DESIGN, TECHNOLOGY & INVENTION
Studio J and patents
Helping people turn their photographs into something they could hold, share, and keep.
A thought to consider
Technology alone is not enough. It's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing.
Making personal creativity more accessible
At Close To My Heart, Brian led the architecture of Studio J, an online scrapbooking platform launched in late 2009 after two years of research and development. Founder Jeanette Lynton had challenged the team to bring the company’s physical scrapbooking products and design approach into a digital experience. For Brian, it was an opportunity to build software directly for consumers and help them preserve the stories behind their photographs.
Studio J let customers upload photos, choose ready-made layouts, and personalize pages with themed designs, colors, and decorative elements. They could order finished 12-by-12-inch photographic prints for expandable albums, adding pages over time rather than having to finish a whole book at once. The design software was free to use; customers paid for the pages they chose to print.
Connecting design with production
The platform brought together guided design tools, personal photographs, and a process for producing the finished pages. Its original browser interface used Adobe Flash, with a backend deployed on Amazon Web Services. Those choices reflect the capabilities available at the time; the lasting product idea was to make a sophisticated creative process approachable for everyday users.
Brian is a named co-inventor alongside Jeanette Lynton, Kristy McDonnell, and Kristine Widtfeldt on the three issued U.S. patents below. Each document lists Cabin Creek, LLC as the assignee at issuance.
Patent documents
These original issued patent PDFs include the full descriptions, drawings, and claims. The short summaries here describe their subject matter.
US 8,438,475 B2
Systems and Methods for Producing User-Configurable Accented Presentations
Issued May 7, 2013
Describes a system connecting templates, patterns, and user selections with the production of personalized presentations, including printed or scrapbooked materials.
US 8,739,028 B2
Methods for Producing User-Configurable Accented Presentations
Issued May 27, 2014
Describes methods for creating personalized presentations from predefined templates and materials, carrying the user’s design choices through to production.
US 9,081,782 B2
Systems and Methods for Dynamically Generating Graphical Memorabilia Projects for Presentation and Use
Issued July 14, 2015
Describes creating memorabilia projects with photographs, themed kits, layouts, and color palettes, including rotating or swapping templates to create different presentations and producing the finished project.