Jesse Fisher – Front End Developer
Join us as we deep-dive into the world of Jesse Fisher – Orion Creative’s very own front end developer. We sat down with Jesse to talk about how he got into the web development game and while we were there, discovered he’s one of the last remaining earthlings to still own CDs!
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Grab yourself a craft beer and cheese plate and settle in for our Staff Snapshot on Jesse.
How long have you been a front end developer and how did you get into the industry?
I have been working as a front end developer for 11 years. I was fortunate enough to always have a computer at home and enjoyed learning programming in high school. After working in a trade for a few years I decided I wanted to do something more creative and studied Digital Media, which covered everything from design to 3D modelling and animation, and then website design and development. Once I knew what could be done with HTML and CSS, I was hooked on building websites.
Was there a defining moment that made you want to become a developer?
I had incredibly passionate teachers at TAFE who inspired me to pursue website development further. Prior to that I had really just been experimenting with code – doing things like completely customising my MySpace page!
Do you follow any developers on social and blogs that you admire or who have influenced you?
Yes, I still follow a few people that I was originally influenced by – Chris Coyier, Andy Clarke, Dan Cederholm, Eric Meyer, Paul Jarvis. Quite a few also have podcasts that I regularly listen to.
I’ve found that Facebook groups are where there is the most engagement at the moment. People of all ages, skill levels and locations around the world join in to share their knowledge, ask questions and promote what they’re working on. It’s a great way to get involved in a community of like-minded people and keep up-to-date with what’s going on in the industry.
If you weren’t a front end developer, what would you be doing?
If I wasn’t sick of sitting in front of a computer all day I think I’d like to explore user interface (UI) design and user experience (UX) design as I find them both interesting.
How long have you been working at Orion Creative?
This is my 4th year working with the Orion Creative team.
What would an ‘average day at the office’ look like for you?
Checking my emails first thing in the morning, keeping an eye out for any WordPress support issues. Moving cards around and completing checklists in my Trello board. Checking and installing WordPress plugin updates. Coding the HTML and CSS of a website design supplied by one of our talented designers. Logging in and out of client hosting accounts to upload file changes.
What’s the biggest or most complicated project that you’ve worked on at Orion so far?
That would be a WooCommerce website I built for a custom outdoor furniture store. It had 150 individual products and some of those had hundreds of variations too (size, shape, and colour).
To match their brand, the design of the site was also quite unique so there were a lot of different layout sections to build. One of the hardest things about coding a large website is finding a good balance between styles that are applied globally and styles that only apply to a specific section of a page layout – so if an element needs to be changed down the track you can do so with minimal effort.
What do you like to do in your spare time? What goes on during weekends?
Reading fantasy books in bed, sleeping in, going out for brunch, relaxing with a cheese board and craft beer. I’ve been a bit lazy about it recently but I also enjoy indoor rock climbing and bush walking in the Blue Mountains.
Fave movies/TV shows/bands? What are you watching/listening to these days?
I’m a big fan of the Lord of the Rings movies and generally anything by Marvel, DC, Pixar, or Studio Ghibli. For TV shows I’m currently watching Brooklyn 99, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Star Trek Discovery, Shooter, Limitless… and many more on Netflix.
For music, I usually search for a chillout or focus playlist on Spotify – but I own CDs by Beastie Boys, Coldplay, Damien Rice, Fever Ray, Kate Miller-Heidke, Led Zeppelin, Madeleine Peyroux, Regina Spektor, The Prodigy… and many other completely unrelated artists.
What are the top 5 things that would make your stranded-on-a-desert-island list – that you just couldn’t live without?
- My partner.
- Mountains of books (fantasy and sci-fi).
- A fridge full of cheese and craft beer (hopefully a magic fridge that never goes empty).
- A jumper, because I’m almost always cold.
- A flint, because I’ve made a fire with sticks before and it takes ages.
What are some fun or little-known facts about you that would surprise us?
I got the chance to do work experience in the bird division at Taronga Zoo and absolutely loved it! I’m quite happy to spend all day exploring whenever I visit a zoo.
After school I also started an apprenticeship in recreation vehicle manufacturing (building motor homes). It was cool but there wasn’t much opportunity to be creative which I was craving.
Who would win a fight between Thor and Spiderman?
I would be cheering for Spiderman all the way but he would get thoroughly pummelled by Thor before thinking up a clever way to overcome his strength or catch him off guard while he’s being cocky.
What colour would you be in crayon box and why?
Orange, because orange you glad to always see me? That might work better with an American accent.
If you could be any animal in the world, what animal would you be and why?
A Peregrine falcon because they can reach speeds over 320 km/h and they’re a bird!
