Start With Why
From design decisions to what drives us to start work each day, we value the ‘why’ of things.
Our values
We don’t make hollow promises to our clients, or to each other. We’ve built a team of problem solvers who care about people as well as their work.
People Matter
Our team and our clients are people deserving of our care and respect, and we want to help.
Take Pride
We don’t half-ass it. We encourage ourselves and each other to become masters at our craft.
Do Good
We make the world better through our collaborations and promoting inclusive, respectful ideals.
The team
We can often be found crafting winning strategies and code in our pyjamas, from locations around Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Okanagan, and even the Cariboo.
Shawn Johnston
He / They
Founder and Lead Strategist
A professional designer and strategist with 26 years of experience, Shawn is the Founder and Principal of Forge and Smith. He plays a variety of roles from client rep to sales person, project manager to head bottle washer.
My Why
I love the process of craft… the learning, experimentation and honing of it. To collaborate with people and create something that other people can use and benefit from? That’s a great way to make a living.
Troy Kelly
Operations Director and Partner
Troy’s extensive knowledge of a sites life cycle ensures he’s always hands on with our ongoing project work. If he’s not analyzing or creating project scope and milestones he’s ensuring that the team is staying on track and in budget with upcoming product releases or site builds.
Pam Berg
She / Her
Director of Strategy
Pam’s backgrounds in journalism, private investigation, and public libraries all flowed into her ultimate career in digital strategy – she loves good storytelling! She’s a master of content writing and an analytics nerd. In her “spare time” (lol) she hangs out with the many animals on her ranch and reviews Westerns.
My Why
In every job I’ve had, my favourite thing has always been translating complex stuff into words people can easily understand. Whether it’s analytics data or the mechanics of WordPress or the best flow of content on a page to get a conversion – I love to help!
Oscar Santiago
He / Him / His
QA Lead
Oscar is a versatile and experienced digital project manager, which makes sense since his favourite thing to do is watch The Flash with his sons. When he’s not helping our clients get to the finish line, he’s training and competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitions. Watch out!
Serena Embree
She/Her
Project Manager
Serena has never figured out what she wants to be when she grows up. With her background in Graphic/Web Design, QA, Sales, Digital Marketing, and Customer Service, image specialist on the Content Team at F&S was a perfect landing place for her many talents. When she isn’t looking for the perfect image, she’s also a hairstylist and nail tech, and when she’s not working, can be found playing with one of her 3 pet snakes or singing karaoke.
My Why
I get my job satisfaction from helping people, be it to look their best or to put their best foot forward online.
Damian Jolley
He / Him
UX/UI Design Lead
Damian is obsessed with creating engaging digital experiences. He brings to his role at Forge and Smith over 10 years of design experience in digital design, branding and marketing. User interface and experience (UX/UI) is where Damian combines his love for systems and processes and his obsessions with design and typography. Damian grew up in Australia, and moved to Vancouver in 2009. Outside of work, Damian enjoys biking, concerts, tennis, coffee – and any kind of adventure, big or small.
My Why
I love hearing people’s stories, how they started their organization, why they care about what they do – what makes them unique. Creating websites for these companies, I get to work with the most passionate people across various industries. I love being a part of helping people and organizations grow and achieve their goals – it’s extremely rewarding.
Lizzie Scott
She/Her
UX/UI Designer
Lizzie is a UI/UX designer with a diverse background in design, digital marketing and communications. When she’s not designing, you’ll likely find her at the beach or in the trees, always equipped with coffee and a camera.
Andrea Iñurria
She / Her
Content Services Manager
Born visual narrator, Andrea uses digital marketing to share the stories she believes in. She takes populating a client’s website very seriously; when she is not obsessing over the perfect pic for a website, she can be found talking with her furry son Ander the Pug, hiking, and/or enjoying a pale ale. An enthusiastic, lifelong commercial photographer, Andrea frequently drools over all the delicious food waiting for her to immortalize it with her camera.
Cameron Lindsay
Lead Engineer
Cameron thinks coding is fun, and his friends and family hope against hope that one day he’ll come to his senses. He has a wife and a dog, drinks a lot of coffee and loves Manilla Road.
Vanessa Bertoletti
she/her
Product Engineer
Vanessa is a passionate web developer with a background in international trade. Vanessa has a strong sense of ethics and a driven, results-oriented personality. When she’s not debugging, she travels, watches cat videos, and dies her hair in crazy colours.
My Why
Since the turn of the century, the web has been paramount to most of us. Being part of enhancing our experiences in this constantly mutating realm, making it clear, accessible, and following new technologies, has been highly fulfilling. Besides, programming is another way of being creative. Not exactly in the visual sense, but solution wise.
Tim Waugh
He / Him
Product Engineer
Tim is a former musician turned developer based in Kitchener, Ontario. He loves to learn and enjoys troubleshooting problems more than he probably should. Tim is a lifetime Arizona Coyotes fan and passionate musician. If he’s not watching sports or going to concerts, he’s writing his own music with his bands or scouting hockey prospects for blogs and publications.
My Why
This line of work offers so much to my personal growth, the challenges and problem-solving are incredibly fun and rewarding – I feel like I’m essentially being paid to build big digital Lego sets all day, how can you beat that? I feel you can never stop growing, and being a developer satisfies that with how much I learn from not only the work itself, but my wonderful peers here at F&S.
Sarah Nachia
She / Her
SEO Strategist
Sarah is what you call a chameleon in design. She takes on all forms, a natural problem-solver conquering challenges along the way, and an advocate for self-development. She’s known for going past the limit to achieve her fullest potential, with a winning attitude. Apart from being a young grasshopper as an SEO specialist, you will most likely find her curating the best Spotify playlists, a Masterchef of UberEats, training in boxing, and a Formula 1 enthusiast.
My Why
What’s not to love about the digital world? I get to evolve with it like a Pokemon and strengthen my artistry into mastery. All I can say is “put me in coach!
Sabrina Stolb
she/her
Junior Front End Developer
What do you get when you combine an eye for detail, a pinch of pedantry, and just enough sense to cover her face right after bringing yet another issue to a developer? You get Sabrina. With a background in Web Development (to know how the websites tick), Management (to know how to get teams and clients to their goals), and Education (to know how to handle both second graders and devs) she really is the QA Specialist that dreams are made of. When she isn’t gleefully tagging errors on websites you will find her painting, working on her many 3d printers, or getting trapped in YouTube video essays for hours on end.
My Why
As someone who’s had access to a computer and the internet since I was a toddler, I know exactly how important it is for a website to be a well made and enjoyable experience for users. Getting to be the hand that polishes and hones in the sites after they’ve been forged by an amazing team? That’s pretty satisfying work.