Andrew Egenes
http://www.britepilot.com Biography
I am a 23 year-old web designer and developer currently living in Atlanta, Georgia with my wonderful fiance. I am 100% self taught and enjoy all aspects of web design and development as well as most other mediums of art. I got into web design while in high school and the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. That’s still the same basic concept that drives me today.
Where do you work? What do you do there?
I’m currently working for myself on two projects. Design Float is my main personal project and I recently signed on as the senior web designer for Root Zoo, a social networking website for sports fans. I love it because I have the flexibility of working from home. While a work from home gig isn't for anyone, it has really allowed me to focus and my productivity has benefited greatly thus far.
How long have you been in this field?
I have been in the web design and development field for almost 8 years now.
What role did (are) you play(ing) in the project?
Currently I wear all the hats in the Design Float project. I did everything from the design of the site to the customization of the CMS that powers it. I handle the maintenance, moderation, marketing, partnership building, exposure generation and just about everything else that goes into the management of a community driven website. It's a lot of fun and I've learned more than I ever imagined from the experience so far.
What was (is) your inspiration for this project?
My inspiration for the project really stemmed from my growing frustration with Digg. As Digg continues to grow, they continue to adequately organize the ever increasing amount of submissions they receive. If I want to find web design related content, I have to sift through page after page within the "Design" category which includes everything from the largest sculpture ever made out of fortune cookies to Ford's latest concept cars. It was too time consuming and difficult to find truly design related content.
What is in your equipment/gear setup?
I work on a shiny new 24" iMac which I love and highly recommend to anyone not quite ready to splurge on the Mac Pro and cinema displays. As far as software is concerned all the standards and lately I've really begun to appreciate Coda.
What are some websites you visit daily?
Technorati,
Smashing Magazine,
Tech Crunch,
K10K
Who's work do you most enjoy?
Right now I'm really enjoying a lot of the work from the tons of talented and relatively unknown designers and artists that are beginning to submit their stuff to Design Float. There are so many talented designers that have otherwise had a hard time bringing to light to their creations.
What advice can you share to people just getting into this field?
Stick with it. It can be daunting when you see how long others have been doing this, but as long as you take it one step at a time and continue to learn and explore, you can compete with the best of them. Also, look to other mediums for inspiration. Creative block can be crippling and sometimes you find inspiration in the unlikeliest of places.
Any other comments?
I'd really just like to thank everyone who has embraced Design Float and continues to build the community. It's a difficult and slow process to get something like this off the ground and the growing community of users who have embraced Design Float, not only for what it is, but for what they envision it becoming is what keeps me up at night thinking of ways to improve their experience and the helpfulness of the resource.
