Some love for Code

30th January 2011 • Filed under: Airfront, Work,

Apologies in advance if this post is a little too soppy for your liking but this is a Love-in for the people I’ve worked with while freelancing these past two years. I’ve had it in my mind for a while to write a little something about the lovely people at Manchester’s Code ComputerLove (known as “Code”).

In my professional career to date I’ve had the good fortune to work with some incredible people. Whether it was working at the BBC, Lime Pictures, Studio Skylab, Calabash Films, Cheshire Data Systems, KMP or the collection of various ad & web-agencies I’ve freelanced for. I’m proud to be in this industry because its full of passionate, smart people and I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the team at Code.

Since leaving the BBC in 2008 to go freelance I’ve been lucky enough to have a regular stream of work without ever really attempting to market myself. Indeed the fact that this website has only just launched is testament to just how busy I’ve been and its fair to say that a large proportion of the work I’ve done has been for Code but its important to note I’m not thanking them for giving me work but for letting me work with them (if that makes sense).

I first spoke with Code before I left the BBC, my contract was due to expire and I was at a crossroads with what I should do next. As a long time admirer of Code and their work I jumped at the chance to interview for a front-end developer position. I must have made a good impression as I was offered the position by Louis Georgiou (a founder), however I didn’t end-up joining them, instead I stayed with the BBC’s Future Media & Technology department to work on the then restructure of bbc.co.uk. I was torn between to the two excellent offers I thought at the time I’d let Code down as I did a bit of a u-turn and stayed with the BBC. I said to myself, “I’ve blown it with them” wrongly believing Code would hold it against me.

Instead when I did go full-time freelance my first work was with… Code! It was only a small job but came as a very pleasant surprise to be asked. I’ve since done a lot of work for the @computerlovers and can honestly say that they are some of the nicest and most talented people I’ve had the pleasure of working with. To me, it genuinely feels like a friendly, Pixaresque working environment which I believe stems from Code’s founders Louis, Wini and Tony. Some of the North’s most talented freelancers got started in Code and others have gone to work for big agencies in New York and London but doubtless with excellent memories of doing great work at Code in Manchester.

Its important to me that I say a massive thanks to Louis, Wini, Tony, Ste, Branny, Gibbo, Viv, Tim, Tony McBeth, Parky, Adam, Gillian, Bes, Ross, Ben, Leigh, Ewan, John, Michelle, Emma, Ian, Dan, Mark, Jools, Claire, Alex, Andrew, Colin, Linus, Steve, Dave, Chris H, Jen and everybody else. Hope to keep working with you all in the future.