Author Archives → David Hoang

Hello, Santa Monica

Santa Monica has always been a special place to me. Though I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, my extended family were mostly in Los Angeles. As a kid, we’d often head to Manhattan Beach and In-N-Out when visiting my aunts, uncles, and cousins. When it was a really special day, we’d take a day trip to Santa Monica and hang out at the pier. As we were stuck in traffic, I always thought Los Angeles was a special place aside from the current bumper-to-bumper pain we felt.

I flirted with Los Angeles many times, but it never happened. As a 19-year-old, I considered Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. It wasn’t a good fit, primarily it was very expensive and the admissions officer thought it was a great pitch to tell me that Michael Bay is an alumni.

Explosions.

I’ve been in San Francisco for the last four years of my life. San Francisco took me a long time to love. The relationship started rough. After living in New York City for five years (the place that still feels most home) I found myself having the “well, it’s not New York” mentality. That said, the problem with most cities is it is not New York.

Prior to moving, I often flew in for WWDC and client trips. Naturally, all I ever saw was the financial district and Tenderloin-y areas. After the growing pains of moving down, I finally found community and areas I loved, such as my residence in Presidio Heights. I truly learned that any city you live has pros and cons, and it’s up to you to find what you like.

I must confess that my intention to move isn’t because of the mass exodus people are having out of Silicon Valley, but for love. My partner lives in Los Angeles and really looking forward for us being in the same city. We’ve been together for almost two years, and it’s been weekend flights.

Professionally, everything gets to stay the same. I’m really thankful that I can work remote at Webflow and get to work right in the heart of Santa Monica. I’ll also continue to teach my User Experience Design course at General Assembly in San Francisco. I have a great community of people in San Francisco who I hope to stay in touch with, so this is truly the best of both worlds for me.

Hello, Santa Monica.

I’d love to get in touch and build community now that I’m here. I’m going to be pretty engrained in the area as I will go car-less in Los Angeles (!!!) and work from home.

Some community I’m looking for:

  • Creative collaboration. I’m looking to do art and photography again and hoping to collaborate with people of all sorts
  • People doing interesting things in startups
  • Mentoring or being mentored in design, product, and  tech
  • Outdoor activities. Biking or surfing? I’m terrible at surfing but am down
  • Someone who really loves cats to watch Wilson when I’m not in town

Is this goodbye to San Francisco? Not really. In fact, you’ll likely see me around. They say home is where the cat is, and Wilson is definitely moving to Santa Monica. I need me some Hyperloop, and fast.

Remembering Jeff McLeman

Like many who knew him, I am absolutely devastated to hear the news of the passing of Jeff McLeman. I got to know McLeman while working at Black Pixel together. Though we didn’t get to work together on projects, he would come into the office every Thursday from his home in Vashon Island. If there is one thing I can point to which I cherish most about Jeff is the presence and conversations we had.

Jeff was an old school person. He believed in working hard, being authentic, and taking no BS from people who weren’t. Basically, he’s from Boston. With him, trust had to be earned. I remember my first trial and tribulation with him came from a very small gesture. I was in Cupertino visiting Apple’s campus. Jeff sends me a DM on Slack, “I need a new hat. Get me a black size medium.”

At the time, I didn’t really know Jeff. I said, “sure, why not.” I bought the hat, and next time he was in the office I gave it to him. He was so grateful, paid me back. What I remember is he wore that hat all the time. Looking back, I’m sure it wasn’t even the hat he cared about, but it was because I got it for him and that small gesture built a relationship of trust and reliability.

Even when I moved to San Francisco and he moved to Beaverton with his lovely wife Stef, I would get occasional pings from him. He never lost touch, and would check in to see how I was doing. I know he didn’t do this to just me. Authentic relationships were important to him.

My thoughts are with his wife Stef, son Ian, the schnoodles, and all of his friends and family. If you knew Jeff, he wouldn’t say pray, but perhaps embody all the things those religious communities intend to convey, to care deeply about humans, love one another, and cherish life.

Jeff, I will miss you so much. I will forever cherish our Thursday morning Real Talk breakfasts at Lola. We’d always get the Lola scramble, sausage for you, bacon for me. If there was one more thing I could tell you how much it meant to me how much you believed in me, not only as a professional, but a person.

I will truly miss such a great mentor, and a wonderful friend.