Bryan Elkus

Category: Technology

  • Atomic Con – Behind The Scenes

    The first Atomic Con Conference was a great time. We had two days of talks and in the evenings we enjoyed the rare time we all get together. The talks were informative, some were extremely technical, while others were fun and useful.

  • A Day at Atomic Object In Detroit

    I spend a day last week at Atomic Object in Detroit. It was great to visit and spend time with the AOD team. It was even cooler to be working less than 2 blocks away from where my great-grandfather had his clothing store.

  • A Visit to Atomic Object in Grand Rapids


    I spent a week at the Atomic Object office in Grand Rapids, and had a great time working on a couple projects and learning how things run on the west-side of the state. Have a peek and see software development in action, as I took a couple pictures on the last day I was in town.

  • BriefCase. App Launch Party

    I had a great time at the BriefCase. App Launch Party. They had a terrific turnout at Vinology in downtown Ann Arbor. BriefCase. is an app to organize and annotate briefs via the iPad. Here are a couple quick photos from the event:

  • Ann Arbor Give Camp

    I just found out about Ann Arbor Give Camp last week at the A2NewTech meetup. It is a bunch of techy people who get together and donate their time and skills to help non-profit groups. I decided to go and had a great time. I helped out with front-end design, a little back-end coding, photography and more. I mainly worked on The Brian Project group. We developed a new WordPress site for them and also worked on their branding and communications. It was a blast to help out and code with smart and fun people. Here are some photos to take you behind the scene at the 2013 Ann Arbor Give Camp:

  • Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup

    I went to the Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup again, but this time I took a few pics too. It is an event that is held at the University of Michigan Law School that allows 5 groups to pitch their ideas (quickly) and get feedback from the crowd. It has been growing steadily since I started going a couple years ago. It’s great to see new ventures and get you motivated to keep up-to-date on new technologies.

  • Updates to bryanelkus.com

    I recently updated the front-end of the website. It was in need of a new look since it had been a few years since it was last updated. I’m still running the site on WordPress. This theme is based on the WordPress twenty twelve theme. I wanted to change the layout to make it more simple and let the graphics do the talking instead of the theme’s style. I relied heavily on my imagery and choice of topography. Below are some of the key changes made to the site:

    Document / Photo Count:
    I changed around the display of the posts on the homepage. Each new post is represented by a featured image to entice the user to see the collection of work. I overlayed the image with the title, date and tags of the post in order to give the user an idea of what the post was about without giving the user the full view of the image. I also added a document and photo counter to the bottom left corner to give the user a heads up about the amount of content to expect on the next page load. The icon will change based on the content.

    Full Width Images:
    Because the site is so graphically based I moved to make the images as large as possible. This will give the user a better viewing experience.

    Google Fonts:
    I used Google Fonts to create a clean look with the topography. This lets you replace the standard fonts with more unique looks to add a different look to a website. I am using: Pathway Gothic and Josefin.

    Instagram API:
    I leveraged the Instagram API to show the last image I have posted via Instagram on the front page. It also will show you the number of likes and tags used in the post when you hover over the image.

  • eFellow at Plymouth Ventures

    To complete my Master in Entrepreneurship program, I joined forces with Plymouth Ventures a Venture Capital firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the 2013 Summer Practicum eFellowship. Plymouth Ventures does not typically take on summer assignments, but I was well poised to add value to their firm over the summer without being looked after or micromanaged.

    I focused my efforts in two parts over the summer. The first was to dive into the day-to-day of a venture capitalist. I did this by attending board meetings, new investment opportunity pitches, doing research and one-on-one meetings with the partners. The second half was a branding overhaul. I was able to create a unified branding and marketing approach along with a customized website that is expandable for years to come. It was a productive summer for both myself and the firm. Below are some of the graphical work created for the firm.

  • 365 Retail Markets

    As part of my summer eFellowship program with Plymouth Ventures. We had a meeting with one of the portfolio companies 365 Retail Markets. The day we went also happened to be their open house for their new location. It was great to meet the executive team and see what they are working on now and into the future. It was a fun party too. They showed off their product and even had the neighboring car dealerships bring over some great cars to look at.