About Me
The story so far
My career began in the WGL, a forum for amateur esports in the UK. It's where I first discovered my love for designing and developing websites, and it opened the door for me to work within the esports industry.
After graduating with a degree in Graphic Design at UCA in 2017, I moved to Shanghai 🇨🇳, with my now wife. There, I worked as a freelance designer for various companies and esports teams, including OpTic Gaming, Prophecy, and Misfits. It was an incredible experience to work with such succesful teams and learn from teams growing in a rapidly growing industry.
In 2018 I relocated to Berlin 🇩🇪, where I worked for Kokyo - a startup building innovative community tools, and sustainable monetisation opportunities for the esports industry. Throughout my time there I made my first hire, pitched a project that secured €500,000 of infestment, and eventually became design lead. I'm quite proud of my acomplishments at Kokyo and greatful for the startup experience.
Right at the start of COVID, my wife and I decided it was the *perfect* time to get married. There were no speed bumps, no delays, and no complications whatsoever. Well, except for the fact that we had to sanitize before putting on the the rings, only 10 people were allowed in the room, and none of my wifes family could fly in from the states 🇺🇸. So - as I was saying - it was the PERFECT time to get married 😉.
Where I am now
In 2020 I joined Twitch as a designer and UI developer for the Original Content team. I'm still with the OC team working on internal tools for production teams... and unfortunately I can't say much more than that. Throughout my time so far at Twitch I've gradualy taken on more developer responsibilities and it's been a good setting to strengthen my technical skills.
After nearly 5 years abroad, I returned home to the UK 🇬🇧 in 2021.
What brings me joy
If you've read this far I want to be authentic - and the truth is whilst I love my work a lot, you've just read the highlight reel. The stuff that's easy to share and show off. I value authenticity and honesty, and for me right now that's admiting that most of my acomplishments shared above are overshadowed by all the side-projects I've worked on - even the ones that never saw the light of day.
My side projects are usually derived from a challenge I'm having or a problem I'm solving for someone less technical than myself. Though the impact might be smaller, these projects have a direct and immediate impression on whoever I'm working for - and being able to see that and respond to it in realtime is something I value greatly.
These days my side-projects are likely related to open source projects, or supporting my wifes passions with an over-engineered kick-ass solution. You can follow my sporadic updates via the feed, or follow me on other platforms... or better yet, let's talk about your side projects on Discord.
Oh, you just wanted to know my stack?
Typescript
I love how Javascript
Typescript ts(1337)enables me to work on frontend and backend, it's a power I try to weild responsibly.
Web Fundamentals
For the longest time I hacked my way through projects with just html & CSS, which has led to an appreciation for web standards.
Frameworks
My tools vary from project to project, but common staples are Svelte, React, and Sanity.
Design
As a designer eagre to prototype in code, I've grown to value my skills as tools to communicate with stakeholders and align on solutions.