Stewart Smith

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Featured Works

Other works can be found on my previous website, Stewdio.

Hello

I’m a lucky guy—I get paid to invent fun things. Currently, I work for Amazon as a global consultant on virtual reality and spatial computing. On the weekends I maintain Q, a browser-based quantum circuit simulation framework.

Prior to Amazon, I’ve worked with renowned hybrid studios like Google’s Creative Lab and Data Arts Team, Unity Labs, and founded Moar—a technology and strategy consultancy. Together with my amazing colleagues, we’ve won industry awards like the Cannes Gold Lion. What really makes me happy is partnering with smart friends to take on the impossible—or ridiculous.

As a kid I taught myself to code, but in college I chose to study art rather than computer science. I received my MFA in graphic design from Yale, worked in London for a few years, then made a permanent home of Brooklyn, New York where I occasionally write small things.

My artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, ZKM in Germany, the SFMOMA in San Francisco, and is in the permanent collection of the Fondation Cartier in Paris. I’ve also appeared in publications such as Domus, Esquire, and Creative Review. I’ve taught graduate courses that mix code with graphic design and I’ve been on various judging panels including the TED “Ads Worth Spreading” competition.

I’m always excited about the future.

Profiles, Essays, Lectures

Experience

Senior Global Consultant, Spatial / Quantum Ambassador
Amazon Web Services, December 2018–Present.

Collaborating with top-tier AWS customers to create cloud-based XR experiences. Conceptualizing and implementing innovative interfaces for quantum circuit composition.

Principal Spatial UX Designer
Unity Technologies, Unity Labs, January–November 2018.

Created experiments related to spatial authoring, discovery, and consumption. Collaborated with outside artists to ideate experiences using the latest in spatial technology.

Founder, CEO, Quantum Computing Strategist
Moar Technologies Corp, September 2017–Present.

Established corporation to push boundaries of digital creativity for quantum computing, spatial computing, and beyond. Created Q.js, an open-source drag-and-drop quantum circuit composer.

Virtual Reality Creative Technologist
Google, Data Arts Team, October 2016–August 2017.

Ideated and developed virtual reality experiences for the immersive Web, including LCD Soundsystem’s Dance Tonite WebVR music video directed by Jonathan Puckey and Roel Wouters.

Virtual Reality Wildcard
Google, Creative Lab, September 2015–August 2016.

Collaborated across internal teams to promote strategies in Web-based virtual reality.

Creative Director
Yahoo, various teams, November 2013–July 2015.

Invented Yahoo Mail Autocompose as a Valentine’s Day marketing campaign resulting in a patent filing for generating messages based on the expression style of an existing corpus via machine learning. Proposed innovative strategies for utilizing existing assets.

Creative Technologist
Google Creative Lab, July 2012–October 2013.

Concepted and launched two highly successful Mobile Chrome promotions: Racer, a multi-device social racing game, and Roll It, an accelerometer-based Skeeball-like game. Created the Rubik’s Cube Google Doodle and foundation for Chrome Cube Lab.

Artist in Residence
Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, 2010–2011.

Collaborated with ZKM, et al. to create Transactions, an exhibition centerpiece of panoramic data animations illustrating exchange within the global art network.

Other

Worked with Diller Scofidio + Renfro on panoramic visualizations of human migration data for inclusion in Fondation Cartier’s permanent collection, Harvard University’s metaLAB, Audi, Columbia University’s Spacial Information Design Lab, served as a judge for TED’s Ads Worth Spreading, founded Tweed Magazine.

Awards

US Patent & Trademark Office
Mind-based prototyping & broadcasting (provisional), 2017.
Expressing statements in messages with personalized expression style, 2014.
Multiplayer game for display across multiple devices, 2013.
Cannes Lions
Gold Mobile Lion, Creative use of technology, 2014.
Bronze Mobile Lion, Innovative mobile technology, 2014.
Art Directors Club
Young Gun class of YG7, Best creatives under 30, 2009.
Favourite Website Awards
Site of the Month. Cutting Edge Project of the Week × 2. Site of the Day × 3. Mobile of the Day. 2014, 2015, 2017.
Webby Awards
Social Gaming Nominee. Integrated Mobile Experience Nominee. Technical Achievement Honoree. Games Related Honoree. Game or Application Honoree. 2013.

Education

Master of Fine Arts, Graphic Design
Yale University, 2006–2008.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Graphic Design
University of Connecticut, 1999–2003.

Teaching

Adjunct Professor
NYU, Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), Autumn 2012.

Created semester graduate course, titled Visualizing JavaScript, emphasizing design and clarity of communication under sometimes humorous constraints.

Adjunct Professor
NYU, Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), Autumn 2009.

Created semester graduate course, titled Visualizing Data: Code Meets Graphic Design, mixing design critique with code development in Processing and Java.

Other

Served as a visiting critic at esteemed institutions such as Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, the Royal College of Art, Central St. Martins, and the University of Art and Design, Lausanne (ÉCAL). Have enjoyed presenting work at top agencies, meet-ups, and professional conferences.