People
The Firebelly Family is a tight knit collective of strategists, designers, writers and programmers working hard to change the world.
- meet the team
- Dawn Hancock, Owner + Creative Director
- Will Miller, Art Director
- Brandon Weiss, Web Developer
- Darren McPherson, Designer
- Charlie Smith, Motion Designer
- Shannon Medic, Program Director
- Name: Keith Norman
- Title: Developer
- Fears: Car Doors In The Bike Lane
- Dream Job: Fireman
- Favorite Podcast: Diggnation
- Hates: Internet Explorer 6
Keith makes dreams reality. As Firebelly’s web developer, Keith translates the studio’s ambitious (and at times, cockamamie) schemes into functional, user-centric websites that address complex levels of information sharing and communication.
And while Keith loves the challenges presented to him by the studio’s big-dreaming designers, he gets the most satisfaction from presenting clients with better, smarter ways to tell their story and engage their audience.
Keith’s awareness of accessibility and the need to create positive user experiences can be traced back to his first job at Creative Living in Columbus, Ohio. The nonprofit encouraged independent living for adults with severe physical disabilities and created supportive environments for people to learn, work, live and contribute to the greater community.
His leap from resident assistant at Creative Living to front-end developer for a Chicago-based insurance firm was quite the career change. But the self-taught programmer saw it as an opportunity to cut his teeth on a complicated corporate intranet and decided to take the plunge.
2 years later, Keith brought a rock solid skill set to Firebelly where he demonstrates daily his understanding of designers’ obsession with details. With every project he proves his methodology for finding intuitive solutions employs more than sophisticated programming. Keith’s superb left brain/right brain balance and “anything-is-possible” attitude are what really makes him an asset to Firebelly.
Logging more hours on two-wheels than most downtown bike messengers, Keith prefers his 1988 3Rensho Specialized Allez to any other mode of transportation.
When he’s not dealing with the perils of Division St. (12 flat tires in 16 weeks!), Keith can be found at “geek clubs” like the Flash Meetup or Adobe User Group. He advises young developers to read books, not just tutorials and to improve on all the snippets of code they find along the way.
His long-term goal is to own a vineyard and do it all the organic way.
Keith studied at Ohio State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.