CART

Brad J. Aldridge is a senior staff product designer working on future-thinking products and experiences at Instagram. He regularly speaks about design and is also a magician. He lives in Berkeley, Calif. with his wife and three... cats.





Recent Work (last updated: April 2020)

Google
At Google, I led Visual Design on a number of critical products and experiences, including: Redesigning Google Account, overhauling what a Privacy Policy could look like, rethinking user sign-in and sign-up. 

I also regularly produced events for Google, like their participation in San Francisco’s annual Design Week, or internal-events for Visual Designers and illustrators.
Google Account Art Dept: David Divinagracia, Charlotte Mao, German Kopytkov, Rick Murphy, Ricardo Osório Santos,  Hunter Gatherer NY, Character SF
 

The Contemporary  Jewish Museum

I started the CJM’s design team, centralizing exhibition, marketing, publishing, and digital design into a single business unit. Dusting off a neglected Pentagram-made brand, I reinvigerated the brand with a new color and layout approach that added a coherent contemporary look to this thoughtful and innovative arts institution.







Passion projects
I regularly take side-projects that allow me to play with materials or mediums I don’t get to interact with on a normal basis.

Books remain something I cherish, and love to design. Mixed with my other side hussle — being a magician — I’ve designed over a dozen books for magicians, here’s a few favorites.






 





I also do occassional pro bono work for causes and clients I’m passionate about. Years ago I performed in San Francisco’s Mojo Theater; so, when they asked me for help proposing a new, fresh brand, I was happy to pitch some concepts that could get them a nice look, but respect their rebellious, homegrown style.




List


24 Things about Brad in List Format

  1. Can quote lines verbatim from Back to the Future trilogy and The Big Lebowski.
  2. Been to every Disney theme park in the world.
  3. Damn.Except China. But working on it.
  4. Designing web and print experiences since 2000. (Oh, how many lame Wordpresses I once made.)
  5. Magician.
  6. Mixologist.
  7. Magician Mixologist.
  8. Can juggle.
  9. 6 plus 7 plus 8.
  10. Can make things out of wood and metal and plastic!
  11. Had dinner with Neil Patrick Harris.
  12. Had dinner with Neil Patrick Harris at Disneyland.
  13. (Yeah, he was kind of a third wheel)
  14. Has a book autographed “To Brad” signed by Walt Disney.
  15. Has Had 2 life-size cardboard cutouts of…himself.
  16. Likes to refer to the Internet in the plural sometimes. Internets.
  17. When he writes his name fast it looks like ‘Bird Alderon.’
  18. His DJ name is ‘Bird Alderon.’
  19. His grandfather is Buzz Aldrin.
  20. His socks don’t match.
  21. He lied about number nineteen.
  22. Ukulele songwriter.
  23. He feels really guilty about the fib in number nineteen.
  24. This is the last list Brad ever made.

Story


Brad J. Aldridge is a designer, art director, speaker, and magician based in Berkeley, CA.  He learned about design, theater, and art at the University of California, Berkeley. (Oh, there's another guy named "Brad Aldridge," he's a painter in Utah. So, our designer Brad added the "J" to help avoid confusion.)

Starting his design career in journalism design, Brad took to telling stories across platforms from digital screens to large-scale architectural environments. Brad led design at The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and at Butchershop. He worked as a Visual Design lead at Google, a Sr. Staff Designer at Shopify. Today, he works at Instagram.
Photo by Vince Donovan


As a designer, he strives to straddle the line of being succinct, subtle, and clear with being loud, obnoxious, and difficult to ignore.  His inspiration as a designer comes from studying how people see and use their eyes to interact with the world, as well as the art of magic and conjuring—Brad is a practicing magician, he goes by the name Bradmagic. (See How to Design Like a Magician, or a short art film Brad made intersecting these topics.)

Ⓒ 2023 Brad J. Aldridge


Published late one night from a desk in San Francisco and then updated at the same desk in Berkeley.
If there’s anything here you really like, feel free to print it out and use a magnet to put it on your refrigerator. Or, maybe you can line the bottom of a bird cage with it. Or turn it over and let a kid draw on the back of it. 
I’m so glad you could make it to the end of my site, I really hated having gallery pages and slideshows, and felt like folks who visited would just scroll all the way to the bottom. So, next time I see you, I’ll buy you a whiskey.