Joshua Schmitz
Designer
Engineer
Musician
Mentor
Human
Spacecase Artist

I have accrued
16 years of
experience as a
design professional
and mentor
I design & build
delightful & usable
products & experiences
I’ve crafted brands, apps
& experiences for
famous companies, schools
& sometimes buildings
My MFA work
focused on AR/VR
& Game Design

Joshua Schmitz
Designer
Engineer
Musician
Mentor
Human
Spacecase Artist

I have accrued
16 years of
experience as a
design professional
and mentor
I design & build
delightful & usable
products & experiences
I’ve crafted brands, apps
& experiences for
famous companies, schools
& sometimes buildings
My MFA work
focused on AR/VR
& Game Design

I Am Spacecase Artist

I make cool shit craft meaningful experiences with pixels apps products brands people you

With 16 years of experience in human-focused design & development of interactive/multi-media products, responsive websites & native mobile applications, I bring a proven knowledge of creative strategy, vision, communication, and leadership to globally recognized brands. I have built, trained, managed, grown, & led design teams of 2 to 12 people. I have designed ≈ 100 websites, 20 apps, and 30 brands in my career thus far. I also have won 2 national awards from my agency tenure.

Design Process & Leadership Ethos

Design Leader

I lead with empathy and enthusiasm. I have grown & led remote design teams across the world. I always make time to mentor emerging designers. I’ve also taught & volunteered with programs such as Big Brother, Big Sisters and the World Taekwondo Federation.

Design Thinker

Discussing high-level, big ideas gets me super excited. I thrive on collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams to solve problems, & have extensive experience planning & facilitating workshops. I constantly extend my domain of knowledge to improve myself & my work.

Product Designer

I love to create. I’m a designer by trade, & meticulous by nature. I have experience at every stage of the design process, from conception & validation on through to maintenance. I also enjoy the challenge of creating robust design systems. But ultimately, my primary aim is to communicate clearly.

People-Focused Introvert

Business units, especially marketing, like to focus on numbers — conversion, retention, & 'users'. Real humans are complicated, emotional, messy, weird, & just plain funny. I don’t design for 'users', I design for humans. Empathy is my superpower, and I cultivate it in both my design & leadership practices.

Featured Project Case Studies

MGM Resorts

Skip the lines, the wait, and the lobby altogether. Users can now check in and check out directly in the app. Entire stay can be touch-less (executed solely through app). What I did: Design System Creation, Wireframing, Prototyping, App UI & UX, Thorough product design documentation, Custom animations, App store assets, Thorough user testing throughout iterations

Freedom Mobile

As Experience Lead, I oversaw a team of 3 UX & 3 UI designers to redesign the Freedom Mobile member experience. I worked closely with product teams to lead the strategic vision & oversaw creation of a flexible, modern design system, and the delivery of over 100 unique screens in 3 different contexts of public-facing marketing site, customer service portal & a rejuvenated app experience.

Blue Shield CA

Despite the need for a digital overhaul, Blue Shield was nearing their annual enrollment period and we couldn’t risk blowing up their site. To mitigate this, we did extensive research into the site’s existing capabilities and launched a re-skinned responsive experience, as well as iOS and Android apps, all within the technical confines of Blue Shield’s backend services.

ACE

We were approached by ACE to reimagine their digital prospect experience. The catch? Before going ahead with the redesign, our clients needed us to help them convince their bosses that it was worth the investment. And we only had four weeks to do so. I spent those four weeks working closely with the Strategist and Tech Lead to sketch concepts, audit competitors, talk to users, build customer journeys and brainstorm ideas.