About me

Hi, I'm Derek. I'm a freelance web developer based in Bristol.

My background is in digital agencies, working with designers and as part of varying size teams, but I've been freelance for many years now.

I'm really interested in creative technology, including bots, digital art and creative uses of AI. I'm especially interested in projects that do social good.

A bit of history

I started working on the web in 1999 at digital agencies in London. I did that for about 5 years.

Then I moved to Bristol and worked in agencies for another 5 years.

I went freelance full-time in 2009. I love working with businesses and organisations directly, as well as collaborating with designers and agencies.

Fundsurfer

I'm cofounder of the crowdfunding and investment company Fundsurfer.

We help people raise funds using crowdfunding to achieve their creative and business goals - like putting on events, making films, recording albums, opening cafes, or even flying a Darth Vader hot air balloon!

We also help larger businesses grow with equity investment and debt finance.

Get in touch if you would like to find out more.

The Peeps

I'm also cofounder at the digital agency The Peeps.

We help you wow your audience with new creative technologies, including generative and creative AI, AR and immersive content, and web3.

We've done projects for Durex, Papa Johns, National Grid, Deloitte, Cheltenham Science Festival, the BBC, Royal Academy Of Engineering, and lots more.

We are residents at the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol.

Tiny Giant

I was the technical director at the marketing startup Tiny Giant.

AI ice cream, AI gin, AI poetry. We did AI before it was cool.

We built exciting products and experiences using bots, voice, creative AI, augmented reality, neural networks, for people like the BBC, Deloitte, Cheltenham Science Festival and more.

And we won a lot of awards for it too!

Have a look at our work in the Tiny Giant archive

cheers, derek

cheersderek.com is my personal website for experiments and side projects.

It's a playground for me to try out new technologies and ideas, and to share things I'm working on that aren't really related to my freelance and corporate work.

For example, there are Bluesky bots, Heardle games, Letterboxd apps, and more.