Meet the Team
Hannah L. M. Byrne
Partner, Chief Creative Officer
Email Hannah
Hannah L. M. Byrne
Hannah Byrne has found her niche. As Smack Dab Studio’s Owner and Chief Creative Officer, she straddles the line between the creative and business worlds. Drawing on the talents of designers, web developers, illustrators, and other right-brain types, she brings custom web and graphic design solutions to her clients.
Before founding Smack Dab, Hannah’s career took her through a series of roles that taught her about technology and how it’s best utilized in a business environment. Her roles with Ben Carter Companies, Access Financial Corp., Emory University Healthcare System and the Gwinnett Convention & Visitors Bureau involved managing increasingly larger budgets and staffs. Throughout her career she has worked with high profile clients such as UPS, Coca-Cola, Rock-Tenn, Fox Television, Tropicana among many others.
Given her background, one wonders how she could have ended up anywhere but Smack Dab. With her early beginnings as a flutist, Hannah’s foundation is in the creative world. Over the years she’s grown to also accumulate experience in management, information technology, internet and traditional marketing.
This experience, along with her foundation in music, means she operates equally well in the left-brain and right-brain worlds. She takes pride in being able to manage all aspects of the business—producing exciting end-results, happy clients and motivated staff.
She was a partner at What’s Up Interactive when it re-gained local ownership and functioned as Vice President, Creative Services for five years before founding Smack Dab Studios.
Blake Ellis
Partner, Chief Technology Officer
Email Blake
Blake Ellis
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
Email Huey
Jeff "Huey" Huelsbeck
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 bride, Megan, and a dashing dog named Dylan.
Elizabeth (Solomon) Schorr
Production Assistant
Email Liz
Elizabeth Schorr
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 Downtown Business Association in Savannah and recently got married. She resides in Savannah with her new husband Bobby and their beloved canine, Lola.
