Nona Front-End Developer Sol Wicher has a long list of talents that includes DJing, designing, photography, and installation art. So it comes as no surprise when she says that she’s had a passion for making things for as long as she can remember.

“I used to get these urges to make something, I’d tell my mother and she would just give me materials.” This impulse to create, combined with a need to learn constantly, is the reason that Sol has become an important part of the Nona team, going from designer to coder in 2 years while still leading an incredibly artistic life outside of the Nona studio.

Learning the ins and outs of code

Sol joined the team as a designer in 2013, when the studio was still in its infancy. Her time at Nona has seen her career evolve from illustrating and designing logos and layouts, to learning the fundamentals of web design, and eventually tackling the more intricate details of code.

“I started out doing graphic design, but most of the work I was getting was web design.” This fuelled Sol’s curiosity and she decided to try her hand at front-end development, building on the basics that she had taught herself while working as a freelancer. Now, her sights were set on deepening her knowledge and gaining a more holistic understanding of the relationship between code and design. “I would ask questions about how to do things better, and I began understanding what goes into websites.”

She started with simple front-end work, such as setting up colours and typography, and then moved on to building content. As soon as she was comfortable, Sol took another step and tackled the programming language Ruby, after seeing her colleagues using it in projects. By reading and “figuring it out” herself, Sol picked up how to use it in just a few months, something she attributes, in large part, to being very inquisitive.

“I’m technically inclined, quite nerdy, and very obsessive. I want to understand how things work. Asking questions all the time helped me get here, and at Nona you can do that and people do take time to explain and give you space to grow. It’s getting really easy, and now I’m doing things on my own and it feels natural.”

Keeping the creativity alive

When she’s not busy building products with her team at Nona or learning Ruby on Rails, Sol dedicates time to exploring and unleashing her creativity — always going back to her love for making things.

Shortly after moving to South Africa in 2009, Sol met some of the AfrikaBurn festival organisers and got involved. “I was working with wood and electronics, and getting hands on with bigger and more creative things,” she explains. Since then, she’s been a regular at AfrikaBurn, and in 2016 one of her art installations was selected for the Burner Exchange Grant, taking her, and her work, to the Lakes of Fire regional burn in Michigan, USA. While on this trip, Sol made connections that led to her attending Burning Man and working on a piece for the event.

In addition to all this, she’s also built sets and decor at Rocking the Daisies, done work for the Cape Town Carnival, and will be taking part in the very first Plus 1 Festival in Franschhoek, after the organisers came across her most recent creation on social media.

And when you add curating exhibitions, analogue photography (which she develops in her own darkroom), welding, carpentry, and even making “trip-hop, psychedelic, electronic music”, you start to wonder how she manages to stay so inspired.

The answer? Travelling.

Embracing the travel bug

“I remember very clearly who I am when I am travelling. Being exposed to the unknown gives me the biggest feeling of freedom, and to me that’s the most important thing. I get super inspired, and when I come back I just want to create things, and make mine and other people’s lives beautiful.”

Sol’s first real travel experience came after she completed her sound engineering degree in 2008. On a whim, she left her home country Argentina to visit neighbouring Paraguay with a family friend. This small step was the beginning of a year-long trip around South America, during which she began freelancing remotely as a designer.

“The world just became so much bigger suddenly. I would meet people who told me about other places, and I would go there next.” In fact, it was one of these chance meetings that brought her to South Africa, and subsequently, to Nona.

The way forward

Whether it’s delving deeper into the world of tech, setting off on a spontaneous trip, or coming up with ideas for her next project, there’s no doubt that Sol will continue to do amazing things on her quest to feed her curiosity and wanderlust.

“I’m constantly trying to push myself further, and see how far I can go. Every time I do this, I realise that I’m fine, that I enjoyed the journey, and that I can go further. I don’t have a clue where I’m going to go next, but I’m keen to keep on learning.”

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About the Author

Chisanga Mukuka is a writer and burgeoning tech enthusiast at Nona Creative — a full-service product development studio in Cape Town, South Africa.