The Geek Talk

Who is Toni Gemayel?

I am a slightly goofy web developer who loves clean, well optimized code, WordPress and Giraffes. I am also a 20 year old business owner working hard to make his mark on the exponentially growing web.

Do you have a personal Brand?

Sure do! Two Giraffes is my recently revamped personal brand that I own and operate full time (and then some) from sunny Florida. While it is a tiny development shop, I work hard to ensure we constantly create happy clients, clean code, and fresh interfaces.

How do you find design inspiration and colours for a new project?

Inspiration is everywhere from source code to the beautiful outdoors. As a web developer, I am constantly reading blogs, tweets and articles for inspiration. For design inspiration, I usually go over to dribbble to drool over the immensely talented crop of individuals on that site. For colors, I usually head over to kuler.adobe.com and browse some palettes.

What does your typical day look like?

My typical day is usually atypical. Assuming I have no client meetings, conference calls, or other items planned for the day, a normal day would be pretty relaxed. I usually wake up around 10 a.m. and check my emails right away and look for anything labeled urgent or with a title full of expletives. Assuming my inbox is calm, I throw together some breakfast and get through my emails. I then get to client work and work until about 8pm. At 8, Ill break for dinner, hit the gym, play some xbox or tinker with some computing parts, then wrap the day up with some programming related reading.

What do you do in your free time?

Well, I dont have a lot of free time, but most of it is spent reading, writing, tinkering, working on diy projects, playing basketball, watching college football, and traveling.

Current favorite apps?

Textmate for coding, Ballpark for invoicing, and Skype for chat.

What OS do you prefer?

Im kind of an OS nut and would love to write my own someday. I spend most sunday afternoons playing around with different GNU/Linux distros/flavors. Here are my top five:

Ubuntu, Windows 7, OS X, Puppy Linux, Jollicloud

Small picture for your Workplace?

Sure thing! Here is Two Giraffes Zoo HQ.

Font, Language, JS Framework?

Archer, whatever is best for the job, jquery

Name something that has inspired you recently?

I get inspiration from guys I work with. I don’t have a single idea without bouncing it off of the immensely talented Sean Farrell who challenges me daily to be a better developer, entrepreneur and individual. I also just recently had the chance to work with Micah Davis and Court Simas of Ovenbits, who are both just stellar guys.

What do you prefer (and why)? Freelance work or full time employment?

I have worked in both environments, and It would take alot for me to work under someone elses direction again. As a freelancer, I log around 60 hours a week, usually taking some time for personal projects and learning new languages to keep the job fun and to keep myself on the top of the industry. I don’t know if the entrepreneur in me will ever be able to walk away from that flexibility.

What are your personal projects and goals for 2010?

My personal goals for for 2010 is to continue to grow as developer, specifically with the mobile web (cocoa and java) as well as site optimization, and continuing to explore html 5 and css 3.

For personal projects, I am going to continue to develop my company, Two Giraffes, into a recognizable brand. I also have a hosting solutions in the works. On top of that, I have a top secret start-up I have been working on for the last six months.