Matthew Coles Creative Director Contact's founder got graphics in his blood as a young child watching his father's magazine, Utah Holiday, undergo paste-up in the late 1970s. As an English major at the University of Utah, Matthew Coles was the sports editor at The Daily Utah Chronicle but his interest soon expanded from merely formulating the written words to directing the way those words were organized with art and images on a page. After publishing a few newsletters, Matthew found courage and launched Contact full-time in the basement of his home with his trusty PowerMac 7100 and a head full of ideas. He keeps his foot in the journalism world with frequent assignments covering Utah Jazz basketball games and University of Utah sporting events for Associated Press. Party tricks: giving nicknames
(and having them stick whether wanted or not), remembering
statistics of early '80s NBA players, and ear-twigging. |
Jesse Walker Graphic Designer Mr. Jesse Walker got his start in design by making posters and flyers for his high school band and subsequent electronic dance parties in his native Idaho. Armed with an irrepressible curiosity for music, art and culture combined with his daring attitude, he's continued to make his mark in Salt Lake since the mid 90's. He just celebrated the 10th anniversary of his popular culture collective and website in the same year he was awarded Best DJ by Salt Lake City Weekly and purchased his first home. Always looking for a better way to do virtually everything, Jesse's friendly people skills, his positive outlook, and constructive criticism have helped take Contact and it's clients to new heights. Party tricks: dressing more up than down, impromptu cartwheels, opening candy packages with scissors. |
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Whitney Shaw Graphic Designer Whitney graduated in 2008 with a BFA in graphic design from the University of Utah where she learned everything from how to use white gouache to the art of letterpress printing. To feed her addiction, she recently purchased her own turn-of-the-century cast iron beast for experimentation (Easy Keeper Press). She is best known for being a two-time Threadless.com winner for T-shirt design and frequently informing people about fainting goats. Her long-term goals are to visit Iceland and have a donkey farm. Party tricks: being the shortest person in the room, stamp licking, having knowledge of strange animals' existences, telling novice printers they've over-inked their type. |
Ricky Christensen Web Developer Ricky is our developer dude and specializes in building custom websites on the WordPress open source platform. He's also a really sweet guy. Party tricks: coming soon |
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Stephen Coles Consultant Stephen Coles heads Contact's Bay Area operations and puts his stamp of approval on our most important projects (often after salient suggestions for improvement in structure and style). He gained much of his rock-solid design savvy from living in Sweden and taking annual trips to Berlin, New York and other design capitals. Before creating his print and identity design work at Contact, Stephen served as art director for the University of Utah's newspaper The Daily Utah Chronicle and helped found RED Magazine, an arts and entertainment weekly. He has also applied his clean, classy, modern style to other international publications, books, and all manner of printed ephemera. In addition to his day job with FontShop, Stephen writes about his passion for typography at Typographica and furniture at The Mid-Century Modernist. Party tricks: rapid-fire font identification, apropos music compilations, making kids happy. |
Nicole LaRue Special Projects Nicole LaLue is a unique creator of hip, funky illustrations and designs. She puts her distinctive spin on our projects and makes everything look fresh and friendly. With experience in fine art, book arts and letterpress, Nicole is a true renaissance woman (she even made the black-out curtains for the office). With a special affinity for birds, flowers and robots, she has created her own line of T-shirts, headbands, magnets and gifts that are sold at local boutiques or online here. She also authored a book of her craftiness, 101 Hip, Handmade Gifts. Her work has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Salt Lake City Weekly, KSL-TV, and the Australian children's magazine lmnop. Party tricks: saying "hilarious" even when the situation may be tragic, sewing anything, running marathons on nothing more than coffee and Mike & Ikes. |
