Communicate Design

Huh?

I'm a graphic designer who is proficient in modern web technologies. Some people have told me that this is quite unusual, although I’m not sure why. I believe that a good understanding of the code required to build a website can only help when designing it. My background, and some of my current work, is in print design, although over the past few years I've found the majority of my work has involved the web.

I'm currently working at Vodafone as a front-end-mobile developer, designing and building web widgets for their MyWeb portal. The current project is to rebuild MSN Messenger in HTML and JS, supported across all the devices mentioned below, fully-functioning yet lightweight enough to be usable on handsets. And all from a single codebase. It's a big project. Following that will be GoogleTalk, Yahoo Messenger and AOLChat (does anyone use AOL though?).

Other widgets I've developed include RSS-feed content aggregators for brands such as LastMinute, SkyScanner and LinkedIn, PressDisplay. Browser and device support for all of these widgets includes the standard desktop browsers (Firefox & Safari for PC / Mac, MSIE 6, 7 & 8 for PC), and devices include the iPhone, Android platform, Nokia s60 and Samsung F490. The latter must surely be the worst phone made - but it is supported - with the same codebase across all browsers and devices.

My approach to web development is based on the principles of progressive enhancement, and accessibility.

I used to work as Match Design, back in the days when I ran my own clients.

What I do

I design things from corporate branding schemes, through to brochures, flyers, t-shirts, magazines, websites and more.

I code XHTML / CSS / JS (and particularly enjoy using jQuery, although mobile development requires hand-rolled JS). JSON is a wonderful thing. I can do quite a bit with PHP, although I'm certainly not a software engineer. I know my way around .NET and can look at Java pages without weeping uncontrollably into my tea. Velocity and Freemarker are things that I’m also familiar with, and as mentioned above I have a lot of current experience with coding for mobile devices. I work primarily on Mac, but know my way around PCs - just don’t ask me anything seriously technical about them.

Who I've worked for

My most recent desktop web project has been a re-branding and site design / build for Xpress Duplication. I've also art directed a 100-page extreme magazine for the extreme sports promotion brand, GetSpiked (free subscription copies available from here). Previous clients include Feeding the Fish, Inner Physique and Applied Geotechnical. I’ve also spent several months contracting as a web developer for AKQA, working on projects for Nike, Sky, Sainsbury's, Virgin and Nokia Mobile.

If you'd like to talk about a project, please email me or call 07595 221941.