Aten Design Group

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About Us

Aten Design Group is a web strategy, design, and development company based in Denver, Colorado. We're passionate about delivering meaningful user experiences, creating beautiful designs, and solving complex technical problems.

About our Name

Aten is prounced ăt'-ten, and rhymes with Manhattan. The name comes from Egyptian history and mythology.

Learn more about the backstory

People First

After more than 10 years of creating expansive websites, we're still committed to keeping people at the center of everything we do.

Building solid, energetic relationships with our clients is a fundamental part of our approach. We develop effective partnerships by genuinely sharing in our clients' vision, inspiring their trust, and working with them as a team to realize goals.

While designing, we ask what best serves the user—not just the stakeholder, and not the designer. We champion user experience in each stage of design and development, and address project requirements with a consistent focus on promoting meaningful interaction.
Learn more about our process.

In the office, we're committed to a strong team dynamic that recognizes the invaluable contribution each person brings to the process. We foster a genuine appreciation for every individual's unique skills, and invest time in developing together as a team— whether that's code reviews, design critiques, conferences, Frisbee, or ripping it sick on the slopes.
Learn more about working at Aten.

Our Team

  • Justin Toupin

    CEO, Creative Director

    Justin founded Aten Design Group in early 2000 while still in college. His focus on clear, effective design solutions and his determination to achieve project goals drive the design process at Aten. Justin has a passion for working with cultural/social organizations – particularly with museums and humanitarian agencies.

  • Jon Clark

    Business Development Director

    Jon was a co-founder of the company. Since 2000, he has contributed to all stages of design projects – from conception to production. He leads the company’s new business development efforts, while managing projects and ongoing client relationships. Jon’s experience and understanding of the design process, combined with clear and effective communication, make him an ideal point of contact for Aten’s clients. He continues to play an important role in concept development and the rest of the creative process.

  • Ken Woodworth

    Art Director

    Ken is a proficient illustrator and designer with a gift for creating beautiful, intuitive design systems for even the most complex requirements. Ken’s work has been linked from a wide range of CSS design galleries and praised by prominent designers and authors in the web standards movement. Ken’s design capabilities are matched by a thorough understanding and ability in multiple production techniques, including (X)HTML/CSS and Flash, which makes his designs not only beautiful, but highly functional.

  • Scott Reynen

    Lead Developer

    Scott has been working on the web for about 15 years, working in a variety of languages and platforms before finally settling on the LAMP stack. He is passionate about web standards, reusable code, and building community on the web. Scott deals primarily with the implementation phase of Aten's process, mostly focusing on server-side code, though he also enjoys JavaScript and is obsessed with semantic markup.

  • Joel Steidl

    Senior Designer

    Joel excels at making complicated design problems simple through good interface design. Whether designing or coding, Joel has a passion for doing things right.

  • Eric Toupin

    Developer

    Eric has been working with Aten since 2007. He's contributed to a full range of business operations at Aten -- both in technology and management -- with experience ranging through business development, communications management, site building, systems development and design implementation. Eric is committed to maintaining excellent client relationships through clear communication. He currently oversees our support line of service.

  • Noah Smith

    Digital Artist

    Noah has been working with Aten to bring creative concepts to life since mid-2000. Noah is proficient in 2-D and 3-D animation, illustration, motion graphics, and character design, and delivers powerful illustrations and animations across a diverse range of styles. In addition to his work with Aten, Noah has worked on projects for clients including ABC Family, Toon Disney, ESPN, CBS and Amnesty International.

  • Rob Ballou

    Developer

    Rob is a seasoned web developer, primarily working on technology to deliver content and a good user experience. He has worked with many different platforms and programming languages over the years and enjoys tackling new problems. Passionate on creating the best content management workflows possible and figuring out solutions to create great mobile experiences.

  • Lydia Toupin

    Studio Manager

    Lydia was the first official employee of Aten way back in 2000, when she contributed to a variety of efforts including sales, client relations and office management. She has recently returned as a much needed Studio Manager to focus on operations, internal process, and team support. Lydia thrives on furthering an office culture at Aten that promotes continued creativity and healthy relational dynamics. With a background in bookkeeping, resource management, and human resources, Lydia brings a key administrative element to Aten’s team of developers and designers.

What's with the name?

The name “Aten” refers to the somewhat obscure story of an Egyptian pharaoh, “Akhenaten”, who revolutionized the art, culture, and religion of his entire kingdom in pursuit of what he believed was the true creative source of the universe: Aten.

This single-minded focus, and the willingness to face odds and defy norms in pursuit of absolute creativity, were themes we found inspiring when we founded Aten Design Group way back in 2000.