About Dajve Green

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First and foremost, I'm a developer.

I've been putting things onto the internet since the wild and hazy days of the late 90s, when spinning gifs and Comic Sans were legitimate design choices​1, <blink>ing text could be enjoyed by the majority of your visitors​2 and Larry and Sergey were still opposed to "advertising funded search engines".

Around mid 2004, static HTML started to feel restrictive and the idea of being able to update sites using a content management system became more and more attractive.
Despite my lack of programming experience, a combination of strong coffee, a Dummies' Guide, and a flagrant disregard for normal sleep patterns led to me teaching myself PHP.

Seven years and countless projects later, I'm lucky enough to have turned that decision into a career choice.

That's not to say design doesn't interest me.

Working with dedicated designers, I don't get chance to fire up my creative side as often as I would like. I do, however, try to regularly dedicate time towards improving the aesthetic side of my work, whether there's an end product in mind or not.

Naturally, my main focus is web related and I'm excited by the possibilities that widespread support for CSS3 and HTML5, as well as increased connection speeds, will bring in the next few years.
I also love designing for print, which indulges the control freak in me that working on the web can't accommodate.

“ Good design is a lot like clear thinking made visual. „

Edward Tufte
  • I believe that great design is elegant, and that elegant design must be both functional and beautiful.
  • I believe that if you can't design elegantly, you should make functional design as beautiful as possible and not vice versa.
  • I believe that elegance on the web starts from the markup and respects the viewer's personal browsing choices.
  • I believe that elegant design is timeless and immune to trends.

Also, music!

Before the internet had ensared me within its series of tubes, I began a love affair with music and performing.

Over the years this has persisted, starting with a decade of performing arts and progressing through another decade playing bass in various bands.

In that time, I was lucky enough to play alongside some ​ of ​ my ​ favourite ​ artists, become a Warwick endorsee and sign to Anticulture Records with The Final Sigh.

“ A curious mixture of unruly spazz-grind, Mogwai-style subtlety and edgy electronics. „

Kerrang! (28th Jan 2006, p.50. KKK)

Recently I swapped strings for decks, after being introduced to DJing in early 2008. I learnt the ropes at Fibbers' alternative night, Distortion, and became the resident in October 2009. During 2010, I became involved in running the twice-monthly night following a move across town to Stereo, though I'm much more of an occasional DJ these days.

Sticking to the "play what you know" maxim, I can be found spinning alternative, indie, 90s and Top 40, and have guested at Kinkiindie, The Rockery and Hammertime.

Eventually, I will get round to recording and uploading some mixes but for now a selection of my setlists can be found at Serato.com.

And finally…

Without wanting to rehash the old "seven things" meme too much, it does seem a fitting way to end this; so, here are seven things you may or may not know about me.

  1. I live in the countryside between York and Scarborough with my beautiful girlfriend, 3 hamsters and 2 cats.
  2. I cannot drive.
  3. I lived in Bilbao for 9 months and developed a deep affinity for the Basque country.
  4. I used to be a librarian.
  5. My Doctor was Sylvester McCoy.
  6. I have a real intolerance to heat and will sleep with the windows open in the middle of winter.
  7. The diagnosis "caffeine misuse" appears on my medical record.

Footnotes

  1. This is a turn of phrase; Comic Sans has never been a legitimate design choice. [Context]
  2. Again, a turn of phrase; nobody enjoys <blink>ing text. [Context]
  3. Not that I won't get down and dirty and JavaScript without a framework from time to time, just that there are usually better uses of my time.
    Note, I have nothing against Dojo, we just haven't been formally introduced yet.
    Also, yes, JavaScript is now a verb. [Context]

Credits

Credit to Joel at Abraxo Photography for the first and third of my profile pictures. To say thanks, here is some shameless SEO-friendly backlinking:
York Photography. You should visit him.