Ramsay Lanier loves to break the rules. “Sometimes [it] can change a person’s entire perspective, even if it is just for a moment. I’m really intrigued by generating positive outcomes by breaking rules.”
In his current gigs, as senior interactive developer at nclud and as a freelance designer, Ramsay can often ignore convention in the name of discovering solutions. “In design, the consequences could be negative, but sometimes they lead to breakthroughs,” he notes. In his previous gig, as an accountant for one of the big-four accounting firms, the consequences were a bit more severe: “Prison seems terrible.”
Ramsay worked both sides of the divide for years. He double-majored in accounting and information systems in college. Though his 9-5 path eventually led to a big-time accounting job, he found time to code and design on the side. The shot below shows Ramsay’s first attempt at branding his own studio, which he says “was really just me, in my basement, late at night.
“I’m obsessed with golden age science fiction - robots, space rockets, etc. Also, my parents have a lot of ’50s-era travel posters in their house, which have influenced my style a lot. You can really see the two influences merged here, and I wanted to incorporate them into my first attempt at branching out into my own thing. It’s maybe a bit cliched using a rocket ship as a visual metaphor for wanting to escape my daily life as an accountant, but I was never really that good at masking that sort of thing.”
When he became a father, professional time shrank. “I was making great money, but at the expense of being there for my family, so I had to cut back on my freelance gigs for a while.” While Ramsay couldn’t take on as much of work he loved, he was able to attend networking events in the Washington, D.C. area, where he met the crew from nclud. That, combined with the exhaustion of the accountant’s annual three-month-long busy season and the growing realization that his heart wasn’t really in accounting, led to his current job as a front-end developer.
“The transition into my role here at nclud has been awesome,” he said. “I often think about why I didn’t make the transition sooner.”
Find Ramsay at Dribbble, on Twitter, and at bamsay.com.
Moonlighting is an occasional series about designers who spend a significant amount of professional time not designing. Recent Moonlighters include designer/composer Jim Forrest and designer/physicist Dave Whyte. Fit the bill? Email stories@dribbble.com.
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