Hello, I'm Dan Bridges.

I am a self-taught web-developer based in Stockport. I began learning in August 2020 and have completed several courses including:

While learning I have simultaneously undertaken several freelance projects that are currently in production, including:

Learning has been an incredible challenge, but also incredibly satisfying.

First Bootcamp

The first course I took was Angela Yu's bootcamp on uDemy. Having previously had no exposure to web development other than manging content using Wordpress, it was an excellent introduction to HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

After completing the course, I moved on to the University of Helsinki's Fullstack Open, which focuses on React with NodeJS and Express.

Fullstack Open and React

This course was more challenging than Angela Yu's; there was far less handholding and, as the content is translated from Finnish, it could be a little difficult to understand. This, however, encouraged me to solve the (many) problems I encountered through independent research. I would later learn this was a vitally important skill when developing and it helped me immensely in progressing from the 'tutorial hell' stage of learning web development to building my own projects.

Once I completed the Fullstack Open course, I tinkered with a few small projects and followed several tutorials. As the long winter lockdown was coming to a close, I felt ready to tackle larger projects and began seeking freelancing opportunities.

First Steps into Production Projects

My first project was building a website for a guitar teacher that had migrated much of his business online during the pandemic. The site was built from scratch using Gatsby and Tailwind, integrating with Stripe to accept payments and MailChimp to sign users up to a mailing list.

This then led to a further project building the website for a newly formed band, Slomo Casino. Again built with Gatsby and Tailwind, the site features a custom mobile menu, an interactive slot machine and e-commerce features. The content is managed using Netlify CMS.

Other Projects

Alongside these production projects I have continued learning different tools and technologies in small side projects. I have made a recipe app where users can create and explore recipes. This was built using Gatsby, Material UI, Autho0, Apollo Client and Fauna DB.

I have also made a small collection of HTML5 Canvas games. Originally written in Python as part of the Rice Fundamentals course, I have rewritten them in JavaScript and added a HTML5 Canvas as a gui. The games make use of algorithms such as Depth First Search and Breadth First Search to provide simulation.