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Brent Swaine

Senior UX Engineer and Developer

@life

Brent was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona during a time when Phoenix wasn’t an overcrowded mess. He grew up with an older sister and later a younger brother with a much larger extended family who mostly lived in the same city. It was a great place to grow up having been surrounded by family but when Phoenix started to become the previously mentioned overcrowded mess, he moved to San Diego with some friends to try something new. The weather was great and being near the beach was a pleasant change of scenery from land-locked Phoenix but ultimately it wasn’t a place he wanted to live in so he moved to another city he had friends in, Portland, OR. With an even bigger change of scenery and a smaller city he felt at home instantly with Portland’s lifestyle and people. After meeting the love of his life and living in Portland for about 10 years it was time for another change but not because he was dissatisfied with where and how he was living. Portland was just too far away from family, with his wife being from Texas and Arizona being thousands of miles away. With a similar vibe to Portland, his sister living here and their family being closer, Austin was the obvious choice. Besides leaving behind a great city and some great people in Portland he hasn’t regretted it all (Austin has amazing Mexican Food!).   Brent is interested in graphic design, entertainment and education coming from Film, Music, Television, and Books. Outside of work he goes out to eat and enjoys the outdoors during the summer, and sometimes he combines all three.

What cause are you passionate about? 
Animal adoption and anti-cruelty.

What was your favorite cartoon/TV show as a kid and why?
So many good ones to choose from but I’m going to have to go with The Real Ghostbusters. Based on the movie but slightly different enough to have its own personality and to push episodes in odd directions. I remember a specific one where the whole episode revolved around a ghost just wanting his sled, called Rosebud, back. A whole episode dedicated to Citizen Kane is very advanced for a kid’s show.

Favorite TV Show(s)? Either now or all time.
Almost an impossible question, but the first new show my wife and I connected on in a big way was Lost. I don’t think we’ve nerded out on a show so much before or since that came out.

If you could live at any time in history, when would it be?
I’m pretty comfortable with the advances Human Beings have made so far, but the 50s and 60s seem like interesting decades to check out for pop culture, architecture, design, music, and youth culture breaking out into independence.

What was your first paying job?
First regular paying job was working at my grandparents company cleaning their office, but officially it was Blockbuster Video(!).

@work

Brent started on our design team handling projects ranging from ad designs to website/webpage redesigns, designing everything with an eye on UX/UI while bouncing off ideas to everyone on the design team as well as the web development team. Now he is one of our talented web developers. Prior to joining Charity Dynamics, Brent freelanced for the past 10-15 years and worked for Hoya Vision Care and KAET-TV PBS. He is a designer with a print, video, and web background but focused on web because there is so much freedom and it’s a fairly new avenue. He has focused on designing with code or keeping code in mind out of necessity (he was doing the graphic design and the coding), which has become a unique trait most designers don’t have a background with.