Simon Cam

In my time at Crew, I've taken on a variety of roles that have required a diverse set of skills. Here are some of the hats I've worn:

Lead developer:

• Directly contributed to a huge number of products, sites and interactive experiences
• Delivered powerful backends using Django, Node.js, REST, GraphQL
• Engineered rich frontends using vanilla JS, React, Stimulus, HTMX
• Created integrations with a hude range of 3rd party systems such as Stripe, Shopify, Google Docs, Airtable
• Utilised creative technologies such as WebGL, Canvas, physical computing and projection mapping

Solutions Architect:

• Worked to understand and capture a wide variety of technical and business requirements
• Designed and implemented critical systems using a pragmatic balance of existing services and custom solutions
• Been responsible for managing, monitoring and optimising all our infrastructure and its usage

Technical Director:

• Helped define a culture that places value on quality, robustness, maintainability, optimisation and security
• Lead continuous learning and adoption of appropriate best practise
• Created processes and tools to support our team day-to-day, eg. CLI-tooling, automated testing, CI / CD

Technical PM:

• Created and managed internal backlogs and project boards
• Lead team-level and external client stakeholder communications

Co-founder:

• Played a key role in the running of the business, contributing greatly to the overall company strategy
• Helped define our approach to PM/AM
• Been heavily involved in sales, helping scope and sell-in projects to new and existing clients
• Put in place financial modelling and resource planning
• Lead the hiring and training of many of our staff
• Written extensively, across project documentation, case studies and presentations

At Stink I took on the role of lead technologist within the London office. I was part of the senior management team that looked after the 25 strong crew of creatives, producers, designers, developers and motion graphic artists.

The role was a great opportunity to work across hugely broad range of areas, including:

Sales and business strategy
Pitching and creative development
Project scoping and documentation
Creative and technical direction
Project management and delivery
IT and studio infrastructure

Work highlights included:

Miru 'To See' - a 720 degree interactive film shot with a unique camera rig designed and fabricated in-house.

Three Mobile 'Sing it Kitty' - A personalised film experience utilising bespoke face mapping and server side rendering technology.

Channel 'Chance' - A highly visual branching narrative featuring user-controlled high end 3D film content.

Grolsh 'Big Bold Personality Test' - An interactive film featuring an enigmatic character which users could talk to directly using their mobile phone.

After being lucky enough to work on a number of award winning campaigns at glue, I was given the opportunity to launch a new business unit within the agency - a hybrid production company specialising in interactive and digital film projects.

Over time we grew the team to include producers, directors, editors, developers and VFX artists. We developed a highly creative and very efficient production model that brought together these diverse disciplines to create some really awesome work.

Personally I got to grow my skills as a manager and a leader along with my technical skills in the following areas:

Creative technology
Interactive development
Motion graphics
Editing
Color grading
Sound design
VFX
3D