Shon and his buddy Cory at the Delirium Café in Brussels, Belgium.

Our Allovus Studio division is absolutely amazed by the talented designers we are lucky enough to call our own. UX Designer Shon Dempsey is one of those people—his diverse design background adds so much vitality to our inhouse team and the services we offer our clients.

Allovus: Tell us about yourself! What is your background?

Shon and his friend Steven, their Teslas, and Shon’s son, Aeron.

Shon: My background is cemented in graphic and visual design. I started off doing brand design. I really enjoy helping small businesses distill their ethos into what they want customers to know about them.

Then I migrated into website design and found that I enjoyed telling a story to an even broader audience, and I learned how best to serve their customers. Because I built most of my clients’ websites with Squarespace, the company flew me out to New York City for a party. While I was there, they offered me a job. Platform knowledge was a key component in that role, and they wanted feedback from customers to help with their platform. I was in the very early stages of their hiring—I think I was around employee number 40. I got to see the company grow to 600.

So I sold my house, nearly all my possessions, packed up my MINI Cooper and drove across the country to New York City. I then relocated to the Portland, OR office and finally back to Wenatchee. Throughout that time, I developed my leadership skills, as well as continued to hone my visual design, marketing, UI, and product design skills. I even did multimedia programming. I can code! Looking back, having an understanding of programming, helped me to distill feedback for developers and gave me that unique balance of communicating with them and having empathy for the end user.

Allovus: How did you decide to become a designer?

Shon: I loved to draw as a kid. Nobody told me that graphic design was a thing! So, it was in my last year of school that I discovered I could do this for a living.

Allovus: What is your role and title at Allovus? What do you do?

Shon: UX Designer. I’m currently working on auditing a large application for our client to help them streamline/optimize four different components in a way that makes sense. It’s definitely more on the UX end of things. I’m also helping with concepting, brainstorming, and getting started on product design for another client.

Allovus: Do you have a design philosophy?

Shon: My philosophy is in two parts. The first part is “Less is more.” I strive for refining my designs to the absolute core elements, without adding frivolous stuff.

The second part is “Designing for people.” Seeing things through their lenses. Design should be helpful in their lives, not frustrating. Design should be joyful, helpful, easy to use, and make their lives better.

Allovus: What is your favorite part of your job?

Shon: So far, it’s really thinking deeply about the smallest elements about what people interact with. Being considerate about how those small elements are used. Being able to take the time to think about those things. My previous jobs haven’t given me the time to be thoughtful about making those decisions. That’s the thing I am appreciating the most. Learning from the phenomenal designers on the Allovus team. I’m learning more than I have in the last 10 years. I haven’t really had design mentors before, so it’s been great to have that here.

Allovus: Why did you choose to come to Allovus?

Shon: Mentorship and the ability and to have a team to work with was one of the biggest draws. Not having to fly solo and have everything placed on my shoulders. To grow as a designer. There’s only so much you can do on your own. To be able to join this team where I am soaking in those things on a daily basis and working on phenomenal projects. I’m blown away by the welcoming nature of Allovus. It’s so incredibly real. It felt so much more like a rat race in the other places I’ve worked. Allovus cares about my success with Studios or at a contract job. It’s been exactly what I’ve envisioned it would be—exactly what I was looking for in my next step of my career.

Allovus: What do you hope to bring to Allovus?

Shon: I hope to bring a fresh perspective. It’s easy to get lost in the design styles corporations are locked into. I like looking at design in different ways. My style is bold, and I love being able to leverage some of that. I would also like to be the bridge between designers and developers and having empathy for both.

Allovus: What do you like to do when you’re not working? Hobbies?

Shon: I’ve got two little ones, so they keep me pretty busy outside of work. When I can squeeze it in, I love video games, especially Bungie’s Destiny. Music is also a large part of my life. I enjoy discovering new music and styles and have a budding vinyl collection. Finally, I enjoy craft beer and home brew when I can. My favorite style is a barrel-aged stout, and my favorite beer of all time is Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stout. I buy a case of it annually and cellar it.

Shon and his wife Sarah at Skookum brewing.