Meet Cameron Harbrecht, Web Developer. He’s our resident car enthusiast, go-to animator, and a devoted dog dad.
How did you first get interested in cars?
My dad is a mechanic for heavy equipment such as excavators and dump trucks, but he’s also a car nut. I learned the basics from him, and that led down the road of loving cars and doing most of my own maintenance. My great uncle was a race car driver in the 1970s, so you could say it’s in my blood.
How did you get started in coding?
Though coding isn’t my first love, I’ve grown to appreciate the creativity and the problem-solving it requires. I first got into programming through necessity: it was attached to my college major. I majored in animation, but also wanted to be sure I had a more viable job lined up. When I first started doing front end development, I wasn’t very good at it—so I didn’t care for it much. After about 8 years, I’ve gotten much better and learned to love it.
What do you like about cars?
I enjoy the creativity that cars allow. I see cars as a form of self expression: they’re like a blank canvas that can be customized to suit the owner’s taste. I love being able to make my car unique to me, to stand out from the crowd. There's nothing better than turning heads while cruising down the street with my girlfriend, Sarah.
What about coding?
Coding has the same freedom to make something work within an existing structure. You, of course, want something to be beautiful, but it must still be functional. Like customizing cars, the starting point of a website is the same framework and mechanics, but the developer has license to make it stand out and make it unique.
What inspires you?
Well, cars, obviously. I follow a lot of car accounts on social media and I enjoy seeing how they’ve been customized. I’m also part of a car club, NWISO: Northwest Indiana Subaru Owners. Even my dog, Laska, wears a Subaru bandana.
I enjoy viewing and creating animation. Like a lot of creatives, my dream job was Pixar or Blizzard, and I still love seeing stories told through animation. Animated, story-based websites such as this one inspire me to combine web development and animation to create an immersive user experience.
What’s your dream project to work on?
I love working on projects where I get to make design come to life—especially through interactive websites or videos. Working on videos like Color Matters: Green and Lead Generation or interactive webpages like our Rebranding Report are especially enjoyable. Any client that needs advanced web animations automatically gets brownie points.