The People of TDG

Here's to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. -- Apple 'Think Different' Campaign

Our team at The Design Group may be a little different than what you typically see for a web development company. We are composed of fun people, diligent workers, creative professionals, and a balding dog. Learn a little more about our team's strengths, quirks and guilty pleasures below.

{ Partner, Senior Developer }

Brent Tabor

• Strength: Can sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman wearing white gloves
• Weakness: TDG's notorious Whiteboard Nazi
• Guilty Pleasure: The Oakland Raiders
• Flick Pick: Any Leslie Nielson Blockbuster

Meet Brent, The Design Group's co-founder and alien from the planet 'Gigabyte' (known to earthlings as 'San Francisco') in the far off galaxy of California. Brent was going about his life as a faux-earthling several years ago when he developed a passion for web design and development. His flagrant attention span and overwhelming obsessive compulsions (a trait common to Gigabitonians) drove Brent to be a neurotic web standards pro and master CSS guru. Like every good geek, Brent enjoys eating (yes, eating) flavored gum, boating in the Charleston Harbor and his favorite pastime is mastering world domination through Google.

{ Partner, Creative Director }

Kaylee Walters

• Strength: She's a smarty pants.
• Weakness: She's a smarty pants.
• Guilty Pleasure: Rock Star Lemonade & Online Window Shopping
• Flick Pick: Love Actually

Kaylee Walters was created by state of the art technology only accessible on the highly revered Planet Perfectoria, her origin planet. Because her brain was created with careful and precise planning by the Perfectorians, it is highly malleable making Kaylee able to contain more knowledge, build stronger communication skills, computer-oriented motor skills, and function more efficiently than 99.79% of earthlings. Kaylee utilized her superior intellect at the College of Charleston, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Bachelor of Art in Communications amongst mortals. It was at the College where her passion for marketing and design manifested. Inspired by creative visionaries and tech moguls, Kaylee tries to live her life by the words of Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, during his 2005 Stanford University commencement address: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

{ Project Assistant }

Beth Gancos

• Strength: Quick Learner
• Weakness: Melodramatic Fear of Aliens
• Guilty Pleasure: Clothes Swapping
• Flick Pick: My Fair Lady

Beth Gancos was initially terrified that the aliens controlling her at TDG will succeed in their aspirations of world domination. However, Beth has been gradually learning to cope with the fact that she is quickly losing her homeland, and has recently decided to follow the philosophy: 'If you can't beat 'em, Join 'em.' Beth received a degree in Graphic Communications from Clemson University, with a minor in Packaging Design. To hide her true earthling origins, Beth handles all outside communication for TDG and keeps the aliens on schedule and organized.

{ Senior Programmer }

Chris Scott

• Strength: Capable of talking over just about all of our heads
• Weakness: An inner resentment towards computers
• Guilty Pleasure: Fishing at incredibly early hours of the morning
• Flick Pick: Stand By Me

Senior Programmer Chris Scott is The Design Group's go to guy for programming advice, knowledge and information. Unfortunately, Chris is also an alien, although he is from a different universe then the other aliens of TDG -. Therefore, Chris is not interested in a slow conquering of the universe, although is fairly impervious to the fact that his counterparts are well on their way in doing so (which is fortunate for his counterparts). Chris attended the College of Charleston as a Computer Science major, and has learned numerous programming languages over the years including PHP, JavaScript and even some aspx. Chris can often be found in the TDG office baffling people with his vocabulary of tech jargon including words like 'MySQL, 'Function' and 'Array.'

{ Front-End Developer }

Trevor Wagner

• Strength: A will to learn pretty much any skill
• Weakness: Inherently clumsy
• Guilty Pleasure: Playing guitar loudly & poorly
• Flick Pick: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid

Trevor 'the Intern' Wagner was recently abducted willingly and placed into the service of the top-level aliens at TDG to learn strategy, technique, and new methods of maximizing his level of subversion, in an effort to create a well rounded alien team. Our goal is to create a monster, if you will, so that in the near future Trevor can use his skills effectively to control the entire population through subliminal messages broadcast over the internet to the entire human race. Trevor graduated from the College of Charleston with a Bachelor's of Science in Biology (he loves science), but in reality, his passion lies with web design. He started teaching himself different aspects of web design after taking a class in college, as from there his interest grew.  For the time being, he spends his days peering over shoulders while listening as intently as he can to instrucions given out by his superiors. They give him a lot of projects to cut his teeth on, so that soon he can contribute to the overall cause of WORLD DOMINATION!

{ Leader of the Alien World }

The Dude

• Strength: Literally so darn ugly he's cute
• Weakness: Growing Hair/Seeing things
• Guilty Pleasure: Fooders. Any Fooders.
• Flick Pick: The Godfather

As leader of the aliens in charge of The Design Group, Dude's life is pretty posh these days. After being rescued from a puppy mill where he was help captive as a breeding dog by the mill owners (who had managed to trap him upon his entrance into the earth - think Men in Black, people), Dude's motivation for world domination became apparent almost as quickly as his penchants for 'rubbing his facers' and Gravy Train®. His poor treatment prior to joining TDG resulted in the incessant need to control the world that he now maintains. Unfortunately, the stress of not yet succeeding in domination has caused Dude to lose some of his hair, giving him a unique, yet highly recognizable appeal. In an effort to keep Dude active in the world domination realm, the aliens of TDG bring him to the office every day. They know that soon Dude will succeed in his efforts, and thus treat him quite well so they too will one day reap the benefits that he sows.

{ Crowned Princess of the Alien World }

Sugar

• Strength: She's got a lot of it - especially when you put her in a kennel
• Weakness: Unstoppable fetish for pencils and matches
• Guilty Pleasure: Foot fiend! Definitely Toes.
• Flick Pick: Airbud (If. Only.)

In the noble words of Outkast: 'Lend me Some Sugar, I am your neighbor!' Those words say it all. Sugar is TDG's newest member and has certainly lived up to expectations. After being adopted from the pound, she quickly learned how to fit in with the other TDG aliens - especially Dude, her personal favorite. Sugar makes it her goal each day to keep Dude on track to conquer the world by serving as his loyal companion, and keeping his energy level high by reinforcing constant exercise.