Launch of New Site!

Justin Seidl  |  06.15.10 at 1:11pm  |  No Comments

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on the redesign and branding of my personal website Ace Eight of Spades. As you can see the majority of my work is finished but much in fact still remains to be done. With this initial post I’m presenting to you, the viewers, my first designed and developed WordPress theme. For some of you designers and developers you are thinking big whoop. But for me and other young design and developers this is a big step in experience and knowledge gained. In the next couple of years I will define what type of designer and developer I am based on the experiences I have with clients, fellow designers and developers, friends and family. The person I am today is because of what I did yesterday and to make sure I’m the design I want to be tomorrow I have to go after that today.

How am I where I’m at today?
First, my name is Justin Seidl and I’m currently a student going into my senior year at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Currently majoring in the Design Arts I have found that the best way for me to become better in my field of study and in life in general is too ask questions and seek the answers you are looking for. When I first arrived at UWGB I intended on majoring in Computer Science. Video games and websites were a passion of mine and are the roots to my love of graphic and web design. My first website was through the now extinct service Calypso. Throughout the years I would switch between different hosts and programs learning from my many failures as a very young design and developer. I thought it was made up in my mind that the dollar signs of graduating with a computer science degree would be my way to go.

Shit was I wrong!
I soon learned after about a semester and a half of struggles and  loss in interest with computer science that this wasn’t quite the path I wanted to follow. I don’t regret my initial decision as I learned a great deal that would help me to successfully develop websites in the future. The most important thing I learned however was about myself. I could code and develop but it wasn’t my passion. In December of my first year I had taken a job as the student web developer for UWGB’s University Union.  Placed in the same office as three other graphic designers, I quickly came to the realization of what I wanted to do… I wanted to design!

Congratulations… Then what?
Within the next week of  coming to this realization I was in the student services office changing my major. I would become a student in the Design Arts and together with my classes, work projects, and freelance projects I would mold myself into the current designer I am today. I think one of the greatest things I could have done for myself was to start freelancing when I had available free time. The ability to work for clients gave me a paycheck, a project for my portfolio, and most importantly it gave me real world experience. This is where I give special thanks to one of my good friends Brian Pensinger who helped me better understand the business side of graphic design.

Thanks Brian!
Like Brian the continuation of growth also depends on the designers and developers I surround myself with. When I was at the age of 15 my first website was up and running on Calypso when my father came to me with a newspaper article. It was of a local website designer only about a year or two older than me. As I read the article I learned how Jordan Destree started his own business creating website for local clients. This experience was the first time I realized I could do this sort of thing for the rest of my life (At the time it was my back up plan in case Major League Baseball Player didn’t work out). An unbelievable amount of knowledge has come from others I’ve been in contact with throughout my short history. A few of these designers that I need to give special thanks to are Addie Sorbo, Davy Kestens and Chris Livieri. Many others have attributed to what I have done but that list would go on for what would seem like an eternity so for the rest of you… Thanks!

Ace Eight of Spades
Ace Eight of Spades is the brand name for the creative ideas of me, Justin Seidl. Why Ace Eight of Spades you ask? It all starts with the number eight because it is my favorite number. Throughout high school I participated in football, wrestling and baseball. In each of those sports I supported the number eight as if it were my last name and it could have been because I was born in August (the eighth month) of 1988. The number eight is much like the sign for infinity except it stands tall instead of lying down like it has failed. The ace stands for power, strength, and the best of the best. That is who I want to be… I want to be the best! Together these two symbols came together in a Texas Hold’em poker tournament during my first year of college. I won the final pot by calling my opponents all-in with the Ace and Eight of Spades in my hand. I would end the hand with two pair, Aces and Eights. It was from then on that I considered Ace Eight of Spades to be my lucky sign.

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