Leechdemon is the screen name and online persona of Jason Elliott.
I grew up in the Detroit area, and spent most of my teenage years tinkering around with electronics, computers, music, and art. I never really knew what I wanted to do for a living, but I knew it had something to do with technology.
In 2002, I graduated from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh with an associates degree in “Specialized Technology” (whatever that means). While the idea was to get a job in 3D Animation, I didn’t find too much work in that area, so I spent about 5 years in the large-format print industry. I specialized in pre-visualizing scenes for the client, matching print colors, and managing the overall print process.
After that, I got my big break into the 3D Animation world with Blue Newt Software, a small software company, where I built 3D models of cars and scenery for a vehicle simulator that was operated by a major automotive manufacturer. I enjoyed the work, and even taught myself to do some basic scripting.
Several years later, my girlfriend started an e-commerce fabric shop, which soon began taking over our lives. I began working at Pink Castle Fabrics full time soon after, helping to manage the day-to-day operations, staffing our brick-and-mortar, scheduling our prep work for bundles and monthly clubs, updating the website and adding new features, inventory management, accounting, Glamp Stitchalot sewing retreats, sewing machine repair – you name it As time went on, I was required to learn more and more website development tricks, and eventually decided that I quite enjoyed it!
After 8 exciting years at Pink Castle, I left to join a digital marketing agency called Geektown USA. I was able to further develop my skills in website architecture during my work on multi-location national franchise websites. While the larger projects allowed me the time to build large, complicated features for our clients, I found that a lot of our efforts ended up as “corporate waste” – redundant meetings, features that were built and never launched, short-sighted client decisions – the works. The code work was great, but the day-to-day of the job was extremely frustrating.
In January of 2021, I left my full time position and began doing freelance web development, as well as other creative projects. Managing my own clients allows me to work with business at different stages in their development – whether the client is trying to merchandise a new blog, or needs help managing their existing website, everyone benefits from having an outside perspective of their operations, and the knowledge of how to help steer their digital processes.
Want to know more? Contact me!
