Kellan
Yup. I'm eating peanut butter straight from the jar... Don't be jealous.
24 years old
Portland, OR
Male
About
Hello people of Virb!
My name is Kellan and I originally hail from the island of Kauai, Hawaii. However I currently reside in not so sunny Portland, Oregon. Hawaii is amazing but if you don't have an extra $800 to throw around then I strongly recommend visiting the Rose City. Try to aim for a time when It's not raining...
(Hold that thought, I have to go do some homework)
Anyways, as you can see I'm your normal busy design student. I study Web Design and Interactive Media at the Art Institute of Portland. I'm about three years into my program and have loved every minute of it. In fact I can't believe that I only have a year left...
Creating things has always been apart of my life. While its been a constant feature it seems to manifest itself in strangely unrelated ways. I grew up loving the Industrial Arts. Woodworking and crafting out of metals and plastics were a common pastime. When I have more time I'll tell you about building traditional Hawaiian canoe or about the time I decided to manufacture skateboards out of my garage. Through high school music was (and still is) a passion of mine. In fact the reason I now find myself in Portland is music. The band I was a part of in Hawaii went on to tour and based themselves out of P-town.
I started getting into graphic design and web development around four years ago. I'm new to the game but really enjoy the process of learning it. Web development is a wonderful media for a number of reasons, here are a few of them:
The first? It's New! And new things are always exciting!
The second (basiclly a result of the first), it's growing rapidly. Things are always different, people are continuously pushing boundaries, everything is fresh... sometimes too fresh.
Third (this is a personal one), it offers me the perfect balance between logic and visual expression. Designing a website involves thought on many levels. On the surface you have things like layout, typography, hierarchy, color theory... all of the things that go along with front end usability. However those are all meaningless without good coding, and good coding takes a somewhat different mindset then that of say... "picking out the right value of gray for body copy".
Maybe I was wrong earlier. Maybe the reason why I enjoy web development so much is because it contains many of the same elements found in other creative outlets. Music, woodworking, they all have their own balance of logic and aesthetic - of common sense and visual/audible expression.
The more I learn about the process of web development the more I learn about my own love for building and creating.
Now if I could only hurry up and graduate, get a job, and pay the rent!
Kellan
Text(3)
Jul 10, 2007
New Board
The other day i took a drive over to the North Shore of Kauai. They have a surf swap meet in Hanalei the first Saturday of every month. I scored a nearly new board from a South American shaper for a really good deal.
Jul 7, 2007
Spam...i love it!
Mention Spam on the mainland and most people think of the stuff that fills their email inboxes- just another one of those things that life could do without. Mention Spam with any local in Hawaii however, and they will undoubtedly rattle on for a good ten minuets about …
Jun 25, 2007
First impressions...
First impression? Virb is awesome. It is everything a social network should be- dummy proof page editing, complete html/css control, and a long list of well thought out features. However, as much as I'd like to hope that it might just have the chance to dethrone Myspace …
Music
Radiohead, Muse, Coldplay, Jimmy Eat World, Klaxons, Royksopp, The Cure, Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service, Mae, Anberlin, Relient K, Mute Math, UnderOath, Saves The Day, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Sounds, Pinback, The Decemberists, Copeland, Ace of Base, Thrice, Brand New, Reggie & The Full Effect, The Get Up Kids, Brandston, Minus the Bear, Vince Guaraldi, The Beatles, Duran Duran, Pink Martini, Third Eye Blind, Jimmy Eat World, Coheed & Cambria, AFI, The Used, Franz Ferdinand, Sting, The Police, Bright Eyes, Outkast, Black Eyed Peas, Gorrillaz, Norah Jones, Frou Frou, John Mayer
Television
NOVA, Planet Earth, Deadliest Catch, Grey's Anatomy, House, MythBusters, Dirty Jobs, Man Vs. Wild, No Reservations, Bizarre Foods, MXC, Flavor of Love, The Soup
Tyler Sticka, May 28, 2008:
Sounds like a busy term. I had a lot of fun in e-Learning, using the project as an opportunity to focus on something that interested me but was a bit outside the realm of web design. I'm sure you'll manage it just fine.
Tyler Sticka, May 22, 2008:
Things are groovy. Got asked to do a class for Summer term but I would have to get a sub three out of the ten weeks, which isn't so cool. Might come teach in the Fall or Winter. You and Jess will probably be done and out of there by then, huh?
Tyler Sticka, May 19, 2008:
So are you and Jessica going to grace WebVisions or did you chicken out about volunteering? :-P Just kidding, school's busy (yada yada yada).
Either way, if you and/or her are over 21 you should definitely think about hanging out with other designerly types at the WebVisionary Awards:http://www.webvisionaryawards.com/
Peter Wooley, Mar 8, 2008:
I've actually heard great things about the D70, and matched up with your skills, you seem to be pulling off quite the shot (speaking about the look and feel of Jessica's profile photo). Thanks for letting me know!
Peter Wooley, Mar 7, 2008:
Hey Kellan, delightful to see you on Virb... this'll take over MySpace and Facebook, at some point.
Had a question for you: What are you shooting with (photography-wise)?
jessicat, Jul 1, 2007:
hey guess what....!
you're my favorite!!!
jessicat, Jun 28, 2007:
this is really no fair.
you've got more friends than me by 1.
it's okay though.
in 13 days it's going down.
massive tickle fight, mister popular.
jessicat, Jun 21, 2007:
you're silly. i miss you.