About Kyle Risan

My name is Kyle Risan and I am a designer based in the Seattle area. I grew up in the great northwest and graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelors in Marketing in 2001. After a few years recording and touring as the drummer of a semi-successful local band I decided it was time to get a "real" job. Eager to apply the same creative passion to my career as I did with music, I decided to explore a long-time interest in design. After studying graphic design and web design at Bellevue College I grabbed all the freelance work I could get and constantly tried to "hone the craft" as they say. I was offered a junior design job at a small agency and continued to learn as much as I could as I progressed in my career.

Over time I have been lucky enough to work on a wide variety of interesting projects, from launching Microsoft Band on MicrosoftStore.com to designing Starbucks tumblers to creating an 85-foot tradeshow booth. I have worked on both digital and print projects and have a working knowlege of how the web is built as well as my way around an offset printing press. For the past few years my focus has been mainly web design, specifically responsive design for e-commerce. Currently I am a Senior UX Designer on the MicrosoftStore.com team, with an eye to giving customers best-in-class experiences when they shop online.

When I am not working you will probably find me spending time with my wife Valerie and our daughter Vivienne or working on one of a thousand projects on our old house in historic Fall City.

Resume (pdf)