Meet Our Team: Brooke (Angela)

If you’ve had the good fortune of working with Brooke (Angela to some) Edmundson, you’re likely familiar with her creativity, brilliant problem-solving, and calm helpfulness. Today, we’re talking to Brooke to learn more about the aspects of her we don’t always see in our day-to-day interactions—in this, our first weekly episode of Meet Our Team.

If you’ve had the good fortune of working with Brooke (Angela to some) Edmundson, you’re likely familiar with her creativity, brilliant problem-solving, and calm helpfulness. Today, we’re talking to Brooke to learn more about the aspects of her we don’t always see in our day-to-day interactions—in this, our first weekly episode of Meet Our Team.

Why and how did you get into web design and development?

My career goals throughout my younger years shifted quite drastically. I first had an interest in geology—I still have a collection of cool rocks. I then upgraded to Paleontologist and had an unhealthy obsession with collecting dinosaur models and books. My first video game was actually a dinosaur fossil game. In high school I got really into cooking and watching Alton Brown and Iron Chef, and convinced myself that becoming a chef and owning my own restaurant would be my path in life, but it was actually a random elective class I got put into in 12th grade that changed those plans. I got a call that I was to be put into a Computer Apps II class, since my chosen elective class was already full. I had not taken Computer Apps I, and had no idea what the class was about, but I didn’t have a choice. It ended up changing my trajectory in life.

Why and how did you get into web design and development?

My career goals throughout my younger years shifted quite drastically. I first had an interest in geology—I still have a collection of cool rocks. I then upgraded to Paleontologist and had an unhealthy obsession with collecting dinosaur models and books. My first video game was actually a dinosaur fossil game. In high school I got really into cooking and watching Alton Brown and Iron Chef, and convinced myself that becoming a chef and owning my own restaurant would be my path in life, but it was actually a random elective class I got put into in 12th grade that changed those plans. I got a call that I was to be put into a Computer Apps II class, since my chosen elective class was already full. I had not taken Computer Apps I, and had no idea what the class was about, but I didn’t have a choice. It ended up changing my trajectory in life.

I learned the basics of HTML, CSS, and PhotoShop. It’s where I made my first website, which was a fan site for the anime Inuyasha. It had a very “graphic design is my passion” vibe to it with a full image background with a 0.5 opacity white foreground wall of text. Not to toot my own horn, but I dominated in that class and the concepts of creating and coding came very naturally to me. I knew then that I wanted to straddle the crossroads between design and development.

I ended up teaching myself more about front-end development and design through YouTube videos and tearing apart HTML templates to figure out how it all works. Eventually, I ended up having my first client and dipping my toe into the freelance world. From there it was a constant evolution of expansion and refinement of my skills, learning PHP, dabbling with WordPress, working at different companies, and eventually landing my first agency job at Southleft about 10 years later.

How have you evolved over your time at Southleft? What have been some key milestones?

I feel like the last 10 years have just been a small segment compared to my 3 years at Southleft. I’ve learned more here and have had more diverse projects than I’ve ever had Freelancing. I think my skill set and mindset have expanded significantly. I feel I’m a better developer and designer than I’ve ever been—and it’s only getting better day after day. I think a lot of it has to do with my coworkers and environment 😉

One of my key milestones was learning Twig, this was a trial-by-fire situation where we were very busy at the time and there wasn’t a lot of hand-holding. I was just hired, so I still had a lot of new-hire jitters / imposter-syndrome feelings. But, I was able to get in there, learn a completely new templating language, which I love to use now and deliver. Another milestone for me was diving into design more. I learned Figma, studied industry standards and while I’m still refining, I feel like I’ve come such a long way and I feel like I have so much more to go.

I’ve always been pretty hyped about seeing if we can do something better and easier

What keeps you going? What’s your favorite thing about the work you do?

I love discovering new ways to do things. Making design systems, data management, and content modeling, for example, is all really fun for me. I’ve always been pretty hyped about seeing if we can do something better and easier, so I love to revisit older things I’ve done and refactor them or scrap them and do it again if I feel it can be made better or with a new technology/approach. I think that’s what keeps it fresh for me is knowing there’s always a different and sometimes better way and just discovering that is what keeps the excitement.

If you weren’t a web designer/developer, what career do you think you’d have?

I think I’d be a game developer. I’ve also taught myself a lot of non-website things including Unreal Engine, 3D modeling, environment art, VFX, and SFX. I’m currently making a game, and though it’s extremely hard and I’m wearing a lot of hats, I find it very fulfilling. I can look back just from one year ago and see how much I’ve improved. I have a long history with video games and feel like a lot of my fondest memories had some sort of association with them in some way. I even found my fiancé through a video game 🙂

What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

The best way to deal with burnout is to avoid burning out in the first place. As someone who creates for work and creates for fun outside of work. it’s super easy for me to get burned out. This is doubly more so when dealing with 3rd-party forces, such as a bad Client or life stresses, and as you can imagine, not being able to think creatively hurts all way ’round from my career to my hobbies. I’m sure that most people have felt burnout and it’s still something that I’m struggling with, but I think the best I can do is prevention. I’m lucky to be in a place where if I need help all I have to do is ask and if I need a mental day, I can take one. It goes pretty far in resetting that clock.