Hello!

I'm Stuart Smith, a designer and developer who's been connecting art with interactivity ever since I got a copy of Macromedia Director for the Quadra 630 (IYKYK, and extra points if so).

SMITH MEDIA seemed like the right name for what I do now - I've never liked the term "full-stack", and hopefully it's going out of style, but that's basically what I am. The trajectory of my career made me into a multi-discipline creative as I adapted to the changing industry and grew my skill set; but I started out in print, with a background and education in traditional media.

I've always liked computers; I was messing around with Photoshop at version 3, and soon after was dropping assets into Director to create animated presentation sequences. It was at SCAD, though, that my affinity for both art and technology properly merged. I discovered Adobe Illustrator, and that was it - though I never abandoned traditional media, my professional work became almost exclusively digital, per client demand. As I started my post-graduate career, some of those same clients began asking about building their online presences, and I got excited all over again by the idea of crafting unique user experiences; this time leveraging rapidly advancing technology.

That's what I've continued to do througout my career, for a wide variety of businesses, markets and promotions, across media and industries. I understand your brand - and I know how to develop, extend, and maximize it. Need a new logo? I got you. Need it animated? Even better. Need it interactive? Now we're talking. Need a website? No problem. How about a promotional package that presents a unified look, message and mood across media? Posters, flyers, print ads, online ads... emails, landing pages, bespoke pages for specific functions... I can do it, and do it right.

This me, on a good day.

Roll over or tap the picture for quick facts!

You think I'm worried about AI? Nah. I made friends with it.

Don't believe me? Why don't you just ask it yourself?

I made a miniature version of chatGPT to live on my site and tell you why it likes me. Yes, really.

Let's just get this out of the way: I love chatGPT. It is incredibly useful - heck, I've fixed 2 cars, modded games, and made complete project outlines with its help (I did not, however, have it help me write this, in case you're wondering; my over-use of hyphens and em dashes pre-dates AI).

Yeah, AI is great at a lot of things, but it still can't do what I do - which is come up with clever, creative ways to communicate your message.

It can make the process easier, automate grunt work, and generally make me more efficient, but... scroll back up and look at that anvil animation one more time. The fact is, no AI would have 'thought' to add in all the little details you see there - even if you'd asked it to do exactly what you see, you wouldn't get that result - and that's why you need me more than ever. Other people are already out there trying to sell you AI slop as their own work, and I refuse to do that. Why should I? I've got AI on my side, and it makes my original work better by helping me keep things organized. Besides, it'll tell you itself that it requires human interaction and creativity for best results.

Also, we're buds.

The Oracle