We’re live from Austin TX at the epic HTML5.tx conference. In version 56 we asked the warriors from Drifting Creatives to blow up the DeveloperSmackdown.com site. They did exactly that! They walk us through what’s wrong, why they would change it. Of course they served us that plate of humble pie in front of 100 of our closest friends. After that Brandon and Clark talk about where the site should start adopting HTML5. ,
Show Notes
Drifting Creatives:
Drifting Creatives is a two-person design team with a focus in badassery. We design user-friendly websites, develop beautiful and memorable brands and if you can print it, we can design it. We began this journey by designing our way across the country; connecting & learning from creatives around the US and sharing what we learned with students. We lived and designed from the road for five months. Our travels were published in two magazines. We spoke at a design conference in Nashville, TN. Students asked us to come to their universities to share our story. We did. And it was awesome.
We started our company in an unconventional way and continue to strive to be a bit different in everything we do. So yeah, we’re not your normal design firm, but you don’t want us to be. We are Martin Hooper and Gavin Braman, just a couple of warriors, tryin’ to make it big.
Gavin Braman
I’m a 20-somethin’ image maker and adventurer. My name is Gavin Braman and I co-own Drifting Creatives. During the day I stare at my computer screen until magical unicorns whisper ideas into my ears. Once I have an idea, I teleport into my laptop, slap around some pixels with my two-handed battle axe and usually I emerge victorious.
When I’m not making websites or logos for clients, I might be drawing monsters. Imagine Hairy Friends is something I started and work on when I’m feeling exceptionally inspired. I’m a huge fan of monster-related art. Love artists like, Alex Pardee, Jeff Soto, Nicholas Di Genova and I would assume this obsession stems from my on-and-off addiction to computer games. #nerd
I also dabble in photography. I shoot photos of beautiful models in strange and weird locations, like abandoned hotels. Every shoot is an epic adventure and the entire process is very inspiring in both my design work and art.
Once I’ve exhausted all creative resources, I go rock climbing. I’m a huge fan of all board-sports too, though snowboarding and wakeboarding are at the top of the list. Some items on my bucket list are to go deep-water soloing in Thailand, go snowboarding and see one of my designs or monsters on someone’s snowboard, learn to kayak, make Drifting Creatives successful enough that we can hire a personal masseuse and to one day have a beard as awesome as Martin Hooper, my business partner.
Martin Hooper
I grew up in the small town of Henderson, Texas. I grew up in an artistic family and discovered my passion for design in high school. After high school, I completed my Bachelor of Visual Studies at Texas A&M University.
I enjoy the winter, great beers, and good people. My mother tells me I’m a blast to hang out with. I’m married to a wonderful Australian woman, and we have a pseudo-child in our black labrodoodle named “Cache”. I like to do a lot stereotypical designer things like take photos with Instagram, ride my bike, and pretend to like crappy music. I’ve been able to work with a ton of talented people in the past few years, and I can’t wait to work with more amazing people in the future. I believe that design is an organic, team-driven process, and I believe a well designed T-shirt could one day save the world. Wanna grab a beer?
Brandon Satrom
Brandon is a web evangelist for Microsoft, based in Austin, TX. A unapologetic lover of the web, Brandon loves to talk about HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Open Source and whatever new shiny tool or technology has distracted him from that other thing he was working on (like CoffeeScript). Brandon loves writing and speaking and loves hanging out with and learning from other passionate developers.
http://www.userinexperience.com
@BrandonSatrom
Resources
Links mentioned during the show:
As for the site redesign, that will start soon. Make sure to check out Clark as he will blog not only about the site refresh but the transformation to adopting HTML5.
Sponsors
ThatConference is a brand new conference coming to the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells on August 13th, 14th, 15th of 2012. This is a conference is founded by Developers who want to create the conference they’ve always want to go to and for a price that’s easy to justify to your boss. First and foremost this is a developer’s conference. 3 days of any technology and nothing but code. You can find more at ThatConference.com.
WebSite Hosting is provided by Applied Innovations.
Music
ReMix.NIN.com, and http://www.podcastthemes.com/
