Kim Burgas

Bio:

Kim Burgas is the Co-founder/Director of Crimson Campaign, an international movement to advance respect around menstruation, and Lead Designer at PhotoShelter, a NY-based startup providing robust web tools for photographers. Previously, she worked as a QA tester at Solvate, an online platform for finding professional talent.

• Title: Lead Designer, PhotoShelter; Co-founder/Director Crimson Campaign
• Age: 27
• Location: Upper West Side, Union Square
• Contact: @kimburgas

As a designer, what resources do you use to stay informed about your field?  

I stay informed about my field in a number of ways.  For one, I stay connected with fellow designers and technologies in the city and elsewhere around the world.  Through my network, I receive an wide array of news about how design and technology are being used in different communities and industries.  I also have a number of google alerts set up for news about my field, as well as regularly checking my RSS reader of industry blogs and websites. They include: Fast Company, Good Magazine, Smashing Mag, Mashable, UX Booth, The 99 Percent Blog, and IDEO's blog.  Also, luckily we live in a city with endless supply of industry events, lectures, discussions, workshops, conferences, etc.  My favorite series are: Creative Mornings and Be Social Change and I get a lot of my information about local happenings from Social Innovators Collective and Live with Design's weekly roundup.  I also make a point to pass along news on the design front to my coworkers so they can also stay informed and so we work better as a team.

Can you walk through what your typical day / workload is at PhotoShelter?

A typical day for me at PhotoShelter is fairly light on meetings, which is necessary for any designer to stay focused and allow for creative flow.  Because PhotoShelter is a relatively small company, I need to be comfortable in a number of different design processes and applications.  Thus, my roles include anything from UI design of our product, to creating a print advertising campaign, working on text-heavy education resources layouts and accompanying cover art to designing landing pages for our public site.  Because of this, I get a healthy amount of play time on Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, not limiting my time to one product or output

You’re a member of the #BikeNYC Tech Meetup group and organize a regular “night on the town” bike ride/event.  What are some of your favorite places to bike here in the City?  What goes on during a “night on the town” bike ride?

The "Night out on the town" bike rides have slowed, so perhaps a more interesting project to tell you about it Biketrain.  Info here and here.  Biketrains help bicyclists cycle social and cycle safer: meet at different points along a regular route and commute together, enjoying the company of your fellow cyclists and the visibility that numbers provide.  We have two Biketrains up and running thus far and are looking to add a third, from Queens to Manhattan.  We are also working on an app to make connecting with people easier (so if anyone in We Are NY Tech is interested, send them our way!). Some of my favorite places to bike in the city include: to Fort Tilden, up the Hudson River Greenway at sunset, and over the Queensboro Bridge towards Manhattan.