Hi there and welcome to my blog.
With this being my first entry, I thought I’d introduce myself and tell you a little about myself and my history so far as a Web designer and developer.
Firstly, I come from a very ‘creative and mixed up’ heritage. I’m part French, part German, I grew up and went to school in South Africa and I’m currently living and working in London.
Yea, it took me awhile to get my head around that also!
From the age of 13 I knew that my passion for the web was going to lead me down the path of becoming a front end web designer and developer, and so I developed a very strong will to learn and constantly challenging myself to producing better results. This passion led me to set myself a goal that I’m still working towards today. That goal is to become an award winning web designer.
In 2005 I started a 2 year course in Web Design and Development. Half way through my second year I started working part time between classes at a truly special place with talented people. This was my education and helped me find direction in an industry that, at the time and place (being Cape Town), was very hostile for a ‘noobie’ web designer barely out of college. I worked at Nedoweb for 3 totally amazing years before coming over to London.
I arrived in London in May 2008 and continued my career in contracting. While contracting I worked with some really awesome people on some big brands such as HSBC, Match of the Day and GAME. In August 2008 I accepted a 6 month contract at Knight Frank LLP.
Now, while I was at Knight Frank my career took on a life of its own. A life which, at times, meant that I had to learn to run before I could walk. This was where I started working on the biggest project of my career so far as the designer and sole UI developer. When I was introduced to the Knight Frank Global Residential Property Search project I knew right from the start that if I was ever to reach my dream of winning a web award, Global Search would be the project to help me achieve that. And it did do just that.
In 2009, Knight Frank entered the Global Residential Property Search website into a number of awards, from which Knight Frank Search managed to receive the titles of ‘Best UK Estate Agency Website’ and ‘Best International Estate Agency Website’ awarded in the USA.
In May 2010 after just under 2 years, I left Knight Frank, and started working for Emap Insight, where I’m currently working on some well respected brands.
I don’t know where I’m going to be in 5 or even 10 years from now…but, what I do know is that there is one thing that I need to be completely satisfied that I have achieved my goal set as a young 13 year old hopeful. I want a Webby Award, and seeing that I love a challenging task, I want it within the next 5 years.