Josue Salazar – Web Designer / Developer

Before getting into today’s post, I want to take a moment and ask everyone to make a donation to help the people of Haiti. As most of you have undoubtedly heard, the earthquake in Haiti – one of the world’s poorest countries – was catastrophic to say the least. Forgo a night or two out and donate as much as you can. Here are some options: Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity.

Thanks for your help!

Josue Salazar is a great example of what ATLAS is all about. Not only is he a cool web designer and developer, but what I find really interesting is that you can see the progression of his career -  how one thing led to another and why he has ended up where he has, relative to where he started.

Josue’s background is in software engineering – he studied programming languages related to Microsoft operating systems and applications in school. He “ended up hating the limits of one single platform” and began to play around with the web. In 2003 Josue founded a hosting company called Sonnex Hosting, through this he “discovered many amazing applications deployed for the web” and became involved with a web service aimed at Australian teens who want pets online, talk about niche markets.

Taking his Windows development experience and learning the necessary web tools (html, css, php, mysql), Josue began to develop web apps and systems, eventually working with organizations worldwide. During this transition he had also been traveling and moving around a lot, eventually ending up in Toronto.

Josue is the cofounder of Salazar Studios, a company started by him and his wife Lisa in Panama. Having worked on the development side of the web for over six years they are able to “provide most of what small companies need, from consulting to development and design”, says Josue. At the same time he enjoys collaborating with others on larger scale projects. “One of the things I enjoy most”, says Josue, “is when I’m brought in to a company that has too little time to work on their own website and I get to sort of play around with their established brand and build on top of their history.”

Recent projects involve Harmony Movement and Manifesto, on which Salazar has been working with Hightop Studios. Often times Josue works with clients on long-term projects – consulting and developing as time goes by. As the web director for Manifesto – a non-profit organization that puts on music festivals and uses hip-hop to connect people – Josue has seen the organization and festival grow year after year. Accommodating for an increasing number of applicants and interest in the festival, Salazar Studios has developed “a system to deal with the entirety of it through the web”.

Future plans include “growing Salazar Studios to a larger scale and at some point expanding our services to Europe”, says Josue. The key he says, is to “do your best, all the time.” “[I] constantly see myself from an outsiders perspective”, he adds, “just so I can push myself to excel at every single thing I try to do.”

To find out more about Josue check out his blog Made in Costa Rica or follow him on Twitter. Josue also welcomes any questions you might have -  please post them in the comments or you can email him personally.

Question of the Week:
What do you enjoy most about what you do?

I really enjoy exploring, learning new things, and interesting experiences. With photography, regardless of if I’m photographing a person or a cool place, I get to be transported out of my world and into theirs.

Let me know what you think of this week’s profile and the blog in general in the comments.