Why the name?

I remember attending my first Interaction conference in 2012. I had been an IxDA member since 2008 when I first discovered—mind blown—that interaction design was actually a thing, but my interactions with other members had been exclusively online. I flew to Dublin, entered the convention center, and was immediately struck: there are so many fancy people here. At least among the jetsetting IxDA designer cohort, the stereotype of plaid shirts and skinny jeans and horn-rimmed glasses and creatively severe haircuts held up.

Yet there I was, a pear-shaped former-software-developer in comfortable pants.

I did have a MacBook Air with me, but I secretly ran Windows on it.

I loved my craft, I loved the instant shared language with my fellow craftspeople, but that elusive fashion sense made me feel like an outsider.

I suspect there are a lot of workaday designers out there who are passionate about understanding goals and solving people’s challenges but don’t look like they come from Central Casting. So with tongue firmly in cheek, I created Redflannel to help managers find real people with real skills to fill real gaps in their teams, without (at least temporarily) the physical facades.