A little bit about me

Helen Emmett
BGD, BFA, BSc (in progress)
Front end developer, creative thinker

I used to absolutely love going to the video store and browsing the cover art. Back in the '90s and early 2000s Rotten Tomatoes wasn’t yet a thing, I couldn’t watch trailers or look up the Wikipedia plot summary on my Nokia phone. The decision as to which movie to hire was largely influenced by the title, cover art, and short description on the back of the VHS or DVD.

I think it was this idea of the persuasive power of language, imagery and typography that led me to initially study graphic design.

After working in the graphic design and marketing industry for a number of years, I decided I needed a new challenge and made the decision to upskill. In 2019, (after some careful research) I left from my full time design job, began working at Paintvine – which absolutely changed my life for the better - and enrolled in a conjoint degree at the University of Auckland.

Interestingly, 2019 was also the year the last of my local video stores closed down. It really was the end of an era, and time for a new beginning.

I now live in a world with instant, easy access to Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia and movie previews online - plus the advancing emergence of AI. It is now these websites, apps and technology driven devices that are used to communicate information, and that is why I am now drawn to software and website development.

I still believe there is immense power in the right combinations of imagery, language, and typography to persuade, entice and provoke an emotional response. But, without clean code, UX consideration and efficient programming, these aesthetic narrative tools can become ineffective.

I finished my BFA last year (2023) and have one semester to go to complete my computer science degree.

I'm looking forward to starting my journey as a developer in a full-time role, working as part of a collaborative supportive team that believes technology is at its best when functionality, user experience, quality of information and aesthetics are in harmony.