I’m Adam Norwood, the Director of Web and Digital Strategy at the University of Texas School of Law and my background is in web design and development, user experience, and higher education. When I’m not at work, I enjoy reading, hanging out with my four-year-old daughter and my wife who is an artist. I also have a fine arts background so I have a bit of a split personality between design, fine art, and more technical work.

What’s one thing that you’ve been inspired by lately?

Activists and whistleblowers. People who are willing to stand up for justice, from Greta Thunberg on the global stage to Chas Moore of the Austin Justice Coalition who spoke at Creative Mornings recently. It’s inspiring to see that ordinary people can make a difference in addressing injustice. For me, as an introvert, it means a lot to see that anyone can work to correct something they see in the world that needs to change.

What’s one way you feel like you’re weird and how does that inspire you?

My reading list is all over the place. I bounce between computer science-y technical documentation one moment and then 16th-century French essays and then get lost down a rabbit hole about bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons the next. It’s not that I’m well-versed in any of those things but I enjoy learning about what’s in the zeitgeist and hopefully I can synthesize those things together into something that’s interesting. The thing that ties all of these interests together seems to be language. I love thinking about the language of comics or hip-hop or programming or design, or how those are all forms of communication.

Where do you go to get inspired?

I love to go into nature — someplace that’s completely not-digital is very refreshing, and it’s important to experience the infinite wonder of the world. On a more mundane level, I also really love bookstores because there’s this combination of visual inputs and browsing ability. I have a four-year-old who loves books so we go bookstores or the library frequently. You may find something on the shelf next to you that you weren’t expecting — there’s this great opportunity for discovery.

Website: adamnorwood.com
Twitter: twitter.com/anorwood
Instagram: instagram.com/adamnorwood/