About me.

Hi, I’m Ethan. I’m a Boston-based web designer. You might know me as the person behind that “responsive web design” thing. My cats know me as the person who opens their food in the morning.
Over the last two decades, I’ve been fortunate enough to work for clients like New York Magazine, the Sundance Film Festival, People Magazine, The Today Show, and Google. I was one of the lead designers behind The Boston Globe’s award-winning launch, which was notable for being the first large-scale responsive website.
In 2011, I co-founded Editorially, a startup that built a collaborative writing and editing platform. (One I still miss using.) More recently, I cofounded Autogram with Karen McGrane and Jeff Eaton, where we work on big, tangly problems involving content management and design systems.
Some other bits: I’ve been listening to a lot of Noname and Carly Rae Jepsen while I work. I love running, even though I’m not especially quick. (At running, I mean.) I’m a tech unionist at heart. I love playing video games. I spend a lot of my free time thinking about Gideon The Ninth.
My books
Selected articles
- Drop caps & design systems Vox Media Product, 2019
- Frameworks A List Apart, 2015
- Fluid Images A List Apart, 2011
- Responsive Web Design A List Apart, 2010
- Fluid Grids A List Apart, 2009
Selected conferences
- New Adventures 2019
- Clarity 2019
- Adobe MAX 2016
- Webstock 2016
- Build 2012
- Webstock 2012
- An Event Apart 2010
Selected press, interviews, & mentions
- Responsive Web Design Is… 2020
- Rosenfeld Media 2014
- net Magazine 2014
- Fast Company 2014
- The Atlantic 2014
- Northwestern University Knight Lab 2013