About Me

I live in Chesapeake, VA, a suburb of Norfolk, VA., and have been living in the area since 2010.

Art and creativity have been a part of my life since I can remember. Thanks to my family's support, I dove headfirst into drawing, setting the stage for my artistic journey.

While in high school, I participated in every art class that was available and joined the Art Honors Society. As a result, several of my art pieces got me recognized in the top three in state; which led me to represent my state at the national level of a Scholastic Scholarship competition.

After completing my bachelors degree in Game Art & Design, I joined the Navy. 12 years of serving as a Mass Communication Specialist taught me how multitask in a face-paced environment. My last tour, I was the art director for The Navy Reservist magazine for more 28 editions.

Upon leaving active duty, I polished my design skills as a mid-level UI designer at Homes.com. With my combined experience there and my new interest in augmented reality and virtual reality, lead me to become a co-founder and Creative Director at Ario, an augmented reality software-as-a-service company.

Freelancing life was next on the list, where I tackled an immersive project as a Senior Designer at a local design agency. While freelancing, I went to Old Dominion University's Software Development Bootcamp, learning more about the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Beyond that course, I began exploring three.js, going through Bruno Simon's course threejs-journey.com as well as learning react-three/fiber.

I then joined Echobind as a full-time Senior Product Designer, where I crushed more than ten client and internal projects. Some highlights being: I was design lead in a product redesign for a global logistics platform and writing more than 7 thousands lines of CSS; rebranding a Kitchen and Bath Invoicing SaaS company as well as redesigning their marketing website and leading the charge in developing it using Plasmic. Additionally, with my investment time I lead a team of developers in creating a webXR-enabled record store experience and a 3D holiday card web experience.

When I'm not working, you'll find me geeking out over record collecting, going to local concerts, capturing interesting objects with photogrammetry, and getting my sweat on at Adroit Collective.

Thanks for checking out my portfolio! Let's connect and chat about how we can make something incredible together.

Communities
Here's some communities I am currently or have been a part of.
Testimonials
Jacob is one of the most giving individuals I know. When we embarked on starting Ario in 2016 we knew we would need someone who would take the plunge and help us get things rolling from the design side of things. We saw some of his explorations with augmented reality and knew he would be a wonderful fit. Since the very beginning, he has demonstrated this time and again. One of the most impressive things about Jacob is his agility between disciplines. He navigates UI design, 3D design, and photogrammetry at a high level of expertise. It's inspiring to witness. You'll be lucky to have Jacob on your team.
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Nate Fender
COO and co-founder of Ario
I had the opportunity to work with and be mentored by Jacob at Ario. From our first meeting together, I was inspired by Jacob's generosity and ability to demonstrate leadership through honest connection and a strong sense of empathy. As a designer, Jacob is meticulous and highly concerned with details that others often overlook. He has a wide array of skills sets in designing for digital products, 3D modeling, UI, UX and has shared some incredible photogrammetry work. I often leaned on Jacob to provide a thoughtful perspective on UI topics in animation, AR-specific interactions, and 3D model handling. He has a keen sense of how to work with others and is always looking for creative ways to improve his skillset and workflow in order to be a better designer and team member. Jacob has been an excellent combination of a strong leader, welcoming personality, and conscientious designer.
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Kara Valdon
UX Designer at Ario
Working with Jacob was an absolute joy on every level. Over the past decade as an iOS developer, I've worked with a wide variety of designers. More than anyone else, Jacob seems to just "get" how to make a design look and feel right on a mobile platform. He's great to work with, because he seeks and accepts feedback on his designs throughout the process, so the end product is the best of his vision and the input of the developers who will be implementing it. Working with Jacob and his designs has made me a better developer because he has pushed me to higher levels of creating UI/UX that are simultaneously user friendly and push the limits of what I can develop and how I think about user interaction within an app.

On a personal level, I really miss working with Jacob and interacting with him regularly. He's a welcoming soul, a positive person, and raises the level of interaction within a team. He seeks out conversation, both professionally and personally, which makes for a better product and better relationships within our company. There is a depth to Jacob's personality that isn't always on display with many people, and by putting that out there, he encourages others to do the same. He's the kind of person I feel lucky to know, and am better by that. I can't think of any team that would not be improved by having Jacob with them. Jacob is an amazing designer; he's an even better human.
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Brett Keck
Senior iOS Developer at Ario
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