Web designer specializes in type - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

<p>As a web designer, Cameron Moll works with pixels, writing computer code that arranges art, copy and links into an inviting package.</p><p>As an artist, he works in type.</p><p>Type, as in the letter "T" and other characters, which can be used as building blocks to create the simplest shapes or the most elaborate images.</p><p>Moll, who works out of a Towles Court studio in Sarasota, says an interest in Letterpress printing led him to the typographic work of artists such as Justin LaFontaine.</p><p>"I was like, man, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen," he says. "I had never done anything like this. Again, I was totally unqualified to do anything like this."</p><p>On his computer, the 37-year-old designer began manipulating tiny letters in different styles and fonts. The process appealed to his meticulous nature. He worked in his spare time for weeks, months and years.</p><p>First, Moll created an image of the Salt Lake Temple in Utah, where he lived at the time. Then he completed a rendering of the Colosseum in Rome.</p><p>"I didn't really intend to sell them," he says, "but people went bonkers over it."</p><p>A poster-sized print of his Colosseum was priced at $100. He sold 900 of them.</p><p>"You can do the math," he says.</p><p>For those who can't, 900 times $100 is $90,000. Even with printing expenses, that's a pretty profitable sideline.</p><p>For Moll's latest poster of the Brooklyn Bridge, he visited New York to take photographs. He researched old typefaces that were used in the 1800s. He got to work on his computer.</p><p>Three years later, he was done.</p><p>On Kickstarter.com, the crowd-funding platform, he created a proposal that features videos and close-ups of his typographical work. He's raised more than $50,000.</p><p>Moll hopes to ship by Christmas and coast into the New Year.</p><p>"This'll probably be the last poster I do for a long time," he says. "I'm done trying to make time in the evening and on weekends."</p><p>Start-up chic</p><p>Ask Moll about his success, and he tends to reply with a self-deprecating anecdote.</p><p>He likes to tell the story about how he changed majors at Brigham Young University.</p><p>Moll was a young percussionist who dreamed of writing music for the movies. Only he couldn't read music very well and probably didn't have much of a future. Finally, one of his professors told him he should think about changing careers.</p><p>"That was really hard to take," he says, "but I think he was totally right."</p><p>Moll focused on business management — "a safe choice," he says — but his future was decided when a flier fell out of the student newspaper. Another favorite story. That ad was for web design jobs at a local dot-com company.</p><p>He started at the bottom, rose to creative director and became a prominent designer who blogs, writes and speaks at companies and conferences across the country. Along the way, he founded AuthenticJobs.com, which serves as a career stop-and-shop for Internet professionals.</p><p>All of this happened, in Moll's view, because he was more curious than cautious.</p><p>"That's been a hallmark of my career," he says. "Pushing myself to try things that I'm totally unqualified for, then finding a way to make it work."</p><p>Dan Benshoff, creative director of digital media for ESPN, the sports network, says Moll enjoys a national reputation.</p><p>He's heard him speak at tech conferences. He's had him talk with his teams of web designers. He's even bought some of his posters.</p><p>"I'm a graphic designer, so I'm interested in type in general," Benshoff says. "I'm also a fan of Letterpress printing. The detail and the intricacy of his work is part of what makes it so interesting."</p><p>Start-up chic</p><p>Moll is a father of four, but he could pass for a college art student. He dresses like one, anyway, in a gray T-shirt, dark jeans and black skateboarding sneakers.</p><p>His sandy hair is thinning. His eyes are dark blue.</p><p>Moll's studio near downtown Sarasota has a modern look, all black and white and natural wood. Most of the furniture comes from IKEA. A mountain bike hangs on the wall next to his desk, which features an Apple computer with a 27-inch monitor.</p><p>The place looks like a tech start-up, complete with a whiteboard in the corner that sports color-coded reminders for "This Week."</p><p>In blue — for AuthenticJobs.com — there is "Md. Tax Stuff. Pricing Page. iPhone Next."</p><p>In green — for art work — there is "Sched UT Trip."</p><p>In orange — for speaking engagements — there is "ESPN Prep, Bristol."</p><p>At work, Moll listens to pop music and movie soundtracks on Pandora. He follows the news on a website called Flipboard. He plans his day on a French app called TeuxDeux.</p><p>Most of Moll's time is spent with AuthenticJobs.com, which he describes as a half-million-dollar-a-year company with two full-time employees and several contractors. Tech companies pay him to list positions for all sorts of web designers, software engineers and product strategists.</p><p>"It's a niche market, a targeted job market," Moll says, "but it's lucrative, it's done very well."</p><p>Mormon family</p><p>Moll, a Mormon from northern California, worked for several companies in Utah.</p><p>For a few years, his job was web design for lds.org — the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also freelanced and worked for different dot-coms.</p><p>There are many Mormons in his field.</p><p>"I don't know why we tend to skew toward tech, but we do," Moll says. "We like to joke — actually, it's not a joke — that Utah is like a second Silicon Valley."</p><p>Yet four years ago he relocated to Florida, which is almost the opposite of a career move. The reason was simple: His wife Suzanne grew up in Sarasota.</p><p>They met and married as students at BYU. They tired of Utah's winters and wanted to raise their sons on the Gulf Coast.</p><p>They started out renting on Siesta Key, then bought an acre of land off Bahia Vista Boulevard. Moll and his sons marked off a soccer field in the backyard.</p><p>For a while, Moll says, he could see their field on Google Earth.</p><p>He and the boys are active in the Boy Scouts. They build skateboarding ramps and remote-control airplanes. They work on their computers.</p><p>Moll coaches soccer, but tries not to play too much. He's had several knee surgeries, which is why he'd rather swim and bicycle.</p><p>He used to work at home, but that grew hectic, so he began renting his studio. He's not one to splurge — he still drives a 1988 Jeep Cherokee with 250,000 miles.</p><p>Moll still works with AuthenticJobs.com. He still blogs at cameronmoll.com. He still writes and has speaking engagements.</p><p>"I'm not very funny — I wish I were," he says. "I'm still learning to be a good speaker. I feel like that takes a lifetime of experience."</p><p>Moll isn't sure where his work and art will take him. He might wind up writing music for movies after all. Or perhaps a new building will capture his typographic imagination.</p><p>"I don't have a grand plan," he says. "I never have."</p>