User:Headwinds
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Photo by Jessica Newman
Brandon James Flowers (born March 19, 1975 in Stratford, Ontario, Canada son of Ted ( a family physician) and Dawn Flowers (nurse), is a mix of artist, writer, and designer/developer currently living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Brandon was interested in art at an early age -- he made his mother draw him dinosaurs and soon he picked up the pencil. He quickly learned how to pass time in the classroom doodling. He eventually learned to write given some extra attention by his teacher who realized he was having trouble with the concept as he preferred to express himself in pictures.
In highschool, he performed spoken poetry under the name Sheep Can't Scream. A handful of his childhood hereos include Jacques Cousteau, Jane Goodall, Walt Disney, George Lucas, Osamu Tezuka and Hayao_Miyazaki. His teenage years were filled british and punk rock idols -- Morrissey would later influence him take up Vegetarianism which lasted to the end of his twenties. In highschool, he learned to program simple adventure games in basic and cobol after spending hours and hours playing quest games by Sierra Entertainment.
In 1995, he attended the University of Waterloo where he studied fine arts for a year and switched to an English Literature Major in his second year. He was pleased to win a best undergraduate poem award (1998) and best undergraduate short story (1999).
After graduating from Waterloo, he struggled to find work as a writer. He couldn't seem to make ends meet writing freelance articles in Kitchener including a major 50 year history on Glenn Gould at the Stratford Festival. After spending the summer writing and making no money, he began temping at various places in Kitchener such as the art department of a carpet factory, a call centre at Manulife, and he even spent one hideously-hot day on the back of a garbage truck. He had enough of temp life, and moved back home to Stratford and try to pursue his art work one more time.
In the summer of 2001, he had a major show at a local art gallery but spent more framing the work then he ever made selling them -- in fact only 1 small work sold and the rest hang in his father's waiting room.
He decided to combine his writing and fine arts skills, and go back to a more practical school. He earned a new media diploma from Centennial College and found work with local firms. He started his own company, Headwinds Studio, to promote his work, and uses "headwinds" as his name in cyberspace.
Currently, he is a senior developer at Push Interactive and continues to work on community-driven applications and games.
WORK
Designaxiom, 2003 - 2006, Creative Director
Navantis, 2006, Lead Flash Developer
Eloqua, 2006, Senior UI Designer
Mindblossom, 2007, Director of Interactive Media
Push Interactive, 2008, Senior Developer
