Everyone who works at Blue Mouse Monkey is committed to making the world a better place. We partner with changemaker organizations, businesses and individuals to help them effectively communicate their knowledge, purpose and value to the community. It is our driving motivation to help our clients articulate their purpose, connect with their audiences, and thus amplify the value of their work.
We love the deeply democratic nature of the Internet, and we relish helping our clients make the most of their access to this amazing platform.
We’re not just another techie web design company. We’re a woman-owned business that engages in dialogue with diverse populations, and this helps grow our awareness and our ongoing understanding of our place in the world. We recognize diversity is a complex issue, and we recognize our own constraints and work to ensure our world-view doesn't get in the way of our clients' needs.
Our clients do important work. We are honored to know the creative, talented, and dedicated people we’ve partnered with over the years.
Founder, creative director and lead designer Julia Stoops has a 20-year visual art exhibition career, and taught at the Pacific Northwest College of Art for 13 years. Julia understands the rhetorical power of excellent design, which is the perfect combination of elegance with usability. Julia's personal mission is to beautify the Internet, one website at a time.
We’re adventuresome seekers of new ways of doing things. Whether it’s a fresh aesthetic approach, a new technology, or set of features we haven’t combined before, we’re always exploring ways to make the next project better.
Blue Mouse Monkey was founded by Julia Stoops in 2001. Julia started out making websites for members of Portland’s arts community, and continues to enjoy working with these clients. Additionally, Blue Mouse Monkey has grown to take on large complex projects for local and national foundations, research organizations, and businesses.
…AND WHAT EXACTLY IS A BLUE MOUSE MONKEY?Sometimes people ask if the Blue Mouse Monkey is real. Perhaps a rare marsupial from down under, they want to know. While the existence of the Blue Mouse Monkey in the wild has yet to be proven, there have been frequent sightings of a brown house monkey in and around Julia’s Portland home.
The Blue Mouse Monkey headquarters is located in Portland’s historic Ford Building, a dedicated creative space that is home to many of Portland’s innovative businesses. Map and directions »
For each project we coordinate a fleet of seasoned freelance team members to who are experts in coding, copywriting, social media strategy, and photography.
In a former life in academia, Julia taught courses in subjects such as media studies and the history of ideas. Julia is fascinated by the rhetorical power of images and language: how culture talks to us and how we can converse back. She sees the Internet as a rich and wild frontier for communication and cultural innovation.
As creative director, Julia brainstorms ideas with you and develops strategies and concepts, and she coordinates and directs the other creative team members. As user experience designer, Julia approaches each website with the same care and attention as a work of art.
For more of Julia's thoughts on creative practice and working across disciplines, please visit:
• Julia Stoops on writers and branding:
interview by Suzy Vitello (2012)
• Julia Stoops on creative writing and research:
interview by Laura Stanfill (2011)
• Julia Stoops on teaching and art:
interview by TJ Norris (2006) (PDF)
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A student of communication, Shelise loves its wide-ranging, interdisciplinary nature. It is language, it is visual, psychological and emotional and it is integral to our experience as people. She loves to see communication in action at Blue Mouse Monkey, and she happily translates between groups as she coordinates the diverse contributions behind our projects.
Shelise shares her time at Blue Mouse Monkey with Adoption Mosaic, a local nonprofit dedicated to connecting the adoption constellation through innovative education and support services. Shelise is a transracial, Korean adoptee who was raised on a farm in Southern Minnesota and found respite from the harsh Midwest winters in Oregon in 2003.
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