Jake Barlow

Background

About Jake Barlow

I’ve loved drawing ever since I could hold a crayon, and I parlayed that hobby into a successful start of a creative career. I moved to San Francisco to build on my career as a freelance illustrator, arriving just in time as the World Wide Web was taking off. I was fortunate to have the support of my initial clients as I pivoted from providing illustration services to building websites and creating interactive products. Just as I had taught myself how to draw and paint, I taught myself how to layout web pages in Illustrator and Photoshop, and how to code HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I also had the fortune of being mentored by successful business leaders. In just five years, I was running my creative services business which grew into a small agency that I established with a business partner. At our zenith, we were providing creative services for clients such as Hard Rock Cafe International, Yahoo, Genentech, Philips, and local San Francisco businesses which included McRoskey Mattress Company, San Francisco Fish Company, and Prather Ranch Meat Co. I later joined MTV Networks Nickelodeon Games Group where I further developed my leadership skills as a manager of eight full-time designers. I also brought user experience design best practices to the organization, and played an integral part in transitioning our product development methodology from Waterfall to Agile. Before leaving MTVN, I began my first mobile app project, the AddictingGames game compilation app. It went to #1 in the App Store in the first week, which was awesome. Since then, my career has been mostly focused on native and mobile web product design, designing successful consumer and SAS products. These included the critically acclaimed NextGuide and Funny Or Die apps. My roles have been predominantly hands-on with varying amounts of management responsibilities. I am currently leading design at Google.