Howdy.

I’m Brad Hogan.  I currently live and work in San Francisco, California, but I’ve also lived in Las Vegas (born & raised), San Diego, St. Louis, Portland (Oregon) and Salt Lake City.

For work, I create websites – both custom websites and I also create highly customizable, beautiful WordPress themes for people who need to get started now and/or don’t necessarily have the budget for a custom designed website.

I am primarily a front-end designer/developer (the front-end is what you see in your browser), but I also have experience with back-end development (databases and you know, that kind of stuff).

What separates my work from a lot of other web designers & developers is that I am able to combine business and strategy with actual web design and development.

I graduated with a degree in Business Mgmt and immediately went to work for an Inc. 100 company.  In addition to that expensive piece of paper (diploma) and a fast-paced, high-energy sales job, I have some first-hand experience with entrepreneurship and business – I created two web startups, UrbHub and BlooperBox.  About two years after college, I came up with an idea for a web application (UrbHub).  I made some phone calls to find out how much it would cost to get the idea up and running and I soon found out that it was going to be way out of my budget.  I decided to do it myself – I picked up books, mastered the art of Googling and months later I had something to show for it, my first web app!  It wasn’t pretty – the code was far from ideal – but I created it for relatively zero dollars and I just so happen to pick up this interesting new skill, web development.

From Business-Dude to Web Designer/Developer

Being self-taught, I didn’t have the pre-set limitations that you sometimes get with a formal education.  I was able to think outside of the box not because I was this super genius guy, but because I had to.  I wasn’t taught how to think inside box, it is as simple as that.  I was able to learn how to create a web app from trial-and-error.  I spent hundreds of hours writing code that would now take relatively no time at all.  But!  I wouldn’t go back and change a thing.  It’s a bit cliché, but it’s true: the past makes the person you are now.  I ultimately decided that creating websites was way more interesting and fun than the traditional 9-5, so I made the leap from business dude to web developer.

I collaborate with my clients to create a strategy BEFORE we start to design and develop their website.

Wait, wait, wait.  Collaborate?  Does that mean that I talk to my clients before we start to put a bunch of time and money into something?  I know this might seem crazy, but it’s not.  I actually have conversations with my clients via email, Skype and phone if necessary to make sure we are on the same page.  I cannot say I have the perfect system in place nor that I myself am perfect, but communication is key to making things as close to great as they can get – and I like creating great things!

I enjoy working with passionate entrepreneurs, if you have a project in mind and you want to work with me, send me a message and let’s talk more.