Joining Happy Cog

Aug 10, 2009

After three full years of working for myself, I’m now joining forces with Happy Cog. I’ve enjoyed working for myself so much over the years. It’s been exciting, successful and extremely fun. For those reasons, I never really looked for a “real job”. The idea didn’t appeal to me. I knew if someone came knocking and actually lured me away from this career, it would have to be someone special. So when they asked me if I wanted to move to Philadelphia and work at Happy Cog, I told myself that this time I should really consider it.

Some Backstory

Let’s slow down for a sec. In fact, let’s rewind back to 2003 or so. I was living in Alaska and I started reading a book about web design by Happy Cog’s founder, Jeffrey Zeldman. You may have heard of it. I thought to myself, “This stuff makes sense and I should do it”. A few years later, I decide to quit my job and do this stuff full-time.

A Match Made in Austin

In 2007 I got a chance to meet a bunch of the Happy Cog crew and we hit it off very well. Well enough, in fact, that in the fall of that same year I started doing some freelance work for them and shortly thereafter got the exciting title of “Strategic Partner”. We continued to enjoy working together on projects here and there, while not-so-subtle hints kept coming up from some of the people there that I should really just pull up stakes and come work there full time.

The Clincher

Back in July, when Daniel Mall left Happy Cog to work at Big Spaceship, the topic came up again. It just so happened at the time I had a trip planned out to Philly anyway for some Happy Cog work, so we turned that trip into a bit of an extended interview. It wasn’t long till we all came to the conclusion that our working together, in a more permanent situation, would be a good idea.

I was giddy.

Starting in September, I will be working full-time at Happy Cog East in Philadelphia. I’ll be doing a bit of design, lots of front-end work and some CMS work too. Basically, all the stuff I love and do right now, minus the whole “running a business” part.

Are we not still Being Good and Not Bad?

I’m wrapping up all my existing commitments with Be Good Not Bad, and basically winding down most of my work. I will be open to a few limited projects on the side, but definitely an emphasis on “few” and “limited”.

We are very excited about this new chapter. I had no idea when I wrote this blog post what, exactly, 2009 had in store for me.