/product director, educator and artist.

Here in my porfolio you’ll find experiences created by the talented teams I’ve led as well as my own work as an individual contributor, please do note that I do both...

I have a unique background that spans user-centered design, the fine arts, Jungian psychology, university education and music. On the right teams and projects it is a powerful skillset to wield.

Design life is a continual feed of surprise challenges that delight me and prompt discovery with new eyes....I’m reminded daily why I am here on this planet and engaged in design --> to learn and grow.

Leading design teams is not like leading other technology teams; designers have particular intelligences, emotional needs and talents that need to be nurtured in unique and individually crafted ways. I’ve learned over my career that a design team is only as good as the the trust and emotional connection they have with their direct leadership. Humor and empathy are great tools in building strong team bonds and fostering opportunities for design practices, organizations and products to thrive.

The past 15 years have given me the opportunity to work in design leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, to run boutique design studios, to be a full-time professor at the University of Washington and to work on design related socially conscious civic initiatives here in the Pacific Northwest.

On larger scales, this has meant building and leading 70 person design teams spanning 3 continents (for HARMAN, now Samsung) and on more intimate scales I’ve led cross-disciplinary student groups in design explorations of homelessness and equity in Seattle.}

^{As a designer I can work strategically with executive teams and clients and also tactically in actual software working alongside other designers. I love diving in and leading qualitative research inititatives, especially In the generative space. I also can function comfortably in both UX and UI roles. All this combined with my background in consulting, healthcare, gaming, education, SaaS and mobile/web platforms creates a broad lens through which to lead design explorations. I’m a strong opportunity identifier and can guide projects all the way from sales cycle and concept to execution.

2015-2017 I also served on the full-time design faculty at the University of Washington, as the core professor in the premier commercially focused Masters in Human-Computer Interaction and Design program (MHCID).

2023 I’ve been focused on health and wellness presentations to large tech orgs like Pinterest, designing, strategizing and planning mental health conferences in Ireland, advizing product teams on work in the diabetes management space...and more.

I love hearing about what other design thinkers and creatives are up to, and am available for select mentoring, coaching and design projects.

You can learn more about my professional background on LinkedIn here

Feel free to reach out to me:

Justin(at symbol)tellous(dot)com}