Hello, my name is Erik Fadiman and I'm a graphic "deviner". That means I'm a hybrid designer/developer; I can design web sites as well as build them. I've been a graphic designer for over ten years, and I've been teaching interactive design at the Seattle Central Creative Academy for seven. It's a fantastic job because it forces me to keep up with new technologies in our constantly expanding industry. My students are bright and enthusiastic and I spend all my free time reading about things like HTML5, CSS3, and design for mobile devices.
I love living in a world of pixels and code and user experience, but it wasn't always this way. Like many designers, I used to be dependent on a web developer to bring my concepts to life. However, the internet is a fantastic resource for self directed education, and I quickly learned that I love building sites too.
About a year ago I began working at Office Nomads, a co-working space in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood and only one block away from where I teach. It's a fantastic work environment and it has been great for my personal and professional development.
Around that time I was trying to figure out how to build websites with WordPress. I overheard the guy at the next table frequently talking about WordPress and worked up the nerve to ask him for help. What was the etiquette in a co-working space? Was I even allowed to pester him? How many times per day is too much? Even though he was busy, he was very helpful and always pointed me in the right direction, and helped me accelerate my education. Pretty soon I was building WordPress sites by myself as well as adding it to my curriculum at SCCA.
In case you haven't figured it out, the WordPress guy was Andy Hieb, DTEK LLC's co-founder and technical partner. However, now he tells me that WordPress isn't always the best solution, and if I want to be really versatile, I'm going to have to learn Drupal! That should keep me on my toes in 2012. I'm really excited to join the team at DTEK and I'm looking forward to working on some great projects together.
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