About Atomick.net

My name is Nathan Moody. I'm a co-founder of, and a principal and the design director of, Stimulant.

I am an award-winning, freelance digital experience designer and published author who has worked for nearly two decade in nearly every digital creative discipline, including special effects for film, video editing, illustration, graphic and motion design, sound design, interface design, and more. My design work has been implemented in custom multi-touch hardware, touchscreen kiosks, mobile devices, HTML/CSS, Flash, Director, C++, C#, Java, XAML, CD/DVD-ROM, video, film, print, and human skin.

In short, I have such wide interests because I embrace constraints. Nothing thrills me more than diving deep into the restrictions and limitations of a medium, and seeking ways to exceed what is considered possible while still designing highly feasible solutions that are on-brand, business-right, and audience-appropriate. With my breadth of experience, I can borrow techniques from one discipline to inform my work in another. For me, it's all pixels supporting an emotional user narrative...pixels that are only as good as the core concepts behind them, and a measurable, business-relevant design strategy to back it all up.

Previously I was the Director of Creative Services for Fluid, Inc.. In addition to acting as a primary creative client liason on critical accounts and mentoring, training, and managing Fluid's creative staff, I have designed information, interactions, interfaces, and rich media for such clients as Avery Dennison, Charles Schwab, Design Within Reach, the Leakey Foundation, Macromedia, Macrovision, Mattel, Microsoft, The North Face, Reebok, Reuters, TechTV, and Timberland. Through Fluid, I've been fortunate to join forces with such innovative partners as IDEO, John Maeda, Tolleson Design, Hal Riney & Publicis, and Goodby Silverstein and Partners.

I've worked as a freelance illustrator, designer, and multimedia consultant. I've produced innumerable CD covers, Web sites, and other media design projects. My video and motion design has been shown on SciFi.com, BBC Channel 4, and more. I've has created concept art, illustrations, motion design, corporate identity and Web sites for such companies as EA Games, Final Draft, l.inc design, Mind Control Software, Network Associates, Sun Microsystems, John Maeda, Tolleson Design, and Veritas.

Before all that, I worked as a digital video editor, broadcast designer, a motion picture special effects artist, and a multimedia production artist. My past clients have included Adobe Systems, CMP, and New Line Cinema. I've served in early testing programs and customer advisory boards for Adobe Systems, Macromedia and Microsoft.

Besides design and illustration, I am an avid photographer, hiker, backpacker, bicyclist, and kayaker. I have produced electronic music under a variety of pseudonyms, and am a trained community emergency response worker.

My published works include After Effects 5.5 Magic (with Mark Christiansen, New Riders Publishing, 2002), and Photoshop Channel Chops (with David Biedny and Bert Monroy, New Riders Publishing, 1998), which still stands as one of the most advanced digital imaging books on the market. I have co-authored many digital imaging articles since 1995 (and currently write for MacAddict magazine) and have written Photoshop and After Effects technical and marketing documents for Adobe Systems. I've taught and presented at innumerable conferences, seminars, and user groups.

Site Colophon

This site (currently version 12) was created on an Apple 17" Powerbook (MacOS X) in San Rafael and San Francisco, California, USA, using Adobe Photoshop, BBEdit, Panic Transmit, and Mozilla Firefox.

Atomick.net is designed using Web standards-compliant methods and technologies. Its most prominent technologies include semantically-structured XHTML for page structure, externalized screen- and print-specific CSS for visual presentation, PHP for dynamic content handling, XML parsing and server-side scripting. This site also features completely hand-crafted RSS for the newsfeed, with no commercial or freeware blogging software on the back end.

The rendered typography is Marvelouz DSG, and the HTML typography is Trebuchet MS.

Atomick.net is proudly hosted by sonic.net of Santa Rosa, California, the best independent ISP I've ever had. Major coding props go out to SitePoint, A List Apart and every O'Reilly Web book ever written.

I did all of the design, illustration, photography, and writing for this website, all of which is copyrighted, and any unauthorized reproduction of any media on this site is strictly prohibited by international law.

Why Atomick?

*...sigh...* I suppose I knew that after a decade, I'd get asked this enough that I'd eventually have to discuss the origin of the atomic-with-a-K.

Back in 1994, when America Online pretty much rocked the block, I had to get a screen name and atomic was taken. It exemplified everything I wanted: energy, power, danger, possibility, cheesy 1950's movies, the core of all things. Kind of like the creative impulse itself, without the giant insects and flying cars. For no particular reason, I remembered how some folks spell magic with a k - magick - to separate real power from mere stage-show trickery.

Hence: atomick.