Hannah L. M. Byrne
Partner, Chief Creative Officer
As Smack Dab Studio’s owner and Chief Creative Officer, Hannah Byrne serves as the “glue” holding together a team of graphic designers, web developers, app designers, illustrators and other right-brain types. Under Hannah’s leadership, Smack Dab Studios delivers custom web and graphic design solutions to clients across the Southeast and beyond.
Hannah has earned acclaim for successfully bridging the creative world and the business world. In 2010, Georgia Trend honored her as one of the top “40 Under 40” business innovators in the state. In 2011, Savannah Magazine recognized her as one of the top 20 “Generation Next” rising business leaders along the Creative Coast.
Before founding Smack Dab in 2004, Hannah’s career took her through a series of roles that taught her how technology can be best utilized in a business environment. In Atlanta, she worked with Ben Carter Companies/The Mall of Georgia, Emory University Healthcare System and the Gwinnett Convention & Visitors Bureau, managing increasingly larger budgets and staffs.
Hannah was a partner at What’s Up Interactive in Atlanta and served as the company’s Vice President of Creative Services for five years. Throughout her career, she has worked with high profile clients such as UPS, Coca-Cola, Rock-Tenn, Fox Television, Nabisco, Tropicana among many others.
With her early beginnings as a flutist and her deep knowledge of design, Hannah is sought-after for her out-of-the-box creativity. Over the years, she’s developed significant experience in management, information technology and internet marketing, so she operates equally well in left-brain and right-brain worlds.
Hannah takes pride in being able to manage all aspects of Smack Dab Studios, producing fresh design, a motivated staff and happy clients.
Blake Ellis
Partner, Chief Technology Officer
Blake Ellis often gets tagged as a “serial entrepreneur”, having been involved in a number of web-based start-ups in the Savannah area. As owner and president of Color Maria he designed, developed and deployed a variety of web applications and developed a real knack for translating client needs into simple, elegant software applications. He brings a depth of technical knowledge to Smack Dab Studios that expands and solidifies the firm’s web-based offerings.
Before founding Color Maria, Blake worked for a variety of firms in Atlanta and Savannah, including Genuine Parts Company, Lang & Associates, and The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. He was the guy with the goofy hair jumping up and down in Tokyo when Atlanta won the bid for the 1996 games. Later that night he claimed over a barrel of saki that winning the bid was “all me” but it really wasn’t.
Moving to Savannah in 1995, he promptly launched the first web site for publisher Rodale Press and went on to work on a variety of large web projects for Rodale Press, International Exposition Company and others.
In 2002 he launched the first client on a new e-commerce application that would become CommerceV3, a web-based application for launching and managing online stores for catalog retailers. CommerceV3 (or CV3 for short) grew quickly into a start-up of it’s own, attracting merchants from across the U.S. and growing to a staff of 13 based at the Advanced Technology Development Center on the Georgia Tech Savannah campus.
Blake followed CV3 up by launching Rails Machine, a hosting service catering to high-end developers of software applications built using Ruby on Rails. Both CommerceV3 and Rails Machine won Innovation Awards from the Coastal Business, Education and Technology Alliance (CBETA), in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
With the breadth and depth of the new team at Smack Dab Studios, Blake plans to launch even more wiz bang stuff in the near future. Right now he’s still trying to work the elevator.
Jeff “Huey” Huelsbeck
Lead Developer
Jeff “Huey” Huelsbeck, a self-described expert in “all-around geekery,” has been building Web sites for more than 12 years.
As the lead developer at Smack Dab Studios, he oversees Web application development, Web site maintenance and open source software implementation for a wide range of clients. This Internet junkie loves serving as a technology consultant for clients and developing innovative new Web applications. A chronic “early adopter,” Huey is always first in line to buy and test new technology, confirming his uber-geek status.
Before joining Smack Dab Studios, Huey worked as a Web Developer at CareerBuilder in Atlanta, What’s Up Interactive in Atlanta, and The Information Management Forum in Atlanta. He met Hannah Byrne in 2001 and eventually sealed his fate by joining Smack Dab Studios.
A Peach State native, Huey spent several cold winters in Chicago, attended Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, and eventually moved to Savannah to work for Smack Dab Studios. He’s now a proud resident of the city’s National Landmark Historic District, where he lives with his beautiful wife, Megan, and a dashing dog named Dylan.
Elizabeth (Solomon) Schorr
Project Coordinator
Elizabeth Schorr proudly serves as the “right hand” for Smack Dab Studios Partner and Chief Creative Officer, Hannah Byrne.
Although she describes her job as “a little of this, a little of that,” Liz serves as a key element in Smack Dab’s success. She works closely with clients, organizing production, overseeing scheduling and keeping projects on track. Her favorite part of the job is collaborating with a wide range of clients, whether she’s creating branding materials for a local bank or writing blog posts for clients to boost their search engine placement. She enjoys working virtually, setting up her laptop in cool places around town with WiFi access.
Liz worked as an intern at Smack Dab Studios before graduating from Georgia Southern University, impressing the firm’s principals with her formidable talent for design, mind-blowing work ethic and passion for Smack Dab blue necklaces. She graduated from Georgia Southern University with B.F.A. in Graphic Design in 2008 and immediately accepted a full-time position at Smack Dab Studios.
Originally from Macon, Ga., Liz enjoys being involved with the Historic Savannah Foundation & the Savannah Social Media Club. She resides in Savannah with her husband Bobby and their beloved canine, Lola.
Once we get a client into the Smack Dab way of doing things, they tend to stay with us. We have a unique way of managing projects that brings the best of our talent to our clients smoothly and effectively.
With over 15 years of development work under our belt, moving into mobile app development was a must. Need an app? We can do that.
Our Huey... he is a geek, but an innovative one at that! He created a sensational name tag and then wrote about it. Picked up by by industry blogs around the globe, Smack Dab's site has been exposed 6 out of 7 continents.