Zach Reed - Designer/Developer from Chicago, IL

Zach Reed

Senior Product Designer/Front-End Developer, Design Systems

About Zach

Hello! I am a front-end developer. a designer. an engineer. a creative. a traveler. a problem solver. a developer. an api lover. a fan of music.
I live in a beautiful city called Chicago.
I am passionate about creating projects that are innovative, creative and beautiful.

Get Social

Recent Tweets ( @Bluetidepro)

Contact Me

Zachary Reed

stamp

Email Me

(317) 759-0ZRR (0977)

Chicago, IL

Work History

'19 -

ActiveCampaign

Senior Front End Engineer
Nov '19 - Present, Chicago, IL

As a Senior Front End Engineer on the e-commerce team at ActiveCampaign, I am responsible for creating and maintaining a seamless user experience for our customers. I collaborate with cross-functional teams, including designers, product managers, and other engineers, to develop new features and capabilities for our e-commerce platform. On a daily basis, I write high-quality code, advocate for coding standards and best practices, and support the existing functionality of our platform. I also actively participate in sprint rituals, such as planning and stand-up meetings, and engage in pairing and code reviews to continuously improve our processes. My goal is to deliver a best-in-class user experience for our customers, and I take pride in my work and its impact on the overall success of our e-commerce platform.

'18 - '19

ActiveCampaign

Front End Engineer
Oct '18 - Nov '19, Chicago, IL

I work on the front-end development team (closely related to design), helping bring life to the product from a visual and interaction layer, and ultimately helping people solve their problems while bringing delight to their everyday lives. Our team works hard to execute on a development process that touches every part of the product, from accessibility to conversion, and everywhere in-between.

'17 - '18

Sprout Social / Bambu

Senior Product Designer, Design Systems
Mar '17 - Sept '18, Chicago, IL

As the Senior Product Designer, I helped lead the initiative on building a design system at Sprout Social. This included a variety of tasks, from building cross-platform code to re-thinking important visual UI components.

  • Built a visual language and direction of the design system
  • Helped manage a backlog and roadmap for the design system
  • Advocated for users with code
  • Worked directly with Engineering and Product to align design goals

'15 - '17

Sprout Social

Design Developer
Jan '15 - Mar '17, Chicago, IL

During my time as the Design Developer at Sprout Social, I made daily enhancements to Sprout's web app with direction from UI Lead, Creative Director and Product Management.

  • Mastered the Sprout User Interface and served as a Design representative for each Engineering team
  • Pushed production quality code on a regular basis
  • Worked with UX designers and help move the team forward on feature exploration
  • Prototyped complex interactions and offered guidance on UI standards based on your technical expertise

'13 - '15

ParkWhiz

Senior Front End Developer/Designer
May '13 - Jan '15, Chicago, IL

I worked as the lead front-end developer/designer for a growing startup in Chicago, ParkWhiz, as part of the development team doing front-end design, front-end code, and other miscellaneous design projects for the company. ParkWhiz brought me on to help shape the look of their growing company, and to lead the UI design of their various web, mobile, and static sites.

'12 - '13

Angie's List

Senior UI Designer
June '12 - May '13, Indianapolis, IN

As a lead on the member side of product UI design for Angie's List, I worked alongside the UX team converting their wireframes to a final, polished look. A big part of my work at Angie's List was updating the currently outdated UI to a more modern look that brought Angie's List the same rapport as other industry leaders.

'11 - '12

ChaCha Search, Inc.

UI/UX Designer
Winter '11 - June '12, Carmel, IN

Worked directly with the creative director to build brand development, web site traffic growth, web site UI, and advertising revenue. Focused a lot of effort on user experience tests and data. Developed brand strategy, and statistics systems.

'07 - '09

eGov Strategies, LLC

Web Designer
Fall '07 - Spring '09, Indianapolis, IN

Designed, developed, implemented, and populated cross-functional websites for municipalities, state and federal agencies, non-profits, and government associations all over the country.

'06 - '22

Blue Tide Productions, LLC

Owner/Founder
'06 - '22', Indianapolis, IN / Chicago, IL

Blue Tide Productions was the LLC I launched as a high school student that has continually served as an umbrella for all my freelance work, which included web/graphic design, photography, and other services. I completed a wide array of projects for technology-based companies (both international and in the US) while also overseeing all aspects of business management and strategy.

Education History

View My LinkedIn Profile

Nice Words

Adam Elmakias

Adam Elmakias Recognized music photographer

"The best part about Zach is his willingness to work with me. I rely on a lot of back and forth to get my projects perfect- they are collaborations. Zach's flexibility with and his devotion to his deadlines not only insures that I get what I want- but when I want. He appreciates my passion and respects my work ethic and in return I am always happy to do the same for him. This is why I keep coming back."

Shawn Schwegman

Shawn Schwegman CEO, Gusto

"Zach is the most gifted Web Designer I've ever had the pleasure of working with, and I would hire him immediately if I could. Zach is wicked smart, highly driven, and a complete work horse. Few designers have both the breadth of technical knowledge coupled with fabulous design skills of someone like Zach. He constantly amazed me. Not only did Zach juggle numerous web, mobile, and design projects, he was able to grasp, learn, and code using the latest technologies available at the time. In addition to Zach's amazing technical and design skills, his attitude and work ethic are top notch. Zach is an A player and would make a wonderful addition to any team."

Aaron gillespie

Aaron gillespie Recognized musician

"It is a rare thing in this life to find integrity and it is even more rare to find honesty. Zach has been this to us. Totally generous, lightning fast and full of nothing but truth and servanthood. My wife and I own a small clothing company and couldn't not be more thrilled to have someone of such integral stature assisting us."

Krzysztof Kazibut

Krzysztof Kazibut Sr Director of Product, Sprout Social, Inc.

"Zach & I worked together on a product that I led. He is unique in the sense that he straddles design & web engineering in an equally effective way. He helped lead the charge for building a system of reusable UI components to ensure that our users had a consistent & delightful experience while also helping to ensure that engineering efforts were streamlined. He's very knowledgeable about modern front-end development frameworks and best practices. Instead of just being focused on building net new experiences, he also enjoys revisiting existing experiences to continuously refine them. There were several occasions where I would notice a subtle, but noticeable improvement in the experience and it turned out that Zach had optimized it."

Andy Jankowski

Andy Jankowski Founder, Enterprise Strategies

"I have hired Zach multiple times. He is the only person I trust to handle my company's website and graphic design needs. He is very creative and extremely knowledgable in both the technical and functional aspects of web and social media communication. His visual designs are both aesthetically pleasing and effective at communicating meaning on several levels. I have recommended Zach to several others and found their experience to be similar to mine."

Adam Hendle

Adam Hendle Founder, Ballsy

"I have worked with Zach on several projects over the past two years. Zach has consistently gone above and beyond to impress me and deliver high quality results. He is a true expert in his field and has never not been able to deliver on something that I had requested. I would highly recommend Zach to anyone looking for web design work. All my future projects will continue to go through Zach and Blue Tide Productions."

Scott Pitkin

Scott Pitkin Director of User Experience, Salesforce

"Zach is professional, hard working, and fun to work with - all week long. I've been repeatedly impressed with Zach's range of skills and experience. He is able to work projects end to end, and is especially sharp with visual design and front-end development. At Angie's List, we worked on several projects together, and I always felt Zach's commitment to creating great products. Zach is a strong addition to any design team."

Eric Rago

Eric Rago General Manager NYC, ParkWhiz

"Zach has a great attitude and makes everyone around him feel at ease. He thrives in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment while making others around him better."