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About Me

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As I sit here staring at a blank word document, I try to sum up what I should write. What do these people, my visitors, what to know? There are so many things to tell, but where to start? “

What was my first language?

C++. Yes, an odd choice of language. The one that was said to be the worst for beginners. But hell, what did this matter, I was about to prove them wrong!

I ordered two books that proved invaluable on my road to mastering C++. I used to try and read a couple of pages while eating breakfast before school, and then even more after I had finished my homework in the evening.

I slowly progressed but got very bored of just copying the examples out of the book, and then trying to understand the logic behind it. The most frustrating thing was that all the code samples in the books only every produced console programs. This was the most frustrating aspect of C++. I could write about 100 lines of code using classes or templates and all I would produce was a black box with some trivial numbers or text in it.

I wanted something more.

How did I get into Flash?

As my frustration with the lack of progress in C++ became too much, I began a search for something more.

Well, it all started when I was about 11 years of age and I saw a web site that shows Flash in use, and some of the stuff that it was capable.

What was this site?
It was the online portfolio of 2Advanced Studios.

You may have seen me mention them on this blog before, and there is a good reason for this. They were my main inspiration and driving force behind me to learn Flash, to create web sites and learn as much as I could about web design. For months, even years I visited there site just to gaze at it, to immerse myself within the digital matte paintings that served as the stunning background, to explore every aspect of their creation. I visited Plat4m everyday to check for new updates, just to make sure I wasn’t missing out on anything that might give me the key to their knowledge.

The first time I saw this site I remember dragging my mum into the study to show her this site. “Look at it! How amazing is that!”. She was very busy at the time so I didn’t get much of a responce. I didn’t care though, I was to immersed in the site to worry about what everyone else said or thought. 

While learning Flash, I tried to recreate bits of their site ranging for the paintings to the menu. As you can imagine, this did not exactly come out very well but this just drove me on even more to create what they create, to be as good as they were. For months I would crawl across tutorial sites to learn anything I could, for both AS3 and C++.

So this went on.

I learnt more, contributed more, and overall progressed in the world of flash to a half decent level.

Then something changed…

Passion, Inspiration, and Desire.

Without realising it, something had changed.

I experienced something I had never experience before. Such a passion and emotion had risen from within me that I was compelled to get even better at Flash. Ideas flowed from ideas; inspiration came from my own work, my own mind. To this day I feel such a burning desire to create, to create something completely different, to create something that affects people, to create something that gives people the same emotion to what I experinced when I visited 2Advanced for the first time.

It wasn’t just web design anymore.
This was what I was born to do.

The only problem now was the technical limitations. My ideas were light-years ahead of my technical ability. This was good. It provided me with even more of an incentive to learn, experiment, to become one of the most recognized people in the industry. This is my aim to this day.

Then the wait started.

After my visit to AKQA, I realised what I was missing. The people there had the life I wanted (not including family and friends, of course). There hasn’t been a day since where I haven’t thought about that trip, about why I was still at this dreaded place (school), and why I am not allowed to explore more of what I long to do.

Lesson after lesson I sit there thinking why am I here? What is the point? I am at school learning for the sake of learning.

I would sit there and think about what the people I met at AKQA London, and what they would be working on, what new things they would be learning, what ideas they would be coming up with, and all that is happening while I am sat trying to get my head round trigonometry (with not much luck, I might add!). The frustration inside me is not describable.

Some people may think that what I have written on this page is over the top. They do not understand what passion and devotion that I feel for my creativity. Bedroom coding is what I am doing now and this gives me a great time to feed of my own ideas, but thinking about AKQA, I cannot help but think how much better I could become surround by people who most probably feel the same passion for the work they do, and channel all my efforts into what I love. I want to work with the people that inspired and gave me the driving force that started this whole flame inside me. Only then will I really feel I am doing myself justice.

Hopefully in time to come I can been that Industry figure who inspired the 14 year old so much that he has had his heart set on it ever since that day.

One day I will be able to break out of the box that I am currently in and focus all my drive on getting better at what I do.
Create.
Inspire.
Learn.

Thank you for reading.
- Harry Northover.