The Rest Is Digital History | Part 4: The Digital Brick Road
A Collection of Stories About How I Got Here
During my senior year of high school, I realized that a web and graphic design career was possible. I took an elective digital art class that introduced me to Adobe Illustrator. I still kept up with my science and mechanical endeavors, having joined engineering and science clubs where I learned how to wire an electrical socket.
The digital art class flowed into my first job at EcomWorks, a small e-commerce company riding the dot-com wave in Ardsley, New York. EcomWorks built and managed affiliate networks for retail giants like Disney, Nascar, Cooking.com, and J&R Music. I landed the job after my dad attended a local job fair for himself and met the company’s vice president. After speaking with her, he learned she was looking for summer interns. With my background in design and code, I was the perfect fit at 17 years old.
I later recommended my best friend, Bryan, who also had coding chops. Together, we spent the summers of 2000 and 2001 in an overly-chilled basement office reviewing thousands of amateur websites whose owners had dreams of making quick pay-per-click commissions. It wasn’t the most exciting work since 90% of people designed their sites to be quick cash grabs. (A website with a single banner image linking to J&R’s online retail shop is hardly an affiliate worth approving.)
Since Bryan and I were more advanced than the other interns employed there, EcomWorks’ lead web developer took us under her wing to teach us how to code ASP. The company’s president challenged us to design and code online affiliate stores for EcomWorks as another revenue source, which we took on throughout the summer. To pass the time, I listened to nothing else but, of course, remixed Tekken soundtracks.
Bryan stayed for another winter and summer after I left to focus on college. Between SATs, college applications, and regents exams, I had enough on my plate. I couldn’t believe high school was nearing its end, but I was ready to close that chapter and start a new millennium of teen pop and threats of Y2K.
The Rest is Digital History is a collection of essays about my path to becoming a designer. Continue reading…
Part I: Stepping Online
Part II: I’ve Got Mail
Part III: An Iron Fist to the Jaw
Part IV: The Digital Brick Road
Part V: Spirit, Mind, and Body
Part VI: Game Over, Continue?
