Emile Hay, Developer in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
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Emile Hay

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

Emile is a creative, front-end developer. He began his career as a visual designer and is happiest when breathing new life into an older website or product to help it reach greater heights. Emile is passionate about all things digital, especially the web.

Portfolio

wiCover
JavaScript, SCSS, CSS3, JSX, React, Mithril.js
Digital Path
JavaScript, SCSS, CSS3, HTML5, HyperScript, Mithril.js
Commcentrix
MySQL, SCSS, CSS3, HTML5, jQuery, JavaScript, PHP

Experience

  • Adobe Illustrator - 6 years
  • CSS3 - 6 years
  • Adobe Photoshop - 6 years
  • JavaScript - 6 years
  • HTML5 - 6 years
  • SCSS - 4 years
  • Web App Development - 2 years
  • Mithril.js - 2 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

GitHub, GitLab, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS

The most amazing...

...project I've worked on was an indie video game called Orbit. It was built in Unity and won the South African national leg of the Microsoft Imagine Cup in 2014.

Work Experience

Lead Front-end Developer

2018 - PRESENT
wiCover
  • Used the lesser-known JavaScript front-end framework, Mithril.js, to build fast single-page applications for clients mainly in the insurance industry.
  • Created a React boilerplate project for all of our React-based work using React, Redux, Webpack 4, Babel, Bootstrap 4, SCSS, Sass, and ESLint.
  • Built web-based applications that integrate with several internal and third-party APIs including vehicle registration and map and address lookups.
Technologies: JavaScript, SCSS, CSS3, JSX, React, Mithril.js

Lead Front-end Developer

2017 - 2018
Digital Path
  • Used the lesser-known JavaScript front-end framework, Mithril.js, to build fast single-page applications for clients mainly in the insurance industry.
  • Created a boilerplate Mithril.js web app using ES6, Babel, Webpack 4, Sass, SCSS, Webpack dev server hot reload and ESLint for all of our Mithril.js-based projects.
  • Led a team of five front-end developers, mentoring and guiding through code review and pair programming, while taking ownership of the software we were building.
Technologies: JavaScript, SCSS, CSS3, HTML5, HyperScript, Mithril.js

Web Designer and Front-end Developer

2016 - 2017
Commcentrix
  • Built customer WordPress websites using the Underscores WordPress starter template by Automattic.
  • Created banking websites for simple feature phones in rural African markets using HTML 4.01 and similar older technologies.
  • Created standalone HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript components for Drupal component libraries to integrate into websites using the Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 CMS.
  • Created interactive rich media banner ads for websites that included advanced features such as video and audio using Google Web Designer software.
Technologies: MySQL, SCSS, CSS3, HTML5, jQuery, JavaScript, PHP

Web Designer and Front-end Web Developer

2014 - 2016
Interexcel
  • Built brochure websites using pure HTML5 and CSS3.
  • Built HTML newsletters for use in browser-based or Outlook email clients.
  • Created interactive PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat.
  • Designed modern, aesthetically pleasing responsive websites using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
  • Built market-ready websites using WordPress themes with visual builder plugins.
Technologies: PHP, WordPress, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5

Experience

Cadbury South Africa Website

Cadbury is one of the best-known and most-loved producers in chocolate’s almost 200-year-old history. I, along with a small team of front and back-end developers, had the opportunity to build the Cadbury South Africa website in 2017. I led the front-end development team, building and styling standalone HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript components that were integrated into the CMS that the site was built upon.

Personal Blog and Website

http://emilehay.xyz
Sometimes the toughest client can be yourself. I had a lot of fun building my blog and portfolio website. I built a custom theme for the WordPress site using https://underscores.me, a popular starter theme for WordPress by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.

Hyperloop One Website

My employer built the Hyperloop One website while I was employed as a full-time WordPress theme developer. The Hyperloop One website was not built on WordPress, so I wasn't originally assigned to the project. However, when crunch time arose, I was brought in to bring some much-needed CSS expertise and ensure the project made its deadlines.

Telkom VS Gaming Website

https://www.vsgaming.co.za/
VS Gaming is South Africa’s largest independent gaming brand and the leading platform for online gaming in Africa, as well as one of the fastest-growing digital networks on the continent. I was one of two front-end developers who built and styled the website. The website currently hosts a blog and an eCommerce shop.

Orbit Indie Video Game

Orbit is an award-winning 2D action-adventure circular platform game set in space. You play as Atlas, an astronaut who navigates and explores systems of tiny planets, fighting aliens to save humanity. Orbit started as a university project for my third-year game design module at the University of Pretoria. Our course coordinator approached our team and asked that we submit Orbit to the Microsoft Imagine Cup.

We presented Orbit to a panel of judges, facing off against 54 other teams nationwide. Orbit won in the Games category. My roles on the project were lead content artist, environment artist, story writer, and music composer.

Education

2011 - 2014

Bachelor's Degree in Information Science Specializing in Multimedia

University of Pretoria - Pretoria, South Africa

Skills

Libraries/APIs

jQuery, React, jQuery UI, jQuery CDN, Social Media APIs

Tools

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Git, GitLab, GitHub, JSX, After Effects CC, Sublime Text 3, FileZilla

Languages

HTML5, CSS3, SCSS, JavaScript, HyperScript, PHP, XML, Less

Frameworks

Bootstrap 3, Mithril.js, Bootstrap

Platforms

WordPress, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, Drupal 8

Paradigms

REST, Agile, Scrum, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI)

Storage

JSON, MySQL

Other

Web Development, Web App Development, Game Design, Version Control Systems, Ajax

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