About me

My name is Simon and I build things with code. I'm a programmer mainly focused on web technologies and creative development and over the last 10 years I have professionally made websites, apps, renderers (WebGL), generative design systems and generative art systems (in `Houdini and WebGL) commercially.

You can reach me at me@simonharris.co if you want to chat.

Lead Front-End Developer - Dev3 Ltd (2022 - Present)

As the Lead Front-End developer I have architected and built the entire front-end of our enterprise B2B SaaS, disrupting the school catering sector. This has involved building a complex web app with React/Redux, two mobile apps with React Native, and a PWA for internal deployment. We are now expanding the capabilities of the product with secret internal projects. The next wave of the app will use Websockets, WebGL with ReactThreeFiber and server rendered video systems to push the limits of what people expect from a school catering app. You can read a little about that work here.

Creative Coder - Variable.io (2018 - 2022)

As a creative coder at Variable I worked on a variety of projects within the generative art, WebGl, data visualisation and creative coding space. I learned a huge amount about real-time rendering, performance and Javascript tooling. Here are some of the things I did:

• Building generative art tools deployed on the web for agencies to use for ongoing branding projects (Javascript, WebGL). See an example here.
• Work on interactive installations to be deployed at the International World Expo (Javascript, WebGL)
• Work with the team to make live real-time 3d data art using Wimbledons tennis match scores, deployed on the Wimbledon grounds (Javascript, WebGL). Read the case study here.
• Build a visual branding campaign for GSK, inspired by the data flow within the company for their R&D teams (SideFX Houdini). Read the case study here.
• Work on an experimental live data visualisation project for a global leader in the energy sector (Javascript, WebGL).

Freelance Web Developer - Ph9 Ltd (2015 - 2018)

This was my first commercial work, developing and integrating themes for their internal e-commerce system. The integration had to be incredibly flexible so it taught me a lot about using CSS trickery to make very flexible responsive websites. During this time also I worked on a personal startup project called Apps4Takeaways that used cordova to make personalised apps for local takeaways.

Personal Projects (2013 - Present)

I am a lifelong learner and my main hobby is working on personal programming projects. Some of the projects I am most proud of are:

• Learning Rust and creating a voxel renderer with the Bevy game engine. I tweeted about it here.
• Building a WebGL renderer within Nodes.io from the bare bones. You can read about that here.
• Learning and getting to a high skill level in generative art tool SideFX Houdini. I got skilled enough to do commercial projects (see GSK above) and release my own NFT series with some small popularity. See my releases on objkt.com here.
• Learning the WebVR experimental hand tracking ecosystem and implementing a custom solution. You can see the results of that experiment here.
• Being a somewhat earlier adopter into the generative AI movement and training my own models are far back as 2019. I tweeted about that here.
• Building a realtime AR app for my friends to play DND with (sadly I never finished it). See the WIP tweet here.

My first real passion was actually chemistry - getting a chemistry scholarship to my secondary school and then going on to get a Masters in Pharmacy. The job of being a pharmacist had little appeal to me in the end as you don't do much (any) chemistry day to day and over the course of university I had become more and more interested in programming. I built some websites for money and a couple of games which I failed to find publishers for before I graduated.

Problem solving has always been a strength of mine and something I really enjoy so it was a natural fit. It didnt take me long to learn the basic of web development and I was freelancing for a local web developer within a couple of months.

Things really started to get interesting at my second job working for Variable.io. The team there was small but very talented and it opened my eyes to new ways of thinking about code, computers and systems. I worked as a creative coder working on projects for IBM, ABB, TfL, NEOM and others. The internal tools used were so unlike anything I had seen it really sparked a love of simplicity, and how simple imputs can lead to beautiful complex outputs.

Since then I have been working on a variety of projects, with a recent focus back on the web, apps and UI.

I spend the rest of my time at the gym lifting weights, working on a strong home life and maintaining my friend group. I love to talk to people about thier passions non-judgementally so have ended up with a diverse community around me that I put a lot of effort into staying close to.

I spend an abhorrent amount of my time listening to audiobooks and reading. I listen to fantasy books on audible and I like to read physical non-fiction books - usually self help, philosophy or science.

I grew up in rural England and currently live there - partly because I feel at home here but also because I havn't yet found an opportunity good enough to move for. When it comes to digital goods I'm happy to tear down and start again when appropriate but in the real world I love to repair things.

I've tried to give a sense of who I am here and so if you would like to talk I would love to hear about what youre working on.

Email me at me@simonharris.co .