Portfolio

In my 15 years of web design, I've worked on a wide variety of web sites, from trucking companies to fitness supplements to online prayer to the intranet of the second largest Internet Service Provider in the world. I've worked with clients who knew exactly what they wanted and clients who wanted me to make every decision for them. There have been rough sites and sites that practically built themselves.

The sites shown in this portfolio are a healthy assortment of my work. Some I designed and built from the ground up, while others bear my signature "under the hood." Clicking on the thumbnail images will provide a larger view. For websites, you can view the actual live sites (where available) by clicking the links at the end of the descriptive text.

To view my games-related work, visit the Environment Art portfolio.

Qoppa

Qoppa creates Java-based software for viewing and editing PDF files. Initially, they sold libraries programmers could integrate into their own code to offer PDF functionality, but they eventually realized they'd built everything necessary to create a full-featured editing package suitable for end users. This product is PDF Studio, and it needed a new web site. I was brought on to design and implement that site, and in the process I overhauled every page on qoppa.com. By redoing all of the table-based layout in CSS, I was able to cut file sizes dramatically, in most cases to less than half their original size. I also overhauled the documentation using Adobe Robohelp, creating a web version as well as JavaHelp and print versions. As with all of my sites, I worked hard to ensure that the design was consistent across all major browsers while remaining completely standards compliant. When the overhaul was finished, I integrated the new design into Dreamweaver template (.dwt) files, allowing anyone with access to Dreamweaver to edit pages quickly and easily.

www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/index.html

Meet the 111th Congress

Illumen is a service that provides legislative news and information to trade associations, companies, law firms, lobbying groups, and public relations agencies. With major changes taking place in Washington as a result of the 2008 elections, Illumen wanted to offer their customers a single web resource for learning about new and returning members of Congress. The site needed to be attractive and professional, and they needed it developed extremely quickly. Fortunately for them, I had no trouble creating a design, getting their approval, and converting it into 100% standards compliant XHTML/CSS in three days. They were then able to incorporate my fully annotated, easy-to-follow templates into their own back-end to create dynamically generated pages for each Senator and Representative.

111th.illumen.org/

Illumen

Following the quick turnaround of the Meet the 111th Congress site, Illumen needed a new design for their own site. Once again, they came to me. I delivered several design options and converted the final choice to standards-compliant, cross-browser friendly HTML/CSS. Note: The site has not been updated to the new version, so the link below leads to the coded version of the homepage residing on my site. The links on this version are all placeholders.

Illumen (test version)

Creative Loafing's Fresh Loaf

In 2007, Creative Loafing started several blogs as the central thrust of a company-wide effort to enhance their online offerings. Atlanta's flagship Fresh Loaf blog features posts by several of CL's writers on a wide variety of topics - basically everything covered by the paper and then some (except things like music and food, which are covered by separate blogs). When it was first created, the blog had its own design. I was charged with matching its design to that of the overall site and converting it to table-free CSS Wordpress templates (full disclosure: there is one table on the page, needed for the Flickr badge in the right column). Using this template, I converted all of the other CL blogs to the new design and could have new blogs created in minutes.

blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/

Creative Loafing's PZZA Tournament

link For the 2007 NCAA basketball tournament, Creative Loafing's papers in Tampa and Sarasota ran a series of features comparing pizza restaurants in their respective cities, using a bracketed tournament format. To increase interest in the features, the papers also ran a contest for readers to predict the winner of the tournament. I created a Javascript-based interactive bracket that allows readers to choose winners for every match-up. The script then rendered their predictions as a .PNG image and mailed it to the editorial staff. Once the writers had made their picks, the user-submitted brackets were checked and scored for accuracy. The user who came the closest to the final editorial result won a gift cerftificate to the restaurant serving the best pizza in their city. The feature and contest was repeated in 2008, judging hamburgers in place of pizza.

Clicking the image at right will show you a short slideshow of the entry page and the resulting graphic. The link below will take you to the actual entry page. Since the contest is over, the form can't be submitted, but it will let you try out the functionality of the bracket itself.

tampa.creativeloafing.com/PZZA/

Spa Sydell

Spa Sydell is Atlanta's best-known day spa company. A big portion of their business is gift certificate sales, and a big portion of those sales occur online. I was hired to create an alternative to their existing site, which was difficult to use, unattractive, and controlled by an Application Service Provider that wasn't very interested in providing service. I built the site around the open source osCommerce package, creating several custom features and enhancements along the way. In the end, the client chose to go with a different site, but I believe mine is excellent. Note: Since the client picked a different site, the link below will take you to a copy of my design running on my own server.

www.showerheadstudios.com/store

eachurch.com

This site is a showcase of the professional work of Elizabeth Church, artist and art educator. In addition to providing access to Ms. Church's work and curriculum vitae, it provides resources for students. including facilities for uploading completed assignments and accessing important class information. The student upload functionality automates and centralizes the collection of student work, greatly simplifying the process for students and Ms. Church.

eachurch.com

Sage Integrated Bodywork

Elizabeth Heasley is a massage therapist. It is important that her website convey the feelings she hopes to provide for her clients - calmness, relaxation, serenity, and balance. She and I worked closely together to ensure that the site met that goal.

sagebodywork.net

Application Development D Presentation

link From time to time, the Operations department at EarthLink would hold offsite meetings, during which managers would make presentations about the work being done by their groups. When the time came for our group to take the spotlight, we decided to make sure we left a lasting impression. To underscore the quality of our tools and applications, I was asked to come up with a design for a presentation booklet that would blow the audience away. This is what I came up with. Using the WD40-and-duct-tape logo of Application Development D (the extra "d" stands for nothing), I created a dynamic, dramatic motif that uses images of applications and their logos to convey ADD's skill, commitment to quality, and whimsical, fun attitude toward our work. In place of the typical stuffy, boring confidentiality statement, the back cover reads "This is our stuff. Don't show it to AOL."

Decoder Presentation

Decoder was the pure expression of the Application Development D method. Built entirely with free tools (PERL, MySQL), it provided everything its users needed, it saved the company a ton of money, and, most importantly, it worked. It was the perfect candidate for a brag session at a managerial offsite meeting. After the strong reaction to the original Application Development D presentation, it was decided that Decoder deserved a similarly striking and memorable look. To showcase the unconventional, creative, and crafty nature of both the tool itself and the department that birthed it, I came up with a Saul Bass-inspired spy movie motif. Unfortunately, the presentation was shelved, so I had to put the design aside, but it remains one of my favorites.

An Application Development D Production of a Mark Horton Tool
Decoder: You Can Never Know Too Much
Starring James Stewart as The Doctor!

Tang Cheetie

Tang Cheetie is the result of a school project, a collaboration with Nick Dolce, my fellow student in Art Institute of Atlanta's Game Arts and Design program. The game's art and concept came from Nick, while I provided most of the programming. Nick and I are very proud of the result, which earned us high marks and praise in class and has since been held up as a high-water mark. Note: One shortcoming of the game is a lack of a download progress meter. It's a fairly large Flash file, so it may appear to be doing nothing for a moment as it downloads. It's working - it just needs to download completely.

Spearhead

Another (much simpler) class project, Spearhead is the first real video game I ever made. It is an ode to the great vertical scrolling shooters that used to fill the arcades. The art style is meant to evoke the graphics of 16-bit game systems like the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. These days, powerful processors have made photorealistic graphics easy. In the 16-bit days, though, creating attractive and convincing graphics with a limited color palette and a few pixels was an art form. Spearhead is a bit rough around the edges, but I'll always be proud of my first game ever.