Gordon Grace

Introduction

Hi! My name is Gordon, and this is my video resume.

Thanks for stopping by. This video is designed to accompany the written CV that you can see elsewhere on this website.

But this is a chance for you to get to imagine what I would be like in your workplace, in your interview room, presenting to your clients, hearing from vendors, or even working alongside you.

Modus Operandi

I've been really lucky in that I've enjoyed all of my previous jobs. It's put me in places where I've had the chance to use pretty much everything that I've studied in the past and a lot of my personal interests at the same time.

I'm happiest in my job when I'm using all of the abilities that I've got - when I can find something that's meaningful and actually get challenged by the work that I get to do.

Extra-Curricular Activity

During my spare time I enjoy sports, mostly team sports of just about any description. Traditionally for me that's been hockey and a fair bit of soccer as well. If I get a chance to play team sports with workmates or colleagues, you get to see a side of them on the sporting field that you won't necessarily see in the office and it's a great way to build up that camraderie; to really take relationships to new levels and actually get interested in your workmates as people - not just as colleagues.

Outside Influences

I'm never actually satisfied with what I know - there's always something new that's going on, especially in the tech industry. I'm always reading: both print and online and you can see elsewhere on this website exactly the nature of those books and those articles that I'm looking at online.

But I don't just want to be limiting myself to just reading about newest technologies or latest ways of doing things but actually taking influences from other fields, so looking at how architecture is developing, how design is moving forwards, even the origins of typography - all of this seems to be able to come together and challenge the way I think about how I do my work. There's always something else that encourages me to read further, to learn more, and to actually find new and interesting ways to solve problems.

Interdisciplinarity

I don't believe that information technology, or ICT, or designing for the web, or designing applications has to be limited to people who have purely technical knowledge. Look, I believe that there needs to be people who are able to act as conduits, and have a vocabulary that can talk to the creative industries and to use that language; people who can talk to technical folk and to engineering types (and can actually have an appreciation for how difficult their job can be); and, at the same time, this same person needs to be able to communicate the business needs of an organisation (or understand the business needs of an organisation) and be able to negotiate between these three very, very different fields while still having an appreciation of each unique perspective and marrying them all together to deliver something that's greater than any one of them could've produced on their own.

Whatever it is I'm building on any given day has to solve a problem and meet a business need. But, it should also look good, and it should also be usable by the widest possible audience.

Knowledge Sharing

One of the biggest buzzes I get out of being in the workplace is being able to learn a new technology, or a new design or new technique, and then using it to solve a problem (one that hasn't necessarily been solved before). But then taking it that one step further and presenting the solution, or teaching someone else how to use that technique or that approach so that they can then take it and use it in a wider way or a slightly different way to what I might've originally anticipated.

That buzz of communicating something new to someone else who then gets excited about it is just extraordinary, and I look out for opportunities to do that regularly.

Be Seen

When my work is going to end up as something that's visible, able to be seen by a lot of people, able to be used by a lot of people, even able to be criticized be a lot of people, that's an enormous motivator to take the time to be thorough; to take the time to give attention to detail; to take the time to feel as though this is going to matter and to actually take the time to care about what it is I produce.