Hello there!
My name is Mark Jardine and I’m a multi-disciplinary artist and designer who loves to dabble in a bit of everything…a jack of all trades, master of none of sorts. I’m always learning something new and love taking skills to other disciplines. Right now I wear all the creative hats for a small software company, Tapbots, which I co-founded. Before Tapbots, I worked as a user interface designer at Oakley. I currently reside 30 minutes north of Dallas, Texas and live with my wife, three boys, and a corgi.
Outside of work, I have a passion for cars and bikes. I spent about 10 years driving on race tracks which included many track days, time attack competitions, and even a tiny bit of wheel-to-wheel racing. But as I started mountain biking more and progressing my skills, bikes slowly took over more of my time and I’ve been riding since 2017.
Artist, Designer, Photographer?
Throughout high school and my first few years of college, I wanted to be an illustrator…a character designer to be specific. I had a passion for drawing and while I knew my work wasn’t great, I hoped that my skills would grow over time. After a couple years in college, I became interested in 3D modeling and animation. I started looking at the 3D arts program at the SF Academy of Arts. But doing all the math for the tuition inevitably scared me away and I ended up attending CalState Long Beach to go into their Graphic Design program.
While most people tend to find what they are good at or passionate about and hone that skill to perfection, I’ve always jumped all over the place because I want to do everything! There are definite pros and cons to this. The obvious con is I’ll never master any particular skill. Nothing in my portfolio stands out as amazing. However, I love being able to tackle almost anything. Working as a designer for an indie software company is the perfect example. For Tapbots, I build brands, design logos, icons, promotional art, create the UX, mascots, sound effects, animations, the website, take photos, and the list keeps going on. I feel like I’m always learning and rarely get burned out because I’m not stuck doing the same things. And even though I didn’t pursue character design or 3d modeling in school, I am still able to use it for my work as a designer.
My passion for photography was born from my love of cars. I started shooting my own cars, and then other people’s cars. I’d say product photography is where my interest and experience lies. I’m an amateur photographer at best, but love it and it has become very useful in my work.
From Bits to Atoms.
Most of my career has been designing for the digital space. From the web to apps, I’ve always loved that you can build something once, and there’s an almost endless audience that can experience it. While there’s something special about being able to physically touch something you’ve created, the time and money required to create at scale is daunting. Then there’s dealing with inventory and shipping. I’ve always loved the idea of designing physical products, but the challenges listed have kept me away…until now.
My strong inclination to learn new things and pursue my interests has brought me down this rabbit hole. I have no interest in mass producing things. Everything I sell, I make, pack and ship myself. Everything I sell is made in my garage. My shop is an ongoing learning experience for me. My goal is to create compelling designs, put them on quality products, and wrap them in an amazing customer experience using all of my skills as a multi-disciplinary designer. I’m not ending at designing a product. I want to design the whole customer experience.