So you want to know a bit about me?

Some say I have no neck, but I know I do because I can turn my head. And one needs a neck to do that. That’s science!

I’m married to an amazing woman called Lindsay. She actually exists in real life, which works out really well for me. She is also my digital friend on Facebook and Twitter though, just to make sure we keep our binary relationship strong and healthy.

I like to bodyboard and surf, but don’t get to do it nearly enough. I make graphic designs using a computer and I also design and make websites that usually end up on the internet for all the world to see.

Filmmaking is cool! I love filming and editing and I feel nice inside when I create motion graphics and visual effects and when I do compositing. I am really keen to travel around the world and make documentary movies and tell people about Jesus and I hope I get the opportunity to do that!

So to some up: I’m a Jesus loving super-nerd who married out of his league who would love to travel and make movies.

You can check out my site at shanerielly.com or my portfolio at portfolio.shanerielly.com

If you want to know some boring stuff about what I’ve done then keep reading:

I’m a self-taught graphic designer/web designer/video production guy. When I left high school a good few years ago I enrolled in College to do a graphic design degree, but I couldn’t finish all the required work and hold down a night time job so I had to drop out after 2 months when I couldn’t pay the fees.

I then got a job at a Quantity Surveying and Property Valuation firm as a trainee valuer. They were paying for my studies to become a qualified property valuer, but the work was brain-numbingly boring and tedious so I only stayed there for 10 months. In that time I saved as much money as I could and used the savings to start my first business.

Empty Vessel Creations (EVC) was the name of the clothing brand that I started with just R10000 ($1000).

My mother taught me how to sew and I did pretty much everything in the business. I did all the graphic and print design and also bought a screen-printing carousel and taught myself all the in’s and out’s of screen-printing like colour separation, making positives, exposing screens and printing. Also with the help of my mom I learned how to make patterns for garments and I can sew pretty much anything from a t-shirt to a pair of pants complete with pockets and zips etc. I did all the cutting out and eventually hired a seamstress who worked with me for 5 years. She was seriously talented. I also learned how to set up and fix the industrial sewing machines that I bought at an auction. Later I employed a friend of mine as the factory manager and he made sure everything ran smoothly while I focused more on design, branding and marketing.

I designed catalogues and had them printed and bound and went out to see potential stockists. Things went reasonably well, but I lived in a small town at the time so growth was pretty slow. The brand had some pretty devout followers and the garment quality was really awesome. The designs were pretty sick too. I ran EVC for just about 9 years and have since sold off the manufacturing side, but still own all the intellectual property rights for the brand. I’d love to start it up again, but the apparel industry is really tough – A lot of your capital sits in stock so you have to move stock to keep cash flow alive. The exact opposite of selling your time!

When I got married EVC didn’t really provide enough income so, using the skills I learned running EVC and making surf videos and videos for my church, I started a media design and video production company. My girl and I ran that together and did really well. We mostly did corporate video production, websites and graphic design for print. I got into doing some motion graphics and a little VFX during this time and that was definitely the most enjoyable part of our work for me. I still love doing that now. Our company is still running in South Africa, but because we have been traveling for a while we mostly only do things that can be delivered online.

We’ve been in London for the last while where I have done a bunch of freelance work in web, design and video and in a few weeks we’ll be leaving on a 6 month ’round-the-world’ trip. Maybe we’ll meet you?

The rest is still to come…