I'm a 26 y/o kiwi lad and have been working within the web industry for approximately 3 years, with my primary appointment as a developer & designer for what was up until recently Vision Online Ltd. I have lent my hand to number of freelance projects also, working in conjunction with a varied group of clients/partners including media professionals, graphic designers, and life coaches/mentors to name a few.

My web platform of choice being PHP/MySql, with particular interest of late in the CakePHP framework and in utilising the Mootools javascript framework to provide some of the Web 2.0 flavour of the day.

Personally speaking.

Born & bred under the sunny central skies of small town Otago, New Zealand, I have a keen interest in the outdoors and many of the amazing aspects of my land of origin, and despite my yet to be fulfilled desire to explore the greater world at length, treasure the priviledge that is to be a ”Kiwi“.

I am a people person, happy in the company of my crazy friends and my ever inspiring siblings & mum, and my greater family with me or departed.

I am a solitude seeking person, amongst the forest and mountains, seeking inspiration & answers from the world around me in its many forms.

Beginnings.

Excelling throughout my early school years in many subject areas, taking particular liking and keen-ness for maths and science, I made the decision prior to completing secondary education to take an early detour if you like, to pursue my growing interest in the natural world in the form of studying Production & Amenity Horticulture.

Following a years foundation studies in this area, I gave it a test run in the real world working in the retail sector selling home gardening & landscape supplies for a large DIY/hardware chain store. Six months later taking up a position at a long establshed, well renowned landscape & production nursery as a horticultural labourer & nursery technician, with my skills and knowledge of the industry quickly expanding to pursue advancement within the company and to become an integral part of the large team of industry professioanls and seasonal workers.

The interest.

It was working in this position that my interest in computer based areas, in particular internet technology began to grow as my responsibities came to involve updating & maintaning a large stock database and utilising production forecasting and modelling. The later of which much to my dissappointment, due to lack of upper level interest, was never fully embraced.

The inspiration.

After making the purchase of my first PC I began to throw all my spare time into getting a firm grasp on what the internet is all about. In conjunction with some part time study quickly came to realise that the web industry had a lot to offer me, allowing for an almost unrivalled free flowing combination of design & creativity, logical problem solving, mental challenge, along with an ever changing medium that grows, twists & turns daily.

The choice...

From here my decisions became simple, I moved to Christchurch where the industry seemed to be buzzing and set about upskilling and finding a position within a company that was as much excited about this progression as I was. After a short period of time I found such a position with a local company Vision Online, with inspiring young businesswoman, Jody Jelas at the helm and her small team of open minded web geeks in tow.

...to actually doing it.

My initial position with Vision was part time, mainly HTML & design based work, and within 2 months came to be full time and to include PHP/MySql development work under the guidance of the man in charge of such things, contributing to a large number of relatively small projects for local & national based businesses & organisations.

After approximately 18 months, changes at Vision saw the company relocate to Auckland, after which I continued to work for them remotely sharing the responsibilty of lead devleoper with a newly appointed project manager on the ground up in Auckland.

To now.

My time with Vision Online spanned approximately 3 years up until spring 2007, when Vision was acquired by another large Auckland based web company, it was decided I would pursue my career in the web industry elsewhere. My time with Vision has provided me with a very strong foundation within the industry. It was, at times a do or die crash course in a commercial environment, and as such provided me with many challenges I feel would not have been provided elsewhere.

The confidence and knowledge gained in this position has seen me lend my skills on a freelance basis in recent times and I have been largely satisfied with what has been achieved from these ventures & partnerships with other professionals both within the design industry and foreigners to it.