Originally, I wanted to be a video editor.
From 1998-2002, I was a Broadcast Operations / Film & Television student at Central TAFE (now the Central Institute of Technology) in Perth, Australia.
During this time, I was also a volunteer at the now-defunct Access 31 community television station, mainly compiling programs for broadcast. The theme from "Bonanza" still haunts me today! I was also the Post Production Supervisor for the three season run of the Socialite program.
Major changes in my personal life triggered my travelling instincts in early 2004. I began travelling across Australia and around the world, giving rise to the name "Wandering Pixie".
Between travelling periods, I worked at a number of temporary office jobs. Whilst it paid the bills, my real passions were web design, graphic design & photography. Starting off in the era of Geocities and Yahoo! Sitebuilder, I built a couple of small websites for friends, plus designed some posters for local bands and events.
In July 2007, I moved to Vancouver, Canada. A few months later, I joined the organizing committee of RushCon, a fan-based convention for the Canadian rock band, Rush.
In between more temp jobs, I started learning HTML on my own. However, it soon became apparent more training was needed for my web design skills to reach a professional level.
Langara College became the venue for almost 2 years of solid studying. In 2009, I enrolled in the Web Publishing Certificate program and passed with flying colors, receiving my certificate in May 2010.
In September 2010, I started on the one-year Publishing Diploma program. During this time, I was a Layout/Production Artist and Image Specialist for Pacific Rim Magazine. I was also the author of the Parallels of Isolation article, as well as a highly active member of the Home Page Team for the magazine's website.
In between Web Publishing and the Publishing Diploma, I also started on the Photography Certificate program. Three units have been completed so far and more units will be picked up in the future.
Currently, I am working as a freelance web & graphic designer with my own company, Cygnus X-1 Design. In addition, I'm looking for other work to beef up my experience in the web & graphic design fields.