Lord Vogel, Darth Vogel, Simple Jack, Jason, Jas, Froddo Baggins, The Lizard King!!!

The strange creature born Jason Vogel goes by many names (most of which we have decided to to call him without consent, although the last one was all him) is one of the FANTASTIC developers that works for Graphic Alliance.

A South African all the way from Durban, Jason has been with GA and in the UK for almost two years, entertaining me with endless one liners from every movie ever made, seriously!!

Lizard facts:
He’s slain a dragon (I’ve seen the pictures), he has mastered the dark arts of PHP coding and can JAVASCRIPT like nobody’s business, he can’t hold champagne , he’s not bad at pool after a few beers.

Likes:
Video games, beer, metal. Did I mention he likes video games, beer, metal ?

Dislikes:
According to him “Everything else”, ESPECIALLY me calling him “Jas”

But on a serious note folks, Jason is a key part of the development team here at Graphic Alliance , and has been a great guy to work with. He’s been responsible for creating many of the new functionalities that are used across the Graphic Alliance CMS systems.

Always willing to help you out, after a sarcastic comment of course, it’s been entertaining to work with the Lizard King!!

Click here to meet more of the team…

Super Su!

Su is a core member of the team and someone to whom I owe an awful lot! What she doesn’t know isn’t worth knowing- FACT!

She is a minimal techno loving, north London living (south London hating) girl about town! She thinks monkeys are creepy and doesn’t enjoy dreaming but here are her top 5 favourite things:

1. Eating- “Sausage, beer & ice cream, what more do I need?!” Su, describing her perfect holiday
2. Online shopping
3. Her music and following  her favourite DJ’s around- Magda and Richie Hawtin
4. Travelling- She’s been to Berlin this year, but Russia is in the pipeline and who knows where else…
5. Sunshine- all together now, aaaaawwwww…

And in Su’s honour I have compiled a quick guide to speaking like Su:

Typs – typical (my current favourite)

Basics – basically

Deffers – definitely

Probs – probably

Do you recks – do you reckon?

Rents –parents

Nouvie – nouveau riche

Dins/brekkers/sups – dinner, breakfast, supper

Marvin – starving

So in tribute to Su- I recks she is deffers cool!! (Awful I know but I have yet to learn the full Su Clowes vocab guide!)

Click here to meet more of the team…

Having joined GA last summer, Charlie has quickly become an integral and highly valued member of the team. A confessed ‘homme-com’ aficionado (yes, he coined the phrase himself) and serial wedding goer, Charlie arrived at GA fresh from the world of banking and now focuses his time on corporate and financial clients as well as new business.

Every Friday we eagerly anticipate his ‘Friday Fact’ and, much to my horror, ‘FYI’ is now a fundamental part of my everyday vocabulary – thanks. A shirt and smart shoes kinda guy, us girls all wondered exactly what he’d look like in his civvies (and if we’d even recognise him without his “little outfit” on) but, we were pleasantly surprised.

Here are some more Charlie facts for you all:

- He’s read all of Ian Fleming’s Bond books.
- He runs marathons.
- He eats (a lot) of ciabattas.
- He uses the word ‘maverick’ more than anyone I’ve ever met before.
- He shares his namesake with our favourite unicorn.
- He is the most recent winner of the GA ‘Commendation for Good Effort Award’.
- He makes great tea.
- He is the king of cheesy one-liners

It’s been a pleasure sitting opposite you, Charlie (mainly because you stick to your side of the desk).

*Lean Mean Pitching Machine

Click here to meet more of the team…

Stuart Bowler, by Linford Haggie

Some say he appears on high-value stamps in Surrey, and he thought Star Wars was a documentary…

Some say he’s afraid of dogs, and he thinks the credit crunch is a breakfast cereal…

Some say he has code instead of blood, and if you tune into 88.4, you can actually hear his thoughts…

All we know is, he’s called Stuart Bowler. And he’s the brains behind Graphic Alliance!

Stu is undoubtedly the cleverest guy I’ve ever worked with. He routinely overcomes complex technical issues as if they were insulting him. He’s created online banking systems from scratch, made a website for Qatar’s state-owned gas company RasGas, and developed the Temperley online shop which Vogue described “as good as it gets from your desktop”. Unusually for one so gifted mathematically, he also has a fabulous eye for design which is pretty amazing considering he is… wait for it… colourblind!

Stu likes rock music, poker, family, geometric shapes, Howies, drinking and Tesco ready meals.

Stu dislikes religion, public school, bad paying clients, boy bands, and being called Fu Man Stu.

Fu Man Stu’s dress sense has improved over the years. In the early days, he once came to a meeting with a City law firm wearing a t-shirt with a woman blowing her brains out. This prompted our late Chairman, Mike Nicholson, who was also Chairman of Gieves & Hawkes, to make it his mission to ‘get Stu in a suit’. When he finally managed it a couple of years ago, Mike said it was one of his finest achievements in business.

If Stu was a car, he’d be a 1960s Dodge Charger with flames down the side.

If Stu was a drink, he’d be a Jack Daniels straight up, the tipple of rock stars.

If Stu was a recipe, he’d be a full English without mushrooms and extra bacon.

Sitting next to him at work is a constant amusement. When asked “how are you” and he replies “medium”, you know not to bother running a new idea past him. Then for every 10 ideas I come up with, Stu dismisses 9 of them almost immediately with a straight “no”. But that one idea is nearly always put into practice for the benefit of the company. After all, getting board approval is easier than getting his approval! He marks my client proposal documents with great interest and last week gave me a B++ for The Conran Shop pitch document (once he gave me an A- but that was so long ago, I can’t remember what was special about it).

Can you believe it’s been nearly ten years of working together? Surely cause for a party!

Click here to meet more of the team…