Stewart Curry is the CDO (Chief Design Officer) of woop.ie since the start of January 2012.
woop.ie is a new startup that’s helping people create beautiful digital publications that look fantastic on every device and are a pleasure to read. Right now we’re in very early development but we have big plans! We also publish www.readidea.com – a digital magazine about ideas and technology in Ireland.
Job description: My job is pretty random at the moment, as we’re really in the starting phase of developing our offering. So right now I’ve a lot of variety in my job, including: talking to potential customers and partners about how they work; researching responsive design; playing with typography for hours (joy!); prototyping backend processes; marketing and developing our web presence and presentation pitches; and designing and adding content and functionality for www.readidea.com.
Likes: I’m learning new things every day. I’m working and talking with people who are passionate about what they do and really care about making beautiful things online. I’m being pushed technically and creatively. I can have flexible hours to spend time with my family. It’s fantastic.
Career ladder: I’ve worked pretty solidly in web design and development for over 12 years now. I specialised in illustration in art college while teaching myself HTML in my spare time. My first job was in MediaOne and I was there for about five years, going from junior web guy to lead designer. I worked at freelancing for a while before doing a masters in Trinity. I then worked as Design Director in X Communications for five/six years before making the jump to start my own business.
I made the jump when Martha Rotter asked me to help design Idea Magazine. I said I’d do it as a side project as I really wanted to learn more about digital publishing. After working on it for a few days I realised this is what I want to be doing every day, and thought ‘f**k it, let’s go for it.’
What I’d recommend to people is to get out there and go to events and meetups like Refresh (there’s meetings in Dublin and Belfast), Open Coffee (nationwide) and Pub Standards (Dublin and Cork) or organise your own. There’s a fantastic and amazingly helpful and generous community out there, so go be part of it.
And never stop learning – side projects are great ways to push yourself, learn new things, and meet interesting people.
Qualifications: I’ve a BDes from NCAD and a Masters in Multimedia from Trinity College Dublin.
Working hours: It changes a lot depending on what’s on, and I really enjoy the flexibility but typically 10-5 then another few hours after dinner, then a bit more on the weekends.
Breaktime: If I’m working from home then I’d go play with my son and give a dig out around the house. Otherwise I’m out and about so it’s usually a working lunch hunched over a laptop.
Social media credentials: Yes, totally addicted to Twitter - I’m @irishstu. Use it constantly. We’ve also got work presences - @makewoopie and @readidea that we monitor and talk to people through. And we’re on Facebook at Facebook.com/makewoopie.
News sources: First stop is email – my ‘time to screen’ (how long it takes to go from opening your eyes to looking at an electronic device) is usually under a minute. I use Percolate to see what people I know are talking about, though Twitter is the main source of news and links. I’m subscribed to 100s of blogs so it’s hard to filter through my feeds the main ones I look at these days are http://futurebook.net/blog, http://talkingnewmedia.blogspot.com and http://rogerblack.com/index.php
Onsite or offsite: Both – I’m either working from home, working in Startup Bootcamp’s awesome space, or out meeting people.
Digital strategy/vision: We’re absolutely about digital – the main strands we’d be looking at would be talking to people, looking for feedback, and being part of the community. It’s hard to separate it out as ‘I have to do this for my job’ because being online is just what I do anyway. I liked Eamon Leonard’s line in our last issue of Idea about being a policeman – just because you’re off duty doesn’t mean you won’t leap in if someone needs your help.
I love Mondays because: I get to this again for another week!
Tags: Stewart Curry, woop.ie