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Brad J. Aldridge is a senior staff product designer working on future-thinking products and experiences in wearables at Meta’s Reality Labs. He regularly speaks about design and is also a magician. He lives in Berkeley, Calif. with his wife and three... cats.
Meta Ray-Ban Display
2023 to present

Text describing the work


Creative Director  and Desing Lead
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.)
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