I’m happy to feature Elwyn Davies of PixelHaze Academy in this Creator Spotlight post. Elwyn and I met in a Squarespace Mastermind group and I love chatting with him. And his nod to Douglas Adams on his website always makes me smile. He has a heart for education and it shines through in his work.

Hi Elwyn! Tell us a little about yourself.

I have been fascinated with all forms of digital creativity since the mid-'90s, building my websites at high school; in between rugby, football, and working on the family farm in sunny Mid Wales. My experience as a small business owner, designer, front-end developer, and project manager has served me well in a personal quest to become the ultimate generalist. I have had the opportunity to create websites and software for companies of all sizes and industries. In another life, I would have been a teacher (my wife and both of my siblings are in that line of work), and the launch of the Pixelhaze Academy has given me the opportunity to pursue another lifetime ambition of passing on any industry knowledge that I have gleefully absorbed to the next wave of emerging designers and entrepreneurs.

Is there a product you've created that you're particularly proud of? Can you tell us a little about its main benefit or where this tool can be most helpful?

Although I have been training clients in the use of content management systems and other software for the best part of 20 years, we began our journey into formal training roughly 18 months ago through PixelHaze Academy. We have been developing a website that stands alone as an independent virtual learning environment, as well as being a companion resource for our clients and students here in the UK. There is a long way to go, but we are starting to make real traction within the past 6 months.

Over the coming months, we will continue to demonstrate a wide range of our own design techniques and resources through our courses and a newly developed plugin library. We will also recommend some of the very best trainers, developers and plugin libraries in the Squarespace community. PixelHaze has started to work closely with a range of training organisations, schools, colleges and universities here in the UK. Our mid to long-term goal is for the website to become a gateway for a new audience who may not have encountered software such as Squarespace or Canva.

It's a pretty daunting prospect, however, with a bit of luck, we can hopefully do our bit to expand the Squarespace community in 2021.

How did your business get started?

PixelHaze was the second business that I have launched in the web design industry. After 11 happy years of running a fast-growth agency in Cardiff, I could no longer resist the urge to return to my rural roots in Mid Wales. In March 2015, we relocated to my family farm, just outside of Builth Wells. After leaving my former agency on good terms, I founded PixelHaze in the very same week. I needed to take my foot off the pedal a little for a couple of years after the 60+ hour weeks I was putting in at my former agency. The income from selling my shares helped me to set up a new, streamlined consultancy without the extra weight that financial pressure can inflict on a fledgling business. I did manage to turn around almost 50 Squarespace websites in the first year though. Now we have grown to a team of four, branching out into training, custom code, and plugin development since the end of 2019. Fingers crossed it will be an exciting few years for the PixelHaze team.

How did you come to work with Squarespace?

I often catch up on industry developments during family 'fly and flop holidays' (yes I am fun at parties!), and I learned about Squarespace via a Big Web Show podcast in 2014. I was looking for a professional platform that would enable me to reduce the technology gap for small businesses in rural areas. I'm very grateful that I took a little bit of work with me on that trip, playing a dangerous game of ignoring my wife's advice in the process.

What is the best piece of advice you've ever been given as a designer/developer?

You can learn so much from your clients if you become a sponge during meetings. I have been fortunate to have worked with nearly 3,000 clients, ranging in size and scope. There aren't many industries left that I haven't had the pleasure to learn about. This has certainly shaped and developed my abilities in design, management, and business development.

Do you have any words of wisdom for those developers and designers looking to get into the passive income world by creating Squarespace resources, such as templates or plugins?

Think of it as a problem-solving exercise. Is there a feature that would fix a limitation with the software? Is there a new design feature that hasn't already been built to further enhance websites and freshen up the look of the existing Squarespace templates?

If you had a piece of advice for developers or designers, or something you wish you'd figured out much sooner than you did, what would it be?

A simple design with a clear purpose is often the most effective. Many junior designers are burdened with the idea that they need to prove their worth, when in fact it's often a case of stripping it back to the fundamentals and ruthlessly prioritising what needs to be achieved. That's a lesson I learned the hard way through the experience I have built on, maybe that is why it still resonates with me.

When you aren't hunkered down at the computer, creating amazing Squarespace tools and resources, how do you like to spend your spare time?

I'm a bit of a sports nut. I am not a natural athlete so that has probably made me a little more competitive along the way. I have played rugby, football, golf, distance running, and badminton to varying degrees. I also run a community touch rugby project alongside Builth Wells Rugby Club and am hoping to kick start that again later this year. Touch rugby proves to be a great, sociable workout without the additional bruising and dead aches and pains that accompanies its full-contact big brother.

What is your go-to karaoke song?

The Pogues classic, Fairytale of New York at Christmas time, otherwise anything by Johnny Cash or Mumford & Sons (I have a fairly deep signing voice!).

note from Christy: my go-to is June Carter Cash, so sounds like an “It Ain’t Me, Babe” duet is inevitable

Any new and exciting things coming up for you that we should be on the lookout for?

Yes, absolutely! We have some new plugins in the pipeline and 2021 will be the year that we ramp up our training offering. We are currently working on some exciting developments with training companies, schools, colleges and Universities in UK, with the view of bringing a whole new audience to the wonders of Squarespace.

PixelHaze website / twitter