Young Bermudian Amy Peniston has been working independently as a digital artist, designing websites for companies and individuals in Bermuda and the US.

Just 23 years old, she has been working as a website designer since 2012 despite a college background in biomedical engineering. She began with designing her own blog, which she keeps running to this day and then began designing sites for family and friends. Now she works freelance designing websites for various clients.

Ms Peniston said: “I have always loved computers and have always loved the internet and so I decided to branch out since about the middle of 2012. I have been teaching myself and learning as I go.

“I meet with the client and talk with them and I build their mock designs and I incorporate what they would like into the project and I build it from scratch.

“Most of my projects are pretty open ended and I work mostly with either small businesses or individuals who don’t know exactly what they want, they just know they want a website or they need something built for them.” Ms Peniston explained that she has recently finished a large project that took five months to build and one month more deploy. The time it takes for me to build a website depends on the client and how fast they can gather materials and the content they want on the website.”

Ms Peniston has other hobbies besides web designing including exercise and cooking which she says can interfere with her work schedule.

“I run a weird schedule sometimes, I like to code late at night while I like to go out and do things during the day.

“I wouldn’t be able to do that if I had a ‘real job’ at an actual firm here, I like being a solitary freelancer although I do miss having people around to knock ideas around with. I do miss having collaboration and that’s one reason I’m always online looking for inspiration from other designers.”

As a one-woman operation, when problems arise, she must troubleshoot herself, adding: “Because I work for myself I have to take projects all the way through to completion. I have in the last several weeks been inundated with new projects. What I’ve learnt to do more recently is say ‘hey I’ve got a few things to complete before I tackle your project — but you’re up next’.

“Whereas my first gut reaction is to take on everything all at once because I’m so excited to do what I’m doing,” Ms Peniston explained. “I absolutely love what I do, everyday I’m learning something new.

“It’s a great field for someone who loves to learn new things and I love to teach myself new things, so I’m really happy. The best part for me is being able to walk through Hamilton and see different businesses or see different people that I’ve personally had a project or interacted with and know that I’ve helped them in some way.

“I’ve helped everyone from small shipping companies to popular restaurants, it’s just really great to be able to say that I’ve worked with them.”

Ms Peniston encouraged young Bermudians to follow in her footsteps, even though she’s “not really sure if Bermuda supports people like us or I would expect to see other people my age to be interested in this field”.

“I don’t know a lot of people my age who do what I do, I know several older people such as my uncle.”

Ms Peniston has in the past designed the Cafe 4 and Harbourfront Restaurant websites as well as designing Bermuda Mapp.