About

Hello, and welcome to Out of the Deep Blue (OOTDB). My name is Elijah Woolery, and I love design & entrepreneurship.  I have a background in product & industrial design (both physical and digital products), as well as photography and filmmaking.  I trained in the Product Design program at Stanford University, where I now teach as a lecturer. I’m also the Director of Design Education at InVision.

I’m the host, along with Aarron Walter, of the Design Better Podcast, which was nominated for a Webby in 2020, and has won numerous other awards. We’ve interviewed creatives like Dan Pink, John Maeda, Debbie Millman, Seth Godin, Jason C. Mayden, and the inimitable John Cleese.

Previously at OOTDB, I helped people solve business and marketing problems through human-centered design practices. I consulted with companies on design & strategy related projects such as: user research, user interface and user experience design, branding, content marketing, and user acquisition. I also provided photography and videography services. You can read about what others have to say about my work on my Testimonials page.

I recently started a Coaching practice, helping recent graduates as well as mid-career professionals, who want to transition into a different career, or launch their own business as a consultant, freelancer or creative entrepreneur.

I’m not currently taking on new projects or coaching clients, but if I can help refer you to someone, please get in touch. 

A little bit more on my background: after working as a lead design engineer with Light & Motion, a vertically integrated manufacturer of consumer underwater video and photography equipment, I pursued graduate studies in marine biology at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. In a mad attempt to fuse my love of photography and the ocean, I co-founded the print magazine Wetpixel Quarterly in 2007 (the magazine is no longer in print, but the original site and forum Wetpixel lives on).

I also founded Out of the Deep Blue, a photography and design consultancy, where I’ve worked on web and mobile applications for clients like Genentech and Kaiser Permanente, in partnership with my brother’s company Appstem. As a life-long worshiper of the ocean, I love to surf, dive, and kayak. I live in the Monterey Bay Area with my wife, daughter, son, and medium-sized dog, Lewis.

A few of my posts and projects that you might be interested in:

Curious by Design: a podcast telling the stories of designers, artists, and entrepreneurs with relentless curiosity.

The Prototyping Handbook: Test and validate (or kill) your product idea in one day to one week, without wasting time, energy, or money.

The 6x6x6 Project: Six tiny income generating projects, each taking less than six hours, done in six months.

Workview: What is work and what does it mean to you?

I write about subjects ranging from underwater photography to entrepreneurship; if you’re interested in getting notified when I write a new post (about once a month), please sign up to my mailing list below.