nGen Works Presents: Happy Webbies

Hey guys :D My name is Ashe and I am a web designer in Milwaukee, WI. I help to run an amazing web-centric group called Web414 (http://web414.com) here in Milwaukee – we are putting on a DrupalCamp in January and we put on this past year’s BarCampMilwaukee. I think I deserve to be a HappyWebby because I live for design and I am really passionate about growing the tech community in the midwest.

Hi, I’m Grant McAllister, I have been designing websites and blogging for 2 years. I am a student at college doing New Media Studies (graphic and web design, film editing, sound editing and lots more.) I hope to aspire into a great designer such as any of the people featured in the happy webbies past series. I would like to meet Kevin Rose and Daniel Burka (Daniel has the coolest job I hope I can become someone of his importance as well.)

I have been doing freelance web and graphic design for a year or so and building a nice portfolio. I think I have done well to get into this industry so young, so to speak.

I feel I should be a happy webby for my contribution to the web we see today and for following Happy webbies since the 2nd issue :D

Thanks, keep up the great work!

P.S. Im 15 from Scotland.

All I have to say is I run IAmBetterThanU.com. So, it is simple, I am better than these guys. That is why you should pick me.

While it’s great to see the currents and up-and-comers, I’m most interested in seeing some Webbies for the behind-the-scenes gurus that work thanklessly without much involvement in the conference circuit or A-list blog rolls. Whether it’s personal work or involvement with standards bodies, their dedication and influence is undeniable.

A few names that come to mind immediately are John Slatin, Scott Andrew Lepera, Gez Lemon, Eric Costello, and Fantasai (whose real name is Elika though I’ve never seen her use it). However, those are some of the people I know about; I’d love to see a set of more uncredited heroes I’ve never even heard of. Happy Holidaze.

I nominate Scott Jehl because over the past year I’ve seen him work on some pretty big projects and still find time to grind away on a killer app for designers called Write Maps.

Strong designer and an even better coder. Don’t know of many other people out there that deserve it.

I humbly nominate Dave Fletcher at theMechanism because he is not only a world-class expert in branding and identity development but is spearheading the web standards movement in the New York area. He’s also an amazing writer who likes Godzilla, monkeys, and crazy pants. Make him a webby now!

I nominate Jonathan Kendler from Wiklund Research and Design up in Lexington, Mass. He is not only an extremely talented designer in some difficult spaces (medical devices, etc.), but is also committed to the user experience and doing the little things to champion user input into the design process. You can find him at wiklundrd.com

My website sucks but yet still I put my liver and my personal on the line for the sake of the greater web community having a good time (whether at their desks watching youTube or at a conference in the bar).

I believe this is a valuable skill and one that could (in so many amusing ways) be immortalised by one of these excellent icons!

(failing that there may be a pint in it for you….)

Oh one more person I nominate is Joshua Porter up in Boston. Joshua writes incredibly detailed and intelligent posts on Social Design.

He just recently opened up his own shop and things seem to be going great.

Honestly, I can think of more than one person who deserves the honor of being immortalized as a Happy Webby rather than myself but none that want the privilege as much as I do.

I began dabbling with the web around 1998 when I setup my own African Arts and Crafts website called “Africa In Style”, that subsidized my college education while I was in America. Since then I have always been passionate about the web and have worked professionally as a web application designer and integration consultant. I setup my own web design company just over three years ago called “Destiny Labs” and currently maintain a personal blog at Hayler.com. From time to time I post a few snippets over at Naggle.com as my contribution to the web world which include a javascript page indexer called “DPI” (Dynamic Page Index) and a cool Photo Gallery based on the Flickr API (called FlickrBox) which I use on my own site at hayler.com/photos.

If I am honest, I pleaded with Carl from nGen to please make me a custom webby head but he very graciously declined so it would just totally make my Christmas wishes come true if you would kindly consider me a potential candidate for the second prize…did I mention I was modest… Thanks guys, keeping my fingers crossed that Virtual Santa will feel generous this Christmas.

Cheers

Rich

I nominate Jeremy Harrington aka Crawl Space Media. I’ve worked with Jeremy for a number of years on a number of projects…..always good stuff :-)

Thanks for the nod Dennis! I nominate John Resig, Creator/Lead Dev of The jQuery Library, Author of Pro Javascript Techniques, and Mozilla JS Evangelist. Pretty much a shoe-in IMO.

wow it’s late… or early….