A little about me.
Hi, my name is David Staffell, and this is my personal website. Leaving out my pre school days; - because let's face it, who gives a shit about those? - I spent most of my teenage years thinking, drinking, partying and studying a very small amount. Despite my obvious lack of enthusiasm for the academic side of things, I emerged with some pretty good grades. My strongest subjects were Physics, Maths and the Language side of English (not that Literature crap).
After 6th form, I took a gap year and decided I wanted to go travelling (all the cool kids do it etc). So I signed up with a group called Raleigh International, the "Gap Year Youth Development Charity," to fly out to Costa Rica and take part in various projects over there. Now I didn't know it at the time (as I failed to bother reading up on such things), but the main focus of Raleigh was on the personal growth and development of young people. To be honest, I just saw it as a glorified package holiday, but I ended up doing some pretty rewarding things for the some of the poorer communities of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as well as raising £3200 for charity. My stint with Raleigh International lasted just over 3 months, and despite a majority of the people being incredibly irritating (the kumbuyah types), I met a few decent guys; and together we decided to explore the depths of Central America further. At tne end of the trip, we'd visited Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize, Mexico, and a few of us learned to dive in Honduras. You can see some of the photos from my trip in the photography section of my site.
After travelling, the next major step in my life involved me grudgingly returning to education; and sure enough in 2003 I moved to Brighton to read English Language at Sussex University. Uni was pretty much the same as 6th form for me - except about 3 times as bad. I thought about things a lot more, drank and partied a lot more, and studied a lot less. I enjoyed the course for about a year and a half (namely because it was essentially a repeat of A Level stuff, and it was piss easy), but then it just got boring. Everything else just seemed to get in the way of learning; particularly my love of procrastinating. It was a bloody miracle I came out with a 2:1, it really was, but I guess I've got google to thank for that. So, thanks for doing my degree google.At Uni, In the hours when I wasn't drinking, partying and 'studying', I was drawing, or at least thinking about drawing. The first art form I was really subjected to was graffiti around about 15 years of age, because it was the cool thing to do, and I had an eye for stylised letterforms. At the time however I didn't see it as an art form per se; rather a way to pass the time instead of paying any kind of attention to my tutors class. Around the same time, my father, an absolutely incredible artist, passively taught me the basics of vector art through (the lesser used) CorelDraw (version 5 at the time). I did art for GCSE, but I really didn't enjoy it. Not only was my teacher a hermaphrodite/crossdresser/lesbian/etc, but she didn't understand how to communicate properly.
I recieved a C grade, and promptly threw in the towel on art (in an academic sense). I never gave up on graffiti though and I found a way of putting my honed skills to better use than going out at 3 o clock in the morning to decorate* a random wall or train. (Note: I only ever did this once, and found it thoroughly boring). The better use I speak of refers to the sign-writing which I got myself involved with whilst working at a local hotel/bar/restaurant called The Park. I ended up decorating the menu/special boards on a regular basis using what i'd learnt though graffiti. I also did some work for The Slug and Lettuce pub being commissioned to write their menu boards. (*often confused as deface)
It wasn't really until my third at uni that I heavily got into graphic design. I used it as an escape from studying, amongst other various stresses that invaded my life at that point in time. It was around this time that my flatmate showed me an article in an issue of Computer Arts magazine about a website where one can submit tshirt designs to be scored by the public, and the prize was $1000. Not being one not to jump at the prospect of winning lots of money, I went at checked it out. Sure enough I was hooked within weeks and started submitting designs on a fairly regularly basis. In fact, most of the designs in my illustration section have been submitted over there. I am also an established member of the blog forum they have over there. Alas, I haven't won (yet), but that's because i'm convinced the guys over at threadless purposely don't want to give me any money.
If you've come this far, first let me say thanks for reading, second go check out the rest of my site, and third, make sure you get in contact if you like my work and are in need of my services.