Andy Kelly

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland Andy's been travelling around the world designing beautiful things, climbing mountains and taking as many photos as he possibly could to document the wonders of the world.

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[Get to know our in-house Design Dragon]

At the age of 13 he discovered digital design, starting out tinkering with all the bootlegged software he could get his hands on he quickly found a deep passion for graphic design and animation. Fast-forward to the age of 30 and Andy has helped found multiuple design-led companies including The Bang, a successful UI/UX & branding Studio which he co-founded with our other Design maestro Luke Medlock; Raise it up, an exciting charity fundraising start-up and most recently Planet-X (yes! this very website you're reading this on).

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In his time at The Bang Andy has designed countless apps, websites and brands, all incredibly executed and even a few winning awards. One notable example is the Climb app for the Swiss mountaineering giant Mammut which took home gold at the ISPO awards in Munich last year.

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Since 2016 Andy has been intermittently attempting the digital nomad life, living working and photographing in 37 countries (and counting). Andy has a powerful love for travel and, although has a long way to go, is aiming to visit every country on the planet (15% conquered to date). In 2019 Andy lived in a tent for 5 months travelling around the USA, visiting 40 of their 50 states. Somehow he managed to continue working the whole time with his trusty MacBook and makings of any wifi hotspot he could find.

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Also in 2019 (clearing a busy year for Andy), while living in Whistler, BC, for several months Andy was pursuing a new skill in the form of Skiiing. Andy got a bit too big for his (ski) boots and attempted one of the BIG jumps in the Ski park. He didn't quite make the landing and ended up crashing at 40mph from 5 metres in the air onto flat ice. This resulted in Andy being airlifted to Vancouver General Hospital where he spent the next 10 days in a bed recovering from 5 broken ribs, a punctured lung, a detached bile duct, a grade-4 liver laceration, a kidney laceration and a ruptured spleen and 2 litres of internal bleeding. Needless to say Andy nearly bit the dust! Since the accident Andy has bounced back stronger than ever and has considered this a blessing to power through and design the coolest shit possible!

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Starting from 2021 and deep into 2022, Andy together with our Founder & CEO James, and other Design Dragon Luke have been living and breathing (and occasionally dreaming) Planet-X. Just wait and see what's coming in the next few months!

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Follow the life of our Design Droid Andy on Instagram @andy_kel_photo and Twitter @askkell

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